Silicon Sisters Say Game Industry Still Doesn't Understand Women

[inFAMOUSCowZ]

Isn't it subjective what someone wants? I'm a guy and I don't like sports games, and I'm sure there are girls who enjoy sports games. All comes donw to what a person wants, regardless of gender.

 

[Zarmi]

Oh I just have to...

No-one understands women.

/thread.

 

[DarkRyter]

Oh look, people saying men and women are different.

Must be some real progressive folks.

 

[HavoK 09]

Silicon Sisters' first game, an iPhone released entitled School 26 [http://www.school26.ca/], is a game of "empathy, strategy and relationship building" aimed at girls aged 12 to 16. The studio also has at least one game aimed at older players in pre-production.

japan has plenty of those... and they end up with a bonus!


...not that i would now anything about that.. ehehe.. ehh...

 

[Snotnarok]

But we have Cooking Mama! How do we not know what they want?!

Spoiler: Click to view

I am a terrible, terrible human being for that joke. Absolutely terrible. Please ban me from these forums. I do not deserve mercy

I have even more terrible news.

They're making Camping Mama.

What are you talking about, there's no female characters in Call of Duty!

Spoiler

:U See what I did thar?

 

[uzo]

Driving, shooting, and sports ...

... but seriously, she forgot 'watching tits jiggle', which is the REAL attraction ALL men have to gaming.

FFS; the irony of the article is just .. mwah! .. delicious!

Go whine about stereotypes to an audience that 100% agrees with you, otherwise you just look like an annoying ditz.

EDIT: I'm gonna have a go at that School 26 game .. see if my male sensibilities can handle something that doesn't include driving, shooting, or sports. I hope at least it includes the tit-jiggle ...

EDIT EDIT: Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes
Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content or Nudity
Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References

Sign me up!!!!

 

[Saelune]

Or maybe women gamers just want to shoot bad guys too. Why do women have to play some trashy looking school sim? Women have been put out by games BECAUSE all "girl games" are trashy snarky sims and Barbie Horse Adventures.

 

[ChaoticKraus]

There are so many things that are wrong with this statement, but you know what made me rage?

"I use persuasion as an example. That's something women are incredibly good at: persuading people with our words and our thoughts and our bodies... and how do you translate something like that into a mechanic?" she said.

Fuck you silicon sisters, that is incredibly sexist against both genders. I'm fucking awesome at persuasion and i won't let you tell me otherwise.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

"It took 30 years to really perfect the three things that males seem to really love, which are shooting, and driving, and sports," Forbes said.

Wow, and for your encore?

That's something women are incredibly good at: persuading people with our words and our thoughts and our bodies

Reduced both sexes to a stereotypical mix of adjectives in a two sentences. That takes skill, especially when it's meant to be promoting your product. Tell me, do you work for Fox News?

Because last time I talked to some men and women, they were different in what they liked.

And Space Invaders (The MALE SHOOTY GAME) came out 33 years ago and Pacman (THE FEMALE PERSUASION GAME) came out 31 years ago.

And both genders loved both of them. Not waiting around for the GRUNT and SLUT games you seem to divide us into.

 

[Ildecia]

So they're claiming to know what all women want in a game, while the gaming industry just perpetuates stereotypes?

Good job, Silicon Sisters.

-snip-
Might as well argue that women don't enjoy movies with violence as well.

wow... just wow.

Being female I can definetely say that the worst and most sexist insults do not come from men "trying to oppress us", but from our fellow women who think that adhering to gender stereotypes somehow means "giving women what they want".

-snip-
This is so disgusting...

on the same page as the people i've quoted. the Silicon Sisters seem to think that women gamers are a completly different base of people (and although they are different that doesn't mean that they don't like the asme things as a -gasp- MALE gamer would like.

this is just absurd. I can easily list 20+ female gamers that like the same games I do. this includes shooty-racey-punchy games. some of them can whup my ass in them too.

 

[Venereus]

So they're working under the wrong assumption that you can know what women want. Pathetic.

 

[Princess Rose]

You know, I'm not quite convinced that this is an issue you have because you're female. I've heard plenty of people complain about things like this regardless of their gender. For example I couldn't stand how my FemShep would always sound like she was trying go into super flirt mode any time she'd talk to Jacob despite the fact that I had her going after Garrus. And those rare occasion where games are good about having non-combat options I tend to hear guys praise the inclusion of more options just as much as anyone else.

Really this a lot of this article sounds like a lot of generalizations to me. I mean I hate driving and sports games for the most part, and I'm really not much into straight-up shooters all that much. Yeah CoD is the biggest game ever and shit, but basing your view on the entire medium on that fact seems to really miss the big picture.

It sounds like they're trying to make the video game equivalent of "chick flicks" to CoD's "dumb action movie" in the video game world - and I'm not sure that really does anything to help make games in general more welcoming towards women. It just means more dumb games where everything is pink instead of brown.

Oh, I agree with you about this not being JUST a female issue. Subtlety is a sign of good writing in general, and options are always a good thing. Any gamer who considers story as (or more) important than gameplay will appreciate subtlety.

If this is a girl issue at all, it's because, out of every single female gamer I know, there is only one who puts game play ahead of story. And it sure isn't me - I'll play a game with bad gameplay (or gameplay that's good, but not something I like) if the story is good enough. A little over half of male gamers I've talked to put gameplay before story. I'm only working with conversations with friends here, and a sample size of maybe 30 gamers (so my numbers are probably pretty skewed) but that's my experience. It's not that some male gamers don't like those things too, just that practically all female gamers do.

That aside, I actually sort of like the idea of a "chick movies" type game. I've played games entirely for a small romantic subplot before. I love love LOVE reading romance novels - although I prefer well written romance novels if I can get them.

If a game company created a game that somehow had the same sort of vibe as a romance novel or a romantic movie (think Gone with the Wind, not Sex and the City 2) I would totally buy that.

I bought Catherine because it was a game about a relationship (also, I like puzzle games). If they made something like that, but with a female lead, that... might just be the sort of game these people are thinking of.

So actually, I really do think there's a future in something like that - also probably several bombs, but sometimes you need a few stinkers to figure out how to do it right.

 

[sharpsheppard]

i am sorry i get what this is about but Silicon Sisters sounds like the name of a 2 stirper stage act

 

[Ildecia]

Silicon Sisters Say Game Industry Still Doesn't Understand Women

Permalink

My issue here is that they're basing this on "research" into what women like... yet claiming that current expectations are based on stereotypes.

How did the current market arrive at their beliefs of "what women want?" Sales figures. Surveys. You know--research. Certainly, it's not clinically-controlled research, but you can hopefully start to see the problem here.

The game market's current expectations of what women will like is based on a broad view (no pun intended) of what women say they enjoy doing. When you find trends in a group, and then you apply those trends in a more universal sense, that's called stereotyping. You're taking something that is in many cases true, you're assuming it's "almost always" true. And that's exactly what it seems Silicon Sisters is doing here. It's just being done under a different flag.

The other problem? Perhaps we should consider that modern society still sorts girls into pretty narrow channels early on in life. That could very well manifest itself as a preference for stereotypically "girly things" because those give a feeling of social reward (you're looked at favorably for "doing what you ought to"). Designing games around those behaviors could very well be working to reinforce these stereotypes (while coincidentally cashing in on them).

Newsflash: You can't specifically target a humongous group without stereotyping--and more likely, participating in existing stereotypes.

Stereotype ALL THE THINGS

seriously. some of these things are rediculous.

 

[Ildecia]

Silicon Sisters Say Game Industry Still Doesn't Understand Women

Permalink

My issue here is that they're basing this on "research" into what women like... yet claiming that current expectations are based on stereotypes.

How did the current market arrive at their beliefs of "what women want?" Sales figures. Surveys. You know--research. Certainly, it's not clinically-controlled research, but you can hopefully start to see the problem here.

The game market's current expectations of what women will like is based on a broad view (no pun intended) of what women say they enjoy doing. When you find trends in a group, and then you apply those trends in a more universal sense, that's called stereotyping. You're taking something that is in many cases true, you're assuming it's "almost always" true. And that's exactly what it seems Silicon Sisters is doing here. It's just being done under a different flag.

The other problem? Perhaps we should consider that modern society still sorts girls into pretty narrow channels early on in life. That could very well manifest itself as a preference for stereotypically "girly things" because those give a feeling of social reward (you're looked at favorably for "doing what you ought to"). Designing games around those behaviors could very well be working to reinforce these stereotypes (while coincidentally cashing in on them).

Newsflash: You can't specifically target a humongous group without stereotyping--and more likely, participating in existing stereotypes.

Stereotype ALL THE THINGS

seriously. some of these things are rediculous.

 

[Stalydan]

Isn't that a little sexist? Quite a few people I know who are girl gamers are happy with what they have. My girlfriend is delighted to go around and blast peoples faces off in GTA, pleased to go off and mess with the prefects in Bully, and she's over the moon when she shoots people's heads off in Fallout. She's not a fan of "subtleties," she wants things plain and obvious in front of her, and she wants fun. To see that "This is what women want" seems sexist. Honestly that game looks like it wouldn't suit any girl gamer I know.

I'll stick with getting my GF the shooting and driving I know she enjoys.

Calumon: So why won't you give me the cream puffs you know I enjoy?

Jack: Because if I gave you presents instead of my GF I'd be broke all the time!

Exactly, me and my girlfriend enjoy gaming together... sometimes. She really cannot play Portal and I refuse to ever co-op with her ever again on Portal 2... too painful.

On the other hand, we like playing games like Mass Effect 2, Heavy Rain and Super Mario Bros Wii. Because they're good games, not games aimed at guys and games aimed at girls. Any game that claims to be the game that girls want is just further pushing borders between male and female gamers by creating stereotypes about gaming.

 

[FuzzyRaccoon]

Maybe some of those women who complain about violent videogames don't like them because they are BAD at them, because they're not used to the control scheme.

If so. Graduate to two analog sticks, or a PC, and join the modern era. You will be pleasantly surprised ladies.

 

[Simeon Ivanov]

Women are strange creatures, of course we don't understand what they want! ... the question is: Do they know what we want!