Why Girls Don't Play Videogames

[Joeshie]

I could have, sure. But while it may not be "news" in the breaking sense, the ideas she outlines - namely about developers actually paying attention to their intended audience, and reviewer bias - are still very current and relevant. I thought her presentation provided some interesting points for discussion and debate, and I wanted to share it with you folks to get your thoughts. So I posted it. Pretty much that simple, really.

Reviews are always going to be biased. Doesn't matter who you are or what you do. If you are a girl, your review is biased because of your female perspective. If you are a hardcore gamer, you review is biased because of your affinity for hardcore games.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

What part of the word I do you not get, it hardly matters what you said when it has nothing to do with what I actually wrote. Is wheelchair basketball exactly the same as basket ball for able bodied individuals no, but that hardly matters since people in wheelchairs found a way to engage in the sport and therefore win. People have modified Karate for people in wheelchairs to use if they see fit (Though I do not think its a sport.) That it is different from traditional Karate is immaterial.

actually it DOES matter since it's not the same, it's something totally different, this is like saying brazillian jiu jitsu and karate are the same thing, they aren't they are two distinct things

Susan's point does not mean that games should be the same in fact one might argue that in such a reversed word some company might decide to make games that catered to boys so that they could make money with that market. This is not a hard concept to understand. Making games for boys or girls hardly damages anything and you get money from both markets. The idea that boys would be silly to want to play an MMO in a world where women dominated the game world is quite ridiculous.

actually i bet i could find a bunch of guys that are like that, heck there's a whole community based around that, do a google search on it, just to warn you that it's rather not safe for work

Your sport analogy falls apart because major sports are business ventures and it would make sense for the business men/women that own the leagues to think about trying to attract people that are not already interested in the sport(s) What you as an individual would do is entirely irrelevant since "How can we make this more interesting/appealing to XYZ?" is still a perfectly valid question.

actually the sport analogy is 100% on the money as video games are a for profit industry much like video games

however let's show you some math and economics to show how shortsighted you are

to make a video game takes at LEAST $1 million for a company and that is being VERY liberal, this includes a team of developers who make $30K-$100K a year and they are paid for several years, there is also market research if they want to see what they audience wants, advertising, testing and distribution

now for them to break into a new market you can EASILY triple that cost and what happens if the game falls flat? they lose even more money

however they can easily churn out another doom rip off and make millions back

now for a sports team that number goes to the hundreds of millions to break into a different market or they can stick with what they know and NOT risk losing money

which one would a smart business person pick? hint it's not the new market

What's the point of this? Businesses would love to have their products universally loved by people everywhere, everyone knows this is not going to happen so they focus on trying to make their products more appealing to more people. (Which is kind of the point of the video.) Not making their products more accessible when they can do so without affecting their bottom line is just costing them sales and it makes for bad business. Remember what I said about being fair when it is effortless.

wrong they usually don't want that as the costs associated with going to a new market are higher than the returns so a business person wouldn't like to do that

The fact of the matter is that it's not so obvious, because if it was obvious disabled people never would have bothered to get curbs cut and laws made so that they could entre buildings. There was a time when they could look around and see that there was no way for them to experience what was inside various buildings; which by your logic would mean that they obviously would not be interested in going inside these buildings. Even though their being able to access the building and them having an interest in what is in the building are two very seperate things. I highly doubt that if you could not walk you would be totally disinterested in going to an art gallery solely because said art gallery did not have wheelchair access.

ok as for the disabled ppl it's a lower investment, a couple choice parking spots, some paint and a sign, even if you only get an increase of maybe 10 people a year you've make your money back on the $100 investment you made on all that stuff compared to the millions it takes for a video game where they aren't even guaranteed to make any money back

simple business sense would say you should pick a better analogy

 

[CrashandBurn2640]

Well, I'd have to say there are 3 kinds of girls who play video games: 1)The already mentioned 10 year olds who play princess games and that kinda thing, 2)The girls 18+ that would be classified as fangirls or nerds, or 3)The girls 18+ that enjoy gaming as much as any guy.

Personally, I fall in the 3rd group. As for the games I play, most of them are shooters: Gears, COD4, Halo 3, Rainbow 6, Assassins Creed... I could go on but I think you get the idea. So yeah, there are some girls out there who do game who aren't complete nerds. And hey, that really girly sounding guy on Live might acutally be a chick, you never know, lol

 

[xxnightlawxx]

all of my girl cousins when they come over all of them play my 360 and they seem to have a lot of fun adn i dont have any princess fairy games

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Perhaps in their developing years they ran across games <a href='http://www.viddler.com/explore/Malorie/videos/55/' target=_blank>made just for girls. If such things become associated with 'games' in their minds, I can understand their aversion.

Man, that is awful!

 

[Doug]

Perhaps in their developing years they ran across games <a href='http://www.viddler.com/explore/Malorie/videos/55/' target=_blank>made just for girls. If such things become associated with 'games' in their minds, I can understand their aversion.

Man, that is awful!

*head asplodes from the sheer awfulness and probably sexism of the game shown in the link*

 

[LisaB1138]

That game is frightening.

I think gaming is one of those things that's "for boys" in the minds of girls. They see it as something boys do. Sure, you can wrap it up in pink, but little girls are social creatures first and foremost,and the focus of their socialization is rather limited. They seem to prefer real life activities to games. Boys will use games as a part of their social life. Game achievements as a way to impress their peers, for example. There's value in it to them. I don't think girls see "value" in unlocking characters, beating on harder difficulties. Their values are different and come from different activities.

I think that girls who get into gaming do it because they are introduced to it by the guys in their life--brothers, boyfriends, or (in my case) children. They'll see something in a game that captures their imagination--"now that looks pretty fun!-- and they'll give it a try. If they're lucky, they won't get mocked mercilessly for their lack of skillz and quit before they get a chance to figure out if they like it or not.

The biggest problem with all of this is that it gives the idea that everyone *should* be gaming and it's only sexist developers making it impossible. This, of course, elevates gaming into something other than what it is (an entertaining pastime,) and continues to stereotype girls/women as some alien race whose wants and needs are completely alien. Women are still people, and quite often like things that have absolutely nothing to do with their possession of ovaries.