Comments on: Balancing Act

By: Terah

Terah — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 11:05:24 +0000

You write very well.

By: Caterina Tadlock

Caterina Tadlock — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 05:43:27 +0000

FantasyMeister, I am the author of the article you mentioned. If you could tell me where you have seen my article “floating around” I would greately appreciate it. It should not be published anywhere other thant http://www.ultimatehorsesite.com. thank you.

By: MTV Multiplayer » Women Working in Games: Game Girl Advance’s Jane Pinckard Talks Lara Croft, Male vs. Female Gamers

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 13:46:57 +0000

[...] games for women, they ask your opinion. [Former EDGE editor-in-chief] Margaret Robertson mentioned on her blog that she’s uncomfortable with being the spokesperson for 51% of the world’s population. [...]

By: Raq

Raq — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 18:59:38 +0000

>>Does his theory that women see less advantage in specialisation mean that they’ll be alienated by the common RPG mechanic where levelling-up in one field disables your potential in another?

YES!!!!

OK, maybe that’s just me, but I’ve been hacking pen-and-paper D&D for decades now to get away from this.

It used to be said that men “compartmentalized;” now it’s said that women “multi-task.” Whatever. I know that during 48-hour Civ3 or Civ4 marathons, I was the only one constantly shelling out to check my email, read my boards, play FreeCell. All the guys stayed on focus (and I always came in 2nd out of 5).

And I second the request to let players save at any time. It’s crucial.

By: frank mainwaring

frank mainwaring — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 18:02:31 +0000

I own a small Gaming Centre, where people who don’t own the latest and greatest games, or don’t have the latest must-have hardware, and I find that although I have a mostly-male clientele for the games I provide, I do have a significant proportion of women gamers.
I prefer a light touch in dealing with my customers – a word here or there in dealing with the over-noisy or offensive, and I find that my customers like it.
I do not judge what games people like, instead telling every one when a new game comes into the store – even if they don’t play that genre.
I find the women to be quite bloodthirsty once they realise we males don’t mind!
I find the women to be very competitive when you find the right prize, and they have a great time socialising with games.
I think the divide over games can be down to marketing – think of how many Lara’s and Samus Aran’s there are on posters wearing next to nothing – and only when you get down to what a game is (an interactive medium that allows you to explore it in a way that book and film can’t) that the distinctions of gender fade away and become personal preference.

By: Eloise

Eloise — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 12:55:00 +0000

This is a really interesting post. I tend to get treated by work colleagues as though I have something wrong with me mentally, as a woman in her thirties who is also a gamer, whereas male gamers of the same age do not raise an eyebrow. I don’t fit the usual stereotype for women gamers, though, as, liking my games violent and bloody, I’m currently spitting feathers that Manhunt II has not been given a certificate and am the most anti-social player on WoW, which perhaps goes to show that gamemakers should beware of making too many assumptions about gender differences between gamers.

By: FantasyMeister

FantasyMeister — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 10:57:00 +0000

Perhaps it's not the types of games or hardware we should be looking at, but the reasons for wanting to play a videogame in the first place.

I think the main reason we had so few female gamers when the industry first started up was because the technology wasn't there to allow them to socialise so gaming was mostly a solitary affair. Now that we have online capabilities, instant messaging, comms, even cross-platform capabilities there are a whole spectrum of socialising opportunities, World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy XI might be good examples to cite.

I think we can thank Nintendo for going a long way to improving things, they've tapped into something but I'm still not sure what that something is. I have a sneaky suspicion it's along the lines of 'Get 'em while they're young' but there's something else going on too; perhaps it's just clever marketing and I'm reading too much into it, or perhaps the Wii and WiFi capablities have really kicked off the social aspects of gaming this generation.

I think the main factor nowadays is the ability to communicate and socialise. As this feature is further enabled by technology the current ratio of male gamers to female gamers might sort itself out.

Whatever the outcome I think male gamers will continue to be just as diverse in what games they choose to play as female gamers will, so trying to nail the problem is always going to be tricky. Even worse, I think we're also going to continue to be just as diverse in our reasons for playing games in the first place, which makes the problem a nightmare.

On a side note:

There's a short article floating about on the internet entitled "The Mystery of Girls and Horses" by Caterina Tadlock, highly recommended if you're looking for more obscure reasons why games like Pippa Funnell series get such a disproportionate girls to boys following. I found the article fascinating because it was written from a horse lover's perspective, not a gamer's. (I was reading it because I'm a horse lover and found it when trying to help someone with a Pippa Funnell walkthrough because I'm a gamer).

And on a further sidenote: Great blog, keep up the good work!

By: Sharon

Sharon — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 10:10:00 +0000

I fully agree with your comment that games possibly need to allow for women’s busy, fragmented lives. I’ve had to give up on games I’ve enjoyed because they don’t have regular opportunities to save. I lost an hour or more Genji DotB because I couldn’t find a save point I could get to and the children needed feedung (pesky kids lol). Games like Oblivion are the best as I can save when and where I want. Designers take note – pretty please