games for girls

[jverne]

http://www.ted.com/talks/brenda_laurel_on_making_games_for_girls.html


i won't comment too much cause it's certainly gonna be inflammatory, but i bet there are girls not falling for this kind of stuff. although it makes me wonder if that's how the average young girls thinks.

 

[Dalamari]

Sexist conspiracy, lol

 

[PorkPi]

"We've touched several hundreds of thousands of little girls"-for some reason my ears caught this. Poor choice of words.

 

[Krynn72]

"Why are all the top-selling videogames aimed at little boys?"

Suck it Halo. Anyone who likes it is a little boy.

 

[Maestro]

OK I got five minutes in without any mention of what such a game is like and said screw it.

Anyone actually watch it through and know the criteria?

 

[Dan]

Come on ladies, you already have your game:

 

[Rizzo]

Nah that's for Darkside.

 

[Krynn72]

Darkside is asian though, so theres no way of being sure hes not a woman.

 

[kupocake]

Ok, so the video is older than Half-Life. So basically, it's horrendously out of date and talking about an industry that is basically incomparable to the one we actually encounter. I mean, imagine studying 'games for girls' and not using 'The Sims' even once in your report.

Basically, around the 7 minute mark she starts getting really quite angry about Male games reviewers and Feminists attacking her obscure PC 'little girls only' title because for the former 'they're not what games should be about' and for the later 'because they think they know what little girls ought to be' (because of course, you can't be Male AND someone who dislikes stereotypes about how young girls play, and you can't be Female and dislike a game because it's mechanically uninteresting).

'These odd bedfellows have one thing in common. They don't listen to little girls'. With her quivering voice (like she could explode with indignity), I'm torn between whether she's outraged that adults think they know better about the wants and identities of little girls as she says, or that she's spent six years developing a game on supposedly sound scientific principle, and been told that she's basically come up with something that isn't above criticism.

If you gave any developer the brief 'go away and make a game for little girls' and gave them absolutely no time for research, do you know what kind of game they'd make? A game about a young girl in a social setting who makes decisions through emotions. I'd be ****ing sore too if I'd spent six goddamned years coming to that conclusion. Improbably, I'm reminded of a recentish Simpsons episode, 'Girls Just Want to Have Sums' where a female principle is installed at Springfield elementary and the female half of the school is taught Maths through these irksome stereotypes, asked how numbers 'make them feel'.

She's not entirely wrong about the kind of things that appeal to the female gamer, but these conceptions are so commonplace that they have become rather reductive and insulting. A truly quality title (like The Sims has been) has the potential for universal appeal that games like the one featured do not. I've never put much stock in anything that is specifically 'for' one gender or the other. Recently, two female friends have categorically said that they're not into FPS games. Yet somehow, both have played and completed Half-Life 2 and have told me that they really enjoyed it. The appeal of supposedly macho games has nothing to with the bullshit of girls disliking (basically, 'being too thick for' in kinder wording) spatial, non-social play or even violence. I think it's simply a lack of representation. FPS particularly is a genre in which you're never allowed to forget that you're a man for playing.

I watched as one of these friends tried Bioshock for the first time. It wasn't the lack of 'social interaction', the prevalent violence, horror or smiley faces for moral choices that she commented negatively on. She was just ticked off yet again that she was playing a man.

---

tl:dr : Video is out of date and not worth taking seriously any more, girls play more games nowadays and are more likely to pass up 'boys' games because the games assume the player is male, not because of any bullshit six-year research that comes to the ridiculous and widespread conclusion of how girls are basically huge dumbasses.

 

[CyberPitz]

Anybody else find it lawl that all the replies are being joking/making fun of this, then Kupo comes in with a tl;dr?

 

[Maestro]

Hey, I'm thankful. I just got too tired of her beating around the bush and didn't want to waste 13 minutes on it. Most TED talks are blessedly shorter than that and have a more meaningful message too.

So, thanks Kupocake. I appreciate the insight.

 

[Acepilotf14]

>feb 1998

 

[Warped]

and so forth...

 

[kupocake]

Anybody else find it lawl that all the replies are being joking/making fun of this, then Kupo comes in with a tl;dr?

kupoposts are always srs bizness.

 

[Lizardizzle]

(just took this picture) :| No games for little girls?
1997:

 

[Darkside55]

Step into a world where unicorns run free and fairies and elves inhabit the forest! Something strange is happening and it's up to you and your unicorn to solve the puzzles and follow the clues to set things right. Your magic wand holds the key to overthrowing the dark power that lurks within the forest! Product Features Exciting mysteries will lead you to treasures hidden in fairy ruins as you seek out opals.

Holy shit this game is all about solving mysteries with your unicorn and battling ancient, sinister evils lurking deep in the forest with your wand of arcane spells. And you can hunt for treasure. Goddamn this game IS magical.

 

[Acepilotf14]

Hey, Darkside.

Spoiler

Do you believe in MAGIC?