[casual_games] Games for women made by women?

[Thomas H. Buscaglia]

I have put some thought into this due to a game 
based on ballroom dancing that I have been 
working on.  I can not point to any specific 
research but I swear I ;looked at some along the way.

One of the thing that should be considered is the 
differences in play patterns whc\ich is probably 
influenced somewhat by classic male and female 
archetypes.  However, I think that much of this 
is cultural as well.  This means that a 40 year 
old target female who was raised before Xena and 
other strong female warrior models may have a 
different social component that ones raised on Lara Croft!

As for play patterns, the superficial approach 
suggests that women prefer to cooperate rather 
than compete.  Frankly I think this is bunk.  So, 
the early "play with dolls" type of games.  I 
think that Brenda \Alural actually paid for some 
thorough research into girl play patterns back 
when Purple Moon was fully funded.  Though from 
the results, I am not sure how close it was to 
the mask.  Besides, casual games, though targeted 
to females, are not targeted to 0 year old females like Purple Moon was.

My personal experience is a bit more 
fundamental.  My initial experiences of female 
trial lawyers.  It seemed to me that men, being 
culturally trained in the "Honorable Women often 
have an "I fight to defend the nest" mentality, 
wanting to not just win the battle, they want 
their opponent to die in the process and then 
stomp his bones into dust.  BTW I find this much 
less so in newer women attorneys...

These are generalities and I do not intend to 
imply that they are universal.  But her are my 
thoughts on feminine game play. I think although 
women are just as fiercely competitive as men 
they prefer cooperative competitions rather than 
face to face confrontational ones.  That's why I 
felt that the ballroom dancing game would gave 
good traction.  The players compete in pairs 
against other teams.  An the game includes shopping of course!

Tom B

At 09:59 AM 6/7/2006, you wrote:
> > Give us a clue then, what games should men be building for women?
>
>Or, can you point to a casual game that is 
>currently out there that has all the right elements?
>
>I've been dealing with this question since I 
>started making games in 1985.  It's always been 
>a bunch of men (or boys!) trying to make games 
>that appeal to women.  But, I've known a lot of 
>women game designers and programmers that don't 
>do much better.  I've sat in design meetings 
>where the female game designer runs through the 
>same list of stereotypes (shopping!) that the 
>guys do.  Is there such a thing as a game for 
>women?  A movie?  A TV Show?  A book?
>
>While there are Movies, Books and TV Shows that 
>have a high "female demographic", I suspect that 
>the truly successful ones have a much broader appeal.
>
>
>Ron
>
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