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Female Gamers Duke It Out
It's March, and that means that Women's History Month has rolled around again. The latest event put on by 'Women in Games International' was held in February; Both Wired and Gamasutra have rundowns on the event. Wired's coverage highlights the two camps of female gamers, the 'Frag Dolls' and the 'Casual Gamers' that populated the event. Gamasutra's piece discusses the exploration of women in all gamer roles. That, indeed, was the focus of the event: Women as players, designers, and gamers. From that article: "Margaret Wallace (Skunk Studios), also on the panel, railed against the industry for disenfranchising women. 'There's a push against women gamers from within the game industry,' she said. Games have been made 'with puke-humor' thought to be edgy, she said, wondering why developers don't see the direct correlation between the 'sophomoric' humor put into the games and women not liking them. 'They treat women as a mysterious nut to crack.' Wallace's advice: 'Make a game mechanic accessible.'" GameSetWatch also a blog post linking to some advice for female FPS players, especially 'aggressive young girls'.
Of course! Game developers (and most of the /. crowd) can't figure out women. Expecting them to be able to write a realistic female character doesn't make sense. It's like expecting to see a conservative realistically portrayed on TV or in the movies.
1. Some females play video games. We've gotten that for YEARS; it's about as revolutionary at this point as minorities going to college.
2. Disliking "sophmoric humor" in games isn't a "female" thing. It's an "I'm-not-twelve" thing.
Here are pics from the Counter Strike Masters competition from 2004. I wouldn't exactly call them fat ass IRC chicks.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
I always found women in EQ to be more into the roleplaying aspect of the game. They were kinder and used the language associated with EQ and certinaly NOT d00dspeak...
The also brought more hugs and kisses to the game.. No duh..
I'm with you on that one... to some extent.
Let's just say that I was up until 6am on both Friday and Saturday nights last week because I finally got Black & White 2 to work on my computer. That game is just amazing -- probably one of the best I've ever played.
I like other genres too, though. I've wasted long hours on adventure games (King's Quest, Space Quest, etc.), virtual pet games (Petz, Creatures), and various multiplayer RPGs (MUDs in the past, WoW these days). I enjoy Civilization too, and I used to play Prince of Persia, Commander Keen, Duke Nukem, and Castle Wolfenstein when I was little.
I'm not sure if there's any one big secret behind female gamers. Just as there is no one genre that all men want, there isn't any one thing that every woman will like/want/buy. I mean, we're half the freakin' population -- why do people expect us to somehow NOT be as divided in our likes and dislikes as our male counterparts?
Seriously, just make good games in a variety of different genres and girls will play them.... and at least then you won't lose your entire male audience (along with a lot of girls as well) by dumbing everything down and coating it with pink.
DOA Beachball or whatever it is called is aimed at the guys. There are 3 billion of them and while not all guys like DOA beachball even if a mere 10 percent likes the idea that is still a shitload of games.
To these women who wonder why some games are not aimed at them I ask them this. Why were there no carchases in Titanic? No sword fights, no half naked ninja killers asian teenage girls? We guys NEED THAT. The crappy soppy romance crap without any of the hardhitting political criteque that was in the original offends US!
There a guy games and their are girls games and their are gender neutral games. Just as for every other piece of entertainment. Soppy mindless romance drivel movies for the girls, crappy senseless violence for the boys. Or not.
Why do all games have to appeal to all people? Frankly the women becrying the guy games seem to want to turn all men into women. Not going to happen ladies. Especially not since those same women will be raising the next generations of crotch scratchers.
Don't blame game designed for guys that they don't appeal to girls unless your 100% sure games designed for girls appeal to guys.
I hate to see a game that appeals to everyone. Disney tries that. Ewh.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Women gamers are on the rise the recent study on women gamers in England placed them at about 44% of the entire gaming community how is this 'ignored by the game industry for so long'
'People are assuming that games have to be mindless in order for women to play them' - Since when??? the top game for equal play by the sexes is the Sims. Thats pretty much common knowledge in the industry how would that translate to the industry thinking women need a brainless game and at what point did they think this only applies to games made for women. Last I checked most games dont exactly have the complexity of well thought out book or film.
'with puke-humor' 'sophomoric' - Oh yeah because men love puke and sophomoric humour I mean thats a real seller for every man I know... Games that rely on these things are typically bad games not bad games for women. Just bad games.
'Wallace's advice: Make a game mechanic accessible.' - Genius. Why didnt the industry think of that before. If games didnt make the game mechanics accessible theyd be... bad games. Not bad games for women. Just bad games.
'co-op' - Another brilliant suggestion add co-op modes in games. That will sell them to women... and men, because if games have co-op modes thats a good feature. Not good for women. Just a good feature for everyone.
'I would argue that World of Warcraft actually did design the game with women in mind,' - Really? Do go on.
'crafter roles and supporting roles' - So they believe warcraft was made with women in mind because there are supporting roles such as healers etc. The same roles that are in dozens of games from your FPS's to your RPG's and have been for years now. Yeah clearly Blizzard were making a conscious effort to make it accesible to women and not just utilising a tried and tested mechanic that once again both sexes approve of.
The article has someone claiming They treat women as a mysterious nut to crack. then listing a number of points and holding an entire event based around women as if they are a mysterious nut to crack.
Just about every single point in the whole article on how to make better games applies to everyone not women, not men. Everyone. Which is exactly the point a lot of people and myself have been making for years now. If you make good and varied games women will play them. Its as simple as that.
The second article pretty much backs that view up. Women like FPS, women like puzzles, some like violence, some hate it. Almost as if women have diverse tastes in games just like men. (Although the infighting reminds me of a point Janet Street Porter made about women being the major factor in holding women back.)
Maybe this is a flame, maybe im just a jaded male gamer, but when I look at the other industries they just dont seem to have this problem. Sure you get chick flicks and macho movies in the movie industry but they're just labels and regardless of what genre a film is a good film is a good film. You dont have groups and thousands of people within that industry trying to push all the films in to catering for both sexes absolutely equally. (Nor would I ever want that to happen.)