8 réponses à ce sujet

[Ardinal]

Now that I have your attention, I will inform you that yes I am a woman, and before you thrust your penises at me in protest for luring you to this topic, I have a story, and a question for you that relates to Dragon Age II and my gender.

So I recently worked in a video games store. Dream retail job while I studied. I've played games since the Megadrive II, and have been a fan of Bioware since KOTOR. 

A man in his 20's approached me at the counter and asked me.

"You! Woman!" (well ok he didn't say that I may be exaggerating  just a little.)

Anyways this guy came up to me at the counter and asked me what games I was looking forward to in the new year.

Since DA:2 is at the top of my list, I happily informed him of my excitement for Bioware's next title.

"Oh of course!" he scoffed. 

'It is a girls game."

"It's a what?" I enquired, instantly regretting my actions.

"Like Dragon Age. It was a girls game. I'm not playing that ****."

My brain began to flick through the the games I had filed under "girl" for quick reference when recommending games to customers.

Titles such as "Style Boutique" and "Cooking Mama" instantly sprang to mind. However, I couldn't find Dragon Age under 'girl" nor could I find it filed under "****."

My inner fan girl stirred. Hush I told it. He was entitled to his opinion.

"I bet that's the only game you know too. All the girls are playing it."

I decided to pull out the big guns and asked the man if he knew Deus Ex?

"Yeah of course I know it. What have you played it?"

"Yes. I have. I've played many games in my time but I don't understand your claims that DA:O and DA:II are somehow games made specifically for girls."

The man thought for a moment, and luckily no one else had stepped into the shop to disturb our showdown.

"It's because of that romance ****. And the ****s. What is with that?"

I definitely regretted my decision to continue this conversation.

A mental checklist entered my brain as to what parts of DA:O floated my boat and it went something like this -

* Swords
* Excessive blood animations
* Cool finishing moves
* Storyline
* Alistair

Yes, the man was right. There was indeed a swag of romancable characters, and some of them were gay. 

"I bet the lesbian made it manly." I offered.

"Nah, just not my kind of game." The man submitted.

Which had me thinking. Yes games are catered to suit a prominent male audience, however, could games like DA:O and the upcoming DA:2 be surpassing that, by simply creating a game that appealed to both genders? I have stumbled across male gamers on the internet who have been delighted to find their female partners running their Warden through the Dead Trenches when before the only game they tried had been Farmville.

I personally have always been more inclined to play narrative or plot driven games i.e. Heavy Rain, the Silent Hill series, Bioshock. However, my former boyfriend also enjoyed these games.

He on the other hand, would also play C.O.D and God of War, where as I was more inclined to simply watch those games then play them.

Is content specifically designed to appeal to women being inserted into male orientated games in the hope that more women will play them? Or are the elements found in most role playing games just more appealing to women on a whole?

It would be nice to not have to worry about targeting a "specific" audience when marketing a product, but I will say this. I enjoy Dragon Age immensely, and look forward to Dragon Age II, and I don't really care if it's meant for my gender or not.

To the man who dropped his balls on my counter and proclaimed that Dragon Age was just not manly enough for him I can say is this...

SHUT UP WOMAN... GET ON MY HAWKE!

[David Gaider]

The Estrogen Brigade ™ is alive and well on the dev team. There are, in fact, more women than men writing it, so I wouldn't worry about us to deliberately insert female-oriented content.

[Stanley Woo]

raziel3080 wrote...
DA: O and DA 2 are transgendered games...just from the simple fact that you can play as BOTH a male or a female character( in fact the majority of bioware games in particular are this way)

I do not think that word means what you think it means...

Also, OP, I like that I can refer to some of my female friends as "You! Woman!" without being slapped... too hard. I love theatre people. Anyway, good to have more fangirls around here.

[Stanley Woo]

i like to think that our gamers appeal to the story-lover in all of us. We write darned good stories and darned good characters, and when you're playing a game as big and immersive and full of stuff as BioWare games are, you want awesome characters to see you through it all. You want the Hollywood moments, you want the adrenaline and satisfaction of kicking butt and taking names, you want the feeling of being in control of the PC's destiny. Escapist entertainment, gotta love it, no matter who you are.

[Stanley Woo]

I know many couples who play videogames together (both co-op and playing the same game on different systems at the same time). Many of them are BioWare game fans, and usually it's the girl who's consistently farther ahead in the game than the guy! or maybe I just know some very odd, and awesome, girls.

[Lukas Kristjanson]

As the range of our audience demonstrates, the guy the OP faced off with was reacting to assumptions that in context might not have been an issue for him, which is exactly why marketing tears their hair out trying to message the product.

The kneejerk stuff we run into all the time:
“Ugh, I have to stop playing to talk?”
“Romances? I don’t want to be forced to do that!”
“100 hours? I don’t have time for that!” And so on…

But of course characters are fun/exciting if you are drawn into a story, the romance elements in action titles are rarely as optional as we make them, and people spend just as many hours on action games. The difference being that some people don’t like being confronted by these things out of context. They don't sound fun to some people, even if they actually are fun to those same people.

It's the same reason there are often multiple trailers for any given movie, each focusing on a different aspect like emptional, humorous, or physical content. Sometimes that’s bad if any one of those misrepresents the experience. But sometimes it’s good, because people can legitimately experience the same movie or game in different ways, so long as you get them in the door to give it a shot.


But yeah, that guy was also kind of a knob.

Modifié par Lukas Kristjanson, 06 janvier 2011 - 08:25 .

[Mike Laidlaw]

David Gaider wrote...

The Estrogen Brigade ™ is alive and well on the dev team. There are, in fact, more women than men writing it, so I wouldn't worry about us to deliberately insert female-oriented content.

Is that what they're calling themselves now? That's way better than the Ovarian Crusaders™. Well done!

[John Epler]

While I would anticipate this would be an unnecessary post, let me point out that misogyny (and, for that matter, misandry) is not something we tolerate on these forums.



If you can make your point without resorting to either of those things, great!



If not, you will not be welcome here.

[David Gaider]

Err... okay. I think we're flirting with the inappropriate, here.

Actually, never mind flirting. Inappropriate was rufied and brazenly groped. I guess saying "penis" is like shouting "fire!" in a crowded room? Anyhow, I think I'm calling an end to it. Everyone go to your corners and think about just what you've done.