Game & Gender
Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat: New Perspectives marks a decade on from the publication of one of the first books to explore the 90s girls' game movement. During the 1990s digital games emerged as a precociously successful media form grabbing increasing amounts of the entertainment dollar. In the adrenaline rush of real-time 3D gaming, many Western developers focused on titles that showed off their technology and prioritized the hardcore gamer. It was in this setting that the early visionaries of digital technology noticed that vast tracts of the population were being missed. Most notably, Brenda Laurel (2006) saw the possibility of rectifying the gender imbalance on display in consumer products for children. This resulted in the rise of Purple Moon and a wider interest in making computer games that would appeal directly to girls. It was in this setting that the first "From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games" (1998) was published, marking an important intervention in this nascent field.
By the mid-1990s, the platform game market (production of games to be played on proprietary platforms such as Nintendo or Playstation) had entered into an age of heightened competition and an oversaturated market: 90 percent of American boys were already playing computer games. The Girls Game movement promised new kinds of content, new models of play and interactivity, new visual aesthetics, and new approaches to the soundtrack. The Girls Game movement set a goal of making games radically different from those on the market, so that they could attract new kinds of consumers.
In 2008, a Pew Internet & American Life Project study found that among teens, 65% of men and 35% of women describe themselves as daily gamers. This trend was found to be stronger the younger the age group.the study found that while adult men are significantly more likely to play console games than adult women, on other platforms they are equally likely to play. But even in this area, the numbers are moving towards equality: in 2013, Nintendo reported that half of its users were women, and in 2015 another Pew study found that more American women (42%) than men (37%) owned video game consoles. In 2013, Variety reported that female participation increased with age (61% of women and 57% of males aged 45 to 64 played games). A mid-2015 survey reported by UKIE indicates that 42% of UK gamers are female.
Girl Games http://www.girlgames.com/ https://kotaku.com/the-best-game-about-japaneseschool-girls-released-toda-1818807469 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elokqkxt5ek
How to make girls like games better?
Yummy on the eyes Simple pleasures Keep evolving Beautiful
GENDER & GAMES DMS 448 - JIALE XI / YIHENG SONG / WENCHAO LOU
PINBALL Pinball was the game I played in my childhood on computer, as the author wrote. Pinball attracted woman because it has different appearance and easy to play.
WHY WEREN T THERE ANY COMPUTER GAMES FOR GIRLS? Design game manufacturers do not want to design girls games because everyone knows that girls do not like computer games also never play everyone knows that girls aren t good at shooting games(1985) so the designers make easier for them, to move slow, dismal sales.
SUCCESSFUL GAME FOR LITTLE GIRL Why hasn t anyone made a successful game for little girl? Too many boys playing games, so neglected to think girls will not play this game What would it take to design a computer game that a large number of girls liked? PAC-MAN was a hit for woman. (25% female players)
LOVE AND PRODUCER(2017) Card collection and love mobile game In the game, players need to collect bond cards with the heroes. While developing their own film and television companies, and while promoting the main line of the story, and started the emotional story with the heroes. After the game was launched on the App Store in December 2017, the game has risen to No. 4 in the free games rankings of ios and has also caused extensive discussions on social media. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7jfsjyl_p8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln1mqczybdu
ARENA OF VALOR (TENCENT GAMES) It is a multiplayer online battle arena published by Tencent Games. In July 2017, it was reported that the game had over 80 million daily active players and 200 million monthly active players. It is the world's most profitable (top grossing) game and most popular free-download app. In September 2017, Nintendo has announced a partnership with Tencent to bring the game on Nintendo Switch, due to the game's tremendous popularity. (wiki) over 100 million female players, 54.1% of the total number of players https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jquchry-rs
JUST FOR FUN https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c85ry7rpi5g Male vs Female Gamers
GENDER&GAMES DMS448 CHAPTER 3- Wenchao Lou/Yiheng Song/Jiale Xi Games and technological desire: another decade
Before reading the text
GENDER In the game, boys are often taught to engage in scientific research, and girls are taught to play dolls. Marorin De Rossi said in early 1992 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xebnxue3uga (The key to more women in technology)
Second life (2003) Successful life simulations, interpersonal world, enormous resources for creative expression https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekzsitgwl9q (what is second life?) Although Second Life is sometimes considered a game, it does not have points, winners, losers, ratings, a final strategy, or some of the features that other games have. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggnctxgcmlq (a year in the life) Residents purchase real estate and then build any world they can imagine on it. they are still largely about epic struggle and use the same gender stereotypes(p31)
The sims 2 (2004) In Sims 2 and later games, with gender differences each life stage has some custom features that exist only in one gender. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9u1zmcos8w
The sims 2 Players can change every facial feature on a character Players can assign characteristics that create a specific personality with a specific set of predilections. Ambitions, and memories. Players can make choices about where their characters go, whom they meet, and what they do.
Technology increasing More women interested in IT Few studies about the IT
(p42)what it might take to appeal to femme as well as butch sensibilities in games about IT professionals: 1. information technologists must be shown to process a balance of people skills and technological skills to solve a broad range of human problems 2. femme narrative themes stay small but go deep involving intimate, personal themes, not vast epic struggles. 3. narratives that focus on IT characters who were approachable, with whom the players could identify, were appealing to both genders. 4. unobtrusive and flexible game tools that are useful but neither intimidating nor lethal were popular in both femme and butch narratives. 5. femme game play involves complex interpersonal problem solving rather than cumulative conquest. 6. in femme games, success means a positive resolution justice restored, not victory or conquest.
Conclusion The possibilities of powerful new game worlds are striking and contain the potential to create a world in which gender does not limit, but rather offers options. What better learning environment, butch or femme, could there be?