Girls & Women in Games

[Noldor]

Greetins All!

I have heard a lot of complaints from females (I didn\'t want to get into the \"don\'t call me a lady/woman/girl/grrl\" debate) who feel that games are still exclusively aimed at the male gender.  So here are some articles and sites for everyone to ponder:

Gamer Grrl
http://www.grrlgamer.com/

Lady Gamers
http://www.ladygamers.com

Women Gamers
http://www.womengamers.com/
Women Gamers - Planeshift
    http://www.ladygamers.com/focus/february/gparagonx.html

CNN - Women gamers making small inroads
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/fun.games/09/09/women.gamers.ap/

Women gamers make their mark at QuakeCon 2004
http://money.cnn.com/2004/08/14/commentary/game_over/column_gaming/

Women get in the game
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2004/Jan04/01-08WomenGamers.asp

Chasing Women Gamers
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3019985a1899,00.html


It is true that males are the major market for games.  Look at all the big-breasted avatars and in-game character models.  Look at one of the biggest PS2 & PC game...GTA: Vice City (Character is a male who has sex hookers to regain health...and then kills them to save money).  

And look how women are treated in games....lavished with gifts but also stalked and constantly hit on by males for cyber sex or Real Life meetings.  I know males who create female characters ONLY because they will get free items and can manipulate other in-game males into fights and chaos.  I personally know 5 Real Life women who only play as males...so they don\'t get constantly stalked by young males (2 have restraining orders on men who found out where they actually live!).

Companies are trying to market games to women.  I beta tested and still currently play in something called There.com.  They tried to market to women...but since the online gaming market is still slanted towards the male population, There.com has reduced the support for their online community enviroment and has gone after the military simulation sales.  

Well, those are my general opinions...what are yours?


Toodles,

Dolnor Numbwit

[Watcher]

Very intresting site very intresting. Considering most gamers probably dont think girls play games .Heck I only know one person who is a girl and plays games, but I have known her since we where young. But come to think about it my Optician also playes the Age of series.

[Draklar]

Originally posted by Noldor
I have heard a lot of complaints from females

pfft... don\'t mind them, they probably had their \"time of the month\" or something...
seriously tho\', I think if they want to be taken serious, they should stop making those websites, which obviously are making the male-female borders.
Also complaining about game producers aiming their products at wider set of users is pretty stupid too...
It\'s like bunch of creeps complaining that they don\'t make stinky shampoos... (of course imo)

Personally I think ladies should stop playing games and start shooting bows... but then again I\'m not normal...

- Swords!

[Moogie]

Well Draklar, we didn\'t achieve equal rights by staying at home chained to the laundry basket without a word of complaint, now did we.

[Joeyguy]

Yes, most games are marketed towards male gamers. That doesn\'t mean females can\'t enjoy them. Look at planeshift and it\'s trademark loading screens (a tradition broken with Crystal Blue )

And I\'m sorry that so many gamers are assholes, but that\'s why they play games; they\'re jerks with no friends. Personally, I don\'t pay attention to the gender of a player, especially because I know that you can\'t exactly trust what they say.

[Draklar]

Yes, of course, you gained \"equal\" rights in case of whole society, which would be around 50/50 for male-female. But is that good example for communities where... what is the percentage of ladies in PS?

What I\'m trying to say is that females should stop complaining about stuff like that. Being lesser group in gaming, nothing will change and they aren\'t likely to be taken seriously.
For example, I\'m complaing that people use guns on wars instead of swords, but does anyone take me seriously? No, I don\'t think so...

- Swords!

[seperot]

Originally posted by Mogura
Well Draklar, we didn\'t achieve equal rights by staying at home chained to the laundry basket without a word of complaint, now did we.

indeed and now women are set to turn that to the way that men will be changed....equal rights HA its just a chage of domanace truely equal rights is inpossible

take for example that a dog has more legal rights then a single white male

[sashok]

what\'s wrong with these sites?  these girls make friends
and there\'s always male lurkers at their sites that these girls like to have around.  who cares really?  

[Monketh]

If women want to be more recognized in games, they must bring more women into the gaming market.
Yet, to bring more women into the market, games must be adjusted to them as a group.

Paradoxical, isn\'t it? :rolleyes:
Unfortunate, I must say, but that is the current reality.

[snow_RAveN]

*nods sagely*
[ot]
haven\'t we\'ve done this before ?
[/ot]

what is the percentage of ladies in PS?

well form past surveys done ( dont ask i remember reading some)  MMo\'s have the a bigger n.o of women gamers to men gamers ratio.
its about 1:4 average i can\'t remember ...

- my 2 cents worth -

[DepthBlade]

heh ok lol everytime I get into this conversation about women and equal rights I only got one thing against the movement.

Not all women want equal rights, they want it for things that will benefit them but when it comes to something that won\'t well, Let the men do it or I am just a female. Its not us putting up those lines all the times dividing the sexs, its you women..and it really bugs me because I\'ve seen it in my own family, at school and at work. Its definately occuring but whenever you bring it up, ofcourse you hear oh that just a small percentage or yeah right..the truth is what you get but what you cannot handle!

[faldrok]

Originally posted by Noldor
And look how women are treated in games....lavished with gifts but also stalked and constantly hit on by males for cyber sex or Real Life meetings.  I know males who create female characters ONLY because they will get free items and can manipulate other in-game males into fights and chaos.  I personally know 5 Real Life women who only play as males...so they don\'t get constantly stalked by young males (2 have restraining orders on men who found out where they actually live!).

Well, quite a few women like the attention and getting gifts, free drinks at clubs/bars, etc. They can\'t really stop it in games, but they could stop this in RL, by not wearing thongs at the beach, really short shorts/skirts in public, etc. But, they won\'t because they like the attention that they get etc. And what people do IRL, reflects what they do in games, to a certain extent.

Anyways, PS can be aimed at both men and women, as can other games. It just depends on what the likes and dislikes are of each individual. Most people think war games are just for men, but I know a few men that don\'t like the point of war games, but I know some women that do like them. So, most of this \"men/women\" thing is just personal thoughts. Although, I do agree that GTA: Vice City was aimed at men.

[Zeraph]

what I\'m wondering is how many female Game developers are out there compared to males?

How many females do you see making allot of 3D stuff?
if you look @ bonus features of the CG movies like Finding Nemo, it is mostly all these Guys talking about how they modeled & animated the Chars, I can\'t really recall if I did see a female doing 3D Art... Maybe it is more of a thing about how many women get involved in making games, Guys just do not really have the feminine powers to attract women to games very well...

Do we even have a female developer on the PS team?
I think Magura should be one of the 2D art people because she is good @ that stuff.. & Karyuu is pretty good too... but I really have not been around long enough to have met all the talented people around Ylliacum...

[Syzerian]

Games have always been made for males and because no females played these games no one payed attention to them and thought that only males played games because of this.
It is quite funny how most females dont play that many games but everytime I have found one online they have been azz kickers and always up the top, and then when they do admit that they are female everyone tries to talk to them :rolleyes:
Most females dont like to puplicise there gender online though because of the hassles they get from other immature players.

[Monketh]

Indeed, the lack of women draws losers to the internet in vast quantities.  They consume and harrass all they can find.  If we had a server for roleplayers only, it might turn out better, but that isn\'t always the case.  So, for fear of losers, we lose those who contribute some of the most quality (ex. of top female contributers: Moogs, Kada, Grono, Agara...).  You can not control any person\'s first impression, and if it\'s a bad one, it creates a stereotype.

We must do all we can to eliminate the \"perverted desperate gamer\" stereotype.  We must also encourage those game developers we can not to \"sell sex\".

-Monketh