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Games for Women, Games by Women
The "Games for Women, Games by Women" half-day event took place last weekend in San Francisco, and Cool Hunting reports on the outcome. The event focused on the games currently played by women and those which appeal to women.The characteristics of female-friendly games include: easy to learn but hard to excel at; easy to pick up (i.e. can be played interstitially); mentally rewarding. Casual games fit all these criteria, and non-casual games are fulfilling more and more of them (for example, Animal Crossing Wild World and World of Warcraft).This is something of a generalisation--you'll find female gamers playing any game, on any platform--but it's useful to get this message across to game designers. However, similar lists of criteria for "female-friendly" gaming have surfaced after Women in Games events for at least the last year--there seems to be little novelty left in this extremely specific niche.[Via Clickable Culture]
Fear of Girls
This short film by Ryan Wood, Fear of Girls, is a delightful portrait of two elite tabletop D&D players and their attitudes to the outside world. MMO players as well as D&D gamers may find echoes of themselves in the protagonists.Interestingly, the discussion about this film on Slashdot instantly takes a sharp turn towards MMOs, and World of Warcraft in particular. The stereotype that all female avatars are instantly showered with gifts and propositions is still perpetuated, despite many players with female characters anecdotally refuting it. It seems to happen on occasion, but not to the extent that hearsay would have you believe.
