To all the "Girl Gamers!"

[dramspringfeald]

I'm not sure this goes in here or Creator Discussion do to the subject manner but I feel it's better suited here.

I've noticed there are games coming out more for you all but they still seem marked to us guys. So I've been wondering for some time now, What do you girls want in the mainstream Console Universe?

What kind of stories? Should there be more Beefcake? What are you looking for? I know there are MORE then a few of you on Halo but what else? Just wondering.

[specialtantei]

Well, I guess I've always been the wierd type of girl (at least in Spanish standards). I never quite enjoyed games 'made for girls', I'm the violent type who likes to beat the souffle out of people when I'm playing a videogame. Even though violence is nice in games, what I truly seek for are games which make me think after finishing them. I don't really care about graphics, what I love is enjoyable gameplay, a great story and relatable characters. Some 'great' games try to do that and fail (I'm looking at you, God of War) but others are the coup de grace (Limbo, The Path, and if you want a mainstream game, Shadow of the Collosus). As long as new games have that, I shall take them all. On the other hand, who doesn't enjoy virtually killing stuff from time to time? I like shooters and beat'em ups/hack and slice, but few of them actually succeed to remain in my soul (Bioshock and Prince of Persia series make my heart go doki doki).
I think I went out of topic again. And no, I does not enjoy Beefcake for the sake of it. Not one bit.

[dramspringfeald]

I know full well the "violence" you girls enjoy, I had a sister and many friends who were more"open" about your 'world' lol. No you are well with in this topic because many of us Gamer Guys are in the same area of thought. What's the point of all this mindless violence? I'm all for violence but there has to be a reason for it. Like the fighting games of old each character had a reason to be fighting. Whether it be to save his Grand Daughter or to buy a Book Shop you knew why you (they) were fighting. Today's games outside of a very choice few are "Grab a gun and go a mowin'!" Change out the badie and your good. (including the latest Halo but that's another topic)

I could see the shameless beefcake as a simple marketing tool. Sure FF12 didn't need over half the cast running around more or less nude but it didn't hurt it either. I keep hearing blogs and the like going off about "we need to bleach the games to protect the girls" when in reality you are no different player wise.

[KittyKatStar]

What do you girls want in the mainstream Console Universe?

I'll probably seem a little boring but....

Good games.

That's it. I grew up with video games (age 3, with NES and Super Mario Bros.) and have been an avid gamer since.

Mario, Zelda, Kirby, various platformers, moved to RPGs during the SNES era (Final Fantasy, etc), got into Pokemon, addicted to Tetris, Dr. Mario, etc. Picked up Ace Attorney, Layton, imported game that never left Japan, currently own all present consoles (360, PS3, Wii and Wii U, 3DS), and got a huge gaming library both digital and physical copies.

So what do I look for in games?

Just... good games. I never look for stuff 'aimed for girls', I just want to play something I know I'll personally enjoy. There's a huge selection out there, so I'm never "I wish I saw more of..." it's more of a "I can't afford all this. OTZ "

Although if you twisted my arm. More choice to let everyone run around in pink clothes. (Thank you The Last Story, you completed my dream to pinkify the ENTIRE CAST. My boyfriend's reaction to it was priceless.)

"Is everyone wearing hot pink pants and running around half-naked?"
"Yes." (Females included.)
"Oooohkay."

[specialtantei]

Final Fantasy 12 isn't the best of the series but it was nice, and I really don't think that half naked girls in videogames are a problem as long as the game has a good story. Somehow when they are just too naked it makes me think the producers were not entirely serious about the game, but well, if them being naked has a sense story-wise I accept it (Take Haunting Ground for example. Fiona is practically naked the first part of the game). Even us ladies like to see some hot girls *shot*.
There are few games today where you fight with a reason besides being a soldier (I'm kinda tired of generic war games). And fights don't allways have to be physical.
Take Amnesia for example. You wre fighting against your own fears and Daniel's horrible memories.
In Majora's Mask, aside from fighting, you fight agains the inminent death you that's flying right over your head.
I even liked Fable - Lost Chapters, because even though you had a generic reason to fight, you going around destroying stuff and helping people or being a total ass had it's own reason.
Mindless violence is fun for a while but what's the point of it for an entire long game (I'm looking at you again, God of War) ? I mean, if you want to mindlessly beat the crap out of stuff you have a lot of nice flash games about that.
Going back to Fable, I like games where you take decisions. Where you decide your own reason to fight, if you want to be the good guy or just be the worst man on earth. That kind of game has something special (It's like combining VN's with your favourite shoot them in the face? What's better than that?). I give the kudos to Dragon Age - Origins at that.
*30 minutes having dinner*
I can rant for hours and hours about video games because they are something I really enjoy and think that parents should allow their kids to play (my only console is a PS2, I had to play most of the games in secret, either on the PS or on my PC, emulated or not, because my parents think it is a waste of time). Of course, when you choose games for your kid, buy them something they might learn from (Kingdom Heart and LoZ series are wonderful for everyone).
Back to topic, somehow, VNs have that one thing video games mostly lack - the power to choose your own destiny, or at least how you reach that destiny.

KittyKatStar: Know the feeling sis. We must play what we feel we will like to play.
So glad damn emulators exist or I will have never played a lot of great games, mostly the Zelda series, Pokemon games, Clock Tower or those glitchy N64 shooters (one day I'll have enough money to buy myself those consoles and games, the day when they'll be so expensive that I'll have to sell my house .)
And also daaamn them pink pants <3.

[SusanTheCat]

Personally, I would like more music and rhythm games. It's the one type of action game where I can keep up (and exceed) the rest of my family.

DDR
Guitar Hero
Rock Band
Frequency
Amplitude
Mad Maestro
Handbells on Wii Music
Karaoke Revolution

Moar please!

Susan

[Cadenza]

Trying to contribute something new to the thread, I guess: I want games where there's more than one female character, and those female characters don't have their entire storylines focused around either a) men or b) being in very trope-y situations for a female to be in. I don't know if you know Heavy Rain, but the only female protagonist in that game spends all of her chapters either focusing on a male or in a vulnerable situation that only a female character would be put in (see: she has to striptease with a gun pointed at her).

I don't want games where, if I play as a female, my gender is the defining characteristic of what happens to me. Unless it's empowering in the way of "I can subvert people's perceptions of me that they've developed just because I'm a woman." Like some medieval game where you can play an obedient mistress and then poison your boyf's wife. That would be all sorts of rad. (Theoretical rad, of course.)

[papillon]

I don't think there's anything you can expect "all us girls" to like.

Bluntly anything on a big console is just plain out for me because I hate 3d and I hate huge console controllers. Hand me something with fifteen buttons and three thumbsticks and I will drop it like a hot potato. So it's almost impossible to sell things on the main consoles that I would play, other than maybe music games of the sort that come with their own specialised controllers.

I play PC games and DS games (not 3ds for reasons I've explained elsewhere). I like mostly platformers, RPGs, and adventure games.

... and I prefer bishies to beefcake. give me well-dressed and long-haired over shirtless and muscular any day.

[CheeryMoya]

I don't know if this is completely relevant but:

Gamer Girl


Girl Gamer

Basically, don't dumb the difficulty down on games for us. We're more than happy to curse and spit at a boss battle, puzzle, or whatever games toss at the player. Personally, I'd want more female leads who would go out and do stuff on their own, like Samus from Metroid. Or hell, the Princess Peach we saw in Super Princess Peach. Sure there were bubbles and hearts galore, but she was out to save Mario. Mario. Let that sink in a little.

If you're talking dating sims, don't give me flat/stereotypical guys anymore. Even if I do whatever I can to make any of the dating sims I play as funny as I can at first, if it gets good and serious I'll shut up and start having massive emotions.

[Auro-Cyanide]

Well, there are a whole heap of things I want in console games and more variety in protagonists tops the list. Seriously, I went looking for new games recently and almost every one I picked up that was in the genre I enjoyed was straight, white, male, depressed, stoic and OUT FOR REVENGE!11!!1 With and without masks. Seriously, how hard is it to mix it up a little. What about a funny smartarse, or an intelligent manipulator or someone who is just plain lucky. No, all I get are a bunch of badasses with the personlaity of a brick wall. It's the primary reason I didn't buy Dishonored, despite it having an interesting setting.

But I'm presuming you are asking specifically about what I'm interested in in regards to my gender. And that is simple, female perspective.

I want more female protagonists and female characters in general, but I also want them to be told like females, and not a male perception of what females are. There are some games that have plenty of female characters and zero female perspective. I want stories told that are relevent to me, that tell stories I can connect to.

This is a big problem with most media and some men are waking up to it, especially when they have been forced to consider it. For instance, a lot of guys who have grown up gaming are dads, or will become dads. And there is a good chance they will want to share their passion with their kids. If they have a boy, look at all the games they can share! And look at all the games they can play as they get older. But if they have a girl... let's just say a lot of men are now feeling the lack of female perspective disturbing. One dad was so concerned that he cracked into one of the newer Zelda games (one where you could choose your own name) and changed all the male pronouns to female ones. He wanted to make sure his daughter grew up in a world where she could be the hero.

[Minnfae]

As papillon said, you can't expect all girls to like the same type of things, just as you can't expect all guys to play only first person shooters filled with underweight blonde girls with huge boobs. So I'll only answer considering my personal preferences.

What kind of stories?

I like emotional themes, but not romance. Maybe friendships, or family relationships. Themes related to childhood or old age. Or stories involving a passion for something in particular, such as discovery, sports, or even something like magical training, but as I said before, from the emotional perspective, not as 'competitions'. In particular I hate how stories are often centered around winning and becoming the best.

Should there be more Beefcake

Eh, I hate fanservice (unless backgrounds count). If anything, I like seeing cute characters, like little girls with colorful dresses.


Female protagonists are nice, but not when they're STRONG FEMALE CHARACTERS. If anything, I like being able to play as a female in games where your gender doesn't matters, since it's annoying to see the male as a default.

[FatUnicornGames]

I think that the Bioware games do a good job balancing the scales for women players who want to play as women. I think there are still improvements to be made, but they are progressing. I play a lot of different stuff, from JRPGs to WRPGs to platformers and trivia, Visual Novels and puzzlers. I have to say I have a soft spot for when the healer in an RPG party is a dude and the warrior is a girl. I like when people don't lie entirely in any gender role. You can have a girlie girl, but having a tough girl to temper her is awesome.

[Deji]

Hum, I don't really play much, but I like interesting/cool/badass female characters in the games I play, either if I get to play with them or not.
Not only "damsels in distress"! Even when they're not badass fighters (because not everybody can be a badass fighter), I like them to be smart, witty, proactive and ready to risk their necks to help, protect and fight for what they believe in, without needing a guy.

I remember loving playing with Lara Croft all the Tomb Rider games, because she got to raid tombs and do all sort of stunts and carried a mean pair of guns and gunned down dangerous animals and foes! I didn't really care about her piramidal boobs, haha (omg the graphics back then ;v;). I just loved being a badass woman!
I also appreciate side-character cool women. I was playing AC3 and I loved Zio to pieces, even if she didn't get to appear much during the story because of spoilers.

I haven't touched AC3 Liberation, and I really want to! I think it'll be fun to jump around and kill baddies right and left with a badass lady again (my bf didn't like it much, so he left it there, since the gameplay and music didn't feel like an AC game, in his opinion, though he plans to finish it at some point...).

Now, as for beefcake, I can't say I dislike it, though I prefer empathic, likable characters that are *also* attractive than just plain "hey, hot guys with their shirts open! Hey ladies, you gotta love this!".

[Paul Mesken]

Well, I'm not a girl gamer but I think it's not a matter of game mechanics but of visuals.

Let's say we have a game and you can select whether you're male or female. The game plays exactly the same for both genders, it just changes graphics, music and backstory. There's no difference at all in skill level.

[Stereotype mode on]

You press the chromed blue "Man" button. A hoarse male voice cries out "LET'S ROOOOOOCK!!!!!" while a machine gun rattles.

You're a retired green beret. Terrorists are threatening the Free World (the West, naturally). Suicide bombers are about to blow themselves up along with their helpless hostages. You're only armed with a rambo knife. One of the hostages is the nagging b!tch you've married who's about to divorce you and take all your hard earned, earthly possessions, even your vintage Ford Shelby! (oh, and your kids too). It's up to you to save everybody.

Gameplay involves dodging bullets with quick rolls and getting close to the terrorists. Once in striking distance you cut their belly open and strangle them with their living guts. It's one big graphic blood fest set in a bombed urban setting. Sometimes a terrorist on a Harley Davidson passes by. Get close to him and knock him off with a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick. Take the motorbike and increase the carnage by decapitating terrorists at high speed. Their headless bodies sinking to their knees while their sliced open necks produce fountains of blood. All the time the hero is wisecracking in a Arnold Schwarzenegger/Bruce Campbell way.

The boss is Osama Bin Laden in person (who seems to have survived his own execution). He has your wife. Kill him off by sticking that knife where the sun don't shine (extended death scene) and your scantly clad wife (who is at least 20 years younger than you are) falls into your muscular arms. "Gimme some sugar baby", you say and you kiss her, her body going limb from your extraordinarily virility.


Now you press the pastel pink "Girl" button (it has a heart on it too). A girly voice giggles : "I'm gonna paint a rainbow".

You're princess Anastasia. You take care of the little forest animals but your little brothers are throwing rocks at them, making them scared and sad. They're not really evil, they're just insecure. All they need is a hug. But be careful! They throw rocks at you as well. Luckily, Anastasia has a magical jump which makes her twirl in the air followed by a trail of little stars ("Weeeeh"). Sometimes a magical unicorn passes by. Gently touch its manes and you'll be rewarded with a pair of roller skates (music changes to some teeny funky tune). Now you can throw heart shaped bonbon boxes to your little brothers. All the time you're comforted by words from the ghost of your sweet grandmother "You got to be strong Anastasia", etc.

The boss is Simon Cowell. He's really mean and tries to hurt your feelings but you just know that deep down inside there's a sad little boy who just needs to be comforted. Defeat him with the power of love and he will show his vulnerable side and apologize to everyone, pledging to lead a good life. Then the mysterious, somewhat aloof Prince Luciano will appear (a couple of years older than the teenage princess) and tell you that he's really impressed by your strength.

[Stereotype mode off]

Well, there you have it. Same game, different graphics and story. Hmm, might actually be an idea to have a male/female button on a game

[Cadenza]

Well, I'm not a girl gamer but I think it's not a matter of game mechanics but of visuals.

Let's say we have a game and you can select whether you're male or female. The game plays exactly the same for both genders, it just changes graphics, music and backstory. There's no difference at all in skill level.

[...]

Well, there you have it. Same game, different graphics and story. Hmm, might actually be an idea to have a male/female button on a game

I really can't tell if this post was meant to be a joke or not? Sorry if it is, I'm not good with sarcasm.
I don't think appeal to females comes from the visuals, other than the visual of "you can be a girl" or "there are actually women around in this story". It's mostly storyline, we want to feel capable and in control of what happens with our character. If - going off Deji's example above - Lara Croft didn't know what she was doing and had to crawl over things on her hands and knees with the assistance of the guys over her radio, that would be kind of ridiculous.

"A woman can preach, a woman can work, a woman can fight. A woman can build, can rule, can conquer, can destroy, just as much as a man can." - Zoe Saldaña

Back on topic real quick - re: Beefcake. In games, I personally always romance the fit Princely fellas. My main irk would be if, when romancing them, you couldn't really develop a personality? Like, say you're trying to romance a guy who likes sci-fi. You don't like sci-fi, but you don't hate it. If you tell him you like sci-fi, your relationship goes up! If you tell him you don't, your relationship goes down and your character is probably rude about it by default. Considering that from what I've seen, in BxG games as long as you don't grossly object to a LI's view on life, you're pretty solid and conflicting fiction interests never really come up. I want romance where our personalities matter, not random things like that.