Male or Female PC? How come?

[hagyjalbeken]

 

It doesn't sit well with me to tie irl hobby with video games... For example, I did several playthroughs of Transistor and Life is Strange. I love both of this games and specifically Transistor is one of best games I have ever seen in my life. I know lots of dudes who loved both of these games just like I did, but those games easily can be defined as "for girls" or something like that. We even have few dudes here, who confessed their love of dressing up/customozation, playing as fem characters and SIMS! To me it looks like males suffer from stereotypes towards games much less than females do, I wonder why?... Gotta agree on "screwed up stereotypes" tho, because irl ppl are more busy fitting in their gender roles, as you mentioned, than revealing their real passions. I wouldn't be surprised by huge, pumped up dude being secretly sewing fan at heart.

 

 

 

Males suffer from gaming sterotypes less because gaming as a whole itself is considered as a males activity. I remeber when i was around 8 years old and the Nintendo NES came to my country (c.a. 5-6 years late), and it was the Thing. Many of my female friends wanted one but i was the only one who got it, their parents didn't buy them because playing video games was "for boys". They were lucky if they had a brother, because then he got one and they were allowed to play sometimes. Dammit you macho masculine violent Super Mario, don't ruin the innocence of our girls with your moustache! (oh and im from Europe, not some third world and/or strictly religious country)

Also, i remember reading somewhere a "confession" of some (heterosexual) guy who loved to play as female characters because he simply loved to experiece the world from a females point of wiew. The same reason i love to play as males. But when his "friends" questioned him about it, he said he does it for the nice boobies and butts (but really he couldn't care less about pixel nudity), because otherwise they would tease him with being "gaaay" or "a p*ssy". So it isn't necessary always easy for guys either.

 

 

Secondly, I haven't yet seen any females who aren't swooning over some Conan The Barbarian male arhetype, which Skyrim is brimming with. I honestly thought that was the reason why it got so popular with gamer-girl audience in a first place. :wink:

 

Sometimes i really don't know why is that archetipe so frequently presented in fantasy games, when players regardless of age and gender seem to avoid it as much as possible. I don't think many people pick the standard bulky nord warrior guy (and if they do it is mostly because they are beginners and feel like that is how the game is intended to be played). Honestly, it's boring. Come on, you can even play as a cat (or as a dark elf who looks like he just climbet out of satans anus in my case), why pick something that has been seen and done before 1000 times?

[Signette]

 

Males suffer from gaming sterotypes less because gaming as a whole itself is considered as a males activity. I remeber when i was around 8 years old and the Nintendo NES came to my country (c.a. 5-6 years late), and it was the Thing. Many of my female friends wanted one but i was the only one who got it, their parents didn't buy them because playing video games was "for boys". They were lucky if they had a brother, because then he got one and they were allowed to play sometimes. Dammit you macho masculine violent Super Mario, don't ruin the innocence of our girls with your moustache! (oh and im from Europe, not some third world and/or strictly religious country)

Also, i remember reading somewhere a "confession" of some (heterosexual) guy who loved to play as female characters because he simply loved to experiece the world from a females point of wiew. The same reason i love to play as males. But when his "friends" questioned him about it, he said he does it for the nice boobies and butts (but really he couldn't care less about pixel nudity), because otherwise they would tease him with being "gaaay" or "a p*ssy". So it isn't necessary always easy for guys either.

Huh, interesting story, I really had no idea that could be the case, especially in European country. Feels so awkward, especially considering the fact how gender neutral 8 and 16 bit games were in their majority...

Considering hetero guy, I think that's more about age than actual gender, in teenager society yes, it is popular to be boob/butt chaser, but for gamers 20/25+ that's not the case IMO, plus you shouldn't tell everyone about your tastes and hobbies, so not discussing it with friends wound solve most of his problems I think. :cool:

 

 

Sometimes i really don't know why is that archetipe so frequently presented in fantasy games, when players regardless of age and gender seem to avoid it as much as possible. I don't think many people pick the standard bulky nord warrior guy (and if they do it is mostly because they are beginners and feel like that is how the game is intended to be played). Honestly, it's boring. Come on, you can even play as a cat (or as a dark elf who looks like he just climbet out of satans anus in my case), why pick something that has been seen and done before 1000 times?

I guess it is same why 90/60/90 blonde doll with giant boobs is the most popular female iconic archetype? I wouldn't say ppl avoiding it regardless of gender, and especially age, for males mostly (not sure about girls). We can see that here on Nexus, basically one of the most popular mods are in skimpy/booby follower category, that's reliable indictor I think. I can't speak for most, but as person grows, he becomes admirer of more natural looks than inhumanly exaggerated ones, and since gaming community is mostly consists of teenager boys, that very predictable. To be honest, this soicial strata brutally kills gaming community, I wonder if that will chage ever...

 

On character note, I actually picked VERY bulky Redguard guy, because he perfectly fits my "warrior of light" stereotype. I don't think in game terms, I would be more comfortable with skinny warrior dude.. with giant two handed axe that is. But I have another pretty skinny and "ugly" Dumner, who's vampire-summoner-illusionist and avoids hand-to-hand combat at all costs, and it fits too IMO.

 

And by the way, you said you have some ideas how some genres or specific games could be advertised to draw in more female audience, care to give an example? I'm quite curios.

[Thessera]

I'm a female and i play male characters,

bc female characters are so freaking slim..

and looks like they will break at any moment.

[hagyjalbeken]

 

I guess it is same why 90/60/90 blonde doll with giant boobs is the most popular female iconic archetype? I wouldn't say ppl avoiding it regardless of gender, and especially age, for males mostly (not sure about girls). We can see that here on Nexus, basically one of the most popular mods are in skimpy/booby follower category, that's reliable indictor I think. I can't speak for most, but as person grows, he becomes admirer of more natural looks than inhumanly exaggerated ones, and since gaming community is mostly consists of teenager boys, that very predictable. To be honest, this soicial strata brutally kills gaming community, I wonder if that will chage ever...

 

 

On character note, I actually picked VERY bulky Redguard guy, because he perfectly fits my "warrior of light" stereotype. I don't think in game terms, I would be more comfortable with skinny warrior dude.. with giant two handed axe that is. But I have another pretty skinny and "ugly" Dumner, who's vampire-summoner-illusionist and avoids hand-to-hand combat at all costs, and it fits too IMO.

 

And by the way, you said you have some ideas how some genres or specific games could be advertised to draw in more female audience, care to give an example? I'm quite curios.

 

Yes it is true that most of the males who like those particular shallow "boobified" female characters is mostly because of their age, but females at the same age dont go so much for the overly sexified looks, but more for the overly romantic idols like boybands justin bieber twilight (same shallowness just different approach). So i dont think they care about conan warriors that age either. I think it is there mostly for male players,but they are seemingly bored with it.

i dont think gaming community consist mostly of teenage boys, but they are the "loudest", they are the ones that parents buy an xbox for, they have the most time to play, and they spend the most money on it. Someone who works for money and has less free time will be a lot more picky about what to play and cannot be teased into buying only by boobs and violence. So teen boys are going to be the target audience, that is why i said in my first post, that it is business that makes game creators to care more about males, especially teenagers.

Same goes for mods i think, most teen boys are simple, they see boobs they download, while others look for quality content and are picky about what they put on their load order.

And yes, it is quite annoying that if i want an armor set for my character that is at least semi-lore-friendly and doesn't look like it was designed for the porn version of the game, i have tro spend a long time whith searching.

Also most of them are rips from other boob-centered games (like the tera armor set, i only downloaded it so i can laugh my a** off, it is sooo over-designed and ridiculously skimpified, it is its own parody).

 

I don't really have any particular advertisement ideas, but what they should do is simply get a more gender-neutral approach.

I didnt even know you can play mass effect as a female until i tried it. I dont say put the female on the dvd box, but you can put some cool aliens and spaceships etc. not some machoman stuff.

For Skyrim, all that i can see everywhere is a bulky viking warrior in horned helmet. Why dont they show other races and playstyles when that is the whole point of the game?

would be nice to show more of the actual game content, that it is about adventuring and story and stuff, not some "you da maaan" playground.

[Signette]

 

Yes it is true that most of the males who like those particular shallow "boobified" female characters is mostly because of their age, but females at the same age dont go so much for the overly sexified looks, but more for the overly romantic idols like boybands justin bieber twilight (same shallowness just different approach). So i dont think they care about conan warriors that age either. I think it is there mostly for male players,but they are seemingly bored with it.

 

 

i dont think gaming community consist mostly of teenage boys, but they are the "loudest", they are the ones that parents buy an xbox for, they have the most time to play, and they spend the most money on it. Someone who works for money and has less free time will be a lot more picky about what to play and cannot be teased into buying only by boobs and violence. So teen boys are going to be the target audience, that is why i said in my first post, that it is business that makes game creators to care more about males, especially teenagers.

Same goes for mods i think, most teen boys are simple, they see boobs they download, while others look for quality content and are picky about what they put on their load order.

And yes, it is quite annoying that if i want an armor set for my character that is at least semi-lore-friendly and doesn't look like it was designed for the porn version of the game, i have tro spend a long time whith searching.

Also most of them are rips from other boob-centered games (like the tera armor set, i only downloaded it so i can laugh my a** off, it is sooo over-designed and ridiculously skimpified, it is its own parody).

 

I don't really have any particular advertisement ideas, but what they should do is simply get a more gender-neutral approach.

I didnt even know you can play mass effect as a female until i tried it. I dont say put the female on the dvd box, but you can put some cool aliens and spaceships etc. not some machoman stuff.

For Skyrim, all that i can see everywhere is a bulky viking warrior in horned helmet. Why dont they show other races and playstyles when that is the whole point of the game?

would be nice to show more of the actual game content, that it is about adventuring and story and stuff, not some "you da maaan" playground.

 

Hm, Bieber-oid as Skyrim main protagonist would be hilarious, no doubt, so yeah, you gotta point here. Then again, ME, DA, SIMS - mostly popular in female audience both younger and older, each has romance option in it. On the other hand we have games like, say, 4x strategies, for example Galactic CIv, Beyond Earth and recent Stellaris with very cool cover design, featuring some aliens, space images and etc. I think fem player base in those games is critically low, and it considering those games aren't adverised as warlike, more about research and exploration (which they actually are, war only as a side option, not focus). So we get real various content here, why not interested? Are we getting romance as the same "boobs" bait only with different approach?

 

Regarding spending money argument, that's not completely clear to me. As a working abult, you can get your hands on more games than teenager can, I don't think every other parent will be too generous. They will most likely restrict kid, because gaming considered as degradating activity. I doubt steam sales are made on teenagers, and insane sales of Call of Duty series, for example, are also their merit, though I can hardly believe that's something adult person can enjoy for prolonged time...

 

Also indie gamedev and kickastarter got real popular lately, I doubt backers are kids in their majority and there are few quite indie masterpieces out there abult can really enjoy. You can say that most of the projects are pushed mostly towards male audience, true, but then again, we get to my first point, are girls and women active enough? Why not voicing preferences or launch campaign of projects that will interest this particular audience? It will take attention of bigger studious and something will change, don't you think so?

 

 

 

I'm a female and i play male characters,

bc female characters are so freaking slim..

and looks like they will break at any moment.

 

Lol, I believe with some mods you can create females looking tougher than bears, if game has modding support that is. :tongue:

Edited May 29, 2016 by Signette

[TerraMcCloud]

When I play a female character I don't make them wear extremely skimpy armor...

 

Probably the most revealing thing I make them wear is the barbarian stuff from immersive armors or forsworn armor, and that's only if they are a tribal character or a barbarian, and even then, the same would apply to a male character.

 

For more knightly female characters, I have them wear proper practical armor, I even use mods that make most the female armors look more like the male armors. I also dislike "gigantic boobs" on my female characters, I prefer smaller ones, make it look like they don't get in the way.

 

(I got nothing against females with large boobs, small boobs is just my preference, also I see genders equally.)

 

I usually make my breton females look cute, but not overly "sexy", for these characters, I see "Cute but Deadly". Stronger looking races like Nords or Redguards I make look more "battle ready", I see both nord men and women being strong and ready to fight for the sake of talos! :P

 

So that's my personal preferences for female characters in skyrim. (I don't play much more then skyrim nowadays)

[HeyYou]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSiiJ8uvc60

[Thaneize]

Depends, i played both in TES and fallout series but usually first start as male, but in Mass Effect i play only male because 1, malesheps voice fits better and is better acted 2. maleshep hasn't changed since ME1, femshep has been remodeled 4 times (not really) in three games. And yes, i am one of those guys who plays as default appearance shep.

 

As for other games, it depends. In saints row 2, 3, 4, female because its funny as hell to see a woman shoot up a place and them makes jokes about that, because its something that almost never happens anywhere (no sexist).

[hagyjalbeken]

 

Hm, Bieber-oid as Skyrim main protagonist would be hilarious, no doubt, so yeah, you gotta point here. Then again, ME, DA, SIMS - mostly popular in female audience both younger and older, each has romance option in it. On the other hand we have games like, say, 4x strategies, for example Galactic CIv, Beyond Earth and recent Stellaris with very cool cover design, featuring some aliens, space images and etc. I think fem player base in those games is critically low, and it considering those games aren't adverised as warlike, more about research and exploration (which they actually are, war only as a side option, not focus). So we get real various content here, why not interested? Are we getting romance as the same "boobs" bait only with different approach

 

 

 

Regarding romance, i've talked about ME already, especially ME1. Where you have two chicks for a male, and one poorly written guy and a chick for females. They were expecting a teenage male who is into lesbian sex more than an actual female player. Even if Liara is quite "nice", her race is a shameless fan service for teen boys, and thanks to that, the whole race makes no sense. Its a bit better with later MEs and DA though.

Those other games you mentioned are unpoplurar with females because they are labeled as "strategy", and the whole genre is unpopular, sadly, but i am not sure. (haven't playe them yet but i plan to)

Still, yes, romance could be a "bait" for females, but it would be the same "shallow" as the boobie content, i think.

Also, look at fallout, they slowly turning a cool rpg into a brainless shooter, because of teen boys who have grown up on callofduty.

And according to the hairstyle mods and some popular male makeover mods for skyrim, there are already plenty of bieber-looking dragonborns out there... (or more like skinny-shiny anime vampires)

 

 

Regarding spending money argument, that's not completely clear to me. As a working abult, you can get your hands on more games than teenager can, I don't think every other parent will be too generous. They will most likely restrict kid, because gaming considered as degradating activity. I doubt steam sales are made on teenagers, and insane sales of Call of Duty series, for example, are also their merit, though I can hardly believe that's something adult person can enjoy for prolonged time...

 

 

Sadly it is a growing trend amongst parents that instead of real parenting they buy the kiddos any stuff they want (not only games, but also phones, clothes, everything they want), so the "shut up", and seem happy (they are not). Also while the kid sits in front of the screen he doesn't bother them and also doesn't go to "drug-sex parties" (or they think so). It is not (only) my experience, i have many teacher friends who say that, and i've heard many professionals talk about this issue with worry. Everything is getting to be made for kids and teens today because parents buy expensive stuff for them more than for themselves.

And steam sales are not based on teenagers because they can pirate the games. Consoles however, much harder to pirate. Also much "easier" to use than a pc, considered cooler and les "nerdy" than a pc, so teens go for that, so devs will push that too.

 

 

Also indie gamedev and kickastarter got real popular lately, I doubt backers are kids in their majority and there are few quite indie masterpieces out there abult can really enjoy. You can say that most of the projects are pushed mostly towards male audience, true, but then again, we get to my first point, are girls and women active enough? Why not voicing preferences or launch campaign of projects that will interest this particular audience? It will take attention of bigger studious and something will change, don't you think so?

 

Indie devs and people who invest in them are looking for popularity and profit too, so they inevitably are going to push towards teenage boys, but clearly they are a lot more open-minded. And you are right, the chances of reaching an actual female audience are much higher here than with a well-known aaa dev who are too afraid to try something new.

Also, it would help a lot if there were more female game developers, but since there are lot a less females who are interested programming or anything related (partially because of menitoned stereotypes), it is hard to find one. But then they could look for female writers. Look at harry potter, written by a female, and very poular with both genders.

[hagyjalbeken]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSiiJ8uvc60

Also this tumblr: http://bikiniarmorbattledamage.tumblr.com/