BBC: Games Industry is failing women.

[eloop]

This article should really be "Women failing games industry"... Maybe women have better things to do with their time.

[leigh]

I've never seen Titanic (nor do I want to), and I regularly play Battle For Middleearth, Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six, Titan Quest, X-Men Legends, Untold Legends, and others.

And I certainly prefer playing the above mentioned games to playing The Sims.

Am I unusual? No, I don't think so. I think it's a stereotype to assume that women want to play games about relationships and chat about crap. We get enough of that in real life! If I am going to waste away precious hours of my life playing games, then by god I want to blow things up, kill things and level up :D

[Koogle]

This article should really be "Women failing games industry"... hahaha, funny stuff :thumbsup:

[Tirjasdyn]

Ya know woman want games with storylines or failing that ones where they can create storylines.


Speaking as woman who plays video games.

[Swizzle]

Am I unusual? No, I don't think so. I think it's a stereotype to assume that women want to play games about relationships and chat about crap. We get enough of that in real life! If I am going to waste away precious hours of my life playing games, then by god I want to blow things up, kill things and level up :DA friend of mine (a girl, duh) once had a video-game obsessed boyfriend. She'd never have played video games otherwise. In one game she liked, she simply got to ride a horse around and explore. I think it might've been Zelda for N64. She told me that games like that and ones like Tomb Raider were the kind she wanted to play, not ones where she had to worry about leveling up, hit points, getting better weapons, etc.

It seems that a lot of the most popular games with women are the ones where you get to explore, travel, find cool stuff, and make things without having to worry about kiling every damn thing in your path. I sort of get the impression that most women really don't care what the game looks like or is really about storyline-wise as long as they can be somebody else and do things they can't normally do for a while. In The Sims, you could do those kinds of things, so it seems like that's more what women are interested in--not the networking or chatting aspect of The Sims Online. I don't mean to say that women don't like storylines, but it seems like a lot of the time they'd rather have Mario than Final Fantasy.

This isn't to say that none of them want to blow crap up... ;)

[Quatermass]

Women also like crime dramas. I've been reading a bit about this recently. It's why shows like "Law and Order", and "CSI...", do so well, as well as making authors like Tara Moss popular. I guess the relationships in these situations are more exciting because of the suspense involved. It has also been proposed that this genre provides some form of avenue for letting off steam, in the same way that video games are currently thought to help vent frustration.

My partner loves the "Godfather", films, but has absolutely no interest in playing video games based on the series. She would rather play "Puzzle Bobble", so there does have to bit more thought put into 'tapping', the market.

[Paul-Angelo]

My wife hates FPS like UT but loves games where you get to interact with other people like EQ or WOW. I think it also has to do with how fast paced the game is. I on the other hand like games which require fast reflexes, it feels more like I am being challenged.

[pearson]

I think it's a stereotype to assume that women want to ... chat about crap. Says the woman with 16,442 posts (and counting) :wavey: :D

[leigh]

Says the woman with 16,442 posts (and counting) :wavey: :D

I like to think that the majority of my posts here are insightful and constructive :D The fact that some of them are crap is simply something I cannot avoid, being a woman and all :cool:

[amannin]

I would say girls are as equally diversified as guys are when it comes to games. Though, now that I think about it, I rarely see girls playing FPS games O_o (maybe a social factor?)

[hiphopcr]

That's what Princess Peach on the DS is for!

[jtico]

My sister loves tetris. :shrug:

[hiphopcr]

And Brain Age has turned even *gasp* my mother-in-law into a gamer.

And she is very anti-gaming, when she saw me playing Halo she went online and printed out a half-dozen articles on the negative effects that violent video games have on people.

[AngryScientist]

Funnily enough, I as an avid non-gamer (not that I don't enjoy some games, I just spend my time with other "junk" like forum browsing :wise:), today sat down and played a car sim on my boyfriend's PSP. And actually for the first time felt the need to win the goddamn race. So I would say that having found this in me, I can't really put girls in one category as this article does :p

Also, I hate all things pink.

And need to blow stuff up, used to play FPS when I was younger and angstier.

Yet the fave games for me have always been adventures, the Myst, Riven and Uru series and Monkey Island..

[Abaddon]

then by god I want to blow things up, kill things and level up :D

:love: :twisted: :love: I think im in love.

[Cobster]

My original experience of gaming was as a girl with arcade machines and my Spectrum 48K. I was obsessed with Jet Set Willy, the thrill of finding new rooms, working out how to navigate them and trying to get all the keys. I then had a gameboy but I only played Tetris, I also played a bit of Sonic on a friend's Sega, but after that not much of anything.

I've only gotten back into gaming since moving in with my gaming-fanatic boyfriend and thus being exposed to games again. Having access to an xbox, xbox 360, arcade emulators (housed in a cool arcade cabinet), a gamecube, ps2, psp and my very own DS lite I have to say that playability is what matters to me.

We all know how bad the graphics on the Spectrum 48K were yet I often choose to play a Spectrum game on an emulator. This could be down to nostalgia, I admit, but out of all the other platforms I have access to, my favourite games are Super Monkey Ball on the Xbox, Geometry Wars on the 360, Resident Evil on the Gamecube, Braintraining on the DS, Loco Roco on the PSP, any Eye Toy game and most classic arcade games such as Galaxian, Missile Command.

Even though I can sucessfully find my way round the controls of a 3D applications such as XSI, Maya, etc I have incredible trouble with controlling 3D games, especially first person shooters. I seem to have a serious lack of coordination when using the analogue sticks to look and move simultaneously. I also get disorientated very quickly.

I hate to be stereotypical but is this because I am a woman? Is our hand to eye co-ordination not up to these sorts of games? Or am I just personally rubbish at games? I don't know, but give me a puzzle game or a 2D scroller of some sort and I do ok and therefore I find these sorts of games more enjoyable.

[NanoGator]

Mario Kart, Tetris DS, and Brain Age haven't failed my gf. heh.

[Apoclypse]

My original experience of gaming was as a girl with arcade machines and my Spectrum 48K. I was obsessed with Jet Set Willy, the thrill of finding new rooms, working out how to navigate them and trying to get all the keys. I then had a gameboy but I only played Tetris, I also played a bit of Sonic on a friend's Sega, but after that not much of anything.

I've only gotten back into gaming since moving in with my gaming-fanatic boyfriend and thus being exposed to games again. Having access to an xbox, xbox 360, arcade emulators (housed in a cool arcade cabinet), a gamecube, ps2, psp and my very own DS lite I have to say that playability is what matters to me.

We all know how bad the graphics on the Spectrum 48K were yet I often choose to play a Spectrum game on an emulator. This could be down to nostalgia, I admit, but out of all the other platforms I have access to, my favourite games are Super Monkey Ball on the Xbox, Geometry Wars on the 360, Resident Evil on the Gamecube, Braintraining on the DS, Loco Roco on the PSP, any Eye Toy game and most classic arcade games such as Galaxian, Missile Command.

Even though I can sucessfully find my way round the controls of a 3D applications such as XSI, Maya, etc I have incredible trouble with controlling 3D games, especially first person shooters. I seem to have a serious lack of coordination when using the analogue sticks to look and move simultaneously. I also get disorientated very quickly.

I hate to be stereotypical but is this because I am a woman? Is our hand to eye co-ordination not up to these sorts of games? Or am I just personally rubbish at games? I don't know, but give me a puzzle game or a 2D scroller of some sort and I do ok and therefore I find these sorts of games more enjoyable.

No you just suck. :D

I think its having to do more with practice. guys usually play games froma very early age and so have more practice at it. My niece for ecample is pretty good and she has played games since an early age. My sister was pretty decent in Mortal Kombat 2. My nephew is a master, he started playing games after my niece though since he's younger so maybe you are right. I still say its practice and the males ability to stupidly keep trying to do the impossible to win a crummy green mushroom or a magic flute.

[CelticArtist]

I'm a gamer (when i have time) but my girlfriend isn't, or, wasn't, until i got a DS Lite from her for my birthday, now the thing is hers as much as mine. She is obsessed with Animal Crossing and Big Brain Academy, she loves games where she gets to be a character, but hates killing things, so she falls into that Sims area (she got bored with Sims though). I think everyone has their tastes, it isn't an immediate genetic gender response, I'm not a big fan of some types of 'guy games' I hate sports games for one, they are mind-numbingly boring to me, but I love MMORPGs, FPS, etc. It just has to do with personal taste.

And besides all that, when did EA know how to make a good game anyway? (barring a few lucky exceptions)

[DZL]

"EA's own research found that 40% of teenage girls played video games versus 90% of teenage boys and most girls lost interest in games within a year."

proof that women are indeed smarter than men?

[RaeTracer]

Yeah, I would have taken over the world by now if it weren't for Civ4!

I've got to agree that it's all about storyline and playability... even though I'm an animator, graphics don't matter THAT much to me if the game isn't fun. I can go back to old favorites like Fallout, Planescape:Torment and Baldur's Gate no matter how dated the visuals are, because it's all about the story! I like leveling up and collecting things, sure, as long as it's in some sort of context.

My sister and I both loved Beyond Good and Evil, Final Fantasy 8, Katamari, Monkey Island, and Psychonauts - they're just creative games with good stories! Of course, we also like the Dark Alliance games when we just want to smash crates and kill zombies....;)

The only way I feel like the game industry is failing me is by putting out more and more sequels of the same "safe" types of games, and shying away from new and untested ideas. But that's failing me as a gamer, not as a woman!

Now if only I could find a game that my boyfriend would like...

[pearson]

Even though I can sucessfully find my way round the controls of a 3D applications such as XSI, Maya, etc I have incredible trouble with controlling 3D games, especially first person shooters. I seem to have a serious lack of coordination when using the analogue sticks to look and move simultaneously. I also get disorientated very quickly.

I hate to be stereotypical but is this because I am a woman? Is our hand to eye co-ordination not up to these sorts of games? Or am I just personally rubbish at games? I don't know, but give me a puzzle game or a 2D scroller of some sort and I do ok and therefore I find these sorts of games more enjoyable.No, this is common. When I first started using a mouse to look around, while using the keyboard to move (in Quake 1) I was constantly running around staring at my feet (while being gibbed by my friends, lol). I had the same experience using the controller for Halo - you have to train your brain to control the two things seperately.

I think that males have (in general) better spacial skills than females, but since you use 3D apps w/o trouble, you are probably above average in that area.

[JeroenDStout]

If it's storyline and all that I guess I'm more of a female player than a male in terms of stereotyped market-driven terms of people.

"EA's own research found that 40% of teenage girls played video games versus 90% of teenage boys and most girls lost interest in games within a year."

proof that women are indeed smarter than men?
Oh god don't start that :cry: I keep wanting to defend men because I am one and then always forget that even if women, on average, are smarter than men, I'm always smarter than most of them.

[Kanga]

Am I unusual? No, I don't think so....

No actually you are the only normal one.
Women are generally insane because they refuse to sit crosslegged in front of a machine for hours on end accompanied only by a can of flat beer (http://www.2old2play.com/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=26) and a bowl of stale nachos (http://www.enjoynachos.com/).

There you are slashing your way though the middle kingdom and your girlfriend demonstatively hoovers about the living room in a huff. Just at the moment you are about to knife that giant ernix right between the gibblets she gets between you and the plasma screen. 'Ooh I dont understand games'. How does she know exactly when to ambush for maximum effect?

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