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

[Mik Clarke]

Marian Griffith wrote:
> On Tue 31 Aug, Ola Fosheim Gr=F8stad wrote:
> > Marian Griffith wrote:
>=20
> > > That said I also believe that a game were you must 'feel' and 'thin=
k'  is
> > > more likely to appeal to girls. If you take a look at games that di=
d well
> > > with a female audience:  Myst, Tetris and Creatures,  they have lit=
tle in
> > > common other than being gender neutral and well-crafted. Myst has a=
 story
> > > that you can empathise with. Creatures is constructive,

What is noticable about that collection is an absence of hard core rock
tracks, an vast nullity of wizz-BANG_BOOM!!!, a complete lack of the
need
to play for 20+ hours to master the controls well enough to get past the
first boss, a serious defficency of corpses and flying, exploding, blood
streaming gobbets of flesh, absolutly no requirement to play 5 hours a
day
to keep your reflexes honed for networked play and totally nothing you
can
boast to your fiends about.  Many games are targetted at violent little
repressed minds seeking an outlet for their natural anti-social
tendencies.
That said would you sooner they were running with gangs on the streets
doing it for real?  Most of us grow out of it eventually...others go on
to develop muds where we can make even more fiendish killing machines to
devour the innocents we can lure through our doors.  Games not of
action,
but of thought, where the wrong move can lead to a grisly death and the
right move just means survival.  (CthulhuMud is currently off the air
due
to server problems, but should be back sometime in October - codebase
development continues however.)
=20
> > Are you telling me that I've bought   G I R L   G A M E S   ?????????=
???
>=20
> No, I am telling you that there are no girl games, only games that appe=
al
> to girls more than to boys. The problem is not so much designing specif=
ic
> games as well telling the girls the games exist and they might like the=
m.
>=20
> > *panic mode*
>=20
> (Mentally deducting 20 years from Ola's age to arrive at the primary
>  school age that goes with that attitude ;)

Can a sperm have an attitude? ;-) ;-) ;-)
=20
> Riven, from what I have seen is just
> as beautiful to look at. The game added to its looks a game that you co=
uld
> work your way through at your own pace,  opening up more of the world w=
hen
> you solved another puzzle.

Yeah, and just as annoying as it tell syou to change the CDs and
searches
for the next picture/video clip.  Black Dahlia is much better organized.
=20
Mik



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