Comments on: Siliconera Sounds Off: Appealing To Core Girl Gamers

By: Vanilla

Vanilla — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:29:40 +0000

Fair point, but I guess I'm just looking at it from a far more gender-neutral position because I'm a gamer who is pretty much open to all sorts of games. I have to admit MGS appealed to me enough without Raiden, but I'll also concede that he also made it so much better for me.

By: MelodyKitn

MelodyKitn — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:14:32 +0000

Don't forget Fatal Frame!

Come to think of it.. at a fansite for FF I used to visit, there were a lot of female players who were definitely into it and similar vein of games. Perhaps it's the not-so-helpless female leads, the customization, or the atmosphere… or maybe they just liked scaring the bejeezus out of themselves like I did.

By: Vanilla

Vanilla — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:29:40 +0000

By: MelodyKitn

MelodyKitn — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:14:32 +0000

Don't forget Fatal Frame!

By: matty

matty — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:13:47 +0000

You got a point there! I remember a lot cosplayers of Heather from Silent Hill 3 over the years. She really struck a chord with fans.

Interestingly enough, it was the women in Team Silent that helped what made her appealing (for clothes, at least).

By: honorless

honorless — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:53:48 +0000

My, what an ugly little troll you are!

By: Trotmeister

Trotmeister — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:08:28 +0000

No offense, but girl gamer Jenni could sure lose some weight.

By: Ereek

Ereek — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:13:39 +0000

She has always been surprisingly supportive of my gaming and has even gotten into it a bit herself, with the DS. From what I see, she really has a good time with games that have a sense of humor and dislike games that take themselves too seriously. Using the MGS example, she loved how you could "splat" when rolling up and down the stairs in the Communication Tower.

I also think that's why a lot of the light-hearted games remain popular, like Mario. Even "serious" games like GTA or GoW are overall comical in how extreme they are and they're hard to take seriously. On that note, years ago when GoW first came out, we were playing around, switching back and forth, when we came to the puzzle, the one I feel is the high point of the game, where you have to throw the caged man into the trap to continue. She remembers that to this day, even though we didn't play together for more than a few hours.

As for anime, she really liked Dragonball Z - weird, I know -, Tenchi Muyo!, and Fushigii Yuugi. I should probably introduce her to Kenshin, I think she'd like it. I haven't watched anime in quite some time, so I don't know how good many of the newer ones are.

All I have to say to the developers trying to win over younger girls: Don't underestimate the power of an attractive protagonist or antagonist. Japan does this right; Sephiroth, and the newer Genesis, has remained popular with many girls 10+ years later for a reason.

By: Ishaan

Ishaan — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:39:07 +0000

It's really hard to say what the split is like, but it would be awesome to run some kind of poll to see what the SE audience thinks sometime down the line. Like Laura said, Resident Evil 4 in particular might be popular amongst the female audience because of the way Leon is designed.

Another thing to keep in mind — and this is a relatively small niche — are the cosplayers. Sometimes, that can help attract the attention of people that wouldn't normally pay attention to a certain game otherwise.

By: Ishaan

Ishaan — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:28:09 +0000

Fully agree with your dating-sim point. I think it's great that more games are starting to incorporate those, and I keep hoping it'll lead people to pay a little more attention to bishoujo games in general, since some of those do a great job of developing characters and exploring their interactions. Dating-sim aspects definitely help make the genre more appealing.

I'm surprised to hear your mother liked Metal Gear though. Haha, didn't see that coming. There was a time, years ago, when my mother REALLY got into Rurouni Kenshin (I believe it was partially due to how romanticized it was) and ended up watching the entire series.

By: matty

matty — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 04:08:00 +0000

Is it me or is there an enormous presence of women when it comes to survival/horror games?
That's really cool, but tell me if I'm exaggerating if I say the gender audience is evenly split on some series like Silent Hill, possibly even more female fans on certain series like Rule of Rose and Clock Tower.
I've noticed this for a long while, especially on fan based sites/communities, but was wondering if anyone else saw that as well in this particular genre.

By: matty

matty — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:51:09 +0000

Hmm… it isn't so much of games being made for certain people or genders, but how they present it. I remember a while back seeing a picture of a GameStop store and they had a small campaign called “Games 4 Girls”, then I saw Cooking Mama, Bratz, and the like. Firstly, I love Mama(!), but then I thought “yeah, maybe girls and women are the majority that drive these games, but it you're kind of selling everyone short by being stuck in that mentality if you're pushing a campaign like this'.
There was a poster here a while back that wrote an excellent article about this topic, but sadly it seems to be down (with the whole site), but I commented on her article along the lines of “think of how games presented themselves in the late 80s/early 90s and even then there were the Barbie games and such. They tried, honestly, but I'm not sure if it worked then, either”. I really wish that site didn't go down, we had some good points, but I guess that's the idea.

Then again, it was Kojima's idea appeal to a greater female audience by adding Raiden to the MGS series. I'm not sure how well that worked. eh, give and take.

By: shirokiryuu

shirokiryuu — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:23:47 +0000

This is me. I have terrible reflexes, and prefer RPGs and visual novel-esque games because of that. I have to admit having dating sim elements does appeal to me, (if the protagonist is a girl). However on the other end of the spectrum, my best friend, also a girl loooooves FPS, fighting games, and has great reflexes.

By: Pichi

Pichi — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:11:18 +0000

I just play whatever appeals to me. Doesn't matter who its targeted towards. Helps to know what one is interested in and just try it out.

By: Joanna_T

Joanna_T — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 23:09:41 +0000

I don't know. I tried FPS and I still don't like them. I play games mainly to relax and FPS are too intense for such purposes. I do play platformers, but they aren't necessarily intense (you can pause and think of a strategy of finishing the level or boss). So I guess if you want to appeal to the relaxed kind of gamer, create a more relaxing atmosphere….haha yeah I know this is impossible for some genres. I guess it boils down to what you want from your entertainment. I want relaxation and immersion so RPGs, Sims, Strategy games, & puzzle games are perfect for me. If you want excitement, then more reflex oriented games like FPS and survival horror games would appeal.