[MUD-Dev] Boys and Girls - was (Re: MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #163 - 25 msgs)

[amanda at alfar.com]

"Jon A. Lambert" <jlsysinc at ix.netcom.com> wrote:

> [...] So the images are going to attract a gender neutral audience
> at least initially.  But I think even if you packaged something
> like StarCraft (a wargame) with a say a picture of a future space
> family, along the lines of the Sims, you still would have no
> female retention with the game.  I think there's something about
> the games themselves, particularly the Sims and Roller Coaster
> Tycoon that females enjoy.  Actually the appeal is rather gender
> neutral which is ok IMO.  After all the bigger market share is
> really male.

Hmm.  And yet, Quake II showed a large jump in women players over
Quake, not so much because the game itself is any more 'gender
neutral', but simply because there were a few extra details that
made it easier for women gamers to get immersed in the game.  Female
player models, for example.

The nature of the game is one factor; the nature of player roles is
another.  My next door neighbors' daughter, who's quite athletic,
wears 'Girlz Kick Ass' hats and carries a Powerpuff Girls backpack,
likes "violent" games just fine--but at 12, she doesn't want to have
to "play a boy" in the game to do it.  Things like this aren't very
obvious to marketeers, though.  "Boys buy more of these games, so
they must like them better," without asking the kids themselves what
they may or may not like in a game.


Amanda Walker
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