Our store hasn't sold a single one yet, and it is hard to get customers interested when, ahem, the 'interactive unit' kept crashing and is now permenantly stuck on the white screen of doing-nothing-at-all.
It doesn't inspire confidence.
I've spent two years behind the counter, and I can't say I've met any of those people. No, not even the roleplayers.
Some day everyone will cotton on to the fact that gamers are people. That's all. 99.999999% of gamers are office workers with happy partners and no social problems. And massive paycheques, from the look of it. They don't use games to make a statment about themselves; they're just having some fun.
... she caught it with the Booth Babe and the Adult Gamer; we are a bit weird, and we know it, and accept it, and it becomes our normal. It's just us being us.
(So normal, in fact, that I'm decidedly more uncomfortable around girls than I am around guys. Which is just wrong, really. I've lost my girly bits!)
I don't think I'm a good example of the majority of 'girl gamers'. I love a good round of Quake3/UT2k3, I've clocked Warcraft 3 several times and do not suck on battle.net, and own all three of the major console. And I mean own, not "my fiance bought it and I just happen to play it." (Only just got around to buying Halo yesterday. My bad. It is soooooooooo good.)
But, I can say what pisses me off, as a woman, in a game. The busty heroines I'm fine with; it's nice to see women with curves, as they usually are, than skinny rakes. It's just what they're dressed in most of the time that I really have issues with. I mean, hello, cleavage is all very well but a bare chest ain't much protection against a sword. Not to mention sex-object women thrown in for the sake of being sex-objects. It's silly, and I don't think most men are that easily drawn. ("oooh! Boobies!")
What I've noticed in my work (I sell video games. All video games.) is that the women who are casual gamers tend to gravitate towards puzzle games, yes, but also platformers. The thing about most platformers, Spyro, Mario, Rayman, is that they're not geared towards a gender, they're geared towards an age group. The fact that they're largely games with a younger audience appeal means the controls are not difficult to master, there's less of the glorious gory gibbing going on, and there is nothing there to alienate anyone of a specific gender.
That's all that really needs to be done. Don't make games -for- women, (being a woman, I have no idea what a woman's game would be, but it sounds scary), just don't make them specifically for men. Probably toned down violence would appeal to a lot of women, but I happen to like the red mist. ; )
And for that matter, make high quality games! That way, anyone will like it.
Slashdot Mirror
It's one massive big sprawling chat room. Thus, it will reflect chat room behaviour, not game behaviour.
Our store hasn't sold a single one yet, and it is hard to get customers interested when, ahem, the 'interactive unit' kept crashing and is now permenantly stuck on the white screen of doing-nothing-at-all. It doesn't inspire confidence.
....except the Vivendi release is licensed from the books. EA has more to worry about, as they're using the license from the films.
I've spent two years behind the counter, and I can't say I've met any of those people. No, not even the roleplayers. Some day everyone will cotton on to the fact that gamers are people. That's all. 99.999999% of gamers are office workers with happy partners and no social problems. And massive paycheques, from the look of it. They don't use games to make a statment about themselves; they're just having some fun.
... she caught it with the Booth Babe and the Adult Gamer; we are a bit weird, and we know it, and accept it, and it becomes our normal. It's just us being us. (So normal, in fact, that I'm decidedly more uncomfortable around girls than I am around guys. Which is just wrong, really. I've lost my girly bits!)
I don't think I'm a good example of the majority of 'girl gamers'. I love a good round of Quake3/UT2k3, I've clocked Warcraft 3 several times and do not suck on battle.net, and own all three of the major console. And I mean own, not "my fiance bought it and I just happen to play it." (Only just got around to buying Halo yesterday. My bad. It is soooooooooo good.)
But, I can say what pisses me off, as a woman, in a game.
The busty heroines I'm fine with; it's nice to see women with curves, as they usually are, than skinny rakes. It's just what they're dressed in most of the time that I really have issues with. I mean, hello, cleavage is all very well but a bare chest ain't much protection against a sword.
Not to mention sex-object women thrown in for the sake of being sex-objects. It's silly, and I don't think most men are that easily drawn. ("oooh! Boobies!")
What I've noticed in my work (I sell video games. All video games.) is that the women who are casual gamers tend to gravitate towards puzzle games, yes, but also platformers.
The thing about most platformers, Spyro, Mario, Rayman, is that they're not geared towards a gender, they're geared towards an age group.
The fact that they're largely games with a younger audience appeal means the controls are not difficult to master, there's less of the glorious gory gibbing going on, and there is nothing there to alienate anyone of a specific gender.
That's all that really needs to be done. Don't make games -for- women, (being a woman, I have no idea what a woman's game would be, but it sounds scary), just don't make them specifically for men. Probably toned down violence would appeal to a lot of women, but I happen to like the red mist. ; )
And for that matter, make high quality games! That way, anyone will like it.
(Argh! The time! Must catch bus!)