Thursday, November 03, 2005
My Two Cents
As someone with absolutely no interest whatsoever in video games or gaming of almost any kind for that matter, perhaps this is not something I should weigh in on, But... since there was a big article about it in today's paper, I figure why not...
I agree with Warren Spector that the games industry needs to expand its appeal, or in his words, "We've got to stop limiting ourselves to adolescent male power fantasies". However, I think that such a change would be good for every possible reason other than the financial one. Look around you at just about every entertainment medium; adolescent male power fantasies are shoved down our throats every day. They're everywhere, from the Parasuco Jeans billboards to Survivor (all right, not much of a leap, it's all trash-pop culture) to so-called indie intellectual films like Sideways. (Why, exactly, does the nice, beautiful woman go out with the jerk-off wine know-it-all in the end? Well, just because, okay? A guy wrote it!)
By all means, expand the thinking behind game design to appeal to a broader audience (of broads, presumably), if you can do such a thing when probably 99% of game designers are geeky man-boys. But just as you'll never go broke underestimating the taste of the American public (P.T. Barnum), I don't think the games industry is going to go under appealing to the reptilian brain and the testosterone rush that drives the interests of the male of the species.
Also, I just think that most women don't have that kind of time to waste, but that's another discussion altogether.
As someone with absolutely no interest whatsoever in video games or gaming of almost any kind for that matter, perhaps this is not something I should weigh in on, But... since there was a big article about it in today's paper, I figure why not...
I agree with Warren Spector that the games industry needs to expand its appeal, or in his words, "We've got to stop limiting ourselves to adolescent male power fantasies". However, I think that such a change would be good for every possible reason other than the financial one. Look around you at just about every entertainment medium; adolescent male power fantasies are shoved down our throats every day. They're everywhere, from the Parasuco Jeans billboards to Survivor (all right, not much of a leap, it's all trash-pop culture) to so-called indie intellectual films like Sideways. (Why, exactly, does the nice, beautiful woman go out with the jerk-off wine know-it-all in the end? Well, just because, okay? A guy wrote it!)
By all means, expand the thinking behind game design to appeal to a broader audience (of broads, presumably), if you can do such a thing when probably 99% of game designers are geeky man-boys. But just as you'll never go broke underestimating the taste of the American public (P.T. Barnum), I don't think the games industry is going to go under appealing to the reptilian brain and the testosterone rush that drives the interests of the male of the species.
Also, I just think that most women don't have that kind of time to waste, but that's another discussion altogether.
# posted by becca : 7:47 AM
