I don't know how many times I've said this, but I'll say it again. Don't cater to male or female, cater to gamers and cater to the appropriate ages.
Everyone has different tastes, and it doesn't suffise to just put some pink in a game and say "here you go, this one is for the ladies"... Mind you, look at my "now playing" and I'm probably not the right person to talk about this subject.
I don't care who the game is aimed at. If the story is good and it has replay value, chances are I'll play it. The only thing I can say I really don't play is sports games. They just don't offer anything new in my opinion. I'm taking about Maddens and FIFAs, NBAs, NHLs and NFLs. I will play fighting games and racing because I like the genres, but not all franchises. Oh, I lied, I played True Swing Golf, but even that doesn't fall into the mainstream sports category, after all, it's not a licensed game with ads all over the place and extremely annoying commentators.
Also, I've been reading a lot recently about this "girls play the Sims because of the relationship factor". I object. I've been playing the Sims since the original came out, and my game mechanics could be summed up in real estate business or interior decorating. I spend the entire time building, demolishing, furnishing, creating custom stuff. If I actually PLAY the game I'll be picking the career style of gameplay. I attempted the family with babies once in Sims 2 and I felt like throwing the PC out the window. Seriously. Real life simulation is ok to a certain extent. I don't want to change virtual diapers!! Hell I don't want to change real ones either. I want to run my restaurant, sell flower arrangements, open a bakery, that's where the reward is at :)
Matt, the inside of a computer shouldn't matter, and I hope you're nto comparing the confusion of cables to a man's brain, that's not nice ;) Anyway, as long as what's in thre works, who cares! The only thing I would like for manufacturers to change is a way to slide new drives from the side instead of directly behind the front plate. It's such a pain. That and sliding in ram sticks, blargh! There has to be a better way to do that.
So lets recap. I don't care for pink (my favorite colors are blue, white and black), my Barbie days were spent designing and sewing clothes for them, I don't play the Sims in the same way the rest of the female population does, I hate crying because it gives me headaches and makes me eyes poofy, I hate when I get emotional particularly because I spent most of my time hiding them. I dont play MMOs to socialize either, in fact, the more I can play by myself the better (solo'd all the way to 60 in WoW, 2 guild grouping exceptions, raiding excluded). At least if I mess up, it's my fault and not some idiot who decided to pull a ton of crap because they thought only one whould come. And I actually enjoy violence in games (see here) because it's a stress reliever.
I would totally shoot my ex in any FPS (I hope you didn't mean IRL), but I'd probably freeze on my tracks if I knew it was him on the other side of an avatar. I still think of doing to him things taken out of Hellraiser because he deserves it (long story short: abuse), but the thought of facing him isn't a good one. So I can just frag anyone I don't know and pretend it's him and feel better about myself. Although I do suck at FPSs, I mean, my husband kills me 48 times in a row and all I manage is 2 rocktlauncher kills and a bunch of histerical laughing every time I die.
And you want to know what else makes women uninterested in gaming? Clans like the Frag Dolls and PMS and the companies who form and sponsor them, booth babes who don't have a freaking clue what the game they're advertising is about, other female gamer websites who still pass along the image that "girls are better than guys", and of course, everyone else who things the female gamer is a myth.
I'm glad we had a little blurb about Grrlgamer on Nintendo Power, I'm sure it has made a lot of people more aware of the female gamer situation.
PS: Man who constantly ask "what's wrong" are lame, and so are women who pretend nothing is wrong.
I don't know how many times I've said this, but I'll say it again. Don't cater to male or female, cater to gamers and cater to the appropriate ages.
Everyone has different tastes, and it doesn't suffise to just put some pink in a game and say "here you go, this one is for the ladies"... Mind you, look at my "now playing" and I'm probably not the right person to talk about this subject.
I don't care who the game is aimed at. If the story is good and it has replay value, chances are I'll play it. The only thing I can say I really don't play is sports games. They just don't offer anything new in my opinion. I'm taking about Maddens and FIFAs, NBAs, NHLs and NFLs. I will play fighting games and racing because I like the genres, but not all franchises. Oh, I lied, I played True Swing Golf, but even that doesn't fall into the mainstream sports category, after all, it's not a licensed game with ads all over the place and extremely annoying commentators.
Also, I've been reading a lot recently about this "girls play the Sims because of the relationship factor". I object. I've been playing the Sims since the original came out, and my game mechanics could be summed up in real estate business or interior decorating. I spend the entire time building, demolishing, furnishing, creating custom stuff. If I actually PLAY the game I'll be picking the career style of gameplay. I attempted the family with babies once in Sims 2 and I felt like throwing the PC out the window. Seriously. Real life simulation is ok to a certain extent. I don't want to change virtual diapers!! Hell I don't want to change real ones either. I want to run my restaurant, sell flower arrangements, open a bakery, that's where the reward is at :)
Matt, the inside of a computer shouldn't matter, and I hope you're nto comparing the confusion of cables to a man's brain, that's not nice ;) Anyway, as long as what's in thre works, who cares! The only thing I would like for manufacturers to change is a way to slide new drives from the side instead of directly behind the front plate. It's such a pain. That and sliding in ram sticks, blargh! There has to be a better way to do that.
So lets recap. I don't care for pink (my favorite colors are blue, white and black), my Barbie days were spent designing and sewing clothes for them, I don't play the Sims in the same way the rest of the female population does, I hate crying because it gives me headaches and makes me eyes poofy, I hate when I get emotional particularly because I spent most of my time hiding them. I dont play MMOs to socialize either, in fact, the more I can play by myself the better (solo'd all the way to 60 in WoW, 2 guild grouping exceptions, raiding excluded). At least if I mess up, it's my fault and not some idiot who decided to pull a ton of crap because they thought only one whould come. And I actually enjoy violence in games (see here) because it's a stress reliever.
I would totally shoot my ex in any FPS (I hope you didn't mean IRL), but I'd probably freeze on my tracks if I knew it was him on the other side of an avatar. I still think of doing to him things taken out of Hellraiser because he deserves it (long story short: abuse), but the thought of facing him isn't a good one. So I can just frag anyone I don't know and pretend it's him and feel better about myself. Although I do suck at FPSs, I mean, my husband kills me 48 times in a row and all I manage is 2 rocktlauncher kills and a bunch of histerical laughing every time I die.
And you want to know what else makes women uninterested in gaming? Clans like the Frag Dolls and PMS and the companies who form and sponsor them, booth babes who don't have a freaking clue what the game they're advertising is about, other female gamer websites who still pass along the image that "girls are better than guys", and of course, everyone else who things the female gamer is a myth.
I'm glad we had a little blurb about Grrlgamer on Nintendo Power, I'm sure it has made a lot of people more aware of the female gamer situation.
PS: Man who constantly ask "what's wrong" are lame, and so are women who pretend nothing is wrong.
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