1. Make decent, fun games
2.Make your games less focused as a power fantasy for your male audience.
Done.
2.Make your games less focused as a power fantasy for your male audience.
Done.
Sony Wants More Women Interested in PS4
- Thread starter StewShearerOld
- Start date
By "women" I assume they mean women who have not previously been gamers - if that is the case, the PS4 will never be the main place to start. No one is going to spend several hundred dollars before they even find out if they like the hobby they're starting. New gamers are likely to try free or cheap online PC games. They might later decide to invest in an expensive console but more likely will continue PC gaming.
I look at the advanced quality of some of the games that you can play on mobile devices nowadays and I wonder to myself just how the gaming industry could possibly sucker anyone who isn't already heavily invested in the hobby into starting up.Norix596 said:
Maybe they could coat the packaging of the PS4 in LSD or something.
Oh this is gonna be hard to change the view of average women, would require some very clever marketing. Most women are not into gaming altogether with the exception of occasional casual games I suppose.
Maybe they can make more games with covers featuring cool female characters? At least alongside with male characters. I think Tomb Raider got it right. Some of my female friends were interested in the game, plus I've read a few blogs of women who do not game on a daily basis loving it.
Or maybe they can advertise their titles in casual games sold on mobile platforms.
Maybe they can make more games with covers featuring cool female characters? At least alongside with male characters. I think Tomb Raider got it right. Some of my female friends were interested in the game, plus I've read a few blogs of women who do not game on a daily basis loving it.
Or maybe they can advertise their titles in casual games sold on mobile platforms.
As a woman, I don't Really like pink all that much. Now if they make a crimsion ps4 it might push it up a few points but at present I'm not interested in getting a ps4 at launch. My back log from my university days will give me plenty of gaming pleasure for months!The Artificially Prolonged said:Have you tried making the console pink? I believe woman really like that colour?
Actually a crimson coloured console would be pretty sweet. Bet that would be saved for the special addition release a few years down the line though.LadyTiamat said:As a woman, I don't Really like pink all that much. Now if they make a crimsion ps4 it might push it up a few points but at present I'm not interested in getting a ps4 at launch. My back log from my university days will give me plenty of gaming pleasure for months!The Artificially Prolonged said:Have you tried making the console pink? I believe woman really like that colour?
The moment Sony said "we need to attract more women!" they ironically tripped at the very first hurdle when it comes to dealing with the issue, rofl.
Sony, please hire game developers because you see good potential in them for game development. Their gender should be goddamn irrelevant, going out of your way just to inflate the female population is going to end badly.
Reaching out to new demographics is fine and dandy, but remember that the core audience comes first - female or not. Don't do what Nintendo did with the Wii.
Sony, please hire game developers because you see good potential in them for game development. Their gender should be goddamn irrelevant, going out of your way just to inflate the female population is going to end badly.
Reaching out to new demographics is fine and dandy, but remember that the core audience comes first - female or not. Don't do what Nintendo did with the Wii.
Thing is, if that was true then there would be more women in gaming. There is clearly something up, and seeking to address that is NOT a bad thing.Eclipse Dragon said:
Even if true, a lot of that comes from preconception. Change the preconception, and you change the relationship with gaming.Doom972 said:
Even the industry assumes that the bulk of us are homophopbic, misogynistic little man-children, which is why we're now getting reports of devs being told their games won't sell with a female protagonist or even marketing featuring a woman heavily. This is an industry that has worked hard to be exclusive, and the first step is simply to stop that.
Am I saying that women will play games in numbers equal to men? I seriously doubt that'll happen. But I'm betting you can get more of any demographic simply by no longer actively pushing them away.
And again, it doesn't require anything for the male base to fear, unless they worry about losing the exclusivity of their clubhouse.
To be fair, Nintendo got there with a rather interesting strategy. Remember back when the Wii and the DS came out? They were all "we're marketing to girls and old people! You know, people who don't play games!"Requia said:
They then proceeded to create things like Cooking Mama, because...Bitches love to cook?
Not to nitpick, but just look at the success of the Wii on that one. Clearly, people are.Baresark said:
The point was more that they weren't going to, so I don't think you have to worry.Mylinkay Asdara said:
Unless you really want pink. Then, I suppose, you'd have to worry.
Thing is, adding more women to what is already considered a boy's club isn't necessarily stacking them solely because they're women. It could easily just be "no longer excluding them."Yuuki said:
The other thing is, what he was talking about was a potential diversity for ideas, and that in itself strikes me as good "potential for game development." I seriously doubt they're going to hire bad people just to have women on the staff, so what's the real danger here? That we might get 38 brown FPS this year instead of 40? That they might take chances on a few less safe games?
I agree that there is a preconception that gaming is a male-oriented hobby. I don't agree about games not being female-friendly enough to be the reason for it. Some people don't feel like sitting in front of a screen and playing a video game because it seems dull to them, so they dismiss the hobby outright without giving it a try. This is more common for females that for males - the same way a female-oriented hobby would be dismissed by a male without giving it a try.Zachary Amaranth said:
In my experience, the average non-gamer (male or female) don't really know much about video games and are not aware of the problems some gamers keep making up because they can't seem to realize that this hobby isn't for everyone.
See, the thing is, they already tried a pink paintjob [http://www.joystiq.com/2009/08/04/omg-lilac-psp-sony-says-girlz-play-too/]. Didn't pan out.Doom972 said:
I agree with this.Eclipse Dragon said:
What was once traditionally masculine is very much unisex. The best any dev or publisher can do to appeal to women without singling them out specifically is to make a good game, and maybe throw in the option to play as a girl.
As far as female protagonists go Sony was on a nice head start with Heavenly Sword, do more like dat. Also more story focus, my sisters who do not give any sort of shit about games wanted to understand what's happening in Bioshock Infinite. So get Irrational to make an exclusive for ya and ya good.
Concerning the power vs sexual fantasy argument, I think there's an inherent problem with the assumption that muscles are a component of power fantasy (though kicks ass all over the place does indicate a power fantasy).
To demonstrate, I don't think there's anything even remotely shocking in claiming that James Bond is a male power fantasy. He sleeps with all the girls he likes, kills the bad guys, and saves the (free) world on a regular basis.
This is what Sean Connery looked like playing James Bond:
Now, more recent versions of James Bond will be more visibly Muscled, though Daniel Craig is not exactly well, Sean Connery:
No efforts were made to get him to restore his previous look in order to play a part whose primary selling point was being a male power fantasy.
To demonstrate, I don't think there's anything even remotely shocking in claiming that James Bond is a male power fantasy. He sleeps with all the girls he likes, kills the bad guys, and saves the (free) world on a regular basis.
This is what Sean Connery looked like playing James Bond:
Now, more recent versions of James Bond will be more visibly Muscled, though Daniel Craig is not exactly well, Sean Connery:
No efforts were made to get him to restore his previous look in order to play a part whose primary selling point was being a male power fantasy.
Offer a pink edition
^genious, i know
Perhaps female protagonists aren't enough? What is the point of killing another soldier #4124690 or a marauding groper? There is no emotional grip! Imagine for a second how it would be like to shove a knife in the ribcage of that ***** Clara, who keeps making moves on your boyfriend. Much more satisfying, isn't it.
^genious, i know
Perhaps female protagonists aren't enough? What is the point of killing another soldier #4124690 or a marauding groper? There is no emotional grip! Imagine for a second how it would be like to shove a knife in the ribcage of that ***** Clara, who keeps making moves on your boyfriend. Much more satisfying, isn't it.
If they finally make a controller that fits comfortably in my hands, I might actually consider it this time.
Dude , i seriously applaud you, the way you think is quite rare(i really hope it isnt).blackrave said:
You have no idea how many male gamer friends ive got, that literally ask me if there are nude girls or semi nude girls in the games i play. Or spend a lot of time in Hitman brothels/tabledance levels, just to watch their pixel titties bounce. Or play douchebag games of pure violence (grand theft auto) and think thats the best game ever made.
That has led me to belive what i typed up there. But really, its great you find tropes like bayonetta disgusting
And yeah you are right, if the writters took more time to develop Kratos character, women (and I) would be atracted to him regardless of looking like a barbarian.
What Sony needs, is to find a good share of writters to develop complete personalities and back stories for male characters, heh they dont even need to make the male show skin, we girls also have a very good imagination to fill the gaps (this mass effect porn for girls for starters):
http://reginaprimata.tumblr.com/post/19499850880/i-think-ill-do-these-three-at-a-time-since-itll
But yeah, you will find huge girl fanbases and shrine topics for certain males that you wouldnt even belive are atractive to women like Severus Snape or Loki (altho i like Thor more)and only because of the depth and tragedies of them.
A power fantasy for me as a girl would be the Female Shepard, the female Grey Warden , hell any RPG character well written that can hold for herself. Mmmm, even Lightning (FFXIII) regardless of the boring story i WILL buy the next game to know what happened to her, because i can indetify myself with her.
Its funny, but in general female gamers (not posers) have a very strong personality and like to be taken seriously and with respect, the same respect you would give to a male gamer.
