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Prime World defies gender stereotypes in latest update
In a stunning twist of irony, Prime World is now challenging gender stereotypes by adding effieminate males and burly females for the upcoming NA and EU release. Producer Marc Singer commented on the new customization options: "We want to give a lot of skin options that are not just hairdos and color changes. We want to completely shift them from one spectrum to the other. We want effeminate males and we want burly, bulky females. We want animal-style stuff and old women and young kids." Singer said that this was part of a game-wide effort to combat tired portrayals of sexy girls: "A lot of games nowadays are very over-sexualised or male-centric when it comes to character pools. When you have over-sexualised characters, when you have male-centric hero pools, that's not something that the Russians are concerned about, because culturally for them, it's not a big deal. And even in parts of Europe, it's not a big deal either. But in the US, it's a very big deal." This change is ironic because the MOBA is perhaps best-known for originally forcing gamers to play their gender and incorporating gender-specific abilities and buffs, including a team-wide defensive buff if a female was part of the squad. Nival later decided to (mostly) remove these features for the NA/EU release, although gender locking is still part of the experience.
Prime World devs tackle gender issues, hero prices
The folks over at Nival have posted a quick dev diary that addresses some of the biggest player concerns with its still-in-beta MOBA, Prime World. The studio wants players to know that matchmaking is being refined, an EU server should solve European lag issues, a report system is on the way, and hero prices are under review (though the team seems generally happy with them). Perhaps the most interesting tidbit is Nival's decision to nix all gender features from the game. Prime World has been the subject of some controversy due to its treatment of gender; male and female characters have different abilities that operate in relation to their gender and the gender of other heroes, and player hero choice is determined by the gender established either on the player's Facebook page or Prime World account. Nival explained that the decision to remove gender-specific features will soon be discussed in greater detail in a separate post. [Thanks to Dengar for the tip!]
Prime World charges women less to play, 'protects' them in mixed groups [Updated]
It's ladies night at Prime World, and drinks are on the house. The upcoming MOBA is offering unique incentives to rope in real-world women to play, including discounted heroes and special buffs if girls team up with guys. The game is connected to players' Facebook accounts, so women looking for special treatment need to actually be a member of that gender. Nival's Creative Producer Larisa Nuretdinova hopes this will expand Prime World's potential audience: "The idea is to introduce the MOBA genre not only to hardcore players who already love it, but to their friends who might be more casual, and of course to their sisters and girlfriends who may not be as hardcore." To encourage both sexes to group up together, Nival has devised a special defensive buff that is only activated when a woman playing a female character is part of the team. According to Prime World's About page, "this bonus helps encourage beginning female players, who feel more helpful when fighting in a mixed group." Prime World offers six heroes for free, three of each gender; additional heroes can be purchased with actual money. It's here, too, that real-world women have an advantage, as Nival is offering a discount for the ladies who go shopping in the game. [Update: Kotaku reports that Nival later clarified that it is offering discounts for both genders purchasing the same gendered character.]
15 Minutes of Fame: The Frag Dolls' Valkyrie
15 Minutes of Fame is WoW.com's look at World of Warcraft personalities of all shapes and sizes -- from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, from the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about. "I can't handle it when people say, "It's only a game,'" says Amy "Valkyrie" Brady, a WoW-playing, card-carrying member of Ubisoft's well known Frag Dolls all-female gaming team. This all-business gamer has helped create and lead the a multi-platform clan of more than 300 gun-toting women who compete across five FPS (First Person Shooter) games in 10 separate divisions. In December 2006, Valkyrie was part of the four-member Frag Doll team that took first place in the Rainbow Six Vegas tournament at CPL in Dallas. Rainbow Six 3, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Halo 2, Final Fantasy XI ... On top of considerable hours spent on weekly practice for the Frag Dolls, she puts in some 50 to 60 more in personal game play -- and among those games is World of Warcraft.
Ubisoft says Wii a 'female-driven platform'
Gaming is becoming more and more popular, thanks to ever-increasing sales of the DS and Wii, and that means new gamers. A large portion of these gamers are of the female variety, and Ubisoft says a lot of them are flocking to the Wii and DS. "What's driving the Wii sales is the use of Wii by women, girls and families," said Ubisoft's senior brand manager, Ann Hamilton. Hamilton says that the number of girls who game has significantly increased over the past two years, jumping from 50% in 2006 to 57% in 2008. But are they solely responsible for the Wii's success? We'd say not, but it's important to note that female gamers probably take up a notable chunk of the overall casual audience that has been so responsive to the Wii. In our experience, however, we've found that a game's ability to be fun to play overcomes all obstacles, including the huge chasm between us boys and the fair sex. [Via Endsights]
Looking for the ladies in Outland
Reader Thiago asked a good question today: Why do so many NPC races not have female models? I admit, it's something I and a lot of other fellow lore nerds in my guild have noticed and discussed before. Why have all the females gone? I figured it might be fun to do a little bit of an analysis, and see what might have happened to all these ladies. This is by no means a complete list of the femaleless races in game, of course, or I'd have to spend a couple days on this article. But here's a few select ones to discuss.
This one's for the ladies
As far as "powerful storylines" and "strong well-written characters" go, there haven't been many releases on the DS that we could direct you to. Hotel Dusk works well as an interactive mystery novel, and you could always download the Dubliners eBook -- shout-outs to Moonshell and the Moon Books Project -- but where do you go from there?Independent studio nDreams is convinced that is has a tale in need of telling and is looking to break into the casual gaming business with Venus Redemption, an episodic adventure targeted at 30-plus-year-old female gamers. The planned immersive title will be plotted out by film and new media writer Kate Pullinger and graphic novelist Gordon Rennie. Catering to its casual audience, nDreams promises that the game will be "extremely easy to play, requiring only the ability to move and left-click a mouse."Expect to hear more about Venus Redemption this July 5th when nDreams demonstrates the PC/Wii/DS game to potential publishers and distributors.[Via Joystiq]
Women do the lion's share of mobile gaming, sez study
Cellphones seem to have a way of busting gender stereotypes. First we hear that men are more likely than women to buy a phone as a fashion accessory (Nokia probably wishes they'd caught wind of that before showing the decidedly feminine L'Amour Collection), and now we're being told that some 59% of all mobile gamers represent the fairer sex -- at least that's what research firm Parks Associates has concluded in surveying some 2,000 Internet-connected gamers. "Women are the foundation of the gaming market, and as an industry, we need to cater to their preferences," says Parks Associates' director of research John Barrett. Of course, if this means more games like Spore dropping on our phones, us boys say, "bring it on."
