So what *would* be appropriate for female video gamers?

The Game Room
1

The “Fat Princess” uproar (gently mocked in another thread) made me wonder: what do women want from video games?

Video games have long been male-oriented explorations of 3-D space, reflexes, shooting stuff, evading enemies, and so forth. I haven’t seen many girl-gamer games except for Barbie Princess and other half-assed product placement trash, and those games certainly don’t appear to have taken the gaming world by storm.

Does anybody know what girl gamers do want? Because I’ve got an idea for what seems like a fun game that women might like, though I might be misjudging things. :slight_smile:

2

My wife loves Lego Starwars. She played it for months until she got 100% completion. She’s now working on Lego Indiana Jones. For her the appeal is in having tons of stuff to do.

I believe The Sims is similar (in that there’s lots to do) and has done very well with women gamers.

3

I started that other thread. A lot of women gamers like the same things men like. It depends on the personality.

I prefer, more than anything, detailed, in-depth 80+ hour RPGs with character development and NPC interaction. Baldur’s Gate was a huge hit with me, as are all of the Final Fantasies, and just now I got Eternal Sonata for the XBox.

I like all of the Prince of Persias, he’s a great character, but I don’t like Zelda one bit - don’t like Link. Link seems to me to be just a lump with no personality whatsoever, and yes, I have played the games - I just sold a few of them on Craiglist.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t play shooter games. I hate mosntrous things jumping at me so you’ll never see me playing Resident Evil or Bioshock (which sounds awesome but I’d be screaming every 3 seconds, I’ve seen the screenshots and some of the videos). But I do play Soldier of Fortune and Mechwarrior is one of my favorite all-time games.

I am generally as much if not more interested in the people and the stories than just fighting for the sake of fighting. Hack and slash is boring…yet I play Diablo. But there is a story there, too.

Oh, and I like strategy. I loved Warcraft I and II, and also Age of Empires before they brought it into the modern day.

I don’t know. I think Elder Scrolls: Oblivion is a boy or a girl’s game. I think if you look at the recent Prince games:
Sands of Time is probably kind of girly.
Warrior Within was very dark, very angsty, and it seemed to appeal to guys more…I hate shit like that and hated that Prince.
Two Thrones, which I am playing now, seems to be a good mix.

Unlike what many people seem to think, I as a woman don’t really want to play a woman in a game*. I am a woman. I’m fine with it, and quite content in my feminity. When I play a video game, I want to play what has traditionally been the position of power in our society, a man. I feel more comfortable playing a man.

I notice when I play roleplaying games like D&D I also fit better as a man. When I play as a woman my own personality comes into play too much. When I play as a man, I can immerse myself better.

*When I started playing Oblivion, though, I made a girl. Perhaps one identifies with this character more? But it’s the first time in a long time I’ve voluntarily picked/created a female character.

Take from this what you will. But you know, you really should check out my sig. ETA: Provided I include it!

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PONIES!

5

One video game that seems to attract a lot of women is World of Warcraft. I think there are many reasons for this:

  1. It’s a big, immersive world with a lot to do and explore.
  2. It’s social, so you can interact with other people (or not, as you choose).
  3. There are a lot of ways you can play it. If you don’t feel like beating up monsters all the time, you can raise your tradeskills or join an RP guild. Or, if you like, you can beat the poo out of other players in PvP. Something for everybody.
  4. The world itself is attractive and magical and very, very cool. It also has a deep lore and history just waiting to be discovered, even aside from the physical explorations.
  5. It has things that would appeal to just about every type of woman, from the hardcore tomboy (PvP, combat in general, gritty steampunk technology, etc) to the girly-girl (clothes to collect, cute pets, non-combat-oriented quests and RP, etc.)
  6. You can be ultra-competitive and try to get into the top raid guilds or get the top PvP ranks/gear, or you can be non-competitive and just quest on your own and hang around major cities RPing and selling your crafts. Both ways work, depending on what you like.
  7. The characters range from attractive (blood elves, night elves, human, gnome, draenei and tauren females) to not conventionally attractive but interesting (undead, trolls, female orcs, male draenei) to big, buff, and intimidating looking (male tauren and orcs). There’s a character type for just about every preference, and there’s no penalty or extra cost for trying out several to see what you like.

Yes, I know I sound like a shill for Blizzard, but I really do think they got it right–they designed a game that appeals to just about every type of gamer (and even some non-gamers), from hardcore teenage guys to little kids to middle-aged housewives to elderly people.

Oh, and did I mention that it’s insanely addictive? :slight_smile:

6

My wife has never liked video games. She does play some PC-based puzzle games, the PopCap-type time wasters, but she’d never play a console game willingly. And she also hates The Simpsons.

But, she saw me playing The Simpsons: Hit and Run on my old Xbox, and really wanted to try driving the cars. She wasn’t into the missions, but she loved driving around full speed and running stuff over. Go figure.

For her at least, it seemed the key was finding a game that wasn’t too “twitch-based” and that didn’t kill you for making tiny mistakes (in other words, most first- and third-person shooters and real-time strategy games). There’s basically no way to die in Hit and Run, so she could create as much havoc as she wanted. I suppose in that way it’s kinda like the earlier-mentioned Lego Star Wars, which penalizes you a few studs when you die, but (generally) you get to keep going.

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winterhawk11, just to put a hole in your theory, I hate WoW and everything about it. :slight_smile: I much prefer Guild Wars.

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I love wow, i loved everquest 1, and i am thoroughly enjoying eve online.

I played original D&D, AD&D, did napolean sandbox wargaming, and a mechwar type game called warbots and death machines when it was being playtested at cons.

9

This female gamer likes:

  • puzzle games
  • RPGs (the classics, like FF6, Chrono Trigger, Legend of Mana)
  • strategy games
  • adventure games (like Zelda; FPS-based adventure games a la Halo or Metroid Prime gives me motion sickness)
  • and, surprisingly, the Dynasty/Samurai Warriors series games

In general, I like my controls simple and gameplay non-tedious. (I do have a fairly high tolerance level for repetitive tasks, as long as the game packages it in a way that doesn’t annoy me. I can’t say what makes one game fun and another tedious, though. Somehow level grinding in Nippon Ichi games was not the chore I thought it would be…being able to do 6 digits worth of damage probably helped.)

10

I’d play a game with sullen lesbians who don’t dye their hair or try to be attractive on the street.

11

The answer is “any game that doesn’t suck”.
My girlfriend watches me play Halo and I got her into Bully a little bit as well as Civilization. She asks Halo-related questions, but so help me god, if she starts biting into my Halo time, there’s going to be ruckus.

12

Right now, GTA 4. After that, either Mass Effect on the XBox360 or Spore and/or Fallout 3 on the PC, depending on release dates for the latter two. Before that, it was Overlord and Bioshock and Oblivion on the PC, Rock Band on the XBox360, and Guitar Hero 3 on the Wii. I could go back further this year, but I can’t remember the others.

13

Hm. This female gamer (PC, not consoles) likes FPS and adventure games, and puzzles to a much lesser extend. FPS games are my main diet, though. I’m very inexperienced in general, though, having only recently purchased a computer that satisfies the requirements of more modern (i.e. newer than Half Life 1!) games.

In particular, here’s what I look for in the games I play:

  • a variety of gameplay, e.g. games that offer both quiet, atmospheric exploration and rowdy kickass killfests;

  • intelligence. Some sense that the people behind the game have thought about the universe and have constructed a game that’s a challenge, both in gaming skills and also some thinking required;

  • humor’s almost a must for me. Either a touch of wit or black humor, in a darker game;

  • plotting that’s more than “move here, shoot the aliens, kill everything and you win.” I mean, I don’t require some detailed, epic saga, but some effort at a good mystery to solve (i.e. not spoonfed to me) is definitely appreciated.

(OTOH, way back when, I adored Doom and Wolfenstein, which was pretty much plot-free. At least in the latter there was the sense that you were defeating Hitler, so who needs more of a storyline than that?)

  • decent characterization in NPCs; not everyone can be as well-drawn (IMO) as HL2’s Alyx and Eli Vance, but gimme something other than “gruff military leader” or “generic tough but sexy babe” please;

  • a lead character (me) with a sympathetic objective or something I can at least empathize with. If I’m gonna be roleplaying as this person, ideally I’ll want him/her to be successful. I think that’s why Duke Nukem 3D left me a little flat way back when, though it was fun enough – he was just such a jerkass!! And speaking of Duke…

  • limited fratboy mentality, please. I know games are intended for their biggest demographic, i.e. young guys, but none of the young guys I know absolutely require games to have big busty babes, mindless scatalogical/gross-out humor, and violence that’s an end in itself. Maybe I just know a weird bunch of 20something dudes. Anyway I find it a big turnoff if the women are supposed to be tough fightin’ chicks but are always clad in bikinis, g-strings or leather bustiers.

  • I certainly don’t require female leads, but they’re nice to come by, assuming again they’re not the abovementioned leather-clad stereotypes. Portal’s Chell was awesome to play as, although her character was almost non-existent. Playing as HL2’s Alyx or Judith Mossman would be a hoot too.

  • violence and danger. I admit it. I like to kill imaginary things on a screen, and I like Big Stakes where my virtual life is on the line. So no “Barbie” or “Sims” or twinkly princess stuff for me, thanks. Even Portal, which had no real violence in it, had a sense of impending doom and potential danger for my character.

As you can probably tell, I’m a big Valve fan, because in general they get almost all of the above right in every game.

14

Yeah, I wonder why they do make “twinkly princess” games. Who buys those?

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Tween girls, I think.

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Grandparents?

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See? Listen to me about your video game purchases and you’ll do no wrong.

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Oh, I’ve done plenty wrong since listening to you: murder, theft, assault, battery, destruction of property.

Did I thank you yet?

19

Personally, other than sports games (which are typically played by casuals, not gamers), I have not seen a huge disparity between average girl and guy gamers. I’m a girl gamer and I like quality games of most kinds; right now, I’m playing a lot of Team Fortress 2, but I also love quirky games (Katamari Damacy), Wii games like Mario Kart and Endless Ocean, RPGs like Morrowind and Final Fantasy 7, I loved Portal, etc. Of these, the least popular among other women I know are first-person shooters and, to a lesser extent, RPGs - but then I don’t really know a lot of female gamers, just casuals. Casual male players tend to avoid RPGs, but first person shooters are more common.

I do think we’re a little underserved in the game-character department (why is it that 99% of female characters are eye candy for men? Can’t we have some normal ones? How do these women run around with their gigantic knockers and manage to get into hand-to-hand combat?) but it doesn’t really stop me from gaming. After all, most men in games are wish-fulfillment characters (macho men, magic powers) or cartoons.

20

Oh, and PS, Barbie games are not “girl gamer” games. They are children’s games. Why an adult woman would ever consider them is beyond me and frankly the idea is a little insulting.