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"Girls and gamers"

This is a reply I intended to make to a comment I read about two weeks ago, but I forgot.

Anyway, forementioned column was lamenting the fact that (and I quote) "girls and gamers don't mix"! My first point was that being a girl and being a "gamer" (whatever that is, maybe I should say "playing games" instead) do not exclude each other. I would love to get a chorus of support from female contributors to these columns, but I feel my chances are slim, so I'll accept that they are perhaps a rare breed. But it was a bit of a patronising generalisation (don't get many of those these days) to infer that there are none.

Anyway, that was my initial rant, my warm-up for the main point, which is this. The vast majority of games players, and more importantly games buyers, fit into a single category, young and male. I think the breakdown of the posters in these discussions will probably reflect that, although anyone who isn't please let me know. The future of gaming holds in store a battle between four players, each of who will be trying to sell more units than the others. I presume this battle will be fought over the same set of buyers - young males. I wonder if any of the contenders has given much thought to capturing new sections of the market? And I don't mean by releasing things like Barbie's fashion studio either...

What do you reckon? Is it possible to expand the market at all, or is it a lost battle? If it is then HOW?

yeah but leave the nonsense to the general forums, or else the moderator will get huffy and puffy OK!

Oh sorry darling! Got a bit sidetracked there!
Its FUN to talk about other things, and this is what keeps me coming back to the forum. If we have to stick to VERY strict regualations the forums will be empty. So everyone just chat away, I say.

By the way everone, can you please talk about the effects of males dominating the games industry and not PD, cause thats what this forum is supposed to be about.

Um this is a forum on the future of gaming not PD. The moderator wouldn't like this at all. But hey, no matter if i lose i don't ever restart the match until i get a medal.

Um this is a forum on the future of gaming not PD. The moderator wouldn't like this at all. But hey, no matter if i lose i don't ever restart the match until i get a medal.

That reminds me, what ever happened to Soup Dragon? Did he win a game and shunt off?

on PD it records your kill count so i try to keep it as clean as possible, that doesn't mean that I don't go up against perfect sims and dark sims because it's a function of the game, and it's one of the best functions so of course I will shoot them and let them shoot me, but if I play my mates I don't let them come at me full on. the best thing to do is give them big weapons, but not Souper Dragons(because of the grenade launcher) or any bombs, grenades or rockets, or that damn Laptop gun and just give them Ar34s and farsights(easy to out manouver)and pistols like the falcon, but not the phenix because of the explosive shells, then I just run around with my bare fists making them go blurry and drop their guns, fun yet not too unfair on them so they play again as they do get some kills in, but it's not right to kill my mates like that because I play ht egame alot more than them and I know the levels almost inside out so I can out run them and dodge in and out of tunnels and out run them to the more powerful guns and sheilds before they pick them up and use them against me, but if it's not moderated it's not fun and my mates get serious when I start to kick their aris with big guns from long distances when they can't see me and have no idea where to find a worthy enough gun to use against me.

I know a few female games players who could beat most people at certain types of games. some of them love fighting games and others like things like bubble-bobble. My brother's girlfriend, for instance, likes pang and the aforementioned Bubble bobble because they are colourful and fun to play. She is actually quite good at them. At the same time, she will not touch my brother's Role Playing games at all. My wife loves to beat me at Soul Caliber, but is easily beaten on Goldeneye. Mind you, after a bit of practice she managed to get quite good at quake 2 on my N64. She didn't play games before she met me, but now she loves a quick go on the Dreamcast or Nintendo.

Like I said I let her win cos I weren't bothered to win.
She was crap, I did nothing but run about and die.

The worst beating I ever had, was on Goldneye when I was whooped 105 to 32, I was so assamed as I was only playing against two other people, this was when I had first started playing the console and Goldeneye had only been out a few months, I hadn't bought my console then either, but i was pleased that i had been beaten so badly as it made me see that I wasn't as good as I had thought and made me practice even more(so in some ways was a bad idea, as i have spent many lonely hours locked in my room glued to the TV screen blowing away countless guards and freinds. Violence is healthy, I remeber someone saying that girls only like playing freindly games where you don't blow each other up, but I think that you have to watch a few horror films or play some violent games otherwise your totally vunerable to the crazy realistic world out side your front door.

that reminds me of a joke, you probably heard it already.

Q)Why did the old man die when he stepped onto his front porch?
A)because he stepped out of the living room.

I apologise for my sense of humor but I don't tell jokes very often.