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

[Caliban Tiresias Darklock]

On 05:37 PM 9/2/1999 -0400, I personally witnessed Laurel Fan jumping up to
say:
>Excerpts from muddev: 31-Aug-99 Re: [MUD-Dev] Game design a.. by Caliban
>T. Darklock at dark 
>> It must be cheap.
>>  
>> Boys will not blink at a sixty dollar price tag. Girls will. 
>
>Not really.  My sister (who I would consider a more "typical" girl than
>I) would think nothing of paying more than $60 for a dress, which is
>arguably no less frivolous than a game.  

Needs rather than wants, I'd say. You *have* to have clothes. It only makes
sense to buy nice ones. If you never in your life bought or owned a single
game, no one would care. If you never bought or owned clothes, you would
have something of a problem. 
  
>> It must be flawless. 
>> It must be pretty. 
>
>I think this is true to some extent for both boys and girls... 

Certainly. However, a good game with bad graphics will usually be just fine
with boys, and boys tend to be more accepting of technical flaws. 

>If you make a game that is cheap, flawless, and pretty, I think you'll
>have plenty of users of both genders...

Yup. But it's a lot harder than making a game that's fast, violent, and
gory, isn't it? ;)
  
>This somehow indicates to me that you may be equating boys vs. girls
>with immature vs. mature :).

I would say rather it deals with presence vs. lack of pronounced
immaturity. Most men never really get over the things they found
entertaining when they were eight -- belching, fart jokes, naked women, and
wedgies, for example -- whereas women tend to put away childish things at
some point. I think women look at adulthood as an acceptance of
responsibilities, whereas men look at it more as an acquisition of rights. 

-----
| Caliban Tiresias Darklock            caliban at darklock.com 
| Darklock Communications          http://www.darklock.com/ 
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