Girls and gaming. Girls and computers.

The two of them seem like mutually incompatible things, don't they? To the majority of popular culture, it would definitly seem so. People outside of geek culture lump geek (especially gamer ) girls into the same category as dragons, faries, and gnomes. They just don't exist. Geek culture knows they exist ( see this t-shirt, and this one, and this one ), but put them in the same category as the sun, sure they exist, they've just never seen one.

But there is a growing population of geek girls, and they're trying to get noticed. Some are even trying to get girls to use FPS shooters as confidence boosters. Take this excelent article by Gilded Lily. She argues that even though most first person shooters seem to be filled with testosterone, women can still use them to gain a sense of confidence. When you think about it, it does make a bit of sense. After playing a round of Halo, I do feel pretty confident. I mean, after taking on wave after wave of baddies ( all by yourself, might I add ), who wouldn't feel a little more confident?

Part of the problem that most women have with the games avaliable on the market today is that they objectify women. Like the infamous Laura Croft, with her physics-defying... um... bosom. Women gamers are trying to get companies to put out games that have a little less "grrr-I-kill-you-with-giant-gun" testosterone and a little more "kekeke-I-sneaked-past-you-using-wits". You know, games that don't define 'twitch-rate' as a skill. But therin lies the trick. How do you get a game that appeals to women made by a workforce predominatly staffed with men?

Some people have been telling women that if they don't like the games being made, they should start making your own. That's kind of like telling someone if they don't like the laws being made, they need to become a lawyer, or something similar. The gaming industry definitly needs a shot in the arm, however. Mabey if companies shifted away from the tried and true formula of "shoot everything that moves", they'd see some success. Not just in attracting women gamers, mind you, but attracting more gamers in general. The problem with most games today is that they're all the same. Killzone, Halo, Half-Life, Quake, Unreal Tournament, F.E.A.R., and many more of the more popular games of the last couple of years have all been FPS. There have been a couple of outstanding games in other categories ( like WoW ), but for the most part, it seems that the gaming industry is dominated by the FPS.

Mabey I'm just talking out my arse, but I really feel that the gaming industry needs to take a step back and look what they've been doing. Sure, there have been some games that have opened up new areas to explore. Take WoW, for example, which took the crack games like Everquest made and turned it into a chasm. But now every other MMORPG that has come along has mostly been every company trying to get a slice of the MMORPG pie. Not many have been as polished or as fun as Wow. Mabey that's the problem with games. Mabey it's not oversaturation, it's underprepared. It's no secret that most games today are shipped because the company wanted to make a good looking quarter, not because the developers said it was done. WoW is an amazing game because Blizzard trusted their developers enough to give them the time they needed to put out an amazing product. Compare and contrast with EA, a company not known for treating it's programers well.

Okay, that's enough of my mostly-unstructured ranting. Go play with sand or something.

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