Check out Wired's take on new games for girls released in 2009, in which all but one ("The Daring Game for Girls") is about fashion, boys, princesses, modeling, and more fashion. Well, there is a detective game, but you solve mysteries using your "feminine sixth sense," so I wouldn't necessarily put that in the feminist-friendly category. In the post, Tracey John compares games targeted towards girls with typical "boys' games":
Some parents worry that videogames might cause their children to become violent and antisocial, but what if the opposite were true? What if games could make kids exceedingly likable and fashionable?...
The weird thing is that you can view these "wholesome" games as being just as bad for girls as Grand Theft Auto's random bloodshed and rampant criminality is for young, impressionable boys. And while GTA's influence on boys has been dissected to death, what about the Nintendo DS' upcoming avalanche of games for tween girls? What kinds of values do preteens learn from these titles? Valuable life lessons, or bad habits?
While it's an interesting comparison, I don't know if I would say the problem is that the games are making girls more likable; it's that they're pushing narrow and damaging standards of what they need to be or look like or who they need to like to be liked.
When I was a kid, Super Mario Bros. and Tetris were the games I played. Not to say Mario Bros. didn't have issues, but still - what the hell happened? Folks finally realized female gamers were marketable and had to feminize the shit out of it? Does anyone know of new games targeted towards younger girls that aren't completely warped?
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"When I was a kid, Super Mario Bros. and Tetris were the games I played. (Not to say Mario Bros. didn't have issues, but still.) What the hell happened? Folks finally realized female gamers were marketable and had to feminize the shit out of it?"
This.
It's funny; I don't recall games being gendered when I was a kid either. Super Mario and Zelda and Sonic and, generally, most games, all had male main characters and male enemies and stuff, and in way too many cases your job was to rescue a princess--but there was no gendering in the marketing. Video games were the universal non-gendered toy, the one boys and girls could share. And other than the knight-rescuing-the-princess dynamic and the default male hero, there weren't really any gendered values or ideals taught; just an adventure story.
I mean, what the fuck, Nintendo. Way to get duped by Bratz culture.
I don't know if there was NO gendering in the marketing - how many video game commercials in the 90s showed girls sitting on a couch with controllers in their hands? I've always gotten the feeling that video games were assumed to be for a male consumer, and the previous lack of pink and Barbie and stuff made it seem non-gendered. Once game publishers realized that girls were playing too, rather than just assuming girls like good games (you know, like boys do), they needed to pink it all up.
Eh I don't think they were duped. I probably think it was a conscious decision.
"Wow, look, girls have been trained to buy all sorts of 'feminine' crap - let's get some of that sexism moneyz!"
Woah, don't blame Nintendo on this one. This game was made by a third party. All Nintendo did was create a license and a platform and then lets others develop for it.
Don't forget that Nintendo, itself, has made Samus Aran!
Granted, Nintendo doesn't have the best track record when it comes to creating strong, female leads. However, Peach has gone from being constantly captured by various Big Bads to leading in her own games, participating as an equal in sports (in fact, she's arguably better than Mario at racing), and can hold her own in a fight (even if it's frilly and pink).
This kind of makeover has been slowly taking place in all of the FIRST PARTY Nintendo games. There has been less focus on "Saving the Princess" to more general goals like saving the world. Granted, nine times out of ten, it's going to be a boy/man saving the world, but there has been improvement.
tl;dr: Nintendo shouldn't be blamed for what other developers have made for their system.
I guess you're talking about SNES days, but since the N64 was back in the day as well, I'm guessing you don't remember this Ocarina of Time trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da8vPpA0zuM
STILL the best videogame of all time though in my opinion (and Princess Zelda does become the androgynous Sheik).
Errr, Nintendo wasn't the developer or the publisher for this. It's just released on their system, but they didn't create the game.
Style Savvy is going to be published by Nintendo, the rest on the list were designed and published by other companies.
Thank you. I was going to say, yeah, these are all sad and a little sick, so I totally see the problem, but I missed the part where Nintendo put them all out there. They don't tell people what games to make for their system.
Why can't they just shut up and let us play normal videogames?
Thanks folks, I changed the post, but keep in mind just because Nintendo didn't create all these games doesn't mean housing/selling them makes it okay.
Nintendo is only in the business of "housing/selling" (not sure what you mean by "housing") its own 1st party games.
From all my years of reading video game magazines and websites, I'm not sure if I've ever read anything that would suggest Nintendo (/Sony/Microsoft/etc.) would refuse to allow a 3rd party publisher to create, market and sell a game for its system.
Does anyone else know?
Yeah, they absolutely would, and have. Nintendo in particular was historically quite vigilant about defending its "family-friendly" image by censoring game makers.
I gather things may have changed, likely because censorship is less feasible with more avenues of distribution and marketing are available to publishers.
Nintendo only censored things until the ESRB was established in 1994. Censorship doesn't really happen to games made and sold in North America anymore because developers won't go above the M rating and they known what kind of content will get them to the rating they desire.
Censorship that does go on is usually when developers start bringing games from other countries. Even then that is done by the developers and not by Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo.
Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo usually won't stop developers from selling games on their platforms (except Sony because they have some strange rules that will stop some games being released), because they get royalties from the games. It's profitable for them to allow as many games as possible to be on sale.
I think the most sexist types of media out there are the ones targeted at teenagers--whether its movies, TV's, videogames, whatever.
I imagine an advert trying to sell games like these to boys. Isn't it just utterly thinkable? A boy wouldn't be caught dead playing a game like this, most likely, because of all the shit he'd get from anyone who saw. Le sigh. So what if I'm a 22 yo male? Maybe I really want to play Barbie's Happy Fashion Pony Magic Adventure. It's not fair!!! Damn you, sexist advertisers!!
Maybe this will help:
http://borgpony.deviantart.com/art/six-of-seven-side-view-28061823
Thanks Candela. You got me thinking: What we REALLY need to make video games less sexist is to keep the ponies - but arm them with AK47s and stuff. Y'know. It all balances out. That's how it works, right?
Thank you. That pic made my day.
Who over the age of 9 would want to play that game?
I think the most sexist types of media out there are the ones targeted at teenagers--whether its movies, TV's, videogames, whatever.
I'm an occasional gamer... and I NEVER play the girly games. I play standard fantasy RPGS, or Rock Band. I'm not a big FPS fan, but give me a good role playing game and I'm there. Puzzle games I enjoy but need to purchase.
Girl games? I'm only 22, and I don't remember seeing them before about 2-3 years ago, and even then, it started in the child market, when Barbie decided she needed a website. At least, that's my memory of the marketing.
I think the most sexist types of media out there are the ones targeted at teenagers--whether its movies, TV's, videogames, whatever.
I've never been much for video games (parents thought they would rot my brain) but guh-ross. I never felt like any video games were targeted at me at all.
One positive point - remember that DS commercial with Beyonce? I would take Beyonce as a spokeperson to mean targeting or at least including women as possible consumers, and I believe that that was about at least a brain game or something.
I'm an occasional gamer... and I NEVER play the girly games. I play standard fantasy RPGS, or Rock Band. I'm not a big FPS fan, but give me a good role playing game and I'm there. Puzzle games I enjoy but need to purchase.
Girl games? I'm only 22, and I don't remember seeing them before about 2-3 years ago, and even then, it started in the child market, when Barbie decided she needed a website. At least, that's my memory of the marketing.
I was always a big fan of the Nancy Drew games growing up. And Syberia by Benoit Sokal has a really great female character.
When I was a kid
Nancy Drew was books only.
Wow do I feel old!
I always said that I wanted games to be targeted to the female demographic but this was not what I meant. I think these games started showing up on the Playstation 2, GameCube and GameBoy Advance. It didn't really get out of hand till the Nintendo DS showed up.
It also doesn't help that the majority of developers are male. Being one of four women (in my year) in a video game development program in College was a real eye opener.
How do you want games to be targeted to the female demographic? Your experience in a game development program makes me interested in your perspective. I've always thought that if a game is good, gamers will play it, regardless of their gender, but maybe you have some ideas I haven't thought of.
That may have been a poor choice of words on my part. It's true that if a game is good gamers will play it regardless of gender.
When making a game developers have to think what their target demographic will want to play, target demographic of most games are males, mostly teens. This can lead to some poor design choices that may and can exclude the female demographic.
If developers can include the other half of the population when developing games maybe we could get more female protagonist, more well rounded female characters, less objectification (Soul Calibur 4 makes me cringe at the clothing and bust size of most of the playable female characters), and hopefully less stereotypes.
Faith from the game Mirror's Edge is a good start.
I haven't heard of Mirror's Edge, I will have to look into it.
I haven't yet played it (even though I've owned it for years - like so many of the games in my collection!), but I think PS2's Beyond Good & Evil seems like a game that fits this criteria. And it didn't sell well enough for them to make the sequel...dammit.
I love Beyond Good & Evil, and a sequel was announced last year.
Score! That's great news. Although it will probably mean I will need to bite the bullet and get a PS3 at some point.
It didnt start that late. Barbie games were put out for Super Nintendo back in the day. Early 90's i guess? And they were terrible.
Yeah, I realized that after I posted. I actually have that game. My uncle gave it to me for my birthday I think I played it once. Luckily that same day my Aunt gave me Chrono Trigger.
there's definitely a reason girls like me pretend to be guys when we're playing video games (in places like xbox live) like Call of Duty.
I don't know about new games but I do know that the original Lara Croft games had a focus on problem solving and adventure. At some point the original design team was replaced and the Croft character then became a marketing tool for getting 15 year old boys to play.
When the company gave creative control back to the original head programmer Toby Gard, the first thing he did was reduce Croft's bust size back to what it was orignally, and redirect the marketing of the game from the sexed-up one it had become, back to its roots in problem solving and adventure. Partly, I guess, because he didn't like what they'd done to his character, but also because marketing more to guys had failed and there was an acknowledgement from management that more girls wanted to play that type of game.
I'm not a gamer, but I would imagine that the whole point of video games is to actually do some spatial reasoning----hitting things, how to get from point A to point B while earning points etc.
How in heavens do you make a videogame a relationship issue?
I mean, geez, my little cousin used to play the Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen games---at least that game consisted of driving a car!
I might be misunderstanding your question, but there are video games that are dating sims. The market for them is primarily in Japan, not in the US, but I've gotten a small taste of them when dating side quests are included in RPGs.
I'm working off the pic in the article---it looks like game for ds lite or a playstation or whatever...basically, not a game where there's someone on the other end with feelings. Unless, you're supposed to play it with others who assume those roles?
Ugh. Comments like these are exactly why people don't take gaming seriously. Games these days generally don't involve hitting things to get points unless they're consciously being retro.
Games are a medium just like any other. They can be used to tell stories. What's more, they can be used to tell stories in a radically different manner than books or film, since they're interactive. But this, of course, means the messages they send are that much more important.
I take gaming seriously. I have friends that play Final Fantasy. I understand the movie element---but even with that, you are using magic, swinging a sword etc.
You'll have to forgive my love for Sonic the Hedgehog and House of Dead. :)
You can google "dating sim" if you want more information on this sort of game. Like Alixana said, these are more popular in Japan than the U.S. I'd gather that the games mentioned in the article are influenced somewhat by this genre.
From watching my little sister (she is now 13) and all her friends, not to mention the experience I had as a kid I've realized that girls dont like the pink fashion games marketed to them. I've always leaned toward problem solving games and RPGs and so do the little ones I've watched grow up. When will they realize that games like Myst and FF can be successfully marketed toward girls without dumbing down the controls (as in FFX II where the three female main characters changed clothes during battles to switch classes instead of the more complex system FF usually uses)?
Cheers to Oblivion for being able to create a female character as your lead and having it not affect game play at all.
Switching clothing isn't limited to FF X-2. It goes all the way back to at least FFV, and possibly earlier (I haven't played the original FFIII, which was only released in Japan, but I think the job system might have started there). In FFV, (which was originally released for the Super Nintendo in Japan) the entire team, which consisted of both male and female characters, would change clothing depending on what job you gave them (suits of armor for knights, robes for monks, various pointy hats and corresponding outfits for the all the different mages).
I wouldn't say the FF X-2 job system was more or less complex than systems other FF games had - in FF7, all you did was stick materia in a slot on a weapon to learn its abilities (and those weapons DID change onscreen, just like changing jobs made your clothing change in FF5/X-2). In FF9, you changed weapons instead of clothing to learn new abilities. FF8 was more complex, but a lot of gamers felt it was far more complex than it needed to be.
Right the difference here is that changing the CLASS changed their clothing. As in when you change from a mage to a warrior you get armour- this is normal. I'm refering to the menu change from FFX to FFX II where you no longer can customize characters traits . The only way to change their abilities was to switch outfits mid-battle. No other FF game has had that. And the new fighting sequence was terrible and most gamers rejected the game altogether. I LOVE FF and I couldnt even bring myself to finish that one.
Well, the game certainly had its problems (my #1 problem was that it reused too many areas from FFX, when I would have preferred getting newer or re-designed areas to explore), but I think it's incorrect to suggest that it was dumbed down for women and/or marketed towards women (I'd hate for any game with only female main characters to be considered "for women" instead of for everyone). I liked the battle system (huge relief to have quickly-moving battles), and I liked the storyline. I thought that it was really good story-wise tying up the loose ends of FFX. So many video games (especially RPGs) are about overthrowing an evil ruler/God/religion/societal system, and they always end with a "happily ever after" sort of ending. I absolutely loved exploring what happened to the world of Spira and its people after its entire social and religious structure was upended.
Right the difference here is that changing the CLASS changed their clothing. As in when you change from a mage to a warrior you get armour- this is normal. I'm refering to the menu change from FFX to FFX II where you no longer can customize characters traits . The only way to change their abilities was to switch outfits mid-battle. No other FF game has had that. And the new fighting sequence was terrible and most gamers rejected the game altogether. I LOVE FF and I couldnt even bring myself to finish that one.
There is a great RP game for the DS called The World Ends With You. I would check it out! The controls are easy - and the clothing changing is interesting. In the game your advised to follow certain trends in the clothing because it will give you more power in the battles, but the guys and girls can wear each others clothing, so the guys can wear earings and such.
Here's the thing: There are several very good, very feminist, completely douchehound free game IPs out right now. World of Warcraft, right now, is made up of about 40% female players, has a good mix of female/male NPCs in a variety of roles (there are other issues with race and sex, but this is a very simplified overview), and there are no differences in stats for a male or female character, unlike Warhammer online which has male only and female only classes.
Mass Effect allows you to play a male or female Shepard, with fem-Shep being more popular among fans, and allows lesbian relationships, and in the next game, gay relationships.
Valve released an all-female puzzle game that was wildly successful about a girl science experiment escaping from the tortures of her feminine robot aggressor, and Half-Life 2 has a strong female cast as well...
Mario has tons of series on the Wii, or Pokemon, same with the Legend of Zelda, Mirror's Edge has a female protaganist, passes the Bechdel test in the prologue, Fable 2 allows you to play a female protaganist of any sexuality and of any body type in whatever clothing you wish and so on...
The thing is, when these things are marketed towards a broad audience, its seen as a game for 'guys'. Whenever something like Gears of War or God of War is marketed with a very MANLY MANLY TESTOTERONE HURR spin, that's also a guy game too. So neutral and guy marketing both falls under the same umbrella. Which leaves girl gamers to either sign on xbox live and get assaulted, get ridiculed for being 'not hot enough' or an 'attention whore' or left with a pitiful selection of games "Ooh, Cooking Mama and Imagine Babies..."
It's a problem with the gaming culture and overall culture... not the games themselves. Bioware, Blizzard, Valve, are all great feminist companies we should be supporting.
The thing is, when these things are marketed towards a broad audience, its seen as a game for 'guys'...So neutral and guy marketing both falls under the same umbrella.
Yes, this.
World of Warcraft- First of all, this game has never been marketed toward girls. Cheers for the game not being sexist, but its advertisements still are. And female NPCs are still wanting.
Mirror's Edge- The storyline is generic and you know exactly whats gonna happen before it happens. This game also exemplifies dumbed-down controls... there's virtually two buttons used for most functions. I'm not an idiot, I want a challenge. Also, it takes about 6 hours from start to finish.
Fable 2- The game is full of glitches and you seem to be able to customize everything about your character except for her breast size which is stuck on perpetually huge. And most of the female clothing leaves her practically naked.
Everyone knows the princess routine will never be done with Mario. The games are cute - and thats about it. And as for Pokemon... I'm not sure they even count as real video games. You're telling me I should be happy because POKEMON is marketed to me?!
People often forget that Princess Peach was a playable character as early as Mario Bros 2. I would always play as her... she could fly!
Did you ever play Mario and the Legend of the Seven Stars? You practically had to have Peach on your team to beat Bowser.
Did you ever play Mario and the Legend of the Seven Stars? You practically had to have Peach on your team to beat Bowser.
A few weeks back, I was playing with a friend's 4 year old who recently acquired an old school nintendo (still worked!) and asked for my help with Mario 2. From what I recall, Toad was my go to character (never Luigi with his crazy legs) and the little boy was quite confused that I didn't choose Princess. "But she's the girl!" he said. I suggested he play as Princess and he did!
I just want to jump in to point out that there was actually a pretty awesome ad for mountain dew/wow. It shows two women buying mountain dew, and then they transform into characters from WoW (one of them into a MALE character!) and beat the crap out of each other.
I wouldn't say that this ad necessarily constitutes "marketing for girls", but it's interesting that they chose to use women for it.
Have they featured any famous females in the "what's your game" promo? (I think that's what it's called.) I don't know that I've seen any, and I would've liked to.
"And as for Pokemon... I'm not sure they even count as real video games"
Read some of the strategy articles on http://www.smogon.com/ and then come back and say that again. The game's got quite a bit more depth than you think.
"And as for Pokemon... I'm not sure they even count as real video games"
Read some of the strategy articles on http://www.smogon.com/ and then come back and say that again. The game's got quite a bit more depth than you think.
Pokémon is a start. I can't have been the only girl who jumped with joy when I could finally be a girl in-game. None of the controls changed, none of the dynamics of the games changed, I just trained my monsters to beat up other monsters while I was wearing a skirt and had long hair. It was pretty awesome, when I was twelve. Does that mean there's no sexism in games? No, of course not, but it's a start. I loved me some Pokémon Crystal, back in the day, because my friends stopped telling me girls couldn't be Pokémasters.
Would I like more grown-up games to include female playable characters who aren't fanservicey? Yes, yes I would.
I'm a gamergirl. I grew up with video games, I have a small collection of rare and valuable games (mint condition, naturally), I spent a lot of time working at a game store, and I encourage my daughter to play with me whenever I get the chance. Video games are pretty great, but it's no secret that I am not the "ideal audience".
I remember when I was little, I wanted sooo bad to play as a girl, and a non-sucky girl, in so many games. The occasional female character in fighting games (what's the ratio there, 50 to 1 in favour of males?) was sadly lacking in some of the spectacular strength and power moves of her male opponents. Not in every game, but in many. And she was always there to be ogled. Guys could be anything, scary, "hot", inhuman, ninjatastic, whatever. Girls usually just got the busty measurements and some high pitched squeals and grunts. How disappointing. Heck, I still remember some of the gamer guys I hung out with *freaking out* when they figured out Samus (of Metroid fame) was a girl. It was blasphemous, to hear them tell it.
But while I, like KrystelShard, wanted the games to be aimed more at females...overbabycutesy isn't what I intended.
Don't get me wrong. I'm a girly girly girl. Me and Barbie could be like, BFFs. And I do like cute and cuddly and pink fluff games. I admit it. But why is that my only femme-friendly option? Why can't I be a warrior, and a princess?
I feel the problem is that the gaming industry realizes that female gamers are under-represented, and wants to expand their market, but doesn't have the FIRST IDEA how to go about actually doing it.
They get an A for effort I guess, but how hard can it be to hire somebody who can figure this out?
I guess that would mean they'd actually have to hire some women.
BUT THAT WOULD MEAN HIRING A WOMAN. /gasp !
Did anyone play the computer game Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Honestly, my geography knowledge is better because of it. Back on topic though- I think MOST girls who play video games are into the war/zombie/killing ones, just like guys. Not that I think violent video games are any better, but I think these video game developers need to get a clue about what games females like to play.
I LOVED the Carmen Sandiego game! I also remember a truck-driving game where you typed in commands for things you wanted to do instead of using a joystick. You could type, for instance, "Nap in cab," stuff like that.
Both on the Apple IIe we had at school. Very old school. I loved that these games didn't involve killing, shooting, or tests of spatial coordination or whatever it's called (all of which I found, and still find, boring).
These days I love the Sims games, and loved Roller Coaster Tycoon and Zoo Tycoon. All of these games used gender-neutral marketing, and they all had many female players. So there IS a way to market games that isn't pink and fluffy.
I LOVED the Carmen Sandiego game! I also remember a truck-driving game where you typed in commands for things you wanted to do instead of using a joystick. You could type, for instance, "Nap in cab," stuff like that.
Both on the Apple IIe we had at school. Very old school. I loved that these games didn't involve killing, shooting, or tests of spatial coordination or whatever it's called (all of which I found, and still find, boring).
These days I love the Sims games, and loved Roller Coaster Tycoon and Zoo Tycoon. All of these games used gender-neutral marketing, and they all had many female players. So there IS a way to market games that isn't pink and fluffy.
I don't want them to make games marketed to women.
I want them to make games marketed to everyone, that have a stronger cast of strong, capable, important, and not hyper-sexualized women. Honestly, I just want games that aren't sexist.
Portal and Half-Life 2 are good examples, and I believe they've been mentioned elsewhere in the comments. Portal in particular has more female characters than male - that is, Chel and GlaDOS, vs the arguably "male" turrets. However, neither of these games were made for women- they were just made for gamers. And, they were extremely successful!
(Aside: Silent Hill 3 is another game with a strong female lead. You play as a regular 15 year old who is seriously tough and awesome.)
(Aside: Silent Hill 3 is another game with a strong female lead. You play as a regular 15 year old who is seriously tough and awesome.)
That's an interesting definition of "regular."
Heh, she's probably "regular" in comparison to most video game protagonists because she's not special military forces, or a demon, or a super powered something, or an orphaned teenager whose secret destiny is to save the world...she's tough, but she's just a normal person.
Hehe, ok, I realize there's the whole crazy prophecy thing, but that's a LITTLE complicated to explain in this context. What I meant is along the lines of what alixana said- she's not special ops or a wizard or any of that kind of stuff. And on top of that, she has a personality, and one that isn't a caricature!
I interpreted this to mean that she wasn't an oversexualized character.
long-time lurker. This is my first post.
As a young woman studying to become a video game concept artist, I find this a topic of special interest for me. I've been interning at a game studio for about a year now and I can say that game development is still DEFINITELY a boy's club! They are just absolutely clueless as to how they should market games to girls. They don't even really know where to start.
I don't think anything is really going to change until studios start hiring more women and those women raise to positions in the studios where they can actually have some influence on game development and marketing decisions. I know a lot of other young women my age who are also interested in working on games, so hopefully we will eventually be able to make change, but right it is a very slow battle. Alas, as a lowly intern, the most I can do now is insert a few alternate body types into my concepts and hope art directors will like them.
There's a series of books called the clique about a girl named Massie who terrorizes a girl named Claire for wearing overalls and eating ice cream.
This video game is based off of those books. I recognize the cover.
One category of games that is being overlooked and certainly deserves inclusion in a discussion of female gamers is that of casual games. One of the major casual gaming sites, PopCap Games, has found that as many as 76% of its players are female. And while most of these games are downloadable or web games, I don't think it's any coincidence that the DS is offering games like Cake Mania as the casual gaming industry reaches the 10 billion dollar mark.
It's worth looking at games like those in the Women's Murder Club Series (which I will admit I've become somewhat addicted to), which feature female main characters in puzzle and seek and find style games and which were created by Jane Jensen, a bad-ass female game designer. Further, these games are often strategy and dexterity based in a way that some games typically marketed to boys are not, bucking stereotypes about the type of activities girls are usually good at or will enjoy.
Of course, it isn't any more fair to say that these titles are the answer to sexism in gaming as it is to say that a fashion game marketed to girls isn't subversive in its own right without actually playing the game (anymore than you would find it difficult to do a close reading of any other medium from title and cover alone). I would love to look at what aspects of casual games generally draw women and what that says about how girls are taught to consume cultural products - is it that they are often easy to learn and can be played in short intervals, is it that a trial version can usually be downloaded for free before purchase, or is it the themes they present? A panel at SXSW in 2008 suggested that it is because these games aren't competitive in ways that others are, and while I'm inclined to believe that this is utter crap and based on stereotypes about sweet girls who don't like competition, that's what you get if feminists just decry sexist gaming without actively playing and understanding the way the rhetoric of these games are received and reproduced by their (female) audiences.
Sorry that way so long, I'm just the kind of dork that get's riled about Diner Dash!
My mother (age 62) LOVES those game sites - she's a member of several of them and tries new games all the time. She loves Diner Dash!
She likes them for all of the reasons you've stated - the trial versions, quick to learn, etc., but also because she's pretty visually oriented in general and likes trying tons of new games and themes. I swear she tries a new one every day.
Not sure if this has anything to do with the game, but there is a book series called The Clique Series. And the cover of the books looks a hell of a lot like the cover of the game. But the book series is only meant for teens and the video game looks like it's trying to attract much younger girls.
It really makes me want to barf when learning how to look nice is considered a "valuable life skill." I understand that it's important to know how to dress appropriately for work and certain occasions, but in general, "style" is not a life skill. It may be useful, but things like color coordination and applying eyeliner are nowhere near as important as knowing how to take care of yourself - that means cook, do laundry, keep house, manage finances, and eat a healthy - as well as how to get and maintain jobs, and healthy relationships. I certainly think some girls could use a lesson in interacting with others, rather than being nasty to each other.
I tend to like RPGs the best, and when I was younger I liked adventure games. It seems like now there are either shooting games/extreme action games marketed to boys or fashion games for girls.
But here are games I've liked that any gender can enjoy:
Final Fantasy
Spyro the Dragon
Kingdom Hearts
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Harry Potter video games
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (male or female avatar--clothing isn't different depending on sex)
Of course, most of the above games have male main characters/avatars. And with a lot of the Final Fantasy games (at least 7-10) have stereotypical classes. Males are the warriors and females are the magic users/healers (with a few exceptions, but they still don't deal as much damage). However, I also have Final Fantasy III and XII. In III there is one female character out of the 4 party characters, and she can have any job. Other than wearing skirts instead of pants for a few jobs, she mostly wears the same armor as any of the guys. And in FFXII, the female characters have a propensity for magic, but you can give any character whatever abilities/weapons you want.
A lot of the online games have only skimpy clothing options for female characters. A piece of armor that might have completely covered a male character becomes basically a belly shirt and thong for a female one.
I can't recommend Phoenix Wright and KOTOR enough, though. Lots of cool female characters in the first, especially.
I also really liked the Nancy Drew detective mystery games by Her Interactive. They're marketed towards girls, but you use real detective skills and explore interesting places to solve the mystery, without the stereotypical girly side (well, I think Nancy has a boyfriend in some of them, but still). I wish I had a PC instead of a Mac because at 19 I'd play them.
Don't get me wrong: I *love* Kingdom Hearts (and Final Fantasy), but the prevalence of male protagonists/playable characters starts to grate after a while. I love Sora, but would it kill Squeenix to let us play as Kairi or Namine for a game? Hopefully they'll make Aqua a playable character in Birth by Sleep. Mulan was a pretty awesome party member, but she's only in one world and she's the only female party member I remember (and the "save Megera/Queen Minny" quests? last I checked, Meg was pretty badass and could save herself).
I'm not saying those games aren't fun (like I said, Kingdom Hearts is my favorite video game ever), but they still have problems when it comes to gender.
Both KH I and II had Ariel as well. At least in the first KH game, I believe the primary reason there weren't that many female team members in the different worlds is because six or seven of them had been kidnapped by Maleficent to open Kingdom Hearts. They didn't really have a good excuse for not having more female team members in the second game.
Hahaha, I LOVE Phoenix Wright too, but isn't Mia possessing people a little funny? I know she had bigger boobs in life, but sheesh!
Its really disheartening that Nintendo does that, as kids yeah it was all about Mario or Tetris or Zelda regardless of your gender, and us PC gamers had King's Quest, Monkey Island (which is awesome by the way if you've never played, in the first one you're trying to save a girl but in the end it shows that she saved herself, but had to come back to save you) and the Myst series.
I find some games though do seem to know that us girls are playing, the Resident Evil games used to give you a choice, Jill or Chris? Claire or Leon? Although Umbrella Chronicles allows you the choice again, which is awesome. Silent Hill had characters of both genders who were well rounded and awesome (although the new one seemed to like the sexy nurse a bit too much, which sucks because there was a good reason why they were like that in SH2 and not in the other games). I mean guys do like Resident Evil and Silent Hill but the really hardcore fans that I meet, the ones that analyze Silent Hill to death or debate the merits of each Resident Evil game are usually girls. Someone already mentioned Beyond Good And Evil which has such a strong cult following even if it didn't sell well, it had a very strong female main character who had no romantic love interest to rely on at all, and the gameplay, very varied, easy to control, but at the same time that was probably the hardest boss fight of any game I ever played, I beat it by a total fluke. There's an adventure game (its actually graphic, doesn't show much violence but describes it a lot which is hard sometimes) on the DS called Theresia, never got much attention but its a story dominated by females and how they interact with each other. Even Twilight Princess was awesome because of Midna, who helps Link out immensely, not Zelda who you had to save (again).
Girls and gaming is a topic we can go on for hours about, but its not that girls aren't playing the more "hardcore" games, its just that we're really unrepresented and underestimated.
Spyro FTW. That was the first video I really loved. The one made back in 1998.
Spyro FTW. That was the first video I really loved. The one made back in 1998.
I went to my dancing class this evening and the teacher's daughter (age 10) was playing a game on her mini-computer all about organising weddings...
I went to my dancing class this evening and the teacher's daughter (age 10) was playing a game on her mini-computer all about organising weddings...
There's a few awesome RPGs for girls out there... but most of them are marketed towards guys/both genders. Amaranth Games is the only group I can think of who markets RPGs to girls... and they don't have a very big marketing budget.
Final Fantasy VI, one of the older Final Fantasies (at 15 years old), has three central characters in it; a guy and two girls. Terra, the character you start the game with, is FFVI's "hero" in Square Enix's crossover game, Dissidia. I have a deep fondness for Terra and Celes, the two girls, who are easy to relate to, yet just as awesome as the male characters they're surrounded by. Unlike some of the other FF heroines (Yuna, Rinoa, Rosa), Celes and Terra are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. The plot of FFVI is fun, balanced by humor, drama, and a little bit of romance.
Fire Emblem, however, has my soul for being one of the funnest, quirkiest, hardest games ever. It's definetely not a casual game, though, since the gameplay is turn-based tactics that feels a bit like a complicated game of chess. In FE 9 and 10 (released here in America as "Path of Radiance" and "Radiant Dawn" respectively), there are roughly as many female characters as male characters in all classes. Earlier games in the series tended to be more strict with the gender norms of gaming (boys get swords, girls get healing/magic), but these two games seemed to delight in breaking the rules. "Path of Radiance" has your initial mercenary company contain a male healer, a male mage, and a female paladin (who is, by the way, second in command and your strongest unit). "Radiant Dawn" got some flack for having a useless and somewhat annoying female main character, but considering it's a game that boosts snarky teenage empresses, quirky female mercenaries, and some pretty downright competent and powerful women, it's enough for me to forgive the lead her weaknesses.
As far as new games coming out that are being marketed for girls are concerned; I keep an eye on Amaranth Games. Their big series, Aveyond, has three games out in it (with the fourth due out this month), two of which have female characters. The original Aveyond, "Rhen's Quest", is a parody of stereotypical fantasy RPGs. The main character, Rhen, is an ordinary girl who is kidnapped from home, discovers she has magic, is sent on a quest to stop evil, discovers she's a princess, and falls in love. Despite this, however, Rhen remains competent, snarky, funny and lovable, even as she navigates backwards fairy tales, militant squirrels, and delightfully silly evil witches (who curse each other with Beauty for evilness).
Amaranth Games is run by the woman who created Aveyond, and regularly advertises other games with an equally female-centered gameplay and story. My favorites: Aveyond (of course) and Fatal Hearts (a visual novel/puzzle game aimed at young teenagers interested in supernatural romance-- vampires and werewolves).
I call myself a casual gamer. I don't think I play enough video games to be called a gamer. I love Pokemon. It's a childhood love which I grew out of for awhile but recently picked it back up again but the games I played back then, not the newer ones. Anyway, it wasn't too gendered but I will say that when it was huge, most fans were male and I recieved some comments about being a girl and a Pokemon fan. It seems the franchise reached out to girls a little later on, like adding an optional female character to play as in Crystal and subsequent games.
In the first generation of games (Red/Blue/Yellow), the Pokemon didn't have genders with the exception of Nidoran. The female and male evolve into different Pokemon. But I think I should Nidoran is pink. I don't know if it's a cultural difference in Japan, they were going against gender norms, or just no reason behind it at all.
Anyway, the second generation games (Gold/Silver/Crystal) gave Pokemon genders but it was merely for breeding purposes. A female Pikachu could be stronger than her male counterpart if trained properly and vice versa. So there was really no difference between the genders.
I call myself a casual gamer. I don't think I play enough video games to be called a gamer. I love Pokemon. It's a childhood love which I grew out of for awhile but recently picked it back up again but the games I played back then, not the newer ones. Anyway, it wasn't too gendered but I will say that when it was huge, most fans were male and I recieved some comments about being a girl and a Pokemon fan. It seems the franchise reached out to girls a little later on, like adding an optional female character to play as in Crystal and subsequent games.
In the first generation of games (Red/Blue/Yellow), the Pokemon didn't have genders with the exception of Nidoran. The female and male evolve into different Pokemon. But I think I should Nidoran is pink. I don't know if it's a cultural difference in Japan, they were going against gender norms, or just no reason behind it at all.
Anyway, the second generation games (Gold/Silver/Crystal) gave Pokemon genders but it was merely for breeding purposes. A female Pikachu could be stronger than her male counterpart if trained properly and vice versa. So there was really no difference between the genders.
I call myself a casual gamer. I don't think I play enough video games to be called a gamer. I love Pokemon. It's a childhood love which I grew out of for awhile but recently picked it back up again but the games I played back then, not the newer ones. Anyway, it wasn't too gendered but I will say that when it was huge, most fans were male and I recieved some comments about being a girl and a Pokemon fan. It seems the franchise reached out to girls a little later on, like adding an optional female character to play as in Crystal and subsequent games.
In the first generation of games (Red/Blue/Yellow), the Pokemon didn't have genders with the exception of Nidoran. The female and male evolve into different Pokemon. But I think I should Nidoran is pink. I don't know if it's a cultural difference in Japan, they were going against gender norms, or just no reason behind it at all.
Anyway, the second generation games (Gold/Silver/Crystal) gave Pokemon genders but it was merely for breeding purposes. A female Pikachu could be stronger than her male counterpart if trained properly and vice versa. So there was really no difference between the genders.
Some commenters have called Blizzard feminist, I would argue against that. I would say they're becoming more feminist, but they're not entirely there yet. I can't speak for ALL of their games, but World of Warcraft has some pretty infamous sets of armor for female characters that aren't more than a bra and panties. The male versions are actually body covering armor. In the latest expansion, the gear has improved a lot. I haven't found any bra and pantie sets. It's all long pants and long shirts to fit with the frozen tundra theme of the new areas. Female characters finally fit in and no longer look like magical prostitutes.
They've changed female Tauren (cow-people) and Troll characters to look less like their male counterparts and more feminine and girly. The result of that is Trolls look like blue human girls with funny feet. They buffed up male Blood Elves because of outcry by male fans who didn't want a slender character.
Granted, in the game, there is a society that is run by priestesses and has only female warriors (someone correct me if my Night Elf lore is incorrect). Half of the town guards in all the major cities are women. Major NPCs are women. But, I'd like to see more.
Valve, as far as I know, has a pretty good track record. Portal has been brought up by other commenters, but I think it's important to emphasize that it has an all-female in-game cast. Chell, the main character isn't a super hottie, she's pretty average looking. The turret guns have female voices and, this may be a bit of a stretch, but the Companion Cube is very cutesy and feminine looking (in contrast with the darker, very un-feminine, tones of the game). Portal was not specifically marketed to women and I never heard outcry from male fans about an all female in-game* cast.
In my opinion, if companies want to make successful feminist games, they should:
1) Put more female characters in games. That would be a big help. It would be nice if they specifically put more women of color in games. I can count the women of color I've seen in games on one hand. Left 4 Dead 2 has a women of color as one of the main characters, which I'm excited about. I'm hoping she won't be one big stereotype.
2) Make female characters like they would male characters, give them personality! Don't make them frail little over-sexualized girls, or sexy ninjas with big bouncy boobs. Make them individual characters who aren't defined by being female.
3) They shouldn't over-sexualize them. Zoey from Left 4 Dead is a good example. She's just in jeans and a hoodie. (Ya got me, I
4) Stop marketing games to 15 year old boys. Don't sell games on their ability to give dudes boners! I would love to see more games marketed to grown ups. By grown ups, I don't mean any specific age, but just people who have grown up and don't care how much of a boner the game gives them.
I'll probably come up with something else to add to the list later.
It seems pretty sad to me that the Pokemon games are some of the more feminist games I can think of. Being able to play a girl, gym leaders are girls, you can have strong female pokemon, etc...
I also want to bring up the Pyro in Team Fortress 2. Valve has hinted at the Pyro being female which, for those of you who don't know, would mean she's the only female playable character in the game. I've seen a lot of outcry online by male fans. I'm not sure if it's because they don't want any female character in their big sausage fest, or they don't want a strong (albeit batshit insane) female character, or because the gender ambiguity makes them uncomfortable. Any female gamers care to comment on that?
*I say in-game because I don't know who did the voices for the turret guns.
I'm amazed no one has brought up The Path, even though it's aimed at an older audience.
I don't think it's a well-enough game yet. I just heard of it the other day (then again, I don't keep too well up-to-date with gaming news.) There was a post on the Community just made about it, though.
Out of curiosity: have you played it? I'm debating buying it now, actually.
It would be nice to go back to Phantasy Star I.
With that being said, this is a big reason why I play Japanese RPGs. While it may not always be the best visual characterizations, I can at least find a character or something I like in lets say Final Fantasy, Xenosaga, Valkyrie Profile or even Shin Megami Tensei games. Then again, a good enough portion of the Japanese market is female gamers they do have to try to make games that appeal to a wider audience.
Also if anybody wanted to know...This game is not made by nintendo. Alot of these overly marketed games are made by american third party publisher and developers. Nintendo in the meantime is still making Zelda, Mario, Kirby, Metriod, Animal Crossing, Wii Sports, Wii Fit and a bunch of other games for everybody. While there may be a gendered aspect to them, they actually they try to make thier first party games to have broad appeal. Its no surprise...most gamers in Japan...are women, not men. The problem is most american developers don't know how to market towards women and girls and go in the barbie doll direction instead of taking a page from nintendo. The problem is most american publishers have created a game market so heavily skewed towards men and boys, often resulting in sexualizing or objectifying women, that it often results in coming off as distasteful to women who might be interested in games as they get older. It has a long term effect in terms of reducing a potential market, and generally alienating women towards video games.
When playing online dress up games do you actually get any ideas for creating your own fashion style and clothing? or do you just like the games?
I dont really think i can create any kind of fashion or clothing I just like to play the games.
I play mostly at http://www.dressupgames4you.com the site is colorful and has lots of girls dress up games to play.
Let me know if you play dress up games for any other reason than just to enjoy playing the games.
Sarah Majkut