| 71 posts found | ||
|---|---|---|
|
New writer Donna Desborough pens her first editorial for the site and dismisses the sometimes popular belief that girls do not play games. They do and Donna looks at what they like to do and how they differ from their male counterparts.
To read her full column click here. |
||
|
I would be interested in what the female population of MMORPG thinks are the draws for them.
I know that a big draw for me is the ability to customize my avatar, is that an important draw for lady gamers as well? (generally speaking). -Raenz- |
||
|
Of the players i know online prolly 1 out of 5 are female gamers. Generally older then 30. Housewives and corprate execs with to much time on there hands. Some even as old as 65 and up. Grandmothers wanting a social life after there kids have long since left them high and dry. What has been fairly rare tell recently was game girls below the age of 20. Im finding more and more of them. Especially on the more social friendly games such as CoH and Wow. Ironically my own mother is a female gamer and met her new husband online. Lol thats a long story since i introduced her to him. Ah and there is the real reason guys and girls gaming causes controvery. Love.
|
||
|
Yamota
 Elite Member
Joined: 10/05/03
Achiever 46.67%, Explorer 60.00%, Killer 80.00%, Socializer 13.33% |
Excuse me but one women should know what "female gamers want"? Oh please, its like saying some guy would make an article saying what male gamers want when even in the realitevely small MMORPG genre there are thousands of different views on the best MMORPG. Male or female is too large of a group to generalise like that. Also from my 10 years experience in MMORPGS female gamers are either reluctant to say that they are female or the portion of female gamers in MMORPGS is quite small compared to male gamers. (Sims Online excluded). They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary |
|
|
Being a girl (woman :p) gamer since the 80's and the Atari 2600 and Commodore 64. I can tell you want I don't want. I don't want any stupid girly, girl games like I saw on the eb games site once. A shopping game, trumpeting that it was especially for the female gamer. Pulease! I felt like taking a shotgun to the game package. :D I agree one of the most important things is community. When I played Wow we had a guild that had a family feel to it. I admit that I am not all that gung-ho on fps, I prefer rpg's. But if you were in my house and saw the game selection, I think you would not be able to tell I am a woman from them. I have everything from the Sims and Zoo Tycoon to Baldur's Gate II to Battlefield 1942. :p Right now I am obsessed with Oblivion! And I recently preordered Auto Assault. Do not think that you need to single us out to make a "special" game just for us....I can almost guarantee that it will fail. Julie "Lissette" Myers |
||
In answer to your question the customisation of your character in an MMORPG is the main pull for myself, my first MMORPG was SWG, and I fell in love with the game for its character creation, best part of the game hands down :) Though I wish there were more science fiction MMORPGs out there which weren't copies of Phantasy Star or flighty ones like EVE, which are all good and fun, but I want more science fiction :P Thats what I want out of mmorps ^^ "We could walk right by and she wouldn't be able to stop us." |
||
|
As to the equality bit, there is a bit wrong with this topic:
Wanting equality is all well and good... but the reality of it is that it doesn't really exist. I am a fairly expeienced MMORPG gamer: I've played MUDs in additon to UO, EQ, among many others. Most males can and will tell you that females characters are definitely treated differently than male characters. I have played both (I'm a female in real life) and can say that this is true. I have plenty of male friends who all agree that females are treated differently. Hell, some of them even have female characters just so that they can gain money/exp/items from a kind male character for whatever reason. Check this out: http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=3635 |
||
|
*nods in agreement*
All I can say is this: FFX11 |
||
*nods in agreement* All I can say is this: FFX1 |
||
|
Personally I get really tired of the girl (woman) gamer myth rehashed over and over. Myself being a woman I've been online gaming since MUDs were born, fragged since Doom and Duke Nukem was released and played mmo's since The Realm. Just give me a great playable game, with immersion, good controls and a pc please. If I like it I will continue to play.
I enjoy games just as much as the typical male. It's the competition, working together for a common goal on a quest, chatting it up about equipment, taking you out with my shotgun in Quake, or just forming online friendships. I'm tired of people trying to put us in a category all of our own. Sure more of us might like the SIMs, but then the SIM's was in a league of it's own with no similar competition when it released. |
||
|
Rikimaru_X
 Guru
Joined: 6/06/04
"And I Aint Ever Ran From A Ninja And I Damn Sho Aint Bout To Pick Today To Start Runnin" |
I can tell you straight up, a female does not want to be treated like a man (we go though harsh stuff with our own sex. You should be proud you can say would you want and not (hope not) get the snot beat out of you). Sorry if that went off a little harsh though. Female gamers are getting was male games want. It always been that way. Gamplay, Graphics, PVP, Community, etc. Now I got to contemplate about this artical. I read so many "female gamer" articles that I'm about to go blind (not a bad thing). It's just so many simple solutions to these complicated problems. I read how some females are offended by the sex appeal of video games when they are buying female magazines that talk about sex and sex appeal itself (far beyond any video game). Making them feel bad and not good about how they look on an everyday basis. There has always been female gamers. I would I could get a really good debate on a topic like this to see what some of these females mean or where they are comming from. Sorry for spelling and grammer. -In memory of Laura "Taera" Genender. Passed away on Aug/13/08- |
|
I can also agree with this. Females have played games. They exist. Let it go already. It's one thing to write about female games and quite another thing to verify a "female gamer myth". No use beating a dead horse.` |
||
Now that's an episode of Jerry Springer waiting to happen if I've ever heard one. But seriously, this article was missing two major things: 1. Proof to back up what its title claims. Basically, you're saying that you speak for a wide range of female gamers, yet I see no link to a study, survey, or poll. Without that evidence, what you're basically saying is "here's what I want in a game, but I'm going to introduce it like I represent an entire demographic of people." Now, there's nothing at all wrong with writing a "here's what I think" opinion piece. Your opinion is interesting and worth reading, but don't say that you're the avatar of all female gamers if you've done no data collection to even remotely back up that inference. 2. Regardless of whether you're speaking for yourself, some portion of female gamers, or all the women on Earth, what you've basically described is a wants list of what most people would like to see in an MMORPG. When you draw someone in with a title that suggest you're about to reveal, with an inside perspective, what women want in online games, don't just throw us a few paragraphs of fluff with industry buzz words and meaningless redundancies. "I want a good community." Everyone wants a good community in their MMORPG. Have you ever seen someone come out and say "I want a childish mob of gankers, whiners, and strangers that speak only in Internet slang punctuated with profanity!" Of course not. "I want worthwhile PvP." Everyone wants that in an MMORPG! The people who don't care for PvP with a purpose are probably playing Counterstrike, not an MMORPG. "I want equality." When is the last time someone listed the features they were looking for in an MMORPG and included the phrase "I want to be treated like a second class citizen or outright abused because of my race, gender, religion, and/or sexual orientation!" What you've listed as your "what female gamers want" is just a carbon copy of every forum post here where someone has listed what they'd like to see in a perfect MMORPG. __________ |
||
|
Rikimaru_X
Guru
Joined: 6/06/04
"And I Aint Ever Ran From A Ninja And I Damn Sho Aint Bout To Pick Today To Start Runnin" |
I agree with you. It's as if some people (or women) think that the rise of female gamers is beginning when it's been there for years. You are the first female (I think) I ever herd that has mentioned Duke Nukem. I'm guessing you go way back (like my father). -In memory of Laura "Taera" Genender. Passed away on Aug/13/08- |
|
|
Rikimaru_X
Guru
Joined: 6/06/04
"And I Aint Ever Ran From A Ninja And I Damn Sho Aint Bout To Pick Today To Start Runnin" |
I wish I could give you a high five on that rentantilus. That is just basicly what I got when I finished reading this artical. "A carbon copy of every forum post here where someone has listed that they'd like to see in a perfect MMORPG."
-In memory of Laura "Taera" Genender. Passed away on Aug/13/08- |
|
Ack I hope I'm not as old as your father! LOL But yeah I'm in my mid 30's and have been gaming for a while now. I'm addicted, I admit it and I don't ever want to find a cure!  |
||
|
Excellent article. Nice job.
-G
|
||
|
I used to think that perhaps women did want other things from games than men but it simply isn't true. The reasons we women play are just as varied as why men play so there's no magic 'ingredient' to put in games to draw and retain women. Personally, I enjoy mmorpgs, rpgs, and games like CIV as well as the old adventure games. I started playing with no prompting whatsoever as soon as I owned my first pc in 1987 and have been playing mmorpgs since UO. In fact, I rarely watch tv and prefer gaming any day of the week just like my husband and most people I know who are gamers, male and female. -Tessa |
||
|
I enjoyed, and agreed with your entire article. I think what some people are missing, is that it is being rehashed because so many still claim that either there are no female gamers or that we can be filed away as only interested in "girlie" things. I would bet its the continued misconceptions from the community that inspired this article. One thing I would add to what you said about community, is that while yes I enjoy having people there to help me and answer questions, I also really enjoy helping others. In fact, I quite often would go to the noob areas in SWG and help a random person who seemed lost but wasnt spamming for donations or being rude. Anyway, good comments and enjoyable article. "The man who exchanges Liberty for Iconic classes is a fool deserving of neither." - Me and Ben Franklin |
||
|
I get so tired of seeing this rehashed all the time. Women have been playing games since they first started. I have played games since pong, and I am a woman. Even the first computer programer was a woman.
Women want what everyone wants, a good well designed game that is fun to play. |
||
There are no links to research source because it was done via several means and personal exerience with other female gamers. Donna Desborough Notice: The views expressed in this post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com or its management. |
||
|
Female gamers are not a myth, however, single female gamers are! :) In WoW, my two best friends are female gamers. I met them in the game. However, just like any female I've met in WoW, they are married and basically got into the game because their husbands stopped paying attention to them. They started to play WoW to get closer to their husbands and they themselves found out how much they too love the game. It is human nature for men to treat women differently. Just because we are human beings interacting with each other in a game world should not make any difference. Just like in real life, I would prefer hanging out with females rather than males. I have always gotten along with the opposite sex better. As a result, some people think that the females who hang out with me online are taking advantage of me because they are girls and I'm a guy and they can get whatever they want from me. The truth is, I help out everyone equally, male or female. I don't give things to or help out a female just because she's a female. Most of the time, they just happen to be a friend, who is also female, and so any help/assistance I give them always looks like "Oh he's just helping her because she's a girl." Lets Eat It! |
||
|
I have female friend who is 22 and pretty...but she lives in nevada and closest RL neighbor is 20 miles away...thats her excuse.
|
||
That's another myth that dearly needs to be broken to shreds. I know many single female gamers. I met my husband via gaming. I've been gaming since I was a kid and I'm 30 now and only been married 5 years. So yes there are single female gamers, lots of them. In the MMO I play I do get treated differantly by some, I think, because I'm female. But to counter that I also get a hell of alot of respect from other gamers because I'm female and the leader of a rather successful guild. So the differant treatment can be varied depending on the person(s) involved. Also differant MMOs help to foster certain kind of responses depending on the overall game attitude. Not to say these games are bad, but differant games create/attract differant attitudes Donna Desborough Notice: The views expressed in this post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com or its management. |
||
|
Renegade94
Novice Member
Joined: 11/28/04
God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh. - Voltaire |
I know this is kinda out of the blue but.....laurendc, that link u posted on this thread made my day. As i read this, i laughing like a maniac. if u ppl haven't read this, you're really missing out. an yes, the link does deal with this topic. XD
http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=3635 you have to read this! |
|
;)
