Can I make a significant difference by changing the types of games that are available? Are there any generic features that I can add to games, which will help make them more attractive to casual female gamers?
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I am not a woman gamer, but one thing you should definitely try is removing things which would tend to drive them away. Are there games that use a lot of cleavage or exploitative visuals? Does your advertising or the game copy use gendered language ("are you man enough")? Do your games tend to feature male main characters, with women as props or victims? Are your community features (forums and chat rooms) policed for sexist, antisocial, and homophobic content? All these are things that I often hear discussed as reasons why women are driven away from communities. Things that you shouldn't do in an attempt to attract women: add lots of pink or games about shopping and fashion. While these games may appeal to some girls and women, they can often come across as pandering or disingenuous. Also, avoid having a ghetto category like "games for girls." |
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I spend a lot of time playing games and personally i don't find myself off-put by male orientated games that use huge breasted victimized ladies and what not, infact i have no problems with most of the issues Gregory Weir raised. Although there are point's i do concur with such as community attitude and no pink/games4girls, all good points. I think as a whole woman are looking for different features, Customisation is a huge favourite for example. It's a stereotype 'cause it's true. I like to make my any character or gameplay personal to me, that's a huge factor in keeping me interested and coming back for more. Of course it doesn't need to mean i want more pretty coloured wizard hats, i just want to be involved with the role i'm playing in a game, i want to be able to define myself so that i feel that my presence there is worth something. Another thing is that i like to feel emotionally (or mentally if you like ) involved. This is mostly through scripts, if there's an npc or an instructional character for example i wan't thought to have gone into his script so he doesn't just feel like another game mechanic. Or if a game has a "world" i want to feel that i have some place in it. Alternatively this aspect can be covered in a good community forum or some such. It's true i might just be encouraging distinction between men and woman here when the industry is trying to find the happy medium, but i think i'm just being realistic. You can't ignore the fact that what ladies look for is very different, it a tough balance to strike, we don't want to be playing a whole different game from the blokes, we want to be able to play the same game our own way. And we wan't more substance to the game because hack and slash (/other generic gameplay) just can't satisfy us alone like it can with a lot of young men. |
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I'm a female gamer. I can't really tell you what you could do to attract me to a game, but I guess you're free to ask me any questions about my gaming habits. I can tell you why I like particular games or maybe you can kind of gather from the games I play, what attracts me to them. When it comes to computer games I play, or have played:
One thing I find really appealing is having a nice balance of male/female playable characters. In a LOT of games, seriously a TON if there is a female character, there's only one. So I mean, guys can pick from a number of avatars and female players get one character to choose from. That's one thing I liked about WoW, even number of male/female characters, however one thing I don't like about WoW is the, "Oh, you're a girl and you play WoW? You must be ugly!" mentality. |
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More than on language and visuals, it depends on the very nature of your game. Does it encourage aggressive gameplay (think any FPS)? Then you'll attract more males than females. Does it appeal to the caring personality, such as gardening and management games (think Sims)? Then you'll attract more females. Males tend to be more competitive, females tend to be more collaborative. If you include both gameplay aspects, you'll see more balanced ratio between men and women. An example is World of Warcraft, which is highly competitive environment (think DPS, PvP), however it also has much of leeway for collaboration (think tank, healer, guilds). You can also consider adding player-owned housing, gardens etc. that feature growth in return for care (find items). Vanity items also are a good way to appeal to the "other" side, such as non-combat pets, collectibles etc. |
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Absolutely. Type and setting/story. I'm pretty sure most players of Murder, She Wrote are female. I know for a fact that my 60+ year old mother-in-law, who was quite anti-gaming before, played it through at least twice :) |
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