Is there a true market for female gamers?

[The Silent Assassin]

This has always been a hot topic, and well...is there a large enough share of the gaming market that is female to warrant a full blown series dedicated at females...or even a marketing campaign?

EVERYONE always says "LOOK AT SAMUS!". Metroid is always the scapegoat of the sex in games debate. The sad truth is...Samus is fitted with a Chozo Suit that looks hardcore bad ass, and you don't REALIZE or can even pretend it is a GUY. IN FACT, most people play through it THINKING Samus is a GUY.

Same with other games. Perfect Dark. She's sleek, she sexy. You barely see her in the game except for cut scenes. However...she has a haircut that resembles a typical male style, and well...it's not full blown femenism.

I think Tomb Raider is what people cite as the ultimate femenine game. But, how so? A half naked, Double D babe with guns and buns? It is SEX appeal to men, not trying to win women.

Seriously, where is there a game where the women is the main character, is witty, hardcore, and dishes out the pain to guys...in a very femenine fashion?

But...even so...what type of games do females like to play? And once identified...is that a large percent of the game market?

Don't know...it's kinda rough for females...I'd just like to see some "equality" among the sexes.

[Cronic]

females generally tend to like puzzle games such as tetris or games with no main caharater from what Ive noticed... it's as if they don't want to pretend to be someone else I guess.

[The Silent Assassin]

Hmm...I noticed they like "simulation" arcade games the best...like racing and such.

Also, DC...check your PMs.

[Menokh]

Who knows.
My sister seems to like puzzle games, fighting games, and Harvest Moon, she also is obsessed with Crazy Taxi.
My mom on the other hand doesn't like any video games. :shrug:

[Foxy]

I suppose that as a female, I should add my $0.02 here. :tongue:

As far as the question, "is there a large enough share of the gaming market that is female to warrant a full blown series dedicated at females"....I think the answer would be "no". While there are many females on AGN who enjoy gaming, I know of only two or three females in real life that actually look forward to it. Sure, there's the girls who will do it just because their guy wants them to, but most that I know of don't really enjoy it.

As far as games that I like to play - I used to be big into Tekken Tag Tournament last year, and would play it with DP and JJ quite a bit, and even play it on my own when they weren't around. I got pretty good at some of the moves of Hworang, Bryan, and so forth. But then, as with most things that I do or see a lot, I got kinda bored of it. I think I'd play it now if it wasn't for the fact that I get too frustrated because the guys are wicked good and I always lose cause they don't go easy on me. :laughing: I also love The Next Tetris, and I think Gauntlet is a wicked fun game to play with two or more people. If JJ bought that game, I would bug him every day to play it wif me. I also love sonic. So while I may not be into video games like my guy friends are, I do like to play every now and then and if you got me into a game that I really enjoyed, I'd most likely play it very often. Take a look at the X-files game - it wasn't that well recieved by the general gaming population, but I loved the mystery and suspense of it, and having to look for things and solve the puzzle. I played that one every day until I won.

[Xyvol]

Stereotypicaly, males tend to like action-shoot-people type games, and females don't. I don't think putting a female lead in a quake-style bloodfest is gonna make it any more appealing to girls. They seem to like more non-violent games. The female gamer I know likes RPG's like FF, Breath of Fire, and Harvest Moon; horror games like Silent Hill; and adventure style games like Zelda. I don't think she's interested in puzzle games much, and any type of driving game she'll give up after a few minutes. It's really hard to tell what type "they" as a sex prefer as there are alot of diffrent personalities. I'd like to hear what the females on this board have to say about what they like.

[The Silent Assassin]

That was sort of the intent of this thread...

[CH@O$]

well ive noticed that guys tend to spend 87 hours more doing computer related stuff than females, maybe there isnt such a large market for females for this reason

[obi]

Here's a piece of useless info - Pokemon crystal, you can choose to be a girl or a boy, I'm sure there are more games like this.

[bigjoe]

MY friends a girl and she has better game taste than I do. She likes imported japanese games like Seiken Densetsu 3.... :D

[Jemsee]

When I bought the SNES around 1988-9. My wife and I would play for hours. Super Maro Bros. was our best togather, taking turns. She also played Adams Family and FF2 all the way through, and Top Gear 1. But after a whyle she droped off playing as I played all the more. When asked why I never relly got a good ansure. She would watch me and cheer me on when I went through the Tomb raider series. I tryed to get her to play but she said "It's too hard I can't do all those moves".

One thing I have observed, when I hit a hard part in a game I'll spend hrs searching for the secret, or leveling up for the boss, vary repetive stuff. My wife gets boared fast with that, this may be true of other female types as well.:shrug:

[JayeM]

Hm, I've been heavy into video games since Atari but I'm not a typical female, always been a tomboy. But I don't like the straight fight games, there has to be a mental element involved. No, I don't think a truly feminist game would go over well.

[Mander]

I have always loved video games. I like a wide variety. Some of my favourites are Duke Nukem, AOE, Halflife, Blood, Doom, The Sims, Zelda, Columns, Sonic, Mario and Destruction Derby. I don't really care if it is a female or male as the hero game play is what I worry about.

[VGWarrior]

I know there was a great action game for N64 that started a girl..........robot (the man in the game is the dumb sidekick that you have to rescue).


I don't recall the title, but I know it involves Marina, Clancers, and Greek Lettered creatures that perform a power rangers ripoff at the end.

[Vane]

that makes 2 of us JayeM. Im not that big a fan of fighting games but games such as Oni, the FF series (tho im not taht fond of the fighting system), and Harvest Moon. This last one has a version for girls("harvest moon girl") but was only released in Japan. I love racing games (i blow a generous amount of quaters oin these at the arcade :D) too as well as shooting games (but not the "house of the dead style but kiddy stuff like shoot barrels, moving objects and such) I was never a big fan of Zelda tho.

[vegeta1215]

My ex-girlfriend is a big fan of video games. She had a PSX and played FF7 and a ton of other games, several by Squaresoft. She was also really into anime, and was a good artist. I think I remember her saying she got a Dreamcast and GBA too.

But, she's one of the few (if any) girls I know that like video games. There aren't many of them out there.

[theplustwo]

My sister is going crazy waiting for Natsume to release a Harvest Moon game in US where you can be a girl and marry the guys.:)

[Mak-X]

Originally posted by VGWarrior
I know there was a great action game for N64 that started a girl..........robot (the man in the game is the dumb sidekick that you have to rescue).
I don't recall the title, but I know it involves Marina, Clancers, and Greek Lettered creatures that perform a power rangers ripoff at the end.

Mischief Makers! (Go!Go!Troublemakers in Japan). That game was really good and one of the few 2-D N64 games. I had to buy it used just to play it again since I sold my copy.
The last part of the game is like the Power Ranger's Megazord, but now it reminds me more of a Gundam in general.


I don't think its a matter of creating a specific game for girls, just getting girls interested in the games that are out there, and provide alternate gender characters for games like Pokemon and Harvest Moon.


I like the person I marry to like video games, not necessarily to the point that I do, but at least share my interest.

[Fiyerstorm]

I love girl gamers. They screech when they lose and smack you, lol. They gots the Spice Girl game for PS1. :heart: :kawaii: :D

They also got that Barbie games...but that's for little girls. My sister always plays as the girl characters in my fighting games.:kawaii: :mega: :kitty: