Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Will more girls play this mmo compared to games within the fantasy genre?
Barteaux
Member Posts: 483
I think many of us mmorpg-players are looking forward to playing something "different", something apart from the wow-clones, but so far without finding one that can do the job without feeling like something we play while waiting for that next big fix.
From what I read I have the impression that about 20% of mmo-players are female, and that the majority of those are more into real-life games where the player interaction is more the focus than PvE or PvP.
Personally, I'd like for more girls/women to take part in an mmo in order to balance the community, and in my opinion, improve it.
So what are your impressions? Will a game set in a modern (contemporary) day world attract more female players? Or will player customisation and player houses have more of a say? Or will the whole competition-aspect of a PvE/PvP game seem unactractive compared to purely social games?
Comments
Well i keep reading the OP trying not to bash it. First of all i am not female. I am not a representative of anyone but myself and even for that i could still find ways to be skeptical about. I ve seen females being wicked pvp'ers and wicked guild leaders i ve seen social female players too. Always under my "personal looking glass" i can't see a difference in the gamers regardless of sex or a seperation in between the aspects of a game. To cut what would be a huge monologue, I am sure if the game is worth it both sexes will play it and focus on whatever they feel like be it social pve or pvp.
Edit : personally i d like customization and housing and stores amidst other things !
Signature!!!...
Let us ask ourselves the following question;
Will we be able to play vampire-like, mysterious, yet stunning female characters and is it possible to customize them with loads of cosmetic items to show off while performing sensual dancing emotes at interesting social hotspots?
Probably.
If so, that 'alone' will attract hordes of wild gamer females. With or without a modern setting.
My brand new bloggity blog.
None of the above?
This is what you need to 'attract' female gamers, are you ready?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
A GOOD game.
^_^
If TSW is solid plays well has all the bells and whistles expected of any modern mmo (and beyond can we hope..?) then you'll have lots of us. It's not anymore convulated then that.
Though that doesn't actually answer your question, the games I've played I've always seen a healthy amount of women and girls around especially in the last 3 years or so. FFXI, EQ2, Ryzom, Age of Conan, Vanguard, all have many girls playing so I'm not sure why contemporary would attract them more, fantasy is popular with just about anyone of any gender or age..
I'm not representative of everyone in my gender, I know a lot of women who are nothing like me and take sheer joy in destroying the opposition or organizing raids and taking down tough mobs, while I take more pleasure in collecting things, decorating and finding that perfect body piece to match my boots... But then again it's like saying the majority of men like to destroy their oponent while only a few like to explore, harvest and sit around crafting away... Is that really fair? Can't we just ask for a bit of all that for everyone?
What is true is that women do enjoy social situations and this is why MMOs are a growing pass time for us more and more, going further then that may be as simple as just asking the community in general what do you think would be cool here?
Oh and many women in games are so competitive is damn near scary. ^_~ I don't know to me it's not really a gender thing so much as a matter of perception. Like in that other thread where I went off about boobs, what makes anyone think adult women will actually take offense as something so close to us as bare nipples? I don't understand.
This was quite the edit!
(,,,)=^__^=(,,,)
It's not the game background that attracts people (more importantly females for this thread), that only attracts people who like that style of game. What attracts people is gameplay. What needs to happen is that girls need to be exposed to gaming and the stygma that goes along with a female gamer.
MMOs Played: I can no longer list them all in the 500 character limit.
This. At least for me. Also, different females like different things, so while a modern-day game might be more interesting for some, others might prefer the fantasy genre. For example, lots of females play WoW. I personally really like the sci-fi setting.
I really have not read up on this game all that much, but I really do not seeing it as being a game that will attract a new and or bigger portion of other female gamers. I can't see it bringing in all that many new girls to the MMO scence like WoW did.
I prefer a game with a great, deep, engrossing storyline that I can follow, with the ability to change how I look, what I am wearing, a way to stand out, and to have fun. If the game isn't fun, complete, polished, and an all around good game, then those first few things will not matter. Standing around just talking is not all that great.
"I take more pleasure in collecting things, decorating and finding that perfect body piece to match my boots..."
-Cynthe
"with the ability to change how I look, what I am wearing, a way to stand out"
-Swanea
I start to see a pattern here ... and I also see how I wasn't far off with my first post *studies his nails*
p.s. Let's skip the 'game should be good and fun' arguments and assume that TSW will be 'good' and 'fun' since those aren't wishes that set aside female players from male ones. We all want those, right?
My brand new bloggity blog.
"Stygma" ... nice wording i can give you that much. So you believe firmly as it seems that gamers are "outcasts" some sort of "black goat"? I met many gamers in the past years, all of them being completely different to each other with one common "attribute" only, they all like games! I ll be really short in this post cause i want to keep this for my blog ( on which note i decided to make a sunday weekly digest of my gaming /philosophy on it , with not so much spamming...anyhow), but really can you personally recall what you felt when you played your first game , by that i mean from amiga, atari, spectrum, pc game, coin slot, game whatever. Can you recall the dearest tick when you truly, as i want to believe happened in most ; if not all gamers, imerged into that first game? And I don't mean by that the really first game , but THAT game that you ll never forget! Recall that , as i remind to myself to do every too often lately!
And to conclude this, no i dont believe there is a stygma or diference between a gamer or a non gamer or a male or a female for all the things you mentioned. Trully what needs to happen is acceptance, and if that can't happen in between A, B, C there are always other letter combinations. Only common of them being letters! Be well !
Signature!!!...
That just sounds like a heroin addict trying to get the feeling from their first fix again, it won't happen mate.
...or as King Olaf III said; "It's your first buttplug you will remember the most, as time goes by they will increase in size, but they will never leave an as lasting impression as your first"
"nerf rock, paper is working as intended."
- Scissors.
Head Chop
spell check ftw.....
Anyway, like others have said, it will take a great game to attract females; something that can be played by casual gamers. But if this occurs, you also have to find a way to reward the hardcore gamers without knocking casual gamers down. Recently, several games have attempted this (Lotro PvP, Guild Wars, etc.) yet from what I've seen, no game has really been a good balance between hardcore gaming and casual gaming.
That just sounds like a heroin addict trying to get the feeling from their first fix again, it won't happen mate.
...or as King Olaf III said; "It's your first buttplug you will remember the most, as time goes by they will increase in size, but they will never leave an as lasting impression as your first"
*laughs* ok .... you probably know best , i am sure!
Edit : In the spirit of acceptance of which i mention every now and then, I have to say that despite your examples i shouldn't have laughed !
Signature!!!...
I don't think you can really pin a "type" of mmo for female players. I mean, generalising based on gender doesn't really work that well.
But to balance out this post: as if female gamers will play an mmo without housing; they'll be lost without a kitchen.
Played and enjoyed: EQ1, DAoC, WoW
Played and disliked: Guild Wars, WAR
Currently playing: Nothing
Waiting for: Mortal Online
"Type" me one for male players then!
Signature!!!...
You totally missed what he just said...he said you CAN'T generalize on the basis of gender..
No i didn't . I read it very carefully infact, What he/she said was a very standard mellow-ish aproach to "even out the situation" . I do agree with the part that none can't generalize on the basis of gender or anything, so far ...so good!
What he actually insinuated was so different than the statement that he represented to begin with ....
Edit : typo's correction!
Edit no 2 : So i kindly ask him if he can't "type" the female population to a category as such say social, rp , pve , pvp , to name a few , let the poster define or "type" the male population to a "category". That would only prove to be pointless!
Signature!!!...
I'm not trying to flame, but you still got tons of typos in there buddy. Ya, I think he was kidding at the end... I think his main point was at the beginning. I see no other reason why someone would contradict themselves so blatantly. It was a joke.
spell check ftw.....
Anyway, like others have said, it will take a great game to attract females; something that can be played by casual gamers. But if this occurs, you also have to find a way to reward the hardcore gamers without knocking casual gamers down. Recently, several games have attempted this (Lotro PvP, Guild Wars, etc.) yet from what I've seen, no game has really been a good balance between hardcore gaming and casual gaming.
What's with the casual = female gamer crap. You're an mmo player or you're not. Casual or hardcore doesn't matter you'll find us in both. O.o
In popular media casual games are puzzle games and such and widely popular with women, however these women are not mmo gamers generally. And if they were introduced to mmos you wouldn't need to do anything different to that game to keep them there. An mmo is already very much like a casual game in the sense that it starts easily and as time goes by you get better and the challenges get harder. The only difference between 'hardcore' and casual in mmos is that the ending in hardcore takes an eternity or time dedication in some form and casual it's dedication only some of the time...
(,,,)=^__^=(,,,)
You're telling me guys could care less about their armor matching? Really? Guys don't want to look unique?
I've no idea what your first post means at all other then being flippant and there's really no use for that. /shrug
(,,,)=^__^=(,,,)
I don't feel flamed by that observation, because english being the "common" of this world is not my native tongue, my mother tongue is different *smiles* and i try to do my best in english and be at least understood! Cheers!
Signature!!!...
No i didn't . I read it very carefully infact, What he/she said was a very standard mellow-ish aproach to "even out the situation" . I do agree with the part that none can't generalize on the basis of gender or anything, so far ...so good!
What he actually insinuated was so different than the statement that he represented to begin with ....
Edit : typo's correction!
Edit no 2 : So i kindly ask him if he can't "type" the female population to a category as such say social, rp , pve , pvp , to name a few , let the poster define or "type" the male population to a "category". That would only prove to be pointless!
Dude I can hardly understand you. Strong wtf.
Played and enjoyed: EQ1, DAoC, WoW
Played and disliked: Guild Wars, WAR
Currently playing: Nothing
Waiting for: Mortal Online
You're telling me guys could care less about their armor matching? Really? Guys don't want to look unique?
I've no idea what your first post means at all other then being flippant and there's really no use for that. /shrug
I at least want my "toons" to become living characters therefore i have a great need for them to be unique and distinquishable, that is for many reasons I want expand into. But although i was trying to save this for my blog post tommorow unique suddenly became critisized and condemable in mmo's. Well as we say where i come from "signs of the times" losely translated.
Signature!!!...
No i didn't . I read it very carefully infact, What he/she said was a very standard mellow-ish aproach to "even out the situation" . I do agree with the part that none can't generalize on the basis of gender or anything, so far ...so good!
What he actually insinuated was so different than the statement that he represented to begin with ....
Edit : typo's correction!
Edit no 2 : So i kindly ask him if he can't "type" the female population to a category as such say social, rp , pve , pvp , to name a few , let the poster define or "type" the male population to a "category". That would only prove to be pointless!
Dude I can hardly understand you. Strong wtf.
Ok what you just typed is translated into : I can understand you but not so well (hardly) . Suddenly that doesn't sound like my problem but your own. Be well!
Signature!!!...
You're telling me guys could care less about their armor matching? Really? Guys don't want to look unique?
I've no idea what your first post means at all other then being flippant and there's really no use for that. /shrug
I don't think guys care too much about accesserising, no.
Played and enjoyed: EQ1, DAoC, WoW
Played and disliked: Guild Wars, WAR
Currently playing: Nothing
Waiting for: Mortal Online
You're telling me guys could care less about their armor matching? Really? Guys don't want to look unique?
I've no idea what your first post means at all other then being flippant and there's really no use for that. /shrug
I don't think guys care too much about accesserising, no.
hmmmm well if you're talking about pretty pink barrettes I could see that, but according to many conversations I've had a matching piece set, pauldrons and chest for example is somewhat important. Not as important as the stats maybe but you can't tell me it doesn't bother the majority to have a rag tag armor set where the colors and general look doesn't match well, or look good together to put it even more plainly.
Otherwise you'd have to say that dyieng armor and appearance slots are only good for women.
(,,,)=^__^=(,,,)
English is not my native tongue either. Most browsers have spell check built in.. it's only a matter of right-clicking the underlined word and correcting it.
@ Cynthe
Okay. I understand your point. I understand that sexism is bad. However, let's not kid ourselves and lets at least be realistic if we are going to have a discussion on this subject. There will always be exceptions, but I think it is safe to say that the majority of hardcore MMORPG gamers are male. If you really want to debate me on that, I'm not willing to continue this conversation...
Given that the majority of hardcore MMORPG (and most likely all video games, although this assumption isn't really required so I'm not going to be so broad) players are male, I think it's safe to say that there is something preventing females from being interested, getting into the game, etc. Although no one has pin-pointed what that "something" is, I personally think it's accessibility and fun of the game. Males are more likely to spend 40 hours in a week sitting in front of the computer playing a game than a female is (for whatever reason). However, if a game can be fulfilling for hardcore gamers AND be still fun for the casual gamer, I feel that it would have more chance of attracting females. I don't think that customization, housing, crafting, or whatever gender-based suggestions were made would do anything in the long run. It may attract a few more women, but in the end, it comes down to: "Can I play this game for an hour every day and still have a fulfilling experience?" I suppose you could say that your experience with a game is what you make of it, but if a developer can incorporate casual game-play that can still compete with the hardcore elements of the game, they will have made a great game.
I'm not saying I know the answer. I don't. I honestly don't know of a good way to have this balance without being unfair to the hardcore gamers. Guild Wars had an interesting idea. However, its flaws lie in the fact that it isn't (at least for me) very fulfilling to create a character that is already maxed out. That takes away a lot of the game. I think though, with some tweaking, a similar system could work.
Touching on the original subject, I doubt that the subject matter of the game (in this case, "Real Life + Zombies?" vs. "Fantasy") will make enough impact to truly make a difference in the community. I mean, okay.. Hello Kitty Online probably has more females playing than males (unless you're into that I guess), but in this case I'd actually be more inclined to suggest that girls would be more interested in fantasy than something like a realistic world with demons and zombies.