2013-08-09 Inspiration to girl gamers

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zaprzapb
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Re: 2013-08-09 Inspiration to girl gamers

Post by zaprzapb »

Bloody Vikings wrote:So, a recent survey found that 45% of all gamers are female.

Just thought it relevant to the strip's storyline, as well as some of the forum discussion.
That survey is probably accurate but I'm wondering if the majority of male and female gamers are casual gamers these days and that the hardcore gamers are actually the minority for both genders.

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Re: 2013-08-09 Inspiration to girl gamers

Post by Bloody Vikings »

Quite possibly. I don't pretend to have carefully vetted the polling used here. Still, I thought it was interesting and a stark contrast to an alleged 2% figure that was bandied about earlier.
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Re: 2013-08-09 Inspiration to girl gamers

Post by Artemisia »

Four years ago, the number was a firm thirty-percent.
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Re: 2013-08-09 Inspiration to girl gamers

Post by Bloody Vikings »

We're approaching parity at a respectable pace, then. I wonder what the new equilibrium will be? Probably very close to the population's tally, as many of the stigmas to playing at least casual video games are greatly reduced.
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Re: 2013-08-09 Inspiration to girl gamers

Post by Artemisia »

Part of the problem is that most gaming companies still maintain the attitude that women don't game, and that the average gamer is between 18 and 24. Another issue is that the companies tend to be kind of gunshy about having LGBT characters. One of the biggest running arguments on that front has been regarding same-sex romances in Star Wars: The Old Republic. BioWare was normally very good about the issue of SGR's, but in that case, they fell flat. That issue is being rectified slowly, but not fast enough for a lot of people. I play several different games, which is part of why I know all of this.
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Re: 2013-08-09 Inspiration to girl gamers

Post by Bloody Vikings »

Yes, it's still something that needs a lot of work, but it's definitely been getting better. there are still throwback attitudes that will sometimes make themselves painfully apparent, much like Mr. Foot-in-Mouth here in the comic, but generally video game producers are starting to realize that people outside the 15-24 straight white male demographic play videogames.

Didn't Lucas or someone declare that there are no gay characters in the Star wars universe at some point? Something silly like that.
And I don't really do MMOs; the only one I really came to enjoy was fairly friendly to "family," but sadly shut down not too long ago. It still is one of the best character creators I've ever seen. I sometimes still use it for designing outfits for tabletop gaming.
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Re: 2013-08-09 Inspiration to girl gamers

Post by Artemisia »

That was the lie circulated by those trying to prevent same-gender romances in SWTOR. Lucas never made that statement, and there are, in the expanded universe, a couple of gay characters. I haven't actually read the strips. I just caught this and thought I'd mention that.
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Re: 2013-08-09 Inspiration to girl gamers

Post by Bloody Vikings »

Okay. I don't pretend to be a huge follower of the Expanded Universe or any of that. I like the original trilogy, and KOTOR was fun, but otherwise I am fine not paying too much attention. Although now that I thin about it, you could have a romance option with one female companion as a lady sith in KOTOR, couldn't you?
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Re: 2013-08-09 Inspiration to girl gamers

Post by Artemisia »

Yep, you could.

What angered most people is BioWare is normally good about this sort of thing, but in this case, they weren't.
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Re: 2013-08-09 Inspiration to girl gamers

Post by Spidrift »

I assume that the specific problem in videogames is that designers reckon that gamers will identify closely with their playing piece, and so will be confused and uncomfortable if that playing piece is too "weird" by their personal standards. So, if they assume most players are male, and otherwise tend to the population mode, they make female characters into fantasy sex objects (bonus points if they can invoke the Lesbian Stripper Ninja principle). Putting characters into any kind of minority sexuality would certainly seem just too risky for them, even if they accept that they can get plenty of female players.

The obvious workround being to allow highly configurable player-characters (as tabletop games have managed fine for decades). But that adds to the setup workload for players, and hits problems if you're viewing the game as a novel rather than a sandbox.
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Re: 2013-08-09 Inspiration to girl gamers

Post by Artemisia »

Except that it can be done. Dragon Age Origin and Dragon Age II both have choices for male and female main characters as well as same-gender romance options for both. What's more, they managed to avoid the women-as-sex-objects issue, at least with those games. Women on SWTOR demanded a male version of the slave girl armor for guys, and ultimately got something that means that male characters (npc or pc) run around in their underwear.

It's amazing how pervy women can be too ;) but still, it's rather interesting to see.
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"I'm going to do what I do best...lecture her."- Twilight Sparkle (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic)
"Hello, I'm a lizard woman from the dawn of time, and this is my wife." - Madam Vastra (Doctor Who "The Snowmen")
"There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes." The 4th Doctor Doctor Who "Robot"

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