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

[Matthew Mihaly]

On Tue, 31 Aug 1999, Caliban Tiresias Darklock wrote:

> On 07:43 AM 8/31/1999 -0400, I personally witnessed Jeremy Music
> \"Sterling\" jumping up to say:
> >
> >On Sat, 28 Aug 1999, Marian Griffith wrote:
> >> 
> >> There is no such thing as an emergent girl game market. There is only the
> >> anti-girl marketing.  
> 
> Not true. A large number of companies have been formed rather recently with
> the specific aim of making computer games for girls. How well they are
> doing and whether they will survive is a whole different question.

That doesn't mean there is an emergent girl game market. Just because a
bunch of companies have formed with the aim of marketing to girls doesn't
mean there is any market for them.


> Boys will not blink at a sixty dollar price tag. Girls will. This is
> because boys are largely clueless about household expenses, and stop their
> concern at "I want". Girls, on the other hand, tend to be more acutely
> aware of what mom and dad can or cannot afford, so sixty dollars to them
> means they're trading the equivalent of next week's groceries for a game.
> This is a terribly selfish thing to do, and a great number of girls won't
> even seriously consider it.

That's awfully broad, and, I suspect, based purely on anecdotal evidence. 

> 
> It is worth noting that I don't really like typical "male" games much,
> either. I don't think very much like a man most of the time, and I tend to
> get a little embarrassed when I catch myself thinking or doing something
> typically male. All of the above are things that *I* would also find
> attractive in a game. Technology has been a big excuse for many of the
> flaws in games, but we don't really have that excuse anymore with modern
> processors, memory banks, and 3D accelerators. 

Chuckle, well, unless you are NOT a man, then by definition, you are
thinking like a man. In any case, for every fairly true, negative
stereotype that exists about men, there is one for women. Thinking like
any large group does ensures a destiny of mediocrity. Men and women,
generally, are equally crap imho. 3 cheers for hermaphrodites!
--matt




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