A more feminine solution?

[Evilbunny]

personally i feel
although alot of girls are into gaming and games in general
the rest of the female population simply arent interested in games
for example when me and my friends go to town at the weekend
we will go in the game shops and look at the newest games
as soon as we mention that our destination is Game or Gamestation
that incites a groan of disapproval from all of the female members of our group
and these girls are the most gamer-ish girls i know!
i think, alot of girls will say they play games
it is not a main activity of theirs
whereas for guys it is
no matter what games are relased
i think that will stay the same

Prospero
I think you should
save the enter key
for a special time
like
when you finish a paragraph.

Anyway, I absolutely hate it when they try to gear games towards either males or females. I find games with big tough manly men saving big chested damsels in distress juvenile and really stupid. At the same time I think games like nintendogs is just plain patronizing. I agree with whoever said they should just concentrate on making games good to attract 'people'.

 

[Number 49]

As a girl gamer, allow me to shed some light on this. Alot of girls don't like video games. They just don't. Hands down. And you're not going to convert them into hardcore gamers if they haven't been around for the ride like the rest of us. Those of us who ARE hardcore gamers have been playing games since they were able to hold a controller like everyone else. So there's no simple solution to turning a girl onto video games. From what I've seen, unless they've been raised on it, other girls aren't going to go for them vidjamagames.

 

[Lord Krunk]

As a girl gamer, allow me to shed some light on this. Alot of girls don't like video games. They just don't. Hands down. And you're not going to convert them into hardcore gamers if they haven't been around for the ride like the rest of us. Those of us who ARE hardcore gamers have been playing games since they were able to hold a controller like everyone else. So there's no simple solution to turning a girl onto video games. From what I've seen, unless they've been raised on it, other girls aren't going to go for them vidjamagames.

In the same regard, a lot of guys hate video games. Believe me, I know some (Mind you, they are hopeless around a computer).
Although, I do like your comment, because you're never going to get a non-gamer to game, unless you have the right arsenal.
It's a bit like getting a Halo fanboy to play Half-Life. A lot say they have, and hated it, but we all know the truth.

 

[friedmetroid]

As a girl gamer, allow me to shed some light on this. Alot of girls don't like video games. They just don't. Hands down. And you're not going to convert them into hardcore gamers if they haven't been around for the ride like the rest of us. Those of us who ARE hardcore gamers have been playing games since they were able to hold a controller like everyone else. So there's no simple solution to turning a girl onto video games. From what I've seen, unless they've been raised on it, other girls aren't going to go for them vidjamagames.

So what you're saying is that it's the parents issue, because they buy their little girls Barbie dolls instead of 'boy' toys like gaming consoles.

Raised to think video games are for boys, most girls probably won't want anything to do with them.

In much the same way, you don't see a lot of boys playing with Barbie dolls.

 

[apmpnmdslkbk]

How do you mean? If you look at most, if not all, of the current games out they seem to be very clearly aimed at men. Take the FPS genre, it's a genre enginered to attract males: Perhaps through macho-male characters, plenty of guns/violence etc. (I'm not saying that is all males enjoy of course, but it does seem to be a majorly male demographic that buy such titles)

? HAHAHAHAHA thats funny

Most women (at least that I know) are in to the tough badboy guys with huge muscles who lactate testosterone and saving everyone from damnation. MEN ARE NOT ATRACTED BY BIG MUSCLES ON OTHER MEN (unless their gay). Men are attracted by the violance and good controll in a game and not macho men (we rather have it be some hot chick with huge tits)

 

[apmpnmdslkbk]

Most girls don't like games because most girls are insipid fuckwits.

? HAHAHAHAHA thats funny

Most women (at least that I know) are in to the tough badboy guys with huge muscles who lactate testosterone and saving everyone from damnation. MEN ARE NOT ATRACTED BY BIG MUSCLES ON OTHER MEN (unless their gay). Men are attracted by the violance and good controll in a game and not macho men (we rather have it be some hot chick with huge tits)

Never have children.

I cant tell if your a girl or gay (maybe both).

 

[apmpnmdslkbk]

I knew it and EVERYONES an idiot (including me) so plz learn to deal with it cause theres no escaping 'em (yes that means your an idiot too).

 

[Rabid Toilet]

I knew it and EVERYONES an idiot (including me) so plz learn to deal with it cause theres no escaping 'em (yes that means your an idiot too).

Some people are just more of an idiot than others.
-----------------

Honestly, if a girl isn't a gamer already, there's not much you can do to turn them on to gaming. Even a so called "girly" game is a still a videogame, and a lot of girls won't be interested because of that.

If a "girly" game was made, not only would a lot of non-gamer girls not buy it, but most of the girls who do game wouldn't be interested, since they are busy playing the same games as the guys.

All of the gamer girls I know are far more interested in the quality of a game than how feminine it is, and I can't see that changing in the near future.

 

[Blayze]

Anyway, I absolutely hate it when they try to gear games towards either males or females.

Indeed. The instant you try and market a game to a demographic other than "People who would like to play this type of game" is the instant you start driving away some (If not most/all) of your potential customer base.

Never have children.

Seconded.

 

[lesserdemon]

Indeed. The instant you try and market a game to a demographic other than "People who would like to play this type of game" is the instant you start driving away some (If not most/all) of your potential customer base.

This.

The example of the FPS genre is laughable. I don't think slapping a female main character will suddenly make all the women purchase the game. Can't strip out the violence or action, since that makes the FPS. So what would you do to make it less "geared towards men"?

Also, what makes you think most guys are drawn to over buffed meat heads in games? Many guys could care less who the main character is as long as the gameplay is what they're looking for.
I'm going to assume that any real girl gamer is the same way.

 

[lesserdemon]

I'm going to assume that any real girl gamer is the same way.

For the love of God, stop treating us like mythic creatures.

And for the record, it doesn't matter. As long as the characters are well rounded, or atleast nice looking.

I'm not assuming your mystic creatures, but as I odn't know many girl gamers other then the ones that I've played with in MMOs, anything I say is just an assumption.

Don't need to get uppity just because you took the line out of context.

 

[lesserdemon]

You're still treating us as if we deserve to be treated any differently or that we think differently. PROTIP: Unless they're femnazis, we don't think any different.

All I said was that I assumed female gamers cared more about the game it's self and not the avatar just like the majority of their male counterparts. I never said you needed to be treated differently.
I just don't know alot of female gamers and the OP of this thread made it sound like buff macho meat heads turned off female gamers which strikes me as a fairly stupid assumption on the OPs part.

Shove the protip. Not all men are slack jawed neanderthals.

 

[Copter400]

Apparently we need the gaming equivalent of the romantic comedy?

Hahaha! *boom* Teeheehee! *bang*

 

[00exmachina]

This un-tapped resource is astounding, according to recent polls, ?more than 40% of game players in Australia are in-fact female?. That?s right, 40 percent! The same is true all over the world, women are interested in games and it?s about time the industry took real notice.

After all let?s face it, the only console out there that realisticly offers instant accessibility for those of us who haven?t been training our thumbs incessantly since birth, is the Nintendo Wii. But this seems a little limiting when you consider that the Wii isn?t to every gamers fancy. I?ve met several women (that?s over a period of years by the way) who?ve generally agreed that although the Wii is fun for the odd get together, the current attitude that most women can?t handle the complex workings of an X-box or PS3 controller and instead ought to settle for twirling a stick about is a tad patronizing.

Logan Ash

Sorry but I think you're drawing the wrong conclusion from the data. 40%+ of Australian gamers are female. Now let's look at the games on the market right now, most of the large selling games are those you classify as male oriented, and the female gamers are buying them too, so just going by the numbers there are all ready games to service the female gaming market, or at least the female subset of the larger gamer market.

The last bit of the quote I grabbed is just kind of funny, at the very least it's very elitist. The female with the gamer inclination will have been playing games at least as long as the average guy gamer, would be my guess. So that's a bit of a non-issue, the topic you seem to be leaning toward is more of a comfort/ability to pick up the control scheme issue. Based on what I've seen this tends to track more closely along generational lines then gender. My parents take longer to figure out games than I do, but I have found that this only really applies to contoler based games where most of the basics are assumed to be understood, dual analog control for FPS and so on.

The best quote I have ever seen on the topic is 'The reason why female gamers seem so scarce isn't the games, it's the gamers' I don't remember who said it but it should be pretty accurate.