Team Bondi Says Ladies Will Love LA Noire

[John Funk]

Team Bondi Says Ladies Will Love LA Noire

If you're planning on picking up LA Noire and don't have two X chromosomes yourself, you might want to play it together with a female friend.

LA Noire is a very different type of game from the titles Rockstar usually publishes. There are shootouts and car chases, of course, but it's also about intuition, deduction, and interrogating suspects - and that's precisely why developer Team Bondi thinks women might enjoy it more than other fare, even if they don't usually play games.

"We think it appeals to a really broad church," game writer/director Brendan McNamara told OXM UK [http://www.oxm.co.uk/28643/news/la-noire-is-very-appealing-to-women-team-bondi/], "and one of the phenomenons we've seen a lot when we watch people play the game is that they'll play it, or their wife or their girlfriend will play it, and two or three people will play it together like they're watching TV."

Because the interrogation parts of the game lean heavily on facial reading and recognition - a traditionally "female" social skill, McNamara thinks there is a particular draw there for the ladies. "So far it's been very appealing to women too, which is great," said. "I think women are pretty good at reading whether people are lying or not."

It also doesn't hurt that the game's genres - crime and film noir - are also something that traditionally appeal to women. Along those lines, that thought echoes Epic's Cliff Bleszinski, who said that Sony had missed a huge opportunity [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/105019-Girls-Would-Love-Heavy-Rain-Says-CliffyB] by not marketing Heavy Rain towards women.

(Via CVG [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/302435/news/la-noire-is-very-appealing-to-women-says-dev/])

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[Alone Disciple]

I concur.

Since I've gotten Noire, my own wife, who is generally more into Bejewled, FarmVille and other FB games is taking an active roll in my investigations.

She'll often now say: "He's lying" or she'll piece and string together her own theories on how a crime went down. She's even surprised me more than once by blurting out some obscure detail I initiall missed just when I think she's doing something else.

In that respect, my wife looks at Noire almost as she does an episode of CSI or pther procedural crime shows that she loves. So by proxy, she's getting into more adult stylized games instead of crops.

 

[Cap'n Ninja]

I think women are pretty good at reading whether people are lying or not.

Someone seems to be speaking from experience. Hehehe
That said, we usually are good at spotting lies as a rule of thumb, it's something we're more accustomed to both neurologically (I think) and conditioned to societally.

As it is, I haven't played the game, but I do want it terribly. I'm withholding it from myself until the exam period has finished though.

 

[pepitko]

Makes sense, I expect my girlfriend to be an active part of my investigations, once I get the game finally. She loves guessing whether someone is lying or not, so L.A. Noire will definitely keep her interested. This is a great thing, because we won't have to fight over the main TV at our place, lol.

 

[jakefongloo]

Its because alot of ladies watch every crime drama on the tv
Csi
Ncis
Castle
Criminal minds
etc.
I may be stepping waaay over the boundries on that one, but alot of the women i know watch all the shows collectivly.

But seriously i would believe it I suck at the interviews.

 

[Harbinger_]

I love LA Noire and it disappoints me that I can't play it because its not on PC

 

[wooty]

This is true, not only am I enjoying it immensely, but my mums even got her own game going too since she's unto the whole crime drama scene. She just has trouble with the shooting aspect of the game.

 

[EHKOS]

Yep they'll love it right up until

Spoiler

the rape case

. I'm having fun with it though.

 

[Cormyre]

huh, maybe I should bring my girlfriend in on it because I suck at the interviews.

 

[Dora]

The first time I went to Disney World with my husband, we were walking along the water back to our hotel one evening watching the fish snap at the surface. Off handedly, he says, "Isn't it amazing how they can make animatronic fish?" "Really?!" I gasp. "No." he says, and starts giggling.

So, no, I don't think my ladybits make me any better at telling whether or not someone is lying. (My husband, however, is insanely good at spotting people's "tells") Thanks for thinking of me, though, Rockstar. It would be nice if they had just said, "Our game is so awesome it doesn't matter what your gender is. If you like awesome games, you'll like this."

 

[Korolev]

My sister really likes it. She's one of those people who love the Crime Channel, so it makes sense.

 

[lostlambda]

everyone save your six year old kids will love LA noire

 

[Buchichu]

but where's the ROMANCE I ask you???

 

[Harbinger_]

I love LA Noire and it disappoints me that I can't play it because its not on PC

Not to sound like one of those "that guy"'s, but if you had a PC able to run L.A. Noire smoothly, why would you be playing it in the first place?

[small]by the way, the game is fucking AWESOME, I like how I had to refresh myself on the 'tells' that people will do when they are lying, such as blinking or refusing eye contact.[/small]


OT: Generalization? maybe, but you can also read it as "Playing L.A. Noire will get you girls!".


Sadly, I dont think that would be a great pick-up line...

[small]Hey, I happen to have L.A. Noire, want to hang out?[/small]

Well the thing is I have a PC that would probably be capable of running it smoothly? Why would I want to play? Because I like the game and I enjoy watching my friend play it on his PS3 as I don't have a PS3 or 360 and don't want one.

 

[Adzma]

I came in expecting everyone to be asking who Team-Bondi is... You have either all surprised me (in a good way) or you didn't think to ask anyway, or just didn't care...

OT: Interesting theory. I guess it is just like a crime drama, but in game form!

 

[Kapol]

Yes, women will love a game where female characters are murdered. Not to mention that (and this might be viewed as a spoiler, but I don't think it is), that you have a partner at one point who constantly talks about beating wives and acting like all women are horrible creatures. At least that's the feeling I got after listening to him talk about it. Not to mention that

Spoiler

there's more then one time where you get to see a woman either simply smacked for not listening or beaten to death with something.

I dunno, I might be looking too much into it, but it seems a bit odd that they'd brag that it's a game that will appeal to women when they're treated like second-class citizens in the game. Not that that's the developers fault, mind you. They were going with the attitude of the time it's set in, and for that, I applaud them. It likely would have been much easier to at least leave some things (such as your partner's speeches) out completely.

Still, it's a pretty good game, but I don't think women who would normally not play it would desire to play it any more then any other game from what I've seen. Watch it be played or chime in opinion, maybe, as it does have that 'crime-drama' feel to it.

 

[BrotherRool]

"We think it appeals to a really broad church,"

Is church some Australian slang that I'm missing hear? Or am I just being stupid? I thought it was just a really bad German translation (I think Gemeinde could be mistranslated from community to church) but there's nothing german related I can see. Of course the reason it conveys similar ideas is bible based and because most western languages took a lot of their existence from the bible so I guess it could happen in multiple languages, but I don't think it looks like it happened here.

Or is it just a typo in the original article?

 

[Inkidu]

Until you get to the first naked body. I admit, that was harsh even for my male self. Maybe it's just my chauvinism acting up again.