Girl Gamers: Who are You?

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theklng

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why is this board filled with people that just want to rip threads apart? let the man do his job for fuck's sake. if you don't have anything to contribute or help or the topic, ignore it. it is not your place to judge or determine whether it is a valid question or statistic.
 

inkheart_artist

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sorry user name taken. said:
i'm a women lol

( o )( o )

=/
Well then tell me about yourself, at least what types of games you like/what you like in games. The personal information is helpful but not the most important information I need.

theklng said:
why is this board filled with people that just want to rip threads apart? let the man do his job for fuck's sake. if you don't have anything to contribute or help or the topic, ignore it. it is not your place to judge or determine whether it is a valid question or statistic.
GOD, THANK YOU
 

MisguidedZen

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theklng said:
why is this board filled with people that just want to rip threads apart? let the man do his job for fuck's sake. if you don't have anything to contribute or help or the topic, ignore it. it is not your place to judge or determine whether it is a valid question or statistic.
I don't think anyone's trying to rip the thread apart...What we're saying is that it's quite likely that the interests of female gamers are very similar and on par with the interests of male gamers. The point I believe everyone is trying to make, is that just a good gaming website will have strong female appeal. For example: The Escapist. It's just focused on gaming, not gender specific, and there are a ton of female fans. Girl gamers interests are just as varied as that of guys, and they like similar things in games. I think if anything, it would be the generic stereotyping of female characters in games that women are a little more unhappy about, but on that note, there are plenty of guys out there too who want more depth in their female characters. Anywho, that's enough out of me for now.
 

Mudora

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Here is what the problem is in my eyes.

1. I think having a website targeting girl gamers is cool, but it's a little... out of date.
2. I wouldn't put all that info in a public forum.
3. I would like to be treated the same as any other gamer out there. Therefore I wouldn't go to the experimental site. I enjoy talking about games with men (even though sometimes we might have conflicting views.) Most of the time, it's just games. Yeah, the trageted audience is mostly to men, but I think girls have gotten over this. Including me.

Yeah I would like more games to have women properly proportioned, yeah I would like to have less boob juggling, but I can't really change the mindset of developers who are mostly male. It's just out of my hands.
 

Ridergurl10

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Dec 25, 2008
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ok. . . I don't really find this insulting, sexist, or creepy, and I'm a female gamer. So I'm going to be the first to answer your questions. I'm a 22 year old student currently attending a university in Texas. As for other interests they are pretty typical. I like books, movies and hanging out with friends. I also ride my horse competitively in a sport called dressage. I'm single and I'm a student so you can probably guess about how much money I make a year. Education-wise I'm about to graduate in May with a double major. I buy my own games, sometimes borrow from friends. I'm new to being a gamer so I definitely wouldn't consider myself hardcore yet probably in the just coming into my gaming obsession category. I have a laptop and it sucks, but I would love something new and better. As to types of games I really enjoy anything with a good story, or just fun to play. My favorites so far are Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Kingdom Hearts, God of War, and Zelda: Ocarina of Time. About a website for female gamers I don't really have an opinion. Personally I like websites that are at least sort of easy to navigate. Mostly if the content is interesting I'll go to almost any website. Well I hope this helps. I really don't mind answering questions so if you have any more feel free to ask!
 

Toynip

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Here's a serious answer for you, as it sounds like you're trying to make a decent effort with your project (And because trying to get a serious answer on the 'net is about as productive as pissing into a strong wind most of the time =P).

My girlfriend is 18, lives in England (as do I) and she currently only likes two games since I started trying to get her into it a few months back. Those are Viva Pinata and Rock Band. She took an interest in the Banjo-Kazooie Nuts and Bolts demo that was on the XBL marketplace recently as well (as 360 is the only serious gaming I do) so I guess she likes cute/cartoony looking stuff and rhythm games.

I'd prefer not to disclose amounts but her family are comfortable money-wise, she's currently doing a university course after finishing her A-levels (not sure if that means much to you, being from the US of A) so she's got some smarts, and she only owns a second hand laptop mostly for her coursework and internet use.

I haven't asked, but I'd imagine she'd like purple and yellow somewhere in the site design, as those are her favourite colours.

Oh and the thing about how you look, wouldn't ask that one personally as it has no bearing whatsoever on what you'd play and just comes across as a little bit "hurr gurl gamerr".

Hope this helps you out mate =)
 

inkheart_artist

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Thank you rider and toynip very much for your contribution. toynip, I'll say its less about how they look on an attraction scale and more about how they dress cause it helps identify what kinds of subcultures a person identifies with but its all good, I only included it because my professor said its important. I think I'll just edit it out and use real life people to gauge that.
 

inkheart_artist

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http://faculty.unlv.edu/pkane/plane/strategy.html

for those of you who still think I'm being malicious in intent this is the part of the project I'm on and why I gotta get answers to the questions I asked.

Mudora said:
Here is what the problem is in my eyes.

1. I think having a website targeting girl gamers is cool, but it's a little... out of date.
2. I wouldn't put all that info in a public forum.
3. I would like to be treated the same as any other gamer out there. Therefore I wouldn't go to the experimental site. I enjoy talking about games with men (even though sometimes we might have conflicting views.) Most of the time, it's just games. Yeah, the trageted audience is mostly to men, but I think girls have gotten over this. Including me.

Yeah I would like more games to have women properly proportioned, yeah I would like to have less boob juggling, but I can't really change the mindset of developers who are mostly male. It's just out of my hands.
Well for 2, if you don't want to answer something, don't thats typically how a survey works. The most important part is what kinds of games you like.

For 3 the demographic research isn't necissarily trying to stereotype women, but its trying to get information on potential patrons and users in order to be appealing. I need the info, but Since I've decided to do this my major concern was to make it more of a liberating experience. I want to make a site where women feel like the target audience. Its not my goal to segregate male and female gamers.
 

Caym

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This thread reminds me of when the dude who assembled my lastest computer asked me if I knew World of Warcraft and then immediately proceeded to explain in a patronizing tone how it's the best game ever and that I should check it out someday.
I felt like jamming his head into his colon after feeding him his own eyeballs.
 

sheic99

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sevenrings said:
DraconianKing said:
Who cares? It's not like female gamers are something special. Maybe 40 years ago, but now female gamers aren't a rarity any more. In my opinion, there are only two dichotomies of gamers and it's not male-female. Pro and Joe, hardcore and n00b, competitive and casual. Call it what you will.
Wow, you are really missing the point here. The fact that women aren't a rarity is why I'm making the site and I don't care about hardcore/casual/whatever. What I care about is what women would personally like out of a video game site geared to their specific interests. This is a graphic design class thats supposed to exercise my ability to create a marketable theme to a specific demographic.
You're missing the point here. You're jamming all girl gamers into one category. That is stereotyping in the purest form. Not all girls are into the same genres. Even in my group of friends, we all have a different range of taste in video games. The attempt to make a site specifically for all women would fail immensely because you could only appease a certain demographic of the girl gamers.
 

inkheart_artist

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Jan 22, 2009
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sheic99 said:
sevenrings said:
DraconianKing said:
Who cares? It's not like female gamers are something special. Maybe 40 years ago, but now female gamers aren't a rarity any more. In my opinion, there are only two dichotomies of gamers and it's not male-female. Pro and Joe, hardcore and n00b, competitive and casual. Call it what you will.
Wow, you are really missing the point here. The fact that women aren't a rarity is why I'm making the site and I don't care about hardcore/casual/whatever. What I care about is what women would personally like out of a video game site geared to their specific interests. This is a graphic design class thats supposed to exercise my ability to create a marketable theme to a specific demographic.
You're missing the point here. You're jamming all girl gamers into one category. That is stereotyping in the purest form. Not all girls are into the same genres. Even in my group of friends, we all have a different range of taste in video games. The attempt to make a site specifically for all women would fail immensely because you could only appease a certain demographic of the girl gamers.
No, dude, you're missing the point here. I'm not trying to bottleneck all women into one genre of gaming. I'm trying to figure out what a large number of them actually like so I'm not shooting in the dark when I make the site. Surveys like this are very important to new companies trying to figure out the demographic they want to appeal to. It's stuff like this that made macs what they are today. I need to know how broad the site needs to be before I make it so as NOT to alienate my target audience, which happens to be women interested in video games.

If you don't have anything useful to say then take it somewhere else.
 

Joselyn

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curlycrouton said:
sevenrings said:
So, Who are you? Where do you live? How old are you? What other interests do you have? Are you single, married or divorced? How much money do you make a year/ how much does your family make? What do you look like? How do you dress? Whats your educational background?
Because as we all know, people just love to post personal details, such as where they live, on the internet, for everyone to see.
Kind of a stupid thread....I mean who is honestly going to divulge how they dress and how much they and their family earn....???
One word best describes this thread: C R E E P Y :p
 

Toynip

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sevenrings said:
I'll say its less about how they look on an attraction scale and more about how they dress cause it helps identify what kinds of subcultures a person identifies with but its all good, I only included it because my professor said its important. I think I'll just edit it out and use real life people to gauge that.
Perhaps instead of how do you look, you could rephrase it to what culture interests and influences you, i.e. clothing, music, film and media?

Then you're still getting the info you need, in a less intrusive-sounding manner.
 

inkheart_artist

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Jan 22, 2009
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Toynip said:
sevenrings said:
I'll say its less about how they look on an attraction scale and more about how they dress cause it helps identify what kinds of subcultures a person identifies with but its all good, I only included it because my professor said its important. I think I'll just edit it out and use real life people to gauge that.
Perhaps instead of how do you look, you could rephrase it to what culture interests and influences you, i.e. clothing, music, film and media?

Then you're still getting the info you need, in a less intrusive-sounding manner.
Noted, thanks for the advice man.
 

inkheart_artist

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Jan 22, 2009
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nikki191 said:
ok here goes. im female 35 years old, and australian. just closed my business a cuple of weeks ago and going back to study.

i buy my own games, and occasionally rent

ive got a 2yo pc, and i guess im a hardcore gamer and have been since the days of the atari 2600 .pong anyone hehe? im online pretty constantly. as to fave genre's rpg, strategy and life sims. fave games would be: theatre europe, Stalker, Oblivion, rome total war, L4D, Destroy all humans and Champions of Kyrnn.

as far as site design goes, straight to the point and easiely navigated, news, MODERATED forumns,reviews by female gamers
Noted, thanks a ton! And yes, deffinately on the reviews. It wouldn't be a very good site for women if that incite wasn't from women themselves.
 

Caym

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Feb 7, 2009
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sevenrings said:
No, dude, you're missing the point here. I'm not trying to bottleneck all women into one genre of gaming. I'm trying to figure out what a large number of them actually like so I'm not shooting in the dark when I make the site. Surveys like this are very important to new companies trying to figure out the demographic they want to appeal to. It's stuff like this that made macs what they are today. I need to know how broad the site needs to be before I make it so as NOT to alienate my target audience, which happens to be women interested in video games.

If you don't have anything useful to say then take it somewhere else.
NO U
Seriously, I'm backing up sheic99 on this. Unless they make controllers activated by reproductive organs, girl gamers are "untargettable", there's nothing subtantial that can differentiate them from their male counterparts. The sole act of creating a website for girls is already alienating the target audience.
It might have been true at some point that some games or themes only appealed to girls but definitely not nowadays, and basing yourself on stereotypes that clearly do not correspond to reality anymore is a huge communication mistake.
Now I get this is a school assignment or whatnot, but someone's gonna tell whoever thought this up that it doesn't make any sense.

Now to add some confusing info :
I've been playing video games since I was 2 (Amstrad FTW) and obviously my tastes have changed a lot in 20+ years of gaming. I remained a console RPG fan for a time (growing up with Zelda and all) but lately I've mostly been playing FPS on the PC - cause that's all we've been getting those last 10 years anyway. Tho I like every type of games from platform to RTS, I tend to play online the most nowadays (dota, cod, eu3, l4d - a bit of mmos but for pvp only). I'm also a modder, so what I'd like to have in a gaming website is behind-the-scenes stuff, info on both the technical and artistic creation process, etc. I also enjoy high standards of criticism in reviews, even if it's exaggerated. Navigation must be clean and simple, color scheme basic.
 

Jenny Creed

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I'd say that for a site to appeal to me as a girl it would first have to try not to appeal to girls. What would that even mean? Lots of pink colors? Presenting several articles simultaneously because girls are so good at doing many things at the same time? I have no idea how it would be done without an offensive amount of stereotyping. Target your site at people, and people will come.
 

Erana

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If you know the first thing about business, you'd realise that this thread isn't creepy in the least. This is how advertisement works.

I'm gonna PM my stuff later, but now I have to go study and be an artist 'n such.
 

inkheart_artist

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Jan 22, 2009
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Jenny Creed said:
I'd say that for a site to appeal to me as a girl it would first have to try not to appeal to girls. What would that even mean? Lots of pink colors? Presenting several articles simultaneously because girls are so good at doing many things at the same time? I have no idea how it would be done without an offensive amount of stereotyping. Target your site at people, and people will come.
That's the challenge to making this, really. I plan for it to have a relatively androgynous look to it with only subtle visual queues of femininity. I knew from the get-go that pink was a big fat NO. I've been talking closely with my girlfriend whenever I came up with something by myself so as to not be offensive and turn off my audience. Visually its gonna be very subtly leaning towards femininity.

As for Caym, noted but you don't seem to understand how marketing works whether you're male or female

and I look forward to the help Erana. I'm getting kicked out of class now so I'll see how this does later.

Thanks to everyone who contributed, I appreciate it.