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There is an audience of women that strangely, nobody seems to aim at

Bragr

Banned
“They say casual female gamers don’t need a console, but after seeing these figures, we’d really like to reconsider that and the true value of console gaming.” - Satoru Iwata in 2013, looking at how many women bought Animal Crossing: New Leaf.

"I have my own personal way of determining how successful a game can be with the expanded audience, I call it the wife-o-meter............. As I was watching my friends and my wife, I thought maybe, if we can find a way to interest them, turn them into game players, then we can expand the userbase." - Shigeru Miyamoto.

"The Sims was predominantly female -- 55 or 60 percent. For a lot of them, it was the only game they played." - Will Wright.

I am not trying to say that there are girl games and boy games. When you are a gamer, you play whatever. But girls and guys generally like different things. I get the sense that people don't want to admit it or talk about it because it can devolve into some sort of sexism.

There is a MASSIVE audience of women that likes to play games but doesn't give a shit about Call of Duty and FIFA. As a result, they don't play many console games but stick to mobile games that have a lot of games that cater to the general female audience better.

Once in a blue moon, you have games like The Sims or Animal Crossing, who gets this and hones in on those audiences, but I feel like it's a strange thing to see so much of the industry completely ignoring this huge audience. Every triple-A studio seems hellbent on making violent action-adventure games, you would think there would be more studious trying to capitalize on this market. You are talking millions and millions of women who play fashion games on a mobile phone, yet never discovered that console and PC gaming is better, because nobody aims at them.

Why aren't more studios aiming at them?
 

STARSBarry

Gold Member
I found Bethesda games and MMO's also attract women, more social games like Towers Unite also has a higher and noticeable population of female players (you can tell by the mic).

Now the Bethesda ones interesting because they never play console but always PC... the reason Mods, they want to make there characters beautiful and stock Bethesda console won't allow them that so it's PC all the way.

And I think it's that focus on character and community that can really draw in female gamers. Long story short by marketing games to masculine women your not really grabbing the larger female audience that still likes "traditionally" girly things. Give people access to a powerful character creator and you will find most women will make beautiful characters and most men will see how they can turn there characters nose into a penis.

Its just how we roll.
 
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I don't have numbers but Nintendo games in general seem to vibe with a lot of women. So the question then becomes, why do more developers not make Nintendo type games? It's simply because they aren't as good at it. And because developers are overwhelmingly male and they prefer to do shootybang stuff.
 
There are a ton of games that target females. I remember reading the statistics on these games and it is insane. You just need to consider the fact that they play different games. For example: Candy Crush.
I think OPs point is that PC and console devs are not targeting a demographic which clearly exists, considering how many women play Sims and Animal Crossing.
 

Ev1L AuRoN

Member
My wife plays almost exclusively Metroidvanias and Darkest Dungeons. Compared to me, she is laser focus on the games she plays, always completes 100%, play for hours at the time.

Me? Usually drop games on the 20-hour mark, with very few exceptions. play a lot of multiplayer games, and love to replay some games of my youth again and again like Chrono Trigger, Super Metroid, Final Fantasy III...
 

manfestival

Member
I think OPs point is that PC and console devs are not targeting a demographic which clearly exists, considering how many women play Sims and Animal Crossing.
That should be more directed at him. Candy Crush was an example but not the all encompassing point. Pretty sure we are in agreement.
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Gaming isn’t about gender. You think of building around epic characters, Link is more productive as a male you could look at super smash bros you would consider being Link with a sword than Zelda with an instrument
take that mic drop GIF by WWE
 

Fatbody

Member
If the console manufacturers really wanted to tap into the female audience, they would be funding all types of Animal Crossing/Sims clones. But instead they choose to replace male leads with female ones in action games. This only caters to an ultra tiny contingent of purple-hairs, blue-hairs, and game journalists.
 

WitchHunter

Member
“They say casual female gamers don’t need a console, but after seeing these figures, we’d really like to reconsider that and the true value of console gaming.” - Satoru Iwata in 2013, looking at how many women bought Animal Crossing: New Leaf.

"I have my own personal way of determining how successful a game can be with the expanded audience, I call it the wife-o-meter............. As I was watching my friends and my wife, I thought maybe, if we can find a way to interest them, turn them into game players, then we can expand the userbase." - Shigeru Miyamoto.

"The Sims was predominantly female -- 55 or 60 percent. For a lot of them, it was the only game they played." - Will Wright.

I am not trying to say that there are girl games and boy games. When you are a gamer, you play whatever. But girls and guys generally like different things. I get the sense that people don't want to admit it or talk about it because it can devolve into some sort of sexism.

There is a MASSIVE audience of women that likes to play games but doesn't give a shit about Call of Duty and FIFA. As a result, they don't play many console games but stick to mobile games that have a lot of games that cater to the general female audience better.

Once in a blue moon, you have games like The Sims or Animal Crossing, who gets this and hones in on those audiences, but I feel like it's a strange thing to see so much of the industry completely ignoring this huge audience. Every triple-A studio seems hellbent on making violent action-adventure games, you would think there would be more studious trying to capitalize on this market. You are talking millions and millions of women who play fashion games on a mobile phone, yet never discovered that console and PC gaming is better, because nobody aims at them.

Why aren't more studios aiming at them?
According to Jordan Peterson: In company hierarchical structures you need lots of aggressiveness and assertiveness to pissmark your place. And women are usually low on these traits. Hence there are very few female designers/directors.

There are a shitton of Jordan Peterson lectures online about differences between men & women behaviour in corporate space and they perfectly outline the cause of this disparity.
 

Hari Seldon

Member
It continues to baffle me why there are not 3-4 competitors to The Sims. The people that play that game play nothing but that game and have entire communities of modding dedicated to them. Probably the biggest modding community of any game really.
 

Kacho

Gold Member
I think their idea to appeal to that audience is to just cram female characters into games and put them front and center. Whether the type of game appeals to them or not (talking broad scale). We’ve seen it in COD, Battlefield, the new Saints Row marketing, etc.

The product page for the new Xbox headset had a bunch of pictures of women using the headphones. It’s weird and I have serious doubts any of this does anything to bring more women into the hobby. My wife still couldn’t give two fucks about gaming.
 

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
Why aren't more studios aiming at them?
They are. On mobile.

Maybe mobile is a platform of choice for women because of its accessibility, and the fact you can use it anywhere?
Maybe this is a very important factor VS dedicated consoles that need a fixed, non-portable gaming setup?
Maybe most women don’t need cutting-edge tech and are satisfied with what they can play on their phone/tablet?

There’s a fundamental mistake in thinking that console/PC devs need to make games to attract more women to gaming. Too many men gamers tend to think that mobile is a subpar gaming platform and there’s a need to bring women to consoles and PC. But women seem perfectly fine with mobile gaming.

People around here have been about “we need games for women!” forever. Then the Wii happened and some people are still shitting on it like it was the worst thing to ever happen to video games.

This is why just making games with female characters is a sadly misguided attempt at expanding the msrket for women who play games. Most of those are just games “for men” with gender-swapped characters. Women don’t want that, and most men don’t either.
 
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Swift_Star

Banned
I just want to get more normal people in my games as MC. I'm tired of the 30 white male american as MC. Variety would be good. The public is varied enough.
 
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TheMan

Member
chicken and egg situation maybe. But I think having more female protagonist in traditional console genres is a good start. But my next question, what kind of game targets this demo directly? Less violence?
 

Outlier

Member
I've played the Sims 2 on PS2 when i was a kid and Sims 3, as a young adult. These games don't appeal to me, anymore.

The one appeal of the game for me at those times was the "playing house" factor.

Women are generally more keen on social aspects of situations, as it is their primary strength. With that in mind, to me it makes more sense that women would more likely reframe from playing video games and instead practice their skills in reality, especially if they are extroverts.

So my conclusion is that competition in this space would maybe serve more to take market share away from EA, rather than bring more numbers into the genre.

Just my thought on it.
 
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I personally think female gamers play the same games as male gamers.


Unfortunately, and I do not use this word lightly, the toxicity of the gaming community (and perhaps the internet as a whole) as it is we're not seeing a lot of women outing themselves as gamer girl.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Why aren't more studios aiming at them?
Say you apply to work at Rockstar, Naughty Dog or KojiPro. How would you feel if they stopped making games you wanted to play and started making games for women.

The people making these games simply dont want to waste time making Sims.
 
Aren’t mobile gamers a predominantly female demographic? I’m sure I read that somewhere.
Idk, but I'd bet the vast majority of female "gamers" are just playing nonsense games on their phones. The "hardcore" female gamer plays Animal Crossing on Switch.
 

Swift_Star

Banned
Say you apply to work at Rockstar, Naughty Dog or KojiPro. How would you feel if they stopped making games you wanted to play and started making games for women.

The people making these games simply dont want to waste time making Sims.
Define games for women.
 

Plantoid

Member
Mobile is here to stay, i don't see my wife or any girl I know sitting in front of a tv playing on a console.
 

BigBooper

Member
I thought this would be a cheesy pandering topic, but you're absolutely right. There's barely any games for women who like traditional female interests. My niece has complained about this before and I thought it might be just because I didn't buy those types of games.

Why isn't there an open world Barbie game where you can drive around town and interact with different jobs or stores like The Sims or just explore like GTA without the violence? Heck, I'd probably even be interested in playing that.
 

Wildebeest

Member
Some publisher should do an experiment then. Make an AAA budget game about some really grizzly true crime scenario where the gameplay is almost all about exploring crime scenes and solving puzzles. Make the story super sympathetic to women and told from a female perspective. Don't include any action gameplay or quick time events or anything like that. Remember when Fahrenheit dropped, and it looked like that would be what it was about, but it degenerated into some absurd male power fantasy? Don't do that.
 

Velius

Banned
Genshin Impact aims at them. I mean just look at these designs:

LUlMoGx.jpg
gFnUtXz.jpg
2eCeneI.jpg
Lol gay

But yes, games targeting women exist, and in droves. I think they're looking at the picture and saying "why aren't girls buying consoles??"
And the question is largely answered here. I think G Impact is also mobile, is that right?

Yeah there are plenty of games made with women in mind.
 
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justiceiro

Marlboro: Other M
It simply makes no sense to make a console game aiming at casual women unless you literally want to sell consoles. If women are already plays in the cellphone, what's the point on targeting consoles? That's why Nintendo is the only one that still does that.
 

Lunarorbit

Member
My female friends who game were super into animal crossing and stardew Valley.

Only one woman I know plays rpgs and fps games.
 

Raven117

Gold Member
You mean to tell me that most women gamers don't give a sheet about a women in a new Call of Duty game but would rather play Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing, or even FFXIV? You don't freakin say.
 

iHaunter

Member
I don't want to be the one that says it, but... Women = Phone Games.

Obviously not all, but those are not the common denominators, women gravitate to shitty p2w phone games for some reason. That and games that're less serious, farming, gathering etc.
 
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MagiusNecros

Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
Most girls I know that play games are into RPGs, Horror games, Puzzles, Gacha games, survival, sim games like Sims or Animal Crossing etc.

They are just as complex with their tastes in gaming just as much as guys are.

Don't underestimate nerdy girls ability to pop out a excel spreadsheet for gacha games especially in under a day. They have it down to a science.
 

Notabueno

Banned
According to Jordan Peterson: In company hierarchical structures you need lots of aggressiveness and assertiveness to pissmark your place. And women are usually low on these traits. Hence there are very few female designers/directors.

There are a shitton of Jordan Peterson lectures online about differences between men & women behaviour in corporate space and they perfectly outline the cause of this disparity.

Oh here comes the dumb dumb citing Jordan Peterson.

Peterson is a pseudo-scientific sham that amounts to citing Deepak Choprah for astrophysics.
 

mckmas8808

Banned
That's factually wrong that noone targets them. There's plenty of games that target those demographics in Asia - they just rarely make it here. They also tend to be more on mobile/pc side not consoles.

Exactly!! And to add, there's PLENTY of games today in Western countries that are aimed at women in one way or another. They don't all have to be Sims games either.
 

Notabueno

Banned
The thing is The Sims has always been a super popular game with women, since the first one in the 1990s. There's no reason why women wouldn't want to play games as long as they cater to their conditioning (hence why Animal Crossing and The Sims are popular).

For example if interactive series like Sony tried to do with Playlink targeted female audience with drama/romantic inspired FMVs, it mights have become SUPER popular.
 
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mckmas8808

Banned
According to Jordan Peterson: In company hierarchical structures you need lots of aggressiveness and assertiveness to pissmark your place. And women are usually low on these traits. Hence there are very few female designers/directors.

There are a shitton of Jordan Peterson lectures online about differences between men & women behaviour in corporate space and they perfectly outline the cause of this disparity.

This is ONE of the DUMBEST things any person has EVERY said. Jordan Peterson is a hack!!! You don't need to dominate in aggressiveness and assertiveness in order to be a designer or a director. Only sexists, bigots, and the ignorant would think something like that.
 
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