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from the other males. Of course guys are going to respond to that. And we give her no choice. We force her to be viewed that way, and to display these traits at all times.
There's no male player I'm aware of that would be comfortable with a male character that was displaying these traits. So bringing this awareness to our artists and developers is one of my mini-crusades. To understand what we do with our female characters compared to our male characters, and what we can do to increase the comfort level for our female players when you give them avatar characters to play. Don't hypersexualize them, but make them young, make them strong, make them fertile.
In "Star Wars Galaxies," in our character creator, we actually have a slider that they call "torso" that actually increases the bust size. That was put there at the female players' request. Females want to look heroic, and that's a fine thing. They don't want to be hypersexualized. They also want the choice of being able to dress sexy when they want to dress sexy, and not when the devs say, "This is how you have to look all the time."
You already talked about one aspect of "Star Wars Galaxies" that appeals to women. Do you want to address anything else in that game that does this?
SGR: Well, I can address massively multiplayer games overall. We find that we have a higher percentage of female players in multiplayer games than we do in standard PC stand-alone titles or the console titles. I think that's due, in part, to the fact that massively multiplayer games are so open that it allows all sorts of play styles to express. Women can get in there and play the game how they want to play it. That doesn't mean there's one way that girls play games.
One of the interesting things we found out about women in massively multiplayers is they tend to be the glue that holds all the social groups together. Women players will internalize massively multiplayer games, and take it out into their daily life. They're the ones who run the fan sites. They're the ones
How did you consult with other developers to try to make games that appealed to women?
SGR: It wasn't just game companies. I had a lot of different consulting gigs. I had a lot of other major software firms come to me and talk to me about accessibility.
What kinds of questions were they asking?
SGR: Most of them were just, "How do we do this?" They all want to ask: "How do we make games for girls?" And that can be a good question to ask, but a lot of times that's not the right question. The real question is: "How do we get more women to play our games?" And that's why I will try to get groups to focus on addressing their own title and looking at whether they may have barriers in there.
The whole thing about games for girls is that it can be a trap. They say, "I can make this game for girls, and I don't have to change anything I'm doing over here," you know? And changing my own stuff, and admitting I have to change, that's really hard. Getting them (to look at) how you can expand your market for your own title--that's the harder question to ask.
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But, I just hope this doesn't go so far as to force developers into making their games "PC" not Personal Computer but Politicaly Correct. The point behind games is to create a fantasy world.
As for what race or gender the hero is, is up to the story being told. I guess what I'm saying is I hope it doesn't get to the point where an activist group demands some developer like Bungie to include the option to play as the "Mistress Chieftess".
Maybe I'm going to extremes but just trying to make a point.
Being "PC" is just a cheap way to hide from reality. But the games I've played have a variety of male characters, and just 1 girl, if any. Why can't there be a variety of girl avatars as there are in real life.
Some guys like playing a short char, or tall, or bulky, or thin... Women should also get that choice.
There's still a long way to go, but this is a very important step in a journey to create good titles for gals, different from those silly games like Barbie or some with over-sexualized characters like Lara Croft, who cause disconfort and don't get the women identified with them.
Congratulations Sheri!
Who cares what the sex of the character you're playing is? I like games because they don't discriminate, I can be whatever character because IT'S ONLY A GAME. The point is, why change something that's not broken, I don't want to see the industry alter what is out there merely because they think it's what ~I~ want and that it's a way to open the market to women. I already have what I want in games, that's why I play them.
I am glad there are more females present in the gaming industry, I really am. I just hope nothing changes too much.
It might be an inclination in the back of their head, something to be reminded of.
But have normal great female leads in video games, would be great. But the game has to be good, too.
I think game producers should start to contemplate games that are both gender friendly.
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Coolness sells. Cool = Manly and Sexy. If you want to test this theory, make a game where the heroes are average, ok looking, low muscle-tone, males and homley looking girls that are covered up and have no figure and see how well it sells.
Nothing sells better than a sexy chic with automatic pistols and machine guns. Sell a game where your stereotypical nerdy IT guy dons some chainmail and a sword and you will be laughed off the shelves. Sell a game with a girl in an oversized sweatshirt and sweatpants with her hair pulled up in a hairclip with glasses, give her machine guns and watch your product sit on the shelves until it is forcibly removed by something that WILL sell.
Girls have very little patience in general so the best games for a girl are ones that you can play and walk away from like mario brothers. There are exceptions to this, surely. Guys are dumb and will keep trying and trying until they get it right or win, no matter how long it takes. "Tom-girls" are the girls that are more like men in that they are into sports and have more patience and therefore, silly things like what Sheri is talking about don't bother them. I think the group of girls she is after is the girlie girls and the only way you can get them into a game is if it doesn't take alot of thought (not saying they are dumb, just that they don't want to think about the game and all that is involved), patience, or time out of their busy social schedule which automatically excludes online MMORPGs which invariably require tons of time to play and reduces them to playing light-hearted, low dexterity, non-time intensive games like mario brothers that are fun, but you can pause or save them at any point and come back to later.
Only puzzle games that are non-gender specific appeal to everyone who either enjoy puzzles or would appreciate the graphics of the game.
Another good point about gender-fying games is if there is no difference between playing a male or a female as far as visually apealing differences, why not cut costs and make a hermaphrodite character like "PAT" so you don't offend anyone. Yeah right, that'll sell alot of games.... 0.o
If you try to make a game so as not to offend anyone and make a character so customizeable to fit your lifestyle or how you want to represent yourself in the game,only serves to increase programming time, delivery time and the cost of the game.
Keep it simple stupid. We like Stupid - why do you think we sit in one spot and hit buttons all day?
I agree with what you've said about the marketing of games. It's just the nature of sexuality in marketing these days, and it's found in all media (movies and television, especially).
However, you really lose your perspective in the second half of this posting. You've got a lot of gender stereotypes you need to re-examine. Comments like "Girls have very little patience in general" and" "Guys are dumb and will keep trying" are pretty ridiculous claims. I've noticed these qualities in varying degrees in both males and females.
It's funny that you've excluded MMORPGs almost entirely, because this is one of the top genres female gamers have been going into as of late. And I'll tell you what, Mario Brothers does require a fair amount of dexterity to play, much more than EverQuest does unless you're botting 5 accounts simultaneously. I know girls that play Counter-Strike well, and I know girls that play strategy games well.
The reason girls don't play games is not because they're incapable of playing them. They absolutely have both the brain-power and dexterity. They don't play games because games are stereotyped as a more "guy" activity to do, much like sports are. Girls don't have to become "tom-girls" to play games or sports. Girls can still be girls and enjoy these activities because they should be neutral, enjoyable activities for everyone. However, as I'll describe in my next paragraph, they games are more often designed with a male-oriented perspective these days.
I can understand why women are offended and turned-off by how females are presented in games such as Tomb Raider and Dead or Alive. It's a stereotype of qualities that men want to see in women. Similarly, I'm a little offended by the stereotypical buff "male" action character who gets the job done without wit, and don't enjoy games which boast that role. Fortunately for me, the gaming market has a diverse amount of male characters so that I can find games with characters I better connect with (anti-hero types like Squall in FF8). The same should occur for females: we don't have to totally get rid of sexy-looking, big-breasted characters, but we do need to add some diversification in female characters because women are just as diverse as men, and what different roles they can assume. Women might play more games if game design becomes more unisexual and uses less stereotyping.
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