Games for Girls!?

[Weaver]

Also, OP, you might want to take a gander at this:

I got to 45 seconds before I wanted to drive a nail into my ear drums.
Why the hell would anyone, EVER, make a video with a sped up voice like that? Far too irritating.

 

[I Stomp on Kittens]

The gamer girls I know play the same games as me.

Yeah, games aren't usualy targeted at one sex..

 

[Korten12]

Also, OP, you might want to take a gander at this:

yeah that does have alot of truth to it.

 

[Zoedelyce]

Well, yeah I guess I see your point. However, if I were to say what games girls are into I would have to say, the same games boys are into. Personally, I play games like TF2, L4D, TR (which are really shit these days). But yeah, sometimes I agree that when games designers create new games they focuse mainly on the opinion that guys are more likely to play them. But, what can you do, it's a fact that more guys play games than girls. Stereotypically, most girls would play games like Sims. However, I wouldn't worry too much about it. XD

The only thing that gets at me is that you make it sound like women/girls are a different species and you want to understand why they like games so much and what is it about games they like. When was it that it was decided that games were just for men/boys??? I mean come on it's not like tits really get in the way of handhelds or PC screens XD

Sorry if I made it sound that way. It wasn't my intention. I guess, what I was trying to say is that it seems "girls in gaming" is a hot topic these days. I'm far from trying to differentiate guys are girls... I have been reading so many articles in the last week about how games are not developed with the girl gamers in mind, that I was wondering if it's really the case, or just another occasion for journalist to create a false debate. I tend to lean towards the journalist effect.

In the other part of my post, I was simply asking what games that girls usually like. In no way I'm saying they can't play the same game as guys do, but can we just admit without being offended that mostly the points of interest differs between the genders. It's not a bad thing to say. Starting from there, I wanted to know what were some specific points girls are looking for in a game. Nothing wrong with that. I would believe these are fact... just like saying that cars are a guys interest doesn't mean girls can't be.

And that's another point I'm trying to make, with the recent numbers it seems like it's 50/50 between girls and guys now and was wondering what has changed to make it happen... and believe me, I think it's a good thing.

 

[CheckD3]

They're looking for something that fits their interest to have have playing a game.

The reason Laura Croft is bad and Kratos isn't is because Kratos is so built, so enormous, that guys know that we'd NEVER look close to what he looks like unless we'd been working out rigorously since the day we were born. Plus, working towards being a buff guy isn't bad. What Laura Croft says is that women should wear skimpy clothes and have enormously large breasts. That's not something that can be changed by working out in the gyms 8 days a week (I'll loo-oo-oo-oo-ove you, sorry)

Girls in gaming are usually looked upon weird since games are designed to target the audience of teenage and 20/early 30 males mostly. Think about the titles available, most of the ones that sell are shooters or burly guys beating up 2 story tall creatures with their over sized chins. Don't also forget the games where you play as a scantly clad woman with larger-than-barbie's-curves proportions wearing almost no clothes and using sexual moves and your feminine charm to make men drop to their knees and pleasure the character until she blows a bullet through their submissive heads.

 

[Void(null)]

My wife is a gamer girl and she has a varied and assorted field of interests.

Games my wife loves:

Tekken
Street Fighter
Dead or Alive
Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball

Civilization
Sid Meier's Pirates!
Sid Meier's Railroads

Civ City
Sim City

Titan Quest
Diablo

Left4Dead

Broken Sword
Monkey Island

The Sims

Neverwinter Nights
Knights of the Old Republic
Jade Empire
Dragon Age
Mass Effect

Flatout: Ultimate Carnage

Princess Maker

Prince of Persia

Grand Theft Auto
Saints Row 2

She doesn't care as much about genre as she does about the quality or appeal of an individual title.

She will play Civ City (Which I don't understand) and Sim City but not Tropico. She will play Left4Dead but not Killing Floor. She will play Titan Quest and Diablo but not Torchlight.

Were as me, I am more interested in genre and theme, where as she will Cherry pick what she finds appeals to her from each genre rather than being open to everything.

Edit: She wanted me to add into this, she also likes Metroid, Unreal Tournament, Halo, Mortal Kombat, Dynasty Warriors and Grand Turismo, and that she would play Call of Duty, but the community acts as a deterrent.

 

[Artina89]

I'm a girl and I will play pretty much anything, with my favourite games being Psychonauts, Resident Evils 2 and 4, Batman: Arkham asylum and Persona 4 (a new favourite is Heavy rain). As long as it has got a good story i'll play it.

 

[Wolfram23]

I think guys are more able to enjoy simple things like explosions, so we don't necessarily care about story to have a fun gaming experience. Take CoD multiplayer for example. That being said, as a male gamer I really enjoy and much prefer games with stories and interesting things besides the gameplay. Like BioShock - it's a mix of mindless "pow pow" gaming and interesting story/atmosphere. Girls tend to be more interested in stories and relationships (not necessarily love) so taking my gf as an example, she used to play a ton of The Sims, she likes RPGs (Dragon Age), she likes Heavy Rain. But I like those games too.

It's easy enough if you look at kids playing - lots of girls will play house or have little soap operas with their barbie dolls while boys play with their GI Joes and toy cars and make sound effects. Many, many games are designed for these visceral "male" experiences, but the best games are the ones that incorporate story and tension and personality. I've been playing games since NES/SNES days and back then there was hardly ever story, but nowadays I've been finding a lot of the games are intriguing beyond the gun play/sword play, and I bet that's a big part of why girls are getting more into gaming.

Big boobed heroines, big muscled heroes, big guns and fast action don't make a game and can be equally liked or disdained by either sex. However, even with these over the top visualizations, if there's something deeper in the game to make you want to find out what's next it won't matter if you're a boy or girl, it'll draw you in.

 

[Void(null)]

I have learned something new today, my wife really loves Call of Duty. An except of my conversation with her about this topic.

Me:

Its too much big explosions showey not much plot

But with painstaking military crap, like Marshal likes

My Wife:

which I like too

I <3 tactics

real cover and mechanics

real guns

urban warfare

ratatatataBOOMBOOM sneakeh sneakeh popopoporatatatata BABOOM!

Me:

You know Call of Duty has a co-op story campaign to it?

If you had ever said anything about having an interest in CoD I would have snagged it for you

My Wife:

ohshitI'mdeadah I'm bleeding! "he's dead jim" NOOOOOOOOO! you assholes!!!! BOOM BOOMBOOM whoosh atatatatatatataBABOOOOOOm!

I like CoD in my head I think...because the community is a bunch of jackholes

Me:

You don't have to play the Multiplayer component, its not like Unreal Tournament where the game is purely for competative Multiplayer, all the Call of Duty Games have an Epic Single Player Campaign, and I think some of them can be played Co-Op

Let me look into it for you, and see if I can find more details on a co-op campaign.

My Wife

it was actually about %50 of the reason why I liked L4D

tactics, guns etc

but L4D had Zombies so it was even more awesome ^^

Me:

Then I shall make it so, we shall see about doing some call of duty for this weekend. While its not exactly my sort of thing I am totaly willing to give it a try. How many games have you tried because I wanted to? Seems only fair

Really, I had no idea you were this interested in CoD

I wish you would tell me these things more often.

My Wife

well I didn't figure it had a co-op or single player mode. Plus I get randomly interested in alot of stuff I never say anything about.

So there you go, a glimpse into the process.

 

[Mortons4ck]

Girls I know (those not so much into gaming) tend to like World of Goo.

 

[scrambledeggs]

My girlfriend plays morrowind. I don't. She wins.

 

[Zannah]

Do i sound weird, when I say that I would actually like some more games to be "sexist", meaning that your chars gender actually alters gameplay significantly rather than being mostly cosmetic?