Games for Women

[Amaror]

Chaps and chappesses .. I've been interested of late in the gender divide surrounding preferred game genres or even specific titles. We all know the stereotype of men preferring ShootyShooty and women preferring SimSandwichMaking but I'm aware there's also a high amount of individuals for whom this just doesn't fit.

I'd love to know what games men think women enjoy playing and from the women what they enjoy and why

Women, in general, enjoy nothing, because there is nothing on earth that ALL women like.
Some Women enjoy sim games, some enjoy rpgs, some enjoy shooter, some enjoy racing games, some enjoy rts games.
What i can say is that most women i know, that don't like games in general, do like to play sims.

 

[endtherapture]

Women love The Sims 2.

All women, all girls I know, they all love The Sims 2.

 

[Phasmal]

I don't really thing being a girl on games like WoW garners that much attention either positive or negative. Not so sure on TF2 etc though I use "onegirlgaming" as my gamer tag for everything and really don't cop any less grief for it thankfully, it would annoy me to be given an easy ride based on gender.

Only crap I've gotten on WoW for being a lady has usually been in random dungeons (either when its come up or my boyfriend `outs` me), and then its usually just if I call someone out for standing in fire and shit. Most people are pretty chilled with it, I've had several female guild leaders in the past.

TF2 I don't really get much attention, cause I don't use mic, I would if I could (because I'm usually playing with friends as well as randoms and my friends use mic but mine is broken).

I used to play Garrysmod all the time (until it started Bluescreening my computer and I had to uninstall it), and I'd hang around in random servers playing things like Bombtag, suicide barrels, stuff like that. I was using a mic one time and somebody commented like `Omg kid how old are you I bet ur ballz havent dropped lolol` - so of course I replied I'm a girl. They went into like a stunned silence. After that if I was in a game they were in (which was quite a lot), if I killed anyone it'd be "Did you know Phasmal's a GIRL? You got sniped by a GIRL!". It got old.

 

[LittleBlondeGoth]

Personally, I don't want companies to try and make their games appeal to me as a woman. I want them to appeal to me as a gamer. I don't need Hello Kitty or Barbie or a box plastered in pink to get my interest. What I want is something that plays well and has a story (or something about it) that keeps my attention.

My own tastes vary. I started gaming in the 80's on my Amiga 500, so that may influence some of my preferences.

FPS: Used to play a lot - and I do mean a LOT - of Doom, Quake and Hexen back when I was 16. Which is a lot longer ago than I really care to admit. Nowadays, I enjoy things like Mass Effect or Binary Domain, but not so much CoD or Battlefield. Not because I hate them, but purely because I find the realistic shooters boring compared to shooting aliens or robots and the like. Real war doesn't interest me. Blowing up a Reaper, does.

RPG: Probably the motherlode for me, right here. Early ones include Cadaver, Ultima, Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder and Ishar. Nowadays I'm more of a Final Fantasy / Dragon Age / EverQuest kind of girl. I don't know what it is about these, but I just adore the mico-managing, boss killing, level grinding, epic story-ness of a good RPG. I can happily lose myself in them for hours. Days. Often longer.

Adventure: I adored the point and click adventures of years ago. Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island, Lure of the Temptress... Oh, those were the days. Modern adventures have moved on a lot, I suppose Assassins Creed and Uncharted are the franchises that spring to mind here. I like those, too, though they're not the same as the old stuff. That's not to say they're bad or that I don't like them. But adventure games now and adventure games then are two different animals.

Platformers: The old ones like Rainbow Islands or Zool got a lot of playtime, but once they started moving over to 3D I kind of lost interest. 3 lives or you're out, though. Blimey, kids these days don't know how lucky they are...

The rest: Well, I've got and played some Sims. I think that's practically mandatory these days. But I also very much enjoyed the Populous series back when they were out. I thought Portal was excellent, and Guitar Hero passes an hour or two now and then (I hit things with sticks). I own a copy of Dance Central, though the curtains have to be closed if I'm going to attempt any of that. Bayonetta, God of War, Batman, Heavenly Sword... Put it this way. Between my fiance and I, our computer room has more tech and titles in it than the local GAME shop (yes, it's still open boys and girls).

 

[onegirlgaming]

.snip. But I also very much enjoyed the Populous series back when they were out.

Populous was awesome .. I miss the early Molyneux days of Dungeon Keeper, Theme Park et al.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Yay for pony games! I totally agree, I always wonder how many female gamers keep quiet about that for fear of mocking.

My girlfriend is a gamer, and while she likes some pretty mainstream, "respectable" stuff like Bioware titles (she's an enormous fangirl), Deus Ex, Silent Hill, and MMOs, she also likes the most ridiculously twee rubbish like magical pony games and those abominable fashion titles that seem to be aimed directly at 9 year old girls. But, y'know, whatever the hell. I have no patience with anyone dissing the Sims for not being "hardcore" enough, so by the same measure I need to have no patience with myself for making fun of sparkle games and pony games. Whatever people have fun with. Games are supposed to be for fun, after all, not for measuring the size of our penises.

I can't even remember the last horse game she played. It was some indie thing she got off Steam. She had a golden unicorn, and you could brush the unicorn with the mouse, and then take it out for a ride and pick up stars and flowers or something. And I'm seriously dying to mock it, but I WON'T. Sadly, it ate her saved games, and she hasn't gone back to it since.

Populous was awesome .. I miss the early Molyneux days of Dungeon Keeper, Theme Park et al.

Theme Park was awful. It also had a system conflict with my machine that made it run with no sound, so I ended up taking it back and trading it in for store credit, which I used on an obscure looking title that ended up being X-Com.