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Games Entertainment

Girls Got Game 135

Posted by Zonk from the new-research-data! dept.
Via Joystiq, a story on the ABC News site discussing the (gasp) rising interest in games within the fairer sex. From the article: "I think it's easy to kind of stereotype that women don't want to shoot or that women don't want to do sports or that women don't want fast-paced action...I don't think that's true. I think that was part of the reason the industry wasn't speaking to women before." As Mr. Zackheim comments, I believe it more to be a lack of interest/effort on the gaming publisher's part that has resulted in the current player demographic profile.
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Girls Got Game More

Girls Got Game

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  • It's not... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by wlan0 ( 871397 ) on Monday March 28, 2005 @10:27AM (#12065975)
    that girls aren't gaming, it's just that they're not publicized as if they gamed, remember the gamer stereotype is a geek with glasses, though that is changing.
    • I think it's also that most guys enjoy a lot of action and violence, and most guys play at least some video games, wheras although somegirls play video games, not all, or even a majority, are heavy gamers. It's not about games targetted at girls, it's about girl's interest in the types of games already out.
    • remember the gamer stereotype is a geek with glasses

      My girlfriend is a geek with glasses. I don't see the conflict.

  • accessories (Score:5, Funny)

    by davez0r ( 717539 ) on Monday March 28, 2005 @10:29AM (#12065984)

    my girlfriend was COMPLETELY uninterested in playing world of warcraft until i told her that you could accessorize. she could be a cute elf with a really tasteful cloak and matching gloves!

    then she was just uninterested. not COMPLETELY uninterested, but pretty uninterested.

    • Re:accessories (Score:5, Funny)

      by davez0r ( 717539 ) on Monday March 28, 2005 @10:59AM (#12066194)
      omg how is this redundant? it's a true story and COMPLETELY RELEVANT!

      let me add another piece of anectodal evidence to the argument that accessories increase girls' enjoyment of games.

      so a female friend at work asks me what game she should get. of course, i tell her the sims. she asks me what's so great about the sims.

      me: you can control when they eat and pee!
      her: meh
      me: you can build their house! it's neat.
      her: meh
      me: you can have them make out with each other
      her: meh
      me: you can dress them up in different outfits
      her: HOLY MOTHER OF CRAP I MUST HAVE IT!!!

      her wording was a little different, but that was the way it went down.

    • Re:accessories (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Datamonstar ( 845886 )
      I don't think it redundant. I just think that that there are a lot of girls who don't even know such games exist. They think of games and the imagine Doom, or Halo. This appeals to some girls, but the others want to create, manage and be social rather than rack up frags.
    • Reading your post, I can't help but be reminded of Kevin Nealon's pr0n reviews on SNL:

      I found it interesting. Interesting... interesting... very interesting... VERY VERY interesting... and suddenly I lost interest.
    • she could be a cute elf with a really tasteful cloak and matching gloves!

      You must be thinking of a different game. You used the word "tasteful". A friend of mine plays a human warrior who looks like she's wearing a bikini while in full plate mail.

      Honestly, I'd give you the standard rant and complain about women being objectified in video games but everyone's already heard it and I kinda get tired of saying it. What I will say is this:

      I'm a female gamer. I've been a gamer since the early 80s when my
      • i'd be curious as to how many other games agree with your strange suggestion that you don't like games that are designed to be challenges. i would argue that games like Starcraft, Metal Arms, GTA and Pikmin are definitely challenging, at least to people that aren't (sigh) hardcore gamers, but then the challenge there is one that is within reach of people that simply play games enough to call themselves a 'gamer'.

        games like Ninja Gaiden or Devil May Cry are a level above that, where a generic gaming skill
    • you're totally right. my girlfriend only heard about world of warcraft from me talking about playing it with friends, and then one day she sat down next to me while i was playing it, planning on how she could shift me from the computer so she could play the sims2, and she seemed mildly interested in walking around and killing squirrels in stormwind.

      so i created a new character for her. after five minutes she was hooked, killing stuff with the best of them and loving comparing new armour/damage levels of e

  • Not the wrong games. The wrong girls. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Datamonstar ( 845886 ) on Monday March 28, 2005 @10:29AM (#12065989)
    One of my female friends who is studying to get into the gaming industry believes that some girl gamers, particulary those in development roles, push other girls away. She backs this up by saying that the majority of girl gamers (that she observes) play games "like men."
    She thinks that there is probably a greater percentage of girls who enjoy games like The Sims or many MMORPGames, and I happen to agree. She further thinks that if there were more games like this brought to the market that focused on girls then there would be more girls in games (both developing and playing), as opposed to the girls who play FPS and other primarily male-orientated games.
    I'm reluctant to agree, as I'm not a girl, but I still find it an intersting viewpoint.

    • Re:Not the wrong games. The wrong girls. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Lynxara ( 775657 ) on Monday March 28, 2005 @11:15AM (#12066358)

      There's something to that, I think. The girl gamers who've always gotten highly publicized and fawned on have tended to be FPS players and such who can 'hang with the guys'. But most women I know who game without making a big deal out of it tend to like different sorts of RPGs, simulations, and games with simple interfaces (puzzlers, old-school shooters, Katamari Damacy, etc). Especially with console RPGs, the demographic for them has skewed a fair bit more female than the industry seems to know what to do with.

      • Re:Not the wrong games. The wrong girls. (Score:4, Insightful)

        by badasscat ( 563442 ) <basscadet75NO@SPAMyahoo.com> on Monday March 28, 2005 @12:11PM (#12066914)
        But most women I know who game without making a big deal out of it tend to like different sorts of RPGs, simulations, and games with simple interfaces (puzzlers, old-school shooters, Katamari Damacy, etc).

        My wife's two biggest favorites right now are Katamari Damacy and The Sims 2. These are not "girl games" either - I enjoy them as much as she does - but they are definitely different from the standard Half-Life 2/Doom 3/Halo 2 type stuff that seems to be popular with the guys these days.

        I have no data whatsoever to back this up, but in my personal experience, girls do play different types of games than hardcore guy gamers tend to. But they do not like to be pandered to either; you're not going to suddenly get a bunch of girls to buy a game just because it's got Britney Spears on the cover or because it features the latest Barbie playhouse. It's almost offensive that some game developers still seem to think that's what girls (of all ages) want.

        Girls just want to play good games, same as guys do. That doesn't mean you can't design games with the female audience in mind, though - what you can't do is insult their intelligence. If you look at it from the perspective that on the one hand you've got games that guys primarily like, on the other you've got games that maybe girls will primarily like, and then in the middle you can have a subset of games that both sexes will like... I think right now the guy games are way over-represented, the "girl" games (whatever that means) and that middle ground are way under-represented. And that's probably just a reflection of the development community itself.

        I think it's honestly very difficult for guys to develop games specifically for a female audience, in the same way it's very difficult for guys to design women's clothing or fashion accessories. That middle ground that appeals to both sexes is maybe easier, but it seems that the development community hits on that market almost more by chance right now than anything else. It would be nice to see a bit more effort put into it and more games like Katamari Damacy come to market. I'm frankly a little sick of first-person shooters and military style games myself, and of course my wife won't even talk to me if I'm playing one, let alone play one herself.
      • The girl gamers who've always gotten highly publicized and fawned on have tended to be FPS players and such who can 'hang with the guys'. But most women I know who game without making a big deal out of it tend to like different sorts of RPGs, simulations, and games with simple interfaces (puzzlers, old-school shooters, Katamari Damacy, etc) I couldn't agree more. All of my female friends tend to like the puzzle/sim-type games. I tend not to. I think that's where the whole 'hang with the guys' part comes fr
    • There's this [planetgamecube.com] article which suggests that girls play any game but the role and mindset society has pressed upon them makes them reject most of the standard games. Since they have little experience with these games they'll also have very little chance to win so they prefer unconventional games where seasoned gamers have no advantage from their experience.

  • Gaming is good for girls too! (Score:3, Funny)

    by kniLnamiJ-neB ( 754894 ) on Monday March 28, 2005 @10:31AM (#12066002)
    My wife loves the Delta Force series and Call of Duty. She's getting better, too... I'm trying to convince her to come to the next LAN party with me.

    1. Realize you're leaving out 50% of the market.
    2. Ask this "left-out" segment if they like your product.
    3. ...?
    4. Profit!
    • I'm certaintly not usually in the political-correctness crowd but I'd think that female avatars in games go a long way. Personaly I don't mind playing a female night-elven rogue but I know guys that wouldn't. Ever. Because they want to be a mans mans man or whatever. I'd imagine that the same holds true for women. I don't know Delta Force, so can you play a female char there? Is this important to your GF?

  • Or... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 28, 2005 @10:41AM (#12066067)
    I really doubt the kind of games that sell now will ever be taken up en masse by females. This almost sounds like feminism to me. Women are equal to men, I think most would agree. But, why is women gaming so important? If women don't game as much as men (by choice, mind you), does that mean there is some great imbalance and injustice? Are women less equal for some reason if they don't play games?
    The whole medium of video games was based in the early days on fast reflexes and\or puzzle solving (mainstream I'm talking about, I know about text games, but they weren't huge sellers, were they?). Why can't people accept that maybe for whatever reason, puzzle solving and finger twitching might not appeal to most women, and that doesn't mean their any less equal to guys if it doesn't.
    • Why can't people accept that maybe for whatever reason ... finger twitching might not appeal to most women. I don't know, but I think "finger twitching" appeals to most women, whether they admit it in public or not.
    • Why can't people accept that maybe for whatever reason, puzzle solving and finger twitching might not appeal to most women, and that doesn't mean their any less equal to guys if it doesn't.

      I don't know about this. Back in middle school, I got my friend's mom so hooked on Tetris that she had to get her own GameBoy to play it.
      And if there is a game that better represents addictive finger-twitching puzzle-solver, I haven't played it.

  • And so, next to me... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rekenner ( 849871 ) on Monday March 28, 2005 @10:45AM (#12066087) Homepage
    Heh...
    I find it sort of funny that a girl is gaming right next to me. PLaying stepmania on her laptop.
    Of course, she also plays RPGs and MMORPGs and, like the article mentioned, Sims2.
    I find it funny, though, that they talk about stereotypes... And then almost perpetuate them. Anecdotes != proof, but aside from FFXI and then one of my friends playing Sims... None of my female gaming friends fit the stereotype. They all play action games, and most of them love RE (Which, you know, is mentioned... But to me, those seemed to be portrayed as the exceptions to the rule in the article. *shrug*).

    (Again, funnier, she turns to me and mentions how she beat her boyfriend in Halo over the weekend. Hahah...)

  • Need the right game (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Ymiris ( 733964 ) on Monday March 28, 2005 @10:48AM (#12066110) Journal
    MY wife plays games all the time, she plays ET with me, bloodrayne, Half Life 1&2 and we have both played countless MMORPG's. The interesting thing is that she will only play the MMORPG's without me, the other games she won't touch unless I am around. I think many women do this, and with how many guys play a female char in MMORPG's its hard to truly understand how many females are playing, but rest assured that I know of plenty, it just takes teh right game to bring the females in :)

    • Re:Need the right game (Score:4, Interesting)

      by TyfStar ( 747185 ) on Monday March 28, 2005 @11:41AM (#12066613)
      Skip that last post. you can't hit "cancel" after "submit" when you meant to hit "Preview." It doesn't work. Here's the last post, properly formatted:
      *~*
      Being the afore-mentioned wife, I think the reason I play MMORPG's without him, and other games only with friends, is the personal aspect.

      As the old adage goes: "a man may work from sun to sun but a womans work is never done". I have only really wanted to play games to waste time when I'm waiting in line or at work between tasks. When I get home, I have things that need to get done, and I don't have 5 hours to sit mindlessly at a computer just to finish a game. It seems senseless. if I'm going to play a game, something needs to come of it!

      however, if it becomes a sort of contact sport, such as an MMORPG, or ET where you kill your husband in the next room and his friends.. that is a lot more worth it. Playing Fatal Frame, Resident Evil, Mortal Kombat with your mate is a form of "together" time that is actually interesting, cooperative, and productive -- definitely moreso than TV.

      However.. reading FP up there.. I suddenly have a distinct need to play Bloodrayne... alone...

      But, back on topic... I say that girls have the games out there ... there is a good range. Now you have to give them a REASON to play. It seems all the guys I know just enjoy the time to waste. But I need a reason to give up 3 hours to get my char one level instead of playing Mario Party with my daughter, oil painting, gardening, doing homework, reading, cleaning, giving daughter a bath, or doign ANYTHIGN with daughter while she's still young enough to like me...

      So, to answer the /. equation:

      1) Create games
      2) Advertise games so men like them
      3) Advertise female aspect of already-bought game as:
      a) a way to talk to boyfriend that owns the game already and WILL be on it anyway.
      b) a way to get out frustration on boy that wouldn't go to family easter party by killing him repeatedly with knife in ET... and then taunt him to his friends that he's getting killed by a girl. Oh, and have a cheat code for girls that boys do NOT want. For example: Girls get pink skirted uniforms, but higher computer-controlled aiming. Because c'mon, it needs to be fair against these guys that HAVE played non-stop for 3 years. Pink frilly skirt can be modified depending on how much cheating you want to use. if you're going to cheat up to almost-god-mode, you have to wear a bikini. That seems fair.
      c) a way to find other friends that agree that the rumble packs & BloodRayne are heaven-sent, if only you could set the vibration on controller 2 to "constant" while using controller 1.
      4) Offer 30day trial for solely "trying out" afore-mentioned game without having to borrow other friends computer.
      5) End of 30 day: Profit!!

      ~*~

      • As the old adage goes: "a man may work from sun to sun but a womans work is never done". I have only really wanted to play games to waste time when I'm waiting in line or at work between tasks. When I get home, I have things that need to get done, and I don't have 5 hours to sit mindlessly at a computer just to finish a game. It seems senseless. if I'm going to play a game, something needs to come of it!

        More to the point, it shouldn't need a minimum of an hour to get anything done, and it shouldn't take

    • she plays ET with me

      So the game that sunk Atari is fun as a retro title? That's a new one on me.

      • haha ET is Enemy Territory. I apologize for using an acronym.
        • I have to say I'd still never heard of it, and I read the games charts quite often.

          Ah (quick google), I see its some sort of free download patch to a sequel to a first person shooter (named after quite a good Apple 2 game), not one of the most famous film licenses of all time :-)

          I'm slightly surprised the others in the office don't seem to play it - they are always playing battlefield vietnam (and formerly counterstrike) during the lunch hour.

          • I'm slightly surprised the others in the office don't seem to play it - they are always playing battlefield vietnam

            ET is completely free and standalone (not a patch to a commercial product or anything), and it is more popular than Battlefield Vietnam, with 3500 players at this instant, compared to 2300.

            Of course, Counterstrike beats them both by far, with 61000 players [gamespy.com] tonight.
  • Does anyone know where I could get a gender breakdown on game sales by gender, especially for Japanese companies?

    It seemed to me that gamer culture was a bit more girl-friendly in Japan than in the States - I would guess Nintendo is probobly the company with the highest female player ratio, but does anyone know for sure?

  • Huh? (Score:2)

    by British ( 51765 )
    within the fairer sex.

    What does the term "the fairer sex" mean anyways? Are males unfairer? I dun get it.

    • Re:Huh? (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      fair
      adj., fairer, fairest.
      Of pleasing appearance, especially because of a pure or fresh quality; comely.

      Women are "fairer" than men. In general. But in your case, definitely. You're an idoit.

    • What does the term "the fairer sex" mean anyways? Are males unfairer? I dun get it.

      Oh, man, when someone with the alias "British" posts something like that, there are just way too many jokes to be made.

  • PS2 (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Sefert ( 723060 ) on Monday March 28, 2005 @11:07AM (#12066277)
    I was quite surprised to learn recently that 40% of PS2 gamers were female. Mostly children and teens, but even so, I had expected the numbers to be way more seriously skewed. Based on my completely scientific analysis of the people I know, it sure seems that the adult gamers are still very much predominately male though.
    • Define "Gamer". Maybe 40% of girls/women game some of the time, but I doubt most of that 40% plays the same as or more often than their male counterparts do. It's all about the hardcoreness(I'm coining the term). Maybe 40% of women rate up there, but I think you would find the hardcore gamerness of males drastically outnumbers the hardcore gamerness of females. In general. Is there a statistic with hours instead of just numbers?
      • No there isn't - it's a good observation. I was thinking the same thing. It does strike me that males (of all ages) can be way more obsessive-compulsive about games than females. I guess Sony doesn't actually care if females will play 1 hour to the males 20, as long as it prompted the purchase, which may explain why it wasn't in the stat. If they play even very infrequently, it'll still count for them...
  • What more could anyone want?

  • We Can't be That Hard to Figure Out... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by JadesFire ( 604779 ) <jadesfire AT mac DOT com> on Monday March 28, 2005 @11:13AM (#12066332)

    For whatever reason, these types of articles or comments always put me into this semi-amused/semi-annoyed mood, as if girl-gamers are so difficult to figure out.

    The PS2 and the Cube are *mine*; they do not belong to my brother. Of course, my game library contains "typical attractive to female gamers" games (RPGs), but on the Mac, I can hold my own. My Scintillating Sphere saved our arses last night when we were playing through NWN, and I've brought the flag over to our side a few times in Elite Force. I may not be into the war games of which my brother is so fond, or the whole 'Rainbow-6' genre like my brother, but I do like the sci-fi FPS. I even liked Oni, a shame what happened to Bungie... I also happen to be a regular on a gaming forum, but I'm one of two female regulars.

    I play the SIMS, but my brother plays it more than I do since there's a distinct lack of magic missiles in that game. I didn't play FFX-2.

    So how hard can it be? But then, perhaps I fall into 'atypical', seeing as how I'm the only one at the store who can recognise that the shirts a regular customer of ours wears come from ThinkGeek.

  • The Real Problem (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Chi Hsuan Men ( 767453 ) on Monday March 28, 2005 @11:20AM (#12066408) Homepage
    I'm not a girl, so I could be completely off the mark, but here goes.

    One of the largest problems facing female gamers is not the misogyny of the games, but the misogyny of the male gamers.

    I am involved with a small, close-knit gaming group that runs a public CS:Source server.

    The group has three female members who play and the amount of bullshit they have to put up with is completely unreasonable. When players realize that they are female, they either a.) attempt to flirt with them (positive attention) or b.) harass them sexually or otherwise (negative attention). We (the admins) are CONSTANTLY punishing players for this behavior.

    I am by no means an extreme feminist; however, that sort of muppetry is just inexcusable. I'm inclined to make a comment about how geeks simply can't handle being around women; however, this sort of vapid generalization is simply not true. We joke about how geeks are not socially adept and cannot get a date to save their lives; however, I think at the lowest common denominator, most geeks know that it's not appropriate to sexually harass women.

    So why is it acceptable on a CS:Source server to "haze" women?

    Yeah, I know. CS:Source is not exactly a collection of fine, upstanding gamers; however, to counter that argument, which game *IS*? Every game has its share of asshats, griefers, and complete fucktards of different ages. My point is that this behavior is not limited to CS:Source. I see it in ET, WoW, and Dawn of War as well.

    Most mornings, I wake up early and play basketball at a local high school with an assorted collection of individuals. Among our numbers is one female player. Never ONCE has she been sexually harassed or hazed simply because she is a woman. As a matter of fact, she played hoop at a Division I school. To play her is a challenge and everyone respects her talent.

    Why are these two scenarios so different, when essentially, it's the same thing?

    Does the gaming industry need to grow up in order to suit the needs of female gamers? Honestly, I don't know. I'm not a female gamer.

    I think male gamers need to grow up and respect that video games are not a male-oriented arena and that female gamers are not some sort of mythical creature that should be harassed, positively or negatively.

    • Re:The Real Problem (Score:2, Interesting)

      by FinchWorld ( 845331 )
      Simple, the girl online isn't going to slap you/knee you in the groin (Unless she knows you) or tell all the other girls you're member is tiny because you was an asshat to her.

    • Re:The Real Problem (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Saige ( 53303 )
      I actually haven't run into that a whole lot. I spent a lot of time playing Q2CTF on a few servers, and received very little harassment during the overall time I was there. The occasional person would come by and say a couple things, but overall people were friendly to me without being overly so. It was a very enjoyable experience.

      I've had a little bit of it over Xbox Live Halo 2, but it's been usually the exception. The only thing I've really had to deal with is random people friending me after a game
      • Okay, people treat you (generally) fairly friendly, right? Well, the rest of us get our asses flamed every single time we play any sort of online game! "Get out of the base, stupid!" "Get the flag, fag!" "Build faster!" It's just like in real life, where girls get treated nice and hit on, and us guys just beat the crap out of each other. There is a bias, and it is, most of the time, against the guys. It's hard to deny.

        • Re:The Real Problem (Score:2, Insightful)

          by Saige ( 53303 )
          In action games, I get just as much crap as everyone else does - but it's the kind of crap that idiots toss out against other people in general. I don't really get specific crap at me because I'm a girl except rarely. My gamertag on Xbox Live is the same as the name I used back in my Quake days, and it plainly says "girl" in the name - so it's not like they don't know, either.

          Non-action games - such as Diablo II, MMORPGs, etc - those there is a clear bias toward treating females better. That's because m
    • I feel that a large reason why game companies can't use women (either in advertisements or in games) is that there'll be a strong unwanted reaction from the hordes of deprived male gamers. A lot of the female game character models are unfortunately intended to take advantage of that effect.

      (Offtopic: this is kinda why (officially) Islam restricts women from leading worship: not because the women can't lead, but because the men will get distracted.)

      As for your basketball example, I think a real reason is t

    • Re:The Real Problem (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Its realllllll simple. You are looking at the Internet Tough Guy syndrome, or as it is better know, ITG.

      The ITG is a person that will insult you, call you a fag, make fun of your mother and degraded your sexually because he knows you will not be able to reach through the compute and start punching him in the face. The ITG can be a pasty 13 year old to the 35 year old virgin, or any one in-between. Hell, even the best of us have gotten a bit of ITG maybe once or twice, but in a game like CS:S they are all

    • Re:The Real Problem (Score:3, Interesting)

      by delus10n0 ( 524126 )
      This is more of a "social" problem, than just a gaming problem, and it seems to be exaggerated by the internet. The internet provides a shield of anonymity, making it easier to get away with this sort of thing.
    • So why is it acceptable on a CS:Source server to "haze" women?

      Perhaps you're just overly sensitive to bitching when it is directed at the females? When I play any game online, I would say more than half the time there are several individuals on there that act like total dickheads. It doesn't appear to be a female issue, but rather an issue where these people get off on being assholes, talking shit, etc. It happens in real life, too, in competitive sports. Guys "talkin' smack." Only difference is unless yo

    • The anonymity afforded by a CS server probably lets them be more comfortable acting that way. Also remember, multiplayer gaming is still very much a solitary activity. I was reporting on a grand opening of a LAN gaming center when Baldur's Gate II came out, and the people playing never talked to each other except about technically getting the game going or to shout combat instructions. Not very social that way.

    • I don't think that this is a problem that is centered on the "male gaming community"; rather I'd postulate that the cause of this is the percieved anonomnity that the internet provides. These individuals would never behave this way in person because there would be immediate reprecussions but online you can more or less get away with it.

  • Refreshing (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Lord_Dweomer ( 648696 ) on Monday March 28, 2005 @11:38AM (#12066584) Homepage
    I personally can't wait till the gender demographics of video games starts evening out, especially in multiplayer games.

    I wonder if all the hopeless geeks out there might actually start learning how to talk to a girl if suddenly the girl is going head to head with them on equal footing.

    I've been in quite a few teams in City of Heroes where the majority of members were female, and not only was the conversation a nice change of pace, but the teamwork was fantastic.

    And as a side note, one of my requirements for any future girlfriends is that they need to be able to kick my ass in at least ONE video game.

  • 3D Gaming? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Paul Slocum ( 598127 ) on Monday March 28, 2005 @11:45AM (#12066665) Homepage Journal
    This is just personal experience, but I remember many girls into video games when I was a kid and games were 2D. The first home system I ever played was an Atari 2600, and it belonged to a girl.

    I think that the move to 3D gaming may be partly responsible for fewer girls playing games. In studies I've read about the differences between women and men, generally they all say that we're about the same EXCEPT that men are better at 3D thinking. From this [findarticles.com]article that I quickly Googled, "...Men perform better on some cognitive tests, like visualizing 3D objects. Women tend to have greater verbal abilities..."

    I'm no expert, but if this is correct and applicable, women are on average at a disadvantage with modern 3D games.
    • What they mean with this is for instance the skill to see what a flat piece of paper folded along certian lines would look like. Or what the missing/obscured part of an object looks like or what would be the floorprint of a 3D object. Common one is also to pick the correct rear/top image for a given object.

      However what this have to do with gaming? If you make this a 100% skill where men got it perfect and women don't have it at all then all it would mean is that women could not edit the skins for 3D object

      • I've taken those kinds of tests. My thinking was that it might apply to visualizing the layout of a complex level and where enemies could be and when you would be in the line of fire. And how to navigate in a 360 degree game. Both more complex than just getting around in the real world. You make good points though. Are there more women in gaming now than then, or a higher percentage? There's a much lower percentage based on people I know. But of course that's not a very scientific survey. ;o) -paul

  • Character models. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Sylver Dragon ( 445237 ) on Monday March 28, 2005 @12:04PM (#12066851) Journal
    One thing, which I think might go a long way in not pissing off female games is, change some of the character and NPC models. My fiancee and I are playing through Everquest: Champions of Norrath on the PS2 right now, and some of the female NPC's are absolutly ridiculous. For example, one of the NPC's you come across is a female vampire who is, of course, wearing a thong, a see through sarrong, and two metal nipple caps where a bra might be. And to top it off, the voice acting sounds like it was done by a porn star. She sends you off on a quest to find a "Bloodvine." From the way she talked about it, I think it was really just a code name for a vibrator. And when we brought it back and actually ate it, I was even more convinced that the "Bloodvine" was a code name for a really damn good vibrator. It sounded a lot like a porn actress faking an orgasm while she ate it. And this is about the level of the female voice acting throughout the game. Before this, we had Baldur's Gate: Dark Alligence 1 & 2. In one, if that barmaid had breathed wrong, she would have had to charge us for the peep show. And of course we had to beat down a dark elf in a string bikini. Who, once again, seemed to be voice acted by a porn star and even broke into an impromptu pole dance on her quaterstaff during the cutscean. Two was actually unmemorable enough that I don't recall any specific instances, but I do know that they were there.
    Why is it that the fantasy genere insists on doing this to female characters. I realize that its not new, even D&D did this, but isn't it time we grew up? Yes, I like pictures of women in chain mail bikini's, but lets leave that sort of stuff to Boris Valejo and hentai.
    Let's face it, if a woman had a choice between the metal thong and a more practical, and infinatly more comfortable set of armor which one do you think she would choose? [penny-arcade.com]

    • Re:Character models. (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I'm a female gamer, and I like looking at scantily clad hot women to. I'm asuming all women do, since women's magazines and comercials for women's products often feature just that. Female gamers started gaming because they like games the way they are; if games are changed to bring in more female gamers, it's only going to make male gamers and current female gamers mad. Is it worth new customers to alenate your current customers?
    • Darn you just added a to the list of games I need to buy.... This is gonna be costly.
    • I tend to agree, to a degree.

      What I think that would be beneficial to the gaming industry, in the attempts to get more girls and women into gaming would be to let the standard "overly topheavy with a waist so small she shouldn't be able to hold her ginormous mammary glands aloft while standing" character models go by the wayside, as well as the obvious thought that women in armor should somehow be showing off as much skin as poosible (completely negating the whole idea of protective armor, mind you).

      Do

  • Well of course.... (Score:3)

    by whitetiger0990 ( 852580 ) on Monday March 28, 2005 @12:37PM (#12067132)
    My girlfriend has more consoles then me (I cancel that by having more then 10 computers)... and her and her sister beat Halo 2 (I helped I guess). We have conversations like this:

    "On the plane to florida I saw this kid that had a PSP"
    "Cooool"
    "I also met this surfer boy and he asked me to be his surfer girl"
    "Did he have a PSP?"
    "No...."
    "You trying to get me jealous?"
    "Yes...."
    "Not working"
    "You'd be jealous if it really happened..."
    "I'm jealous of the guy with the PSP"
    "Yeah me too"

    Nuff said. She's awesome. She's tried to play with some of her other girl friends but they just plain.. stink. I dunno if that's becuase she's good or if they are horrible.

    I for one welcome our girl gamer overlords.
  • I saw this report on Easter morning with my sister on GMA. At first I commented that this is really old news (heck even Slashdot commented on this about a year or so ago, focusing on the female game developers).

    My sister was pretty happy to see the report, even though it was old news, because she gamed a lot growing up (still has any plays her Dreamcast), until the commentary afterwards. The two female hosts were playing The Sims II, and instead of getting into any of the game mechanics or showing the sim

  • About as Timely as the NY Times "Circuits" Section (Score:3, Interesting)

    by DanAckerman ( 805238 ) on Monday March 28, 2005 @01:21PM (#12067602) Homepage
    Yes -- I'm always amazed at how themainstream media "discovers" girl gamers every few months. Although, every year when I go to E3 (the big games trade show), plenty of industry professionals are surprized by the women's gaming angle as well.

    I always mention this, so the best source out there for mainstream girls gaming news is http://www.gamegal.com/ [gamegal.com].

  • As a girl who games... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by oxnyx ( 653869 ) <coral,courtney&gmail,com> on Monday March 28, 2005 @02:19PM (#12068337)
    Well personally I love gaming. I'm just not a huge fan of killing stuff. I've noticed that most games in the end are a blood hunt. I play games with invold killing things ...www.game.org...mmm TEXT ... But personally I'd rather not see huge amounts of blood all over my screen. I REALLY wish that game makers would make a few more games today like the old (early 90s lates 80s) Day of the Tentical or Zork, Monkey Island(all of them) and Loom. (No not Doom, Loom). IE collect tons of dumb stuff and puzzel it together WITHOUT the need to kill more then a few plants. It's the type of game even my sister who thinks gaming is almost evil can't help but enjoy for hours.
  • The essential dividing line between "girl games" and "boy games" has nothing to do with gender, it has to do with ancillary activity. Women *like* ancillary activities. While most men would start a game and just focus on how to make their onscreen persona accomplish the goal, most women prefer to experience the game in much greater detail. But until recent years, we haven't really had much to offer in the way of ancillary activity, because we had to squeeze and strain to get the game's core into the tiny am

  • uh (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Another said she likes the competitive element: "I like beating my boyfriend."

    I'm sure he likes it too.
  • Seriously, once again they've come up with this patent nonsense. First, battery enhancing stickers and now girls? Might as well just make a new section: Hokum and Flim-flam, just put women under there with bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster.
  • I believe it more to be a lack of interest/effort on the gaming publisher's part that has resulted in the current player demographic profile.

    Kingdom Hearts: A story of teenage love and princesses.
    Or Dark Cloud 2, where there was a boy and a girl playable character, and you had to play with both.
    Metal Gear Solid 2, with the girly-man player character (eye candy?) with the super-realistic girlfriend (she keeps calling you all the time to talk about your relationship, keeps asking you what you're thinking of
  • It doesn't hold a huge amount of relevance, however it is easy to see the greatly increasing female population of gamers through MMRPGs. A female friend of mine recently got World of Warcraft, and the 3rd thing she did imediatly after setting up her account was running around asking everyone if they were female in person, and upon finding all the ones that were in her area continued to attempt to band them all together. Online gaming is slowly begining to reflect a major female quality of sticking together
  • So...

    Women like to play the same games as men, but somehow, at the same time, the "industry wasn't speaking to women"?
  • In my experience, this phenomenon is not just limited to the world of video gaming. I like real-life games far more than I like Counterstrike or Starcraft (which, I assure you, is a lot.) My favourites tend to be games that make both players think a lot and set them up as adversaries. This includes complex games like Risk or Shogun, but also abstract games, such as Quarto or Chess. I have very rarely encountered girls who enjoyed these games, however. I have, however, encountered many girls who find great e
  • They have been pretty good about picking hit games, the popularity of chat avatars among women and girls in korea makes this game a good bet http://www.ncsoft.com/eng/ncgames/al_intro.asp [ncsoft.com] my anecdotal experience is that korean women are online as much as korean men. this may just be the vehicle to turn them on to gaming.

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