Videos games and women.

I was watching this:

Women+Video Games = ERROR

That being said, I've played with plenty of women in games like TF2 and L4D, also they are pretty good too. What I don't like though, is when I'm playing with one of these women in these games, and some dude comes in and plays awful because he's trying to "hook up" with these people.

That video was really well made. I really agree with what he was saying. The industry needs to make games for people amd stop trying to target men and women. I played games like Rock Band and many Wii games with girls and they enjoyed the games as much as I did if not more.

"Games for people." This is the answer. Just making good games that can appeal to anyone. Not everything has to take this route, but it would be nice if more games did.
On casual games as gateway games, I've never been convinced that this is actually the case. Speaking anecdotally, I've not yet found anyone who started playing simpler games and moved on to the hard stuff. Even though I bought my stepmom Mario Kart Double Dash, all she ever plays on her Gamecube is Animal Crossing. I seem to be having better luck with my little sister, though...

That's just one of the reasons my GF is so awesome! 

She plays or at least watches me play nearly every game I get.  I also play things like Cooking Mama or Wii Sports at her request, at times... and we're both gunna team-up and kick some ass when Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver comes-out!! 

She sure does hate them Strategy games though :p 

Men aren't allowed their own hobby now? What, are women not happy with gardening, sewing, feng shui, etc etc..?

I kid I kid. I know a few girls that are gamers (in fact, due to the crowd I hang with, almost all the girls I know at least own a console, some of them are even hardcore into fighting games, well, one of them)

I honestly don't think the industry would benefit by pushing out more shit like Wall-E, more games that appeal to a wider audience? Sure, not a problem, but not in the stead of traditional games, they should be in addition to.

Leigh Alexander?
Again...
NOOOO
MY NIGHTMARES ARE COMING BACK
AHHHHHHHHHHH
that was the worst bombcast EVER.

To begin with, my niece is one of those girls who can kick most anyone's ass in Halo.  She put in a lot of time on the game and developed a strong skill set.  Additionally, I've met a ton of experienced female gamers while playing WOW.  As the video above suggests, there are female gamers out their that cross the spectrum of game play.  But, overall I question if what will be accomplished by the current direction of game makers will be unification of gamers or expanded segregation.  If young girls are introduced into gaming by playing casual games, then I doubt there is much chance they will graduate to chainsawing the Locust with their male counterparts on their own.  My niece started playing Halo because her boyfriend (at the time) played it and this was a way they could share time together.  What might develop are games meant for girls made by women in the industry and games for guys full of explosions, bare-chested he-men and eviscerations.  Certainly, I'm not saying there won't be a middle ground where gamers of both genders meet, but it won't be the ideal of inviting them into our (male) club.  There will be a guy's club, a girl's club, and a hodge-podge club in the middle.  I think this is because of the fundamentally different way girls and boys play.  By and large, boys grow up playing aggressive, competitive games while girls play games that encourage developing social skills and cooperation. This may be genetic since men are inherently hunter-providers and women are family-support centered.  I don't mean that comment to sound demeaning.  God knows I think that the male aggressive nature is responsible for most of the pain in the world.  But, I can't deny that the two sexes are different and therefore approach all experiences with distinct viewpoints.  The question that needs to be asked is what do female gamers want in their games and can it be accomplished by current technology?  Most games are cause-effect in nature with their game play.  Kill guy "A" to progress to "B" area.  Even RPGs, a game type historically enjoyed by girls who do game, tend to follow a similar mechanic.  If in the future, games that allow forging relationships through creative conversation and collaboration to achieve a goal are made possible then that might be more attractive to female gamers.   In some such games, overcoming the obstacle might not even be as important as just expressing the player's views.  I'm not sure how much that game would appeal to male gamers though since nothing is solved at the end of the day.  And so, the division between girl and guy gamers remain, it's just there are a lot more people playing separately.

I'm a female gamer and i have always loved video games. I've played a little of everything but prefer to stay away from Shooters.

That video was actually very good and I'm sure we all know at least one girl who we can refer to as a "core gamer". I also think that the real answer to breaking down the gender barriers is "games for everyone", I'm not saying that in the future all games should be neutralized to a such a perfect balance that there are no games that appeal specifically to either gender, but introducing more games to the market that both genders can enjoy definitely seems like a step in the right direction. I think it may also be an idea for more games aimed at females to be made in a way that better represents the complexity of some of the "core" games many of us males enjoy; yes there are female-oriented games out on the market but I think that continuing to only produce games like Cooking Mama and the Imagine!: Babies for the female audience is nothing less than deeply patronizing. However it's easy enough to sit around and say about what should be done, how easy all this is to realistically implement is a different issue. Although I'm sure many of the companies that are developing and producing todays games would like to see a larger number number of females in gaming so they even an even larger potential number of consumers for their games, I'm sure many will actually be reluctant to make any changes to suit the female market. If we look at things now, consoles like the Wii and DS have reeled in a huge number of casual gamers and a very large number of them are female, why actually market and develop more complex games for females or work on breaking down the gender barriers when you can produce any old rubbish that'll have you flailing your arms around in your front room that they know that the casual gamer will lap it up like milk? To go out of your way to start creating games that bridge the gap between casual games and core games and bring together elements of games aimed at males and games aimed at females is a big risk and although you'll always get the odd developer-producer partnership that is willing to take a risk taking action as an entire industry is a completely different issue. Eventually I'm sure there will come a time where male gamers and female gamers will be able to sit down side by side and just enjoy a game without stressing over whether it is a male or female oriented game, just like I can sit down with a female friend and we can both get the same amount of enjoyment out of a movie, but inevitably there will of course always be games aimed and males and games aimed at females and I don't think that's a bad thing. However I do think we are far from this fabled video game ideology we're talking about and that it won't be until more female gamers actually make a conscious leap from the casual games they play to something deeper and say "Hey that Playstation controller isn't so far from the wiimote I pick up and play with every day, maybe I should give it a try", that we'll start to see a greater incentive for video game companies to produce games that both genders can enjoy.

Will Leigh Alexander ever reappear on Giant Bombcast.....





NEVER!!!

haha, awesome interpretation of the current state of gaming...

Other than maybe one girl plus my sister, I don't know any other girl who plays video games...but even my sister RARELY plays video games...and we don't even own a wii, or maybe she'd play more...

But yeah, hopefully the gender barrier is broken soon!  He was right, though.  Target the young ones and usher in a new age of girl gamers!  lol.

Leigh Alexander is an insufferable idiot. She (and many other gamers, male and female) seems to think that the female gamer is something special, something to be treasured, like a godess. No, You are just another person who plays video games, but you have breasts. What ever.

\

as soon as the video said 'leigh alexander' i had to stop watching it...

& i know this isn't directed at me, but i'm going to answer it anyway!
"Do you want more female gamers?"
do guys want more female gamers, is that really a question?  why wouldn't they?  if there were more girl gamers it would start forcing a portion of the "normal girl" population to become at least a little more interesting, or possibly, in a perfect world, more intelligent!  if i have children they will be playing games as soon as they can hold a controller, that's how i grew up & i lovingly blame gaming for influencing my whole life.  now i want to design games.  i don't think of myself as special for being a female gamer, but rather lucky & privileged that i was raised in a family that doesn't value bullshit & encouraged me to play games!  it also gives me the ability to connect with men on a level that they might not get often.  i love talking with guys about video games!  in fact if a guy can't converse with me about video games, i usually don't try ever again, lol!  [<--truth!] if men & women could relate to each other over gaming it would only allow them to become closer & more understanding of each other n_n

so you can't make a game that appeals only towards women, like some sort of love story type game, because it won't sell well.

According to a Nielsen Company study last April, almost 50 percent of all PC gamers are female, with hit PC titles like The Sims played primarily by women. The latest Sims iteration, The Sims 3, sold more than 1.4 million copies a week after its release, presumably bolstered by that aforementioned demographic. However, a new study by the NPD Group shows that female gamers branch well beyond the PC platform and now constitute more than a quarter of all console video gamers.

Does holding a Wii peripheral cause an irrepressible urge to strike a pose?

In NPD's Gamer Augmentation 2009 report released today, the industry-tracking group revealed new figures that show 28 percent of all console video gamers are female in 2009, up from 23 percent last year. NPD attributed the five-point rise to the Nintendo Wii, which it believes has attracted a large number of new female gamers. It reports that Wii usage has increased by 19 percent from 2008 for all demographics.

At the 2007 Women in Games Conference, Electronic Arts VP Sharon Knight said that the Wii is attractive to female gamers because of the console's accessibility.

"The Wii levels the playing field," she said. "You don't embarrass yourself--you can grab it and right away start having fun. ... [Wii games] don't require the same investment to learn and to master how to pick up and play [as other consoles' games]."

The NPD study also contained a few other figures on other gamer demographics. It found that "extreme gamers" played an average of 39 hours per week, down from about 46 hours last year. Even though the NPD Group found that extreme gamers have the lowest average household income out of all gamer demographics, they dole out the most cash to buy games. Extreme gamers purchased an average of 24 titles in the 2008 holiday quarter. However, the study reported that the demographic only makes up 4 percent of all gamers.

The amount of time gamers spend playing online has remained the same relative to last year, despite what the NPD calls a "focus of industry on more online gameplay opportunities." On average, 38 percent of a gamer's time was spent playing online.

The Gamer Augmentation 2009 study was conducted in January 2009 with more than 20,000 participants ages 2-65 and above and includes data from the 2008 holiday season. Survey data was weighted to portray gaming trends only within the US.

Since we were all raised to fit our respective role models not a lot of women are, or will be, playing video games because playing them, or being interested in entertainment electronics, is considered a male thing by society. The medium video game as it is is relatievely new in general awareness and still has a bit to go until it is as broadely accepted as viewing a movie for entertainement. Heck, only 20 years ago people considered you to be a computer freak just because you OWNED a pc. Not to mention the role model of the geek with big glasses which were taped together in the middle.

Pretty well put video.......anyone else think the host sounded like a Salarian? XD

I think that  a lot of girls just don't like all the violence. My sister for instance goes angry at me whenever I play God of War, because I am killing the 'innocent' zombies.