[MUD-Dev] Girl appeal (was: Boys and Girls)

[Caliban Tiresias Darklock]

From: "rayzam" <rayzam at home.com>
> From: "Marian Griffith" <gryphon at iaehv.nl>

>>   What is it that makes girls play a particular game?

> Building. Time and effort results in a noticable change in the
> game[world]. This occurs for everything from SimCity to Civ to
> crafting in a mud to RollerCoaster Tycoon to socializing in a mud.

I think there's a very definite question of the individuality of
that building effort, as well. SimCity was more popular with girls
than, say, Wall Street Banker or whatever -- both of which involved
noticeable changes to the game world -- but The Sims blew them both
away. In The Sims, you built the exact house you wanted to build and
wallpapered it and laid carpet and installed appliances. In SimCity,
you built a city block with a cookie cutter that always looked the
same. In Wall Street Banker, you built a bigger number on the bottom
line. There's a clear continuum there from WSB's count-the-digits
difference to SimCity's pattern arrangements to The Sims' virtually
guaranteed uniqueness.

More succinctly, girls don't want to build A house, they want to
build THEIR house. Something distinctly and specifically and
uniquely theirs, so showing it to someone else is actually
sensible. And they want to build it fast, so they can "nest" as
quickly as possible.

> Boys are more into destroying, along with creating.  There is a
> subset that want to compete with boys, too.

Female gamers don't tend to like the destruction aspects of games;
so it's worth asking how many of them would consider knocking down
the other person's constructions "fair" when competing with
others. If two boys are competing to build the best sand castle,
it's often (but not always) considered perfectly fair to build a
mediocre castle yourself and then just stop the other guy from
building anything at all. Two girls, however, would be more likely
to build their castles in separate locations so they could surprise
each other with the resulting designs.

The more I think about it, the more I think female gaming is
primarily oriented toward activities with socialisation value and
immeasurable risk.  It's like women want something nobody else has,
so they can tell people about it. Sort of a personal value
thing... as long as you have something nobody else has, you're
irreplaceable.


_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev