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Wednesday, July 28, 2010

What Do Women Gamers Want?

On my reader today, an interesting article jumped out at me, Why Video Game Designers Are Missing The Mark With Women. I went on over and enjoyed what the author had to say.  Especially dealing with the armor/clothing on female characters.

This is not a new complaint.  It even has a Tvtrope.

Stop, from Stoppable Force, provided a great example:

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 For a more extreme example check this one out: http://www.wowhead.com/item=29928#.

Seriously boys.  We get it. You like boobs and skin.  Normally, this doesn’t really annoy me, but when my dwarf paladin is running around Northern in skimpy chainmail, I really must question her intelligence.

However, as a gamer and a woman there were a few other points I wish she had brought up. Now my experience in gaming is a little different than the traditional gamer.  I am VERY picky when it comes to games, and often lose my interest in them just as fast.

Thus, I have only played a very limited number of games, and have seen my brother, father and husband play a bunch more.

Here is my criteria for a game to hold me attention. 
  • Excellent characters and story
  • Forcing the player to think about solutions
  • Engaging world and playability
Which is what I think more women gamers want.

Games with brains.

Yeah, we like to think. We like psychology. We want to spend hours reading through text and getting into a story.  For many, games like KOTOR, Bioshock, Half-life, Halo, Mass Effect gives them the best of both world.

However, my favorite genre of games is not longer popular.

I am a huge fan of point-n-click adventure games.

During the late nineties there was a rush of “adventure” games, like The Longest Journey, Circle of BloodThe Gabriel Knight series, and  Grim Fandango.  RPG’s are okay, but few are able to met these requirements. I have only played one in the last couple of years which has met these points:
Dragon Age, I love you.

These games all had great stories, memorable characters and were challenging.  They didn’t however involve jumping, fighting or trying to time a specific button to cause an effect.

I am not saying those game are not fun, obviously they are,  just not for me.  I am amazed I have played WoW so long because it does require me to do all those things.  However, the great thing about WoW is I don’t have to do this.  I can spend the whole day dancing in Dalaran if I want, or just pick herbs.  The freedom to spend my time anyway I choose, makes me want to tackle a hard instance or healing an impossible situation. 

I want a choice.  I want to be able to achieve the same result by multiple avenues. 

Basically, I want more games like those adventure games.  Games where you could take your time.  Games with mental challenges (if anyone played The Beast Within, you know what I mean when I say “cuckoo clock”) and fantastic stories.  I want real plots and twists.  I want characters I can invest my energy.  I want game control which won’t break my brain. Seriously, if I have to take a college course to figure out how to walk, something is broken.

Do that, and I am loyal. I will buy your stuff years after your last game.

Yes, Jane Jensen, I am looking at you.

What about you ladies in the interwebs? What do you look for in a game?  What brings you back for more? What would you like to see more?

Welcome Back!

*Clears her throat*

 I say it more to myself than anyone else. If anyone remembers I used to write a WoW blog a long time ago (in internet years, a year = 10 years), called Gun Loving Dwarf Chick.

A couple of weeks ago, I accidentally killed the site. Which I find very ironic, since the need to return to the site was increasing.

I tired to return to my old blogger site, but soon realized one of the reasons I stopped writing on my original site was due to my change of interests in toons and in game. Thus Game Loving Geek Chick was born.

This time around, we are going to keep it simple. A free site. No fancy plugins and time wasting on code. Going to write and post and that is it.

What to expect from this small space? Rambling on WoW mostly, any other games I may pick up and general geeky goodness I stumble across (this may translate into an unhealthy amount of i haz cheeseburger pics).

I hope you come for the beer and stay for the company!

*Hugs the interwebs*