What Girl Gamers Like

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Nintendo seems to be the only company that has had the brains to appeal to the female audience. Perhaps it's because they're from Japan, while other console companies are based in the still extremely gender biased United States.

I've been playing Tinker Bell for the Nintendo DS. What seems like another lame game based off the novelty of the release of other Fairy products, such as the Pixie Hollow MMORPG, and Tinker Bell movie, actually turns out to be one of the most innovative and complex games I've played.

You play as Tinker Bell and help the seasons change, the game works based on the Nintendo DS' clock. The dialogue from the other fairies depending on the time of day, seems natural and realistic. Aside from helping change the seasons by gathering things, there also are I guess you'd say side quests. Where you can design clothing, help fairies out with non-season changing related tasks, and make accessories.

You earn rewards for use on DGamer, which is a chat program you can use if the Nintendo DS has Wi-Fi access. There also is a leader board, where you can try to accomplish doing a number of tasks in order to be #1. There also are things you can collect like clothing for your DGamer avatar from the game, as well as Dhonors for acheiving certain landmarks in the game.

What is remarkable about Tinker Bell is it is free flowing, and yet at the same time has a goal to it so it's not exactly like Animal Crossing where for the most part, it's up to you do figure out what to do. Also, they have male fairies in the game as well as involved with other Fairies products, which is really brave of Disney to do seeing how homophobic our society still is, since fairy has been considered slang for calling a guy gay. I'm rather surprised they haven't gotten flak from parents worried that the concept of male fairies will turn their sons homosexual, or something ridiculous like that.

Some of the boy fairies look more masculine, and some look sort of feminine, and it's interesting that Disney is open-minded enough to provide both aspects to how a male fairy would look. I personally think the more feminine male fairies are really cute, and I'd be lying if I said that wasn't one of the bonuses I feel is a part of playing Tinker Bell.

So I see Disney really doing a great job in investing in a game that appeals mostly to a female audience, when so many other companies wouldn't take the time. In fact, I was thinking next year when my family goes to Disneyworld, they have a presentation by the Innoventers in Epcot, I would go there and tell them how amazed I am by this game. That a game with such depth would be developed with female gamers in mind.

Yep I did.

Get Gears of War 2.....

RPGs mostly.

What?! Are you serious? I think Nintendo appeals to both sexes, personally. XBOX and PS don't appeal to most females at all, though. Well, for the ones around my age, anyway. In my opinion, Nintendo doesn't have violent enough games for the Wii... It is, after all, a family based system, so I guess it wouldn't..........

ANYWAY! DS and Wii offer some awesome games like Zelda. I also enjoy almost every Super Mario game for the systems. I still can't believe some of the lame games they're coming out with for the Wii and DS... I mean, cooking, come on?

Well most guys today, for some reason I cannot fathom, think if you don't play video games that have buckets of blood gore and violence, you're not a man.

Nice Yoshi & Baby Mario image btw!

Yeah, they think that if you don't like the idea of injuring other conscious beings and causing them excruciating pain, then you're not a man.

If that's the case, then why am I still regarded as a wimp/geek/nice guy/loser?

Damn it, stop insulting nice people!

I'm not referring to you, really. Just the jerks who devaluate men who don't cause pain.

...Well, not always... It certainly depends on the group of people you're around.
Yoshi's Island rules!

As with all "toys", girls are a niche market. Its easier to market "boy" and "either" because most boys wont touch a "girl" product with someone else's hair straighteners. Why waste thousands of manhours and processing time creating a game that will only appeal to part of the demographic, when you can insert a powerful female rolemodel in an otherwise "male" game?

Besides, I doubt there is a single female night elf rogue out there that is actually a woman.

You have a point. It is more practical to make boy or either toys from a purely productive perspective. I honestly never thought of it that way.

Some of it is observation: I have a daughter and two sons. She will play with "boys toys" (Ninja Turtles) and "Unisex" (Scooby Doo) and "girls" toys (Bratz), but the boys will only play with boys toys or unisex ones. (Actually that's not completely true. My younger son uses his step-sisters Bratz truck, but hey, its a metallic purple big rig.. thats pretty "boy" if you think on it.)

Some of it is memory.. I had male friends, and their rooms were full of interesting toys. So were their elder brothers rooms. Their sisters rooms were dull, full of princesses and ponies and thats about it.

Also, the boy section in most toy shops appears to be much much larger than the girls.

had recently read on game central that almost all developers make games at a loss,and the only thing that keeps them going is the one or few big popular games they create,and this is why so many movie tie ins get made.
so why do they keep putting their time and money to such girly s....t,when they know they are going to sell a lot less than games that are open gender friendly.
it's no wonder so many developers are shutting down or being bought out.

I disagree. I'd say that games for girls is an alternative market, perhaps. Think about how many girls there are in the world; that's no niche!