@ahoodedfigure said:
" Yeah, this is too much. It's a bit strange to see all of these things sort of piled on to each other as if it's trying to hit as big a demographic as possible.
I don't think anyone really knows what "girls" want because girls are human beings first, and therefore have a wide variety of interests just like boys do. They tend to be pushed in one direction by parents who have grown out of this stage, who often were pressured when THEY were young to go in a certain direction and are now repeating that behavior on their kids, and who respond to social pressure to make their kid "grow up right" from society's own stereotypes and from the distilled reactions of their peers.
The girly girls would probably already be doing things like these in-person with actual people and would have no use for a video game version of this. Wouldn't this feel a bit hollow? Why not have generalized social interaction and let the kids determine what kind of things they actually do during these gatherings, instead of limiting interaction to pillow fights :P
Still, I'm not so sure that people who do genuine research necessarily get things right, either. I think the problem is when you segment the population you automatically skew the results, because then you're forced to look for majority opinions, which tend to be watered down and don't inspire innovative thinking.
There are two TED conferences that come to mind when I'm typing about this. The first is a talk by Brenda Laurel, who started up a company that had to do with specific targeting of girls in the 90's, and produced some interesting results that don't conform to the stereotypes you see above, OR the stereotypes that a lot of people seem to push on young women now as the supposedly proper things to learn:
http://www.ted.com/talks/brenda_laurel_on_making_games_for_girls.html
The second has more to do with marketing foodstuffs to consumers, but hits upon a point that I think is relevant to producing targeted games: that there is no one right product, but instead there are many right products which serve many different needs and desires. Assuming you are going to pick the single right thing that will win the hearts and dollars of the consumer public is a recipe for disaster:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/malcolm_gladwell_on_spaghetti_sauce.htmlAnother thing that bugs me about these topics is that every time that we bring up how girls are better and more varied than what these marketers have assumed, we instantly come down on boys. This is infuriating, as it serves no constructive purpose. Think about boys going through the exact same thing, being given things that are sex appropriate and being pressured into thinking this is the "boy's" way of doing things, or being told that because they like the occasional violent game that they are being the typical, destructive boy and are incapable of any sort of growth. Let's not kid ourselves into thinking that sex stereotyping only affects half of the population. "
The shotgun effect is in place and I understand its application in marketing product. To get the attention of the biggest market as possible, you have to tick as many boxes as possible. It is in fact the reason I failed to use my education in Marketing for my life. I found my soul and I didn't want to sell it back.
It is very true that many boys have the same issues as girls, but what happens to girls seems all the more blatant and in my opinion, worse. What makes it worse it the sexualisation aspect of it. It laces everything you see marketed at young girls now and these type of games, especially on the DS are amongst the bad end of the spectrum.
I don't do sport and to be honest, I wanted 2 girls and was very content that I didn't have boys. I like art, music, science, history and politics. I know there was every chance I would have a boy that would share my disinterest in sport, but there was also every risk that I would spend all my spare time at the hockey or netball courts. Luckily for me, neither daughter has an interest in sport. Thing is, like a good father, I would have supported any interest my children had irrespective of my own tatses.
I do see many boys being effectively coerced into masculine endeavours by their fathers (and mothers as well at times) and I feel for those kids. They are living the life chosen and directed by others. I grew up labelled as the boy most likely to be gay. In the 1960s, that wasn't easy. I know the pressures of conforming. I chose stage acting as a teenager and starred once as Peter Pan - it didn't help the perception, but I didn't care. These kind of experiences made me the person I am and it is why I tend to get a little miffed at stereotyping and conformist pressure. Again, as a father of girls, my interest largely sits with what I live. My youngest dresses like an undertaker, plays Persona, writes poetry about suicide and is facinated by all things dark and eerie. I do get get unwanted advice about why I should "redirect" her. She is fine, she is happy and she is who she is. If I was to advice them that their daughters were likely to be sexually active before their time, by the way they let them dress and behave, then they would be insulted and angry at me - yet they feel fine advising me with unwanted and incorrect advice. I will only support her not control her. I think she could be a good artist of some type one day and I will feed her choices. Games like this are not on her agenda.
Sorry for my personal ramblings :-)
Log in to comment