I bet the guy who made this video really does hate getting compared to Yahtzee but you have to admit there are some comparisons. Except maybe this guy doesn’t just combine two swearwords into one word and draw obvious similes that people who are none English find funny. At least he admits it’s a blatant rip off (and if you can put up with the stupid voice he maybe makes a few good points)
Anyway, Daniel Floyds main argument hinges on the following.
“There aren’t many girls involved with playing/making video games….”
And this is where it falls down
“naturally, we [males] want to solve this…”
Erm. Naturally? – No, actually, I’ve never once sat there and gone “Hmmm, How to make Call of Duty appeal to more women” – I don’t care about market size and market share, I don’t give two hoots, the people sat around me actually making the games don’t sit around and discuss at length how we can make it appeal to women who.. (and this may come as a shock to some readers) – really don’t give a fuck about video games.
The problem as to why there aren’t as many female video gamers stems from deeply entrenched psychological and physiological training from aeons of development. Look at the army, there aren’t as many females in the army as males. Why is this?
When you’re a baby, if you’re a boy, your room is painted blue and you have army toys. You play soldiers, and if you ever do get a mixed group and play cowboys and Indians you are always a cowboy. You’re told that crying is something girls do, and you’re constantly pressured into a way of thinking, acting and behaving. Some of it is nature, (males have an instinct to hunt and fight that simply goes beyond our experiences) – but an awful lot of it is nurture.
When you’re a baby, if you’re a girl, your room is painted pink and you have dolls. Ken and Barby are your best mates and you’re psychologically programmed to seek a mate. Ken and Barby are representative of the male and female partnership in life, You’re bought things that are feminine, baking ovens (however overtly sexist this is for me to be saying) – you’re interested in shopping, shoes, horses, fashion, feelings, make up, animals, caring for people, children, and all the other wonderful things women like.
Girls reach maturity earlier, they begin to perceive the childish pursuits of males (such as running around with their pointy finger extended and shoutin “ger-ger-ger – got you!”) as immature. This natural perception is entrenched in females brains for the rest of their existence. They view males with a perception that their pursuits, things they simply have no understanding of, as childish and immature. (come on, admit it, guys, who reading this wants to play scalextric right now? Who’d quite like to fly a model airplane or go paintballing?, girls, admit it, who thinks that if they saw a group of males doing any of those things, you’d think “sad, immature, typical, males”)
I’m not saying this is a weakness on either’s behalf, I’m saying this is nature and nurture.
Now, before everyone pipes up in my comments section saying “I’m a girl and I like video games” – congratulations, you’re the exception rather than the rule. Believe it or not, I think I’d be capable of finding a male who doesn’t like video games for every girl you can find that does.
Sure, there are girls making video games, and some who direct, produce and market them. But for everyone of those those, I can name a male fashion designer who makes clothes for women.
I think Daniels most worthy point though is the “boy’s club exclusion” mentality. I don’t openly exclude girls from playing games, if you want to play games and enjoy halo or whatnot, then fine, it doesn’t really bother me one bit. What bothers me more is the “female saddo perception” – and that’s what’s openly wrong about this whole argument. They most likely formulate this opinion due to the popular media and advertising schmucks and their portrayal of females in video games. (making the market seem overtly “during puberty”)
Women don’t need enticing to play video games, that’s step two. Step one is to help them understand that playing video games is no more sad than watching coronation street (something that I find plebeian) it’s more engaging than reading a book, more mentally taxing than watching television, more rewarding than most modern films, and infinitely, infinitely more fun than stripping wallpaper.
In fact, being a gamer, I’m hard pushed to think of anything that I’d rather spend my spare time doing. (apart from the all time number 1)
Joke for the Red Dwarf fans there…
Fair play to some some girls who are occasionally dipping their toes into “casual” games, (I really hate that word) – they play peggle and boggle and facebook shit, and hey, they may even enjoy them and step onto more interesting games (from my perspective) such as the sims, or world of warcraft. One or two might even extend all the way to what we males deem as ‘maturity’ in the video game market and move onto the Bioshocks and Portals. But the key thing here is that girls haven’t been pre-programmed like males have to understand the satisfaction of shooting Germans, or causing mayhem by driving like a dickhead. They simply don’t have that psychological programming. And guess what? Males do,
And Males make video games, and whether they like it or not, they make them with all their psychological make up shinning through, their games are intrinsically affected by their background. Intrinsically making them not appeal to girls. Until this cycle changes, and more girls and more understanding males make video games (and the whole industry bullshit of “one man making the decisions” at the top of the tree suddenly changing his mind) – then this will never change. Sure Nintendo might overtly target females and say “I’m going to make a pony simulator” – but this game lacks universal appeal. Nintendo viewing a need to “target” the market indicates that the market hasn’t reached maturity. (Which it definitely hasn’t)
Maybe it’s just me, but I went to a 21st birthday Party at the weekend where I didn’t really know anyone, and after exchanging small talk with the “adults” of the group (whom I consider myself not to be) – I still found myself having the most stimulating conversation of the night with a 15 year old about Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, it was like a club that no one but he and I knew about and whilst we discussed the pro’s and cons of the FAMAS vs the FAL – we might as well have been speaking French to anyone listening.
And that’s maybe more the reason why it’s a boys club. Because, genuinely boys growing into young males want nothing much more than to, a) piss off their parents by dis-communicating them and b) they desperately want to fit in. Not knowing about football and Call of Duty at that age is tantamount to being gay. They sure as hell aren’t going to share this information with women who, at that age, are the enemy.
The same is true of girls, but they just have different specialist subjects.
Recent Comments