[MUD-Dev] Game design and gender: An interesting article

[Koster]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jeremy Music "Sterling" [mailto:rezo at lords.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 1999 6:44 AM
> To: Mud Dev Mailing list
> Subject: Re: [MUD-Dev] Game design and gender: An interesting article
> 
> The consoles are aimed at boys because that's who buys them.  
> :)  They are
> even more driven by market forces than PC games.  My wife, an 
> excellent
> video game player, would never buy a console, or even a game, 
> though she
> will play them with me.

You should get her a Playstation with:

Monster Rancher
Tail of the Sun

Both games are unavailable for PC & are perfect examples of games that
females like though they aren't necessarily intended as such.

>  I would say
> that Hasbro (where a lot of the titles she likes come from) 
> is the closest to
> aiming at girls, since they sure aren't aiming at me.

Hasbro's expertise is in the casual gamer. I'd actually venture to say that
a game that appeals to girls is liable to be one that isn't targeted at the
*adolescent* male. Most adult, mature men will actually find gameplay
oriented around building, nurturing, and communicating to be quite
interesting if they have developed patience.

I have seen the claim (which I can't evaluate, not having played any of
them) that Purple Moon failed because its games were, in final analysis, not
that interesting.

> The single biggest explanation for why game companies don't 
> aim at girls,
> though, is that they really don't know how.

Game companies are 95% male, and also 95% under the age of 30.

It's also self-fulfilling marketing--females don't tend to frequent the
retail channels that games are delivered by, and don't consider themselves
to be in the target market and therefore do not seek out product...

-Raph


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