[MUD-Dev] games gender bias (Re: Affecting the world)

[Marian Griffith]

On Sat 20 Sep, =?iso-8859-1?Q?Ola_Fosheim_Gr=F8stad?= wrote:

> Marian Griffith <gryphon at iaehv.nl> wrote:

> >> If you are able to attract
> >> female players, male players will come, driven by their very own
> >> nature...  :-)

> >Belief me, female players rarely want to deal with male players who
> >are attracted to a place for no other reasons than that there -are-
> >female player around.

> So?  Don't you think that male players faced with 2 otherwise similar
> worlds would choose the one with some females onboard?

That's not the point. Knowing males you're entirely right. They will
flock to any place  they detect  <insert favourite female bodypart>.
My point was that a guy who's attracted to a game only because there
are girls is driven by his hormones, and he is -not- going to be fun
to deal with.
Games should not be interesting to males,  females  or males because
there are females.  Games should be interesting to people regardless
of gender.

> Anyway my
> personal belief is that any society/group where the female (or male)
> population drops below 25% is unhealthy and less interesting in the
> long run.  So getting those women interested in a world is worth some
> extra effort.

Fun thing. If the minority is less than 10 pct than discrimination is
pretty much absent  most of the time  (unless a strong prejudices has
been established against the minority).  When the minority appraoches
the 30 pct mark discrimination is going to be much more severe.  This
conclusion of studies  of the treatement of females on male dominated
(educational) institution. Studies where females were few and far be-
tween they had little problems other than an overload of suitors. But
if the ratio got over the 85-15 then there were far more cases of ha-
rassment,  prejudice and discrimination.  If there was no immediately
recognisable minority then the situation was more or less the same as
for the entire society.
Note that this study was after the negative behaviour. It did not say
anything  about the increased attention of the males  for the females
in those studies where the ratio was something like 95-5 and how this
was perceived (and handled)  by the females.  Also it was pointed out
that the situation was more or less identical  in those studies  that
were strongly female dominated.

> >> However, online entertainment systems adds a new dimension to
> >> "toys", the multiuser aspect, thus designing for "male entertainment"
> >> only, is probably not the best road to success.  The key to success is
> >> probably to find the female equivalent to racing-car-splatter-
> >> entertainment and kill-everything-that-moves-and-if-doesn't-move-kill-
> >> it-anyway-entertainment.

> >I would suspect that appeals to only a small part of the male population
> >too.

> Hmm..  Not really.  Those two are the most used successful recepies I
> believe. (+ the platform (mario) style thing, but I suspect that one isn't
> biased towards one specific gender.)

How many males play that kind of games? Does it really matter? ;)

> >If a very, -very-, broad generalisation can be made: we prefer stories
> >and meaning.  Mindless violence is off putting far more than violence.
> >Most games excell in mindless violence clad in a flimsy story. Usually
> >only an excuse.  This is, by the way, not dissimilar with how violence
> >is handled in most movies.

> Here the nasty monster called "interactivity versus storyline" raise
> it's ugly head.  Are you suggesting that hack'n'slash is fun if there
> is a history for behind it consistently portrayed throughout the
> world?

No. I am only pointing out that combat in mud is a goal in itself as
well as the entire purpose of the game. In that much it is mindless.
There are also "roleplaying" muds  that "justify" the combat by pos-
ing a good versus evil (or variations of that theme) conflict.  That
does not  in the least  make the combat less mindless. It is still a
game where players are required to attack anything they see.

> If gender research has anything going, I would expect a cooperative
> world, to be more attractive to women. Wheras a powerstruggle world
> ought to be more attractive to men.

True, witness the appeal themed roleplaying games (mostly mushes) have.

> Some researchers says that women are more likely to emphasize the
> equalness in a dialog, while men are more likely to try to position
> themselves (to appear at least as good or maybe better).  This is
> reflected physically by women's preference towards sitting next to
> eachother, while many men prefer to sit opposite of eachother.
> I'd like to exploit this in a MUD, any ideas?

You're asking difficult questions aren't you? My first guess would
be  to remove as much competition from the game as you can manage.
What that is going to do  to the the male appreciation of the game
I don't know.

> >(1) there's a well known phrase decency disallows me to use.

> Being an ignorant indecent norwegian: I don't have a clue... :(

Well, it's related to what I'm told is a popular game of boys that
is called 'who has the biggest'...

Marian (blushing)
--
Yes - at last - You. I Choose you. Out of all the world,
out of all the seeking, I have found you, young sister of
my heart! You are mine and I am yours - and never again
will there be loneliness ...

Rolan Choosing Talia,
Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey