Are games still market-heavy toward males?

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matenmoe

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#1 matenmoe
Member since 2004 • 1238 Posts

The games industry used to be extremely 'biased' (not meant in bad way) toward male consumers. At one point the only real Female lead you had was Lara Croft. Has this changed much? If not, do male gamers actually like the added female choices in games with gender selection?

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king-kj

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#2 king-kj
Member since 2009 • 89 Posts
I belive it is changing, but slowly.... Me personally have got no problem with a female lead or a male lead for a game. Good games normaly tell a story so well that you grow attached to the character no matter what gender the lead role is.
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Senor_Kami

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#3 Senor_Kami
Member since 2008 • 8529 Posts
It is still male oriented. If anything, it's gotten worse. Most female leads are biased towards male consumers... thats why they all have like D-Cups and run around in bikini tops or some other outfit that gives you a T&A shot every time they are on the screen.
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osan0

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#4 osan0
Member since 2004 • 18264 Posts
depends on what sector. the big budget blockbusters are very much male orientated and thats not changing. but something like online gambeling? very target towards women (going by the adds anyway). games from companies like popcap try to remain gender neutral as much as possible.
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tomo90

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#5 tomo90
Member since 2005 • 2245 Posts

It is changing as are social stereotpes of gamers as a whole. Although it would be foolish to say it's equal as of yet.

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Ceraby

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#6 Ceraby
Member since 2009 • 3306 Posts

I think they're coming up with more games targetted at a female audience. Harvest Moon has both a girl and boy version which has the same playability and the same story. Sadly, most of the other games geared towards girls have to do with fashion designing, make-up, modelling, cooking etc...which of course I have no objection to since I actually like those sorts of games. The one I didn't like was about raising babies. :? Overall, a part of me is kind of disgusted with how female gamers are being stereotyped, but well, like I said I honestly do like those games.

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Naruto

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#7 Naruto
Member since 2002 • 8673 Posts
DS and Wii are targeting women and children. They sell the most. So I would say the market is balanced.
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jjtiebuckle

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#8 jjtiebuckle
Member since 2008 • 1856 Posts
Mainstream yes, but in general the market audience improved with the boom of casual gaming (Cooking Mama, Diner Dash, etc).
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stike22

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#9 stike22
Member since 2009 • 3401 Posts
DS and Wii are targeting women and children. They sell the most. So I would say the market is balanced.Naruto
yep.
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AtticusFinch88

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#10 AtticusFinch88
Member since 2008 • 1388 Posts

I belive it is changing, but slowly.... Me personally have got no problem with a female lead or a male lead for a game. Good games normaly tell a story so well that you grow attached to the character no matter what gender the lead role is. king-kj
I feel the same. but I have noticed recently that a lot of female characters are being shown in a different light, like Faith in morror's edge for example. although Sheva's costumes in RE5 seems to tell a different story...:roll:

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DJ-Lafleur

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#11 DJ-Lafleur
Member since 2007 • 35604 Posts

It is still male oriented. It is kinda getting better for females, yet also worse. Like some one else mentioned already, "women parts" have been getting exagerrated as of lately, but also, more games are having female leads, or giving the player the option of a female lead, and not all of these female leads have big boobs or whatever, either. :P

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BladesOfAthena

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#12 BladesOfAthena
Member since 2008 • 3938 Posts
Lara Croft wasn't the only female lead. Even before she came around, Samus Aran was already out, strutting around in her bikini.
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stike22

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#13 stike22
Member since 2009 • 3401 Posts

Lara Croft wasn't the only female lead. Even before she came around, Samus Aran was already out, strutting around in her bikini.BladesOfAthena

Lol, yeh Samus is one of the oldest female leads...funny thing is half the fans didn't know it.

Actually after thinking about it reallymost Wii and DS games that are for girls really can't be considered actual games more like gimmicks for children...imagine games for example...Castlevania OoEis about the only serious game on DSI can think of at the moment.

If your talking about boobs do yourself a favour and get Soul Calibur 4...check Ivy, they must have spent like two weeks just refining the physics of her chest alone. :P

I don't think the market is really changing but I think every now and then some dev decides to make a game with a female lead. Heavenly sword on PS3 was one of them, haven't got a clue what it was like though.

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magic_treehouse

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#14 magic_treehouse
Member since 2009 • 33 Posts
I think it's got better but there is still along way to go. As someone's already stated, the DS and Wii have done a lot to open gaming up to females (and gamers of all ages too which is good). Still, when Grand Theft Auto 4 came out and I saw pictures of the queues outside the shops it was all teenage boys, which did make me think, 'is this how far we've come?'. So I do think it's better and I think it'll improve over time, especially if there are more women working in the industry. Regarding Lara, I wouldn't exactly class her as being aimed at the female market as such. They did, after all, give her a massive chest to appeal to straight men. Also, RPGs are one genre that have consistantly had great female (and male) characters that all have depth. Think of the Final Fantasy series and how many great female characters there have been, and not all of them were wearing nothing but a bra and pants too!