Bible Doctor said:
It got me thinking. First of all why are there "girl games" in the first place. It was my understanding that most games are unisex. I don't see Halo 3 or Fable 2 as "boy games", so why do people feel the need to give little girls these stupid little games made just for them?
Killing aliens with oversized weaponry and journeying across a fantasy world à la Dungeons & Dragons? Nope, nothing masculine about that.
Nothing at all.
Sigel said:
I was raised by a feminist, who did not believe in labeling activities(surprise,surprise). I find a lot of things considered "feminine" offensive(but I am not a raging, bra burning, hate all men feminist), including, yes, that title "girl games". wtf? I think it just re-enforces negative stereotypes and further sets back not just woman but both genders.
1. Everyone's raised by a feminist whose mother went to university.
2. Things that are "feminine" are offensive? What about things that are "masculine" - like killing hookers in
GTA III, or popping painkillers in
Max Payne and executing mafioso footsoldiers? Your rhetoric suggests every game designer to come along and program a game featuring glitzy pants and the colour pink is somehow sexist, whereas the game industry was built on testerone-fueled exaggerations of masculinity. Why can't the fairer sex have a go at caricatures?
They're just games, after all.
Amethyst Wind said:
tbh Cooking Mama was probably a bit too much.
Too much awesomeness, you mean.
Xvito said:
The games in that article were really terrifying... My Boyfriend? Seriously!? How fucking prejudice is that?
Also, the girl in the first picture kind of looks like a doll... WTF?
--Xvito, hoping he doesn't have to father a girl...
Yeah - wouldn't games about mindless slaughter marketed at males be less prejudiced?
Haydyn said:
I remember watching my sister play "My Dream Life" or something like that. Basically, she got hundreds of dollars a day doing simple household chorses that only required a single click to do, shopped around for the best deals on clothes to look good for everyone else, made friends witha all the pretty girls while insulting the ugly ones, and hit on multipul guys.
So basically, the game wants you to be Paris Hilton. It's no wonder I've never gone on a date with any girls from high school. My nerdiness was protecting me, not c*ckblocking me.
Until there is another selling method better than target market, "girl games" will never change.
RTS - wants you to be a military commander
FPS - wants to be an agent of mass murder
Racing - wants you to drive around items of male fetishization
"Girl" - wants you to dress glamorously
...What's the problem with stereotyping again?
yeah_so_no said:
You know, I like pink and sparkles. I do. I love all things cute--part of why I loved FF3 on the DS was because it was just so gosh-darned cute. And the first game I played through all the way on my PS2 I got a couple years ago was Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side, which is a dating sim along the same vein as "My Boyfriend," and to this day one of my favorite games, the only one I've played through to get every single good, bad, and perfect ending, is a dating sim called "Mizu no senritsu." So I'm coming at this from the angle of someone who does, in fact, like the "girlier" games.
I'm really disturbed my some of the entire premise of the "Diss and Make Up" game. There's no reason to try and instill cattiness in girls, or to teach them that popularity is the only way to go, and being too smart and reading is somehow bad. And worse, that being "pretty" is the best thing you can be. All the other games, aside from the Daring Game, which seems good, I kind of rolled my eyes at, but that one game just really rubbed me the wrong way.
The problem I have with a post like this is that - in a forum that's usually fairly open-minded - is that it treats women like hollow vessels, just waiting for their heads to be filled up by the first thing that comes along. What's
wrong with caricatures of feminity? How are they doing to irreparably scar young girls any more than
Halo is going to cause permanent damage to young males?
All this talk about the content of video games affecting the way young girls perceive gender is merely fence-sitting. Games are either have the potential to drastically alter the socialization of individuals, or they don't. And if they don't... well, time to open up the debate about whether
Grand Theft Auto enduces murder again, guys.
Bible Doctor said:
Susan Arendt said:
The more people playing, the better.
/thread
Boxmeister said:
I'm with la-le-lu-li-lo on this one. My game collection is small, but consists of Gears 1 & 2, the Halo trilogy, Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed, Zelda, Prince of Persia, and some Mario for wii. I don't know what the hell a "girl game" is supposed to be but I'll take the so called 'boy section' anyday thank you
Again though why would you classify Mass Effect a "boy game", or any of those games for that matter. I don't think the developers of any of those games are aiming to market those games to just guys, I think they realize that will be a big part of the sales and fan base but they don't go out of their way to make the game better for the dudes. I think that those games are made for gamers who enjoy a good story and intense gameplay. I don't think they go into development saying "lets make a game for the cool brothers and the frat boys".
I could be wrong, I could be too optimistic. But I don't really feel comfortable comparing a story heavy game with a game thats main objective is to find the cutest boyfriend.
Games like
Mass Effect are more expansive, and more niche, than games about shopping and socialization usually are, but you're kidding yourself if you think they're devoid of genderized narrative. I mean, consider what what Boxmeister mentioned -
Gears of War? That's as suck-my-cock as it comes, so let's not try to pretend the industry doesn't pander already.
EmileeElectro said:
Ever single word in that article made me want to kill myself.
Most misogynistic cultures:
1. Clerical
2. Video game
