Games For Boys, Games For Girls

[TsunamiWombat]

...It's because no game, unless it is Street Fighter, can go past 8 sequels with a completely unlikeable protagonist (since let's face it, Ryu is actually ultimately an extremely unlikeable character) and a very flimsy storyline to keep it going. People might still buy it.. but edging something on it? FRANCHISING it? That's just ridiculous. You'd have better luck franchising a series of games based around Bob the Builder.

...Then explain Zelda?

I thought Legend was very good, particularly the quasi-conspiracy theory take it was doing on things. The game needs some improvements of course, and perhaps it's best if it's not treated as a CASH COW. Give Lara an Assasins Creed-esque Parkour system. Also, Laura can be sexy, just make her a bit more reasonably DRESSED. Give her a thin scar over one of her eyes or something too, just a tiny flaw to make her seem more exotic.

Tomb Raider failed because of shitty advertisement and it being poorly understood by it's own company. It's still adverted as a WOO TOUGH GIRL WITH BOOBIES! game. The highlight of Tomb Raider should be beautiful locales, puzzles, and a sense of exploration and wonder. The game should dump you in an exploration site and let you roam around and find things on your own- of course giving you start point hints for the gamer who just wants to get in and rob Machipitchu. Laura also needs some sort of character motivation- what sort of Archaeologist is she? Why does she go to these places? She needs some sort of motivation to justify her very unscientific plundering- searching for the answer to an ancient mystery is best. Remember how Indiana Jones' father spent his life hunting for the Holy Grail? Work that in. Laura's father spent his life persuing something, maybe he died when he first got close. Croft has always been about conspiracies and ancient supernatural forces, play that up.

 

[dcsobral]

...It's because no game, unless it is Street Fighter, can go past 8 sequels with a completely unlikeable protagonist (since let's face it, Ryu is actually ultimately an extremely unlikeable character) and a very flimsy storyline to keep it going. People might still buy it.. but edging something on it? FRANCHISING it? That's just ridiculous. You'd have better luck franchising a series of games based around Bob the Builder.

...Then explain Zelda?

Good point. I hate Link!

 

[Aschenkatza]

I disagree with almost everything here....

Third, it's not a realistically proportioned body that will enhance acceptance by women. Now, if you go for freakishly THIN body, then, sadly, you might pull some women to it.

As a female, one of the things that made me not even try the game was because Lara looked like a skeleton. One of the pictures for the game I viewed was of Lara shooting a gun and the stomach being the size of a pencil and then blowing up into balloon sized hips.

Add about a hundred different fashionable shoes, boots, high-heels, etc which she keeps changing throughout the game, and I'll guarantee it. This whole paragraph might does sound horrible sexist, but these ARE women magnets

While I don't speak for every single female gamer out there, changeable accessorizes don't make a game more appealing to females who game. Females in general might like "Lara Crofts Fashion Show", but many real female gamers won't.

Plus, if that was added in it, I doubt ANY guy would pick it up and go, "Wow an awesome shooter AND fashion show. Just what I always wanted!"

Give me a game where I can blow people up, butt view option.

 

[dcsobral]

I disagree with almost everything here....

Third, it's not a realistically proportioned body that will enhance acceptance by women. Now, if you go for freakishly THIN body, then, sadly, you might pull some women to it.

As a female, one of the things that made me not even try the game was because Lara looked like a skeleton. One of the pictures for the game I viewed was of Lara shooting a gun and the stomach being the size of a pencil and then blowing up into balloon sized hips.

Add about a hundred different fashionable shoes, boots, high-heels, etc which she keeps changing throughout the game, and I'll guarantee it. This whole paragraph might does sound horrible sexist, but these ARE women magnets

While I don't speak for every single female gamer out there, changeable accessorizes don't make a game more appealing to females who game. Females in general might like "Lara Crofts Fashion Show", but many real female gamers won't.

Plus, if that was added in it, I doubt ANY guy would pick it up and go, "Wow an awesome shooter AND fashion show. Just what I always wanted!"

Give me a game where I can blow people up, butt view option.

Individual persons always vary, but... Anyway, I'd like to point out that most men wouldn't even notice the shoes changed.

 

[hypothetical fact]

I disagree with almost everything here....

Third, it's not a realistically proportioned body that will enhance acceptance by women. Now, if you go for freakishly THIN body, then, sadly, you might pull some women to it.

As a female, one of the things that made me not even try the game was because Lara looked like a skeleton. One of the pictures for the game I viewed was of Lara shooting a gun and the stomach being the size of a pencil and then blowing up into balloon sized hips.

Add about a hundred different fashionable shoes, boots, high-heels, etc which she keeps changing throughout the game, and I'll guarantee it. This whole paragraph might does sound horrible sexist, but these ARE women magnets

While I don't speak for every single female gamer out there, changeable accessorizes don't make a game more appealing to females who game. Females in general might like "Lara Crofts Fashion Show", but many real female gamers won't.

Plus, if that was added in it, I doubt ANY guy would pick it up and go, "Wow an awesome shooter AND fashion show. Just what I always wanted!"

Give me a game where I can blow people up, butt view option.

Individual persons always vary, but... Anyway, I'd like to point out that most men wouldn't even notice the shoes changed.

While the developers are making those shoes they could be making better gameplay, bells and whistles a good game does not make.

 

[Aperama]

...It's because no game, unless it is Street Fighter, can go past 8 sequels with a completely unlikeable protagonist (since let's face it, Ryu is actually ultimately an extremely unlikeable character) and a very flimsy storyline to keep it going. People might still buy it.. but edging something on it? FRANCHISING it? That's just ridiculous. You'd have better luck franchising a series of games based around Bob the Builder.

...Then explain Zelda?

I'm saying, completely unlikeable. Which Ryu - and Ms. Croft - are. Ryu exists entirely on the flimsy basis that he wants to be the best fighter in the world. Ryu doesn't want to save the world. Hell, when Ryu wins half of his fights, he simply callously states to his opponents, 'You should have tried harder'. Watch his ending in Street Fighter 2, where he doesn't look to take down Shadaloo, he doesn't look to take down this terrifying warlord Bison, who presumably only he can take out.. He just walks on, looking for a better fight! Lara Croft is a grave robbing, narcissistic ***** who exists to hoard treasure and murder people. Again. Not in any way likable. Try Link, then - whilst he might well irritate the living bejesus out of you by never having the balls to just go and do something - or, for that matter, to say anything.. ever - He's essentially a good guy. He's doing what he is because he wants to help out the kingdom, kill the baddie. I should, perhaps, point out that I've never played Wind Waker onwards - did something change? Did Link go angsty when I wasn't watching, and suddenly pull out a Prince of Persia: Warrior Within-esque emo look, slaughtering everything that gets in his way as he runs away from a mythical beast? Actually, that might make him more likable, so long as he keeps the terrible forest green motif. But still. I'd say that given Link is more an 'avatar' styled character in his own right - that is, he's actually meant to be the player's foray into the world of Hyrule, ergo the constant ellipses.. well, why he's never given proper dialogue, anyway. Whereas - unless, in my haste to stop playing the Tomb Raider games because the camera angles drove me up the wall - Lara Croft and her ilk are very much responsible for their own destinies; you're just the helping hand which stops them from falling into spiky pits and getting shot.

 

[Sissas]

Now, if you go for freakishly THIN body, then, sadly, you might pull some women to it. Add about a hundred different fashionable shoes, boots, high-heels, etc which she keeps changing throughout the game, and I'll guarantee it. This whole paragraph might sound horrible sexist, but these ARE women magnets -- just like attractive boobs are men magnets, even if were aren't all horny teenagers. My point, anyway, is that both genders have their biases.

well, i do like the create-your-own-character concept... in a fallout, mass effect kind of way. girls who like that kind of games have the sims, and they WILL be around forever. its kind of hard for me to believe that guys actually think that girls will play something if its 'accessorizable'! i mean, in real life, hell yeah! give me a credit card and im forever happy. but while playing? most gamer girls i know - and there are, in fact, some of us - like to butcher living things as much as the next guy. i do know most girls - young girls, like 13-ish or so - would much rather play something were you can switch the character's shoes, but if you could make lara wear pretty dresses keeping the other concepts of the tomb raider series, they wouldnt probably play it anyway.

 

[pleasedeletethisaccount]

Any time I feel patronised by a game developer, (i.e. we'll add a romance subplot and some home decorating elements to appeal to girlz) it only makes me more determined NOT to spend money on their products.

I definitely agree.

Sure, Lara as a well-proportioned character appeals to guys, but her body doesn't get in the way of gameplay, and since most girls play Tomb Raider for the gameplay and not Lara herself, there's really no need to change things like that to "appeal to girls." Things like that are just useless changes that might happen to disappoint some guys.

 

[Trivun]

Games need to have realistic characters, save for RPG's and some (not all) FPS's, where the whole story revolves partly around the fact that the protagonist and/or antagonist are not normal people who you would see in the street in the real world. The thing is, game characters and games themselves are more appealing when they are realistic, so we should see realistic characters. Of course, people in real life can be ugly or attractive so there is really nothing wrong with having characters in a game looking like God's own progeny, because good looking people do exist in the real world. A problem is relying on that, so basically all I'm saying is make game characters well-rounded, with various good and bad points just like any real person, but don't be afraid to make them attractive, or indeed ugly, as the case may be.

 

[Trivun]

Any time I feel patronised by a game developer, (i.e. we'll add a romance subplot and some home decorating elements to appeal to girlz) it only makes me more determined NOT to spend money on their products.

Actually, I think that a romance subplot can be a good thing in some games. For example, in Lost Planet the whole romantic subplot involving Wayne and Luka added padding to the game and made it (in my opinion) more appealing, especially as it helped show the humanity behind the guy who is going around shooting aliens and collecting heat from their flaming bodies. However, I definitely agree with you on the whole home decorating thing .

EDIT: Apologies for double-posting.

 

[Sissas]

i actually think that people are also appealed towards fantastic characters, i.e. elfs, fairies, aliens, anime characters, bd characters, mythological creatures, whatever. the thing is, there is an audience to every kind of game, and the tomb raider series has a long list of fans - even i, who played few ones until the end, consider it a good game. and changing the formula will quicker destroy the actual fans of the series than recruit new ones, especially for chauvinistic reasons like 'girls feel threatened by lara's huge breast, lets make them smaller and give her a puppy and a huge shoe collection' -_-