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

[Matthew Mihaly]

On Tue, 31 Aug 1999, Adam Wiggins wrote:

> On Tue, 31 Aug 1999, Matthew Mihaly wrote:
> > I suspect that if marketers and designers thought their main target are
> > 16-25 year old men, Lara Croft wouldn't have become a household name.
> 
> Although one might point out that the success of Tomb Raider was due
> in no small part to the large female audience it attracted.  Between
> gameplay oriented more around exploration and puzzle solving (rather than
> constant Quake-like violence) and a very strong female lead character,
> it drew quite a large female audience.

Lara Croft was just an example really. Look at games like Duke Nuke 'Em,
with the frequent scantily clad women.

> 
> > Those large breasts aren't there to appeal to homosexual men.
> 

> 
> Would you say that Spiderman was designed to appeal to women because of
> his buldging muscles and tight outfit, or that Batman was designed to
> appeal to homosexual men because of his latex outfit and prominent
> codpiece?  Hardly so.  That's just the style.  (It may appeal to those
> markets as a side-effect, but comic book readers are still largely
> preteens who are not even very aware of such obvious sexuality just yet.)

Well, no. I'd say spiderman, et al's muscles are there to appeal to the
pale male nerds who wish they were more buff. Also, core demographics for
comic books are older male teenagers, and younger male 20 somethings.
--matt




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