Why are "girly" games so awful?

[aimeeandbeatles]

The only ones that I find worth playing are horseback riding games. Otherwise they're crap.
I really really don't like shooting, so I avoid war games. Business games are all right with me.

 

[azzaman333]

Because pre-Wii, Girls weren't considered a viable market for video games.

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

Too narrow a scope.

 

[GoodEnoughForMe]

Well, we're still talking about a male dominated industry. While girls now make up, IIRC, over 40% of the consumer market, the industry itself is made up of something like <10% women, so there's qutie a discrepency.

 

[Gilder]

Yup, industry's most of it, market less so.

 

[Harbringer]

Well, we're still talking about a male dominated industry. While girls now make up, IIRC, over 40% of the consumer market, the industry itself is made up of something like <10% women, so there's qutie a discrepency.

My ass, your girlfriend paying games with you doesn't make he a gamer, I hate it when they scrape at the bottom of the barrel for statistics.

 

[Leonel]

Perhaps it's that games weren't really made with the specific idea to appeal to boys. I don't think developers thoughts foremost were to make a game boys would like.

And so people have to suddenly make games for a specific idea of appealing to a group and they have to improvise and only get such a tiny market share. Same thing goes for movies and you'll notice that the more a movie aims for a certain demographic, the suckier it is.

 

[Harbringer]

Ive always thought it was quite the opposite, Ive noticed that games have pretty much started to suck in general the more thy try to hit to many birds with one stone. Its the games and movies that aim for a target audience that sell and do well, because they're getting the most from who want it the most, as opposed to the least who want it only a little bit.

 

[J-man]

Girly games? I know about casual games but I don't know any game made specifically for girls. Could you give some examples?

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

Barbie et cetera, Nancy Drew...

Actually, I imagine the Nancy Drew games wouldn't be that bad...

 

[Phlegmak]

The only ones that I find worth playing are horseback riding games. Otherwise they're crap.
I really really don't like shooting, so I avoid war games. Business games are all right with me.

It's because the people making the video games aren't women and they aren't asking girls what kind of games they like.

 

[gnome]

What about non-gendered puzzle games, your pac mans, your tetris, collapse, that sort of thing.

Also: Shockwave has an interesting collection of games like Diner Dash and such that feature a female hero, that my girlfriend loves.

As much as the industry is dominated by male-targeted games, sometimes it's the ones that break the mold that are the most interesting.

 

[GoodEnoughForMe]

My ass, your girlfriend paying games with you doesn't make he a gamer, I hate it when they scrape at the bottom of the barrel for statistics.

Err... do you realize how popular gaming is now?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/ptech/09/16/videogames.survey.ap/

 

[azzaman333]

My ass, your girlfriend paying games with you doesn't make he a gamer, I hate it when they scrape at the bottom of the barrel for statistics.

You don't have to play 100 hours of games a week to be a gamer.

 

[PreLynMax]

You don't have to play 100 hours of games a week to be a gamer.

You keep telling yourself that while the real gamers spend thier lives playing games.

The real reason I'm not averaging 100 hours a week play games is because my 360 AND PS2 broke down, and I'm stick with a Wii and half my game selection playable.

You also forgot games like The Sims (which makes up for games made for "boys"), MMORPGs, RPG's (like Final Fantasy), and other such genres, as well as puzzle, arcade, and yes, some females perfer sports games (like Madden, NBA Live, NHL, FIFA, ect.).

There is no real limit of games women are willing to play. So just because games like Barbie, Nancy Drew have a very narrow scope of play, other better games are stepping up to appeal to women as well as men.

BTW: My sister and my 50+ year old mother averages at least 80 hours a week on The Sims 2.

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

You keep telling yourself that while the real gamers spend thier lives playing games.

The real reason I'm not averaging 100 hours a week play games is because my 360 AND PS2 broke down, and I'm stick with a Wii and half my game selection playable.

Man, I never knew having fun was so much work..!

You also forgot games like The Sims (which makes up for games made for "boys"), MMORPGs, RPG's (like Final Fantasy), and other such genres, as well as puzzle, arcade, and yes, some females perfer sports games (like Madden, NBA Live, NHL, FIFA, ect.).

Perhaps, but none of those games are exclusively targeted toward the female demographic.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Barbie et cetera, Nancy Drew...

Actually, I imagine the Nancy Drew games wouldn't be that bad...

The Nancy Drew games were actually quite good- though they entirely lacked replay value, they were quite engaging.

I played them after my sister was through with them.

What about non-gendered puzzle games, your pac mans, your tetris, collapse, that sort of thing.

Also: Shockwave has an interesting collection of games like Diner Dash and such that feature a female hero, that my girlfriend loves.

As much as the industry is dominated by male-targeted games, sometimes it's the ones that break the mold that are the most interesting.

I regularly play Tetris with a wide variety of people, girls making up a representative proportion of said population.

You keep telling yourself that while the real gamers spend thier lives playing games.

The real reason I'm not averaging 100 hours a week play games is because my 360 AND PS2 broke down, and I'm stick with a Wii and half my game selection playable.

You also forgot games like The Sims (which makes up for games made for "boys"), MMORPGs, RPG's (like Final Fantasy), and other such genres, as well as puzzle, arcade, and yes, some females perfer sports games (like Madden, NBA Live, NHL, FIFA, ect.).

There is no real limit of games women are willing to play. So just because games like Barbie, Nancy Drew have a very narrow scope of play, other better games are stepping up to appeal to women as well as men.

BTW: My sister and my 50+ year old mother averages at least 80 hours a week on The Sims 2.

Frankly, it's kind of stupid shoehorning any games into specific genders- I used to love the Sims.

 

[JtheJackal]

It sounds more like we should be asking why are licensed children's games so bad?

 

[LoughlinNR]

You don't have to play 100 hours of games a week to be a gamer.

You don't? NOW somebody tells me... You still need the outfit, right?