GDC09: MMMeowRPG: Hello Kitty Online coming to US

DON'T YOU EVER, EVER, EVER TRY TO BRING ME DOWN LIKE THAT. This is happening! You'll see! (o god I hope this is true)

Helllllllllllloooo Kitty!!

Japan.

Lulz! +1

Uhhh gee whiz fellas... this isn't as much fun as Hello Kitty Island Adventure....

get the fudge out.

Not tryin' to put you down, but do you make comments like this when a SUPER-MACHO GEARS OF WAR game is announced, or when something like Age of Conan is touted for its bevy of boobies? Games that very obviously cater to one gender will be put on store shelves from now until the end of time. And until we all have breasts and penises - a thought I dread - it will continue to be that way. Wait. What logic is in this paragraph? I don't know. I'm just typing.

Me, I am one hell of a fine stud, and I love Hello Kitty. But not enough to play this.

I'm exaggerating my sexy, by the way. If only slightly.

Why exaggerate your sexiness, if your good looking, flaunt it I say :)

As for Saria's Hello-Kitty-Phobia, they say the best way to get over a phobia is to try it more :D

@dark_inchworm: Don't get me wrong, I like Sanrio. But Hello Kitty is an atrocity and the fact that she's the official Japan tourism ambassador is just sad.

And the problem is the "male genre" is just 90% of the games that are out, and out of those 90% of games there are actually GOOD ones. Name more than two games out of the 10% which make up the "girl genre" that are actually decent. And just because a game's casual doesn't mean it's in the "girl genre," either.

"And just because a game's casual doesn't mean it's in the 'girl genre,' either."

I'm going to assume/hope you're attacking a generalization often made, and not something I implied...

Anyway, no, I really can't think of any good "girl games" off-hand. Not a single one.

But what if someone finally breaks the mold one day? What if someone develops that one shining example of a great game that caters to girls/women? What if it finally opens eyes, opens doors, and...

You know what? Fuck that line of thought. Look at books. Look at cinema. Virtually everything that obviously caters to a particular gender blows ass. Fuck chick flicks, fuck dick-and-fart-joke fraternity comedies, fuck Twilight, fuck it. Generally, good entertainment isn't forced into a niche or a cultural preference. It is simple done. Video games are certainly an interesting case, given that a huge portion of the form catered to male tastes for decades, but finally, people realized that guys aged 8-25 aren't the only gamers around. In light of a few bombshells (The Sims and the Wii especially), every publisher is branching out. The situation is in an infant stage where nearly every attempt results in awkward failure (see: lots of third-party Wii software), but surely it won't be long before realizations are made, the obvious shines through, and there will be PLENTY of QUALITY games catering to BROAD tastes that can please virtually EVERYONE. MMM CAPS.

Maybe widespread gender pandering in games will die in a fire someday. Maybe it will be as it is in the movie industry; substantial, but not so significant that it is embarrassing and unbearable.

Entertainment's fucking disgusting.

"simple done" --> "simply done"

@dark_inchworm: I agree, that's why I dislike the idea of a "girl genre" period. The best entertainment, in my opinion, is not the kind marketed towards only one specific demographic. I want developers to get it out of their heads that they need to make things very girly and cute in order for something to appeal to girls. They also need to get it out of their heads that games are only played by guys, so it's okay to hypersexualize women in games and make men hypermasculine. When most of the games in the industry are that way, it's no wonder the average girl feels alienated from the world of games.

Make good games and both genders will enjoy them.

It's funny to ponder all this, since games were never conceptualized as a means to tell stories, evoke deep intellectual contemplation, or serve the desires of particular groups of people. There's no storyline behind Monday Night Football. Rich Uncle Pennybags is a character and little more. Pac-Man, Pong, Galaga, and other early video games were simply for competition and fun.

But these days? Video games have the power and capacity of all other entertainment rolled into one convenient package. The days of playing solely to best others and have fun are still around, fortunately - face-offs, leaderboards, competitive elements. In most modern-day titles, though, we also have these other strong traits borrowed from other art. Music, stories, cinematics. Ebert may shun us for thinking this, but video games are special in that they have virtually the same capabilities as any other media. But is that missing the point? What IS the point? Video gaming today is an odd outlet. So sublime, and so ambiguous in its goal.

ramble ramble ramble

To be honest, I didn't even realise there was a girl genre, I was under the assumption that games were for all who happened to like gaming, fullstop, there is no such thing as gaming for girls and if there is, tell me what type of game that is without stereotyping or sounding sexist. Fashion? Guys like fashion too. Cooking? Women don't just do cooking, thats sexist. Cutesy creatures? Whats wrong with a girl playing Gears?

So there is no gaming for girls, all I can say is that there are games for different audiences but I wouldn't call them games for girls or games for guys, what next, games for grandparents? Games for babies? Games for business women and games for toilet cleaners?

Hello Kitty is not marketed at girls alone, it just so happens to attract more girls then guys with its cuteness, thats not an attempt at targeting a female genre, its an attempt at targeting people who like 'cute'.

@Maverick: Just because people other than girls can buy and enjoy Hello Kitty doesn't mean Hello Kitty still doesn't have a main target. I can buy and enjoy reading Stuff magazine (and I do) but that doesn't mean that Stuff magazine doesn't have a core demographic, which isn't me, a female in her 20s. To deny the existence of a "girl genre" just silly.

I think mainly you just don't like the word "genre" and you prefer to say "girl-targeted games?"

I don't deny that other people can like Hello Kitty or that it is wrong/dumb/etc. for them to do so, but it's clear they're aiming their product at a female demographic.

@dark inchworm Oddly, Pac-Man was created in order to appeal to women. Since games at the time were mostly targeted at male interest, they wanted to pick something girls were interested in: eating. I'm not even kidding. Also, it was one of the first games with cutscenes and an abstract semblance of a storyline.

@lasersanchez: I thought that was Mrs. Pacman?

I don't think magazines and games can be put into the same category, you don't play magazines or read them for thier award winning storylines.

You read the magazines as they fit into your daily routines, take for example celebrity news targeting celeb lovers or gardening magazines targeting those who have the intention of gardening, while a Garden tycoon game isn't nessesarily targeting gardeners now is it. Just the same way Roller Coaster Tycoon isn't particularly targeting those who plan on establishing a real theme park, nor is Gears targeting a market of people who like big guns, happen to shit talk and like to blast aliens. They just target markets that happen to have an interest in that type of gaming. Which could be anyone, young or old, male or female.

There are no games that target particular races but more so particular countries usually because countries have different interests, Japan happens to like cutsie things and RPGs, but RPGs aren't made specifically for the Japanese market, its a genre that applies to everyone, it's only been seperated by gamers because of its differences to western style rpgs.

The same goes for girl gaming, when girls can play and enjoy a vast array of games from the likes of Wii arcadey type games to hardcore Halo type games. Thus the reason for hardcore and casual gamers. One might say Wii games are childish, but Wii games are specifically targeting children, but instead families and people of all ages, it just so happens that hardcore gamers prefer something they can get into, something with more bite to it and so feel the Wii is targeting a younger audience.

I never said Hello Kitty had no target market, every game has a target market, but I plainly meant the idea of 'girl genres' shouldn't really exist in my opinion because to me thats no better then having games targeted at different races for example, but instead when developing a game, keeping in mind the features that will appeal to female gamers as well as males.

Hello Kitty may happen to appeal more to females due to its pink etc, but that isn't and inclination to start seperating games into games for girls and games for boys. What would you call a game for boys? Gears? Halo?

@Maverick: Gears, definitely for boys. Nothing gets more hypermasculine than that. If you want a real example, look at Dead or Alive or, better yet, Leisure Suit Larry.

I'm not arguing FOR there being a girl genre, because I think it's just as stupid as you do. I'm just acknowledging that it's there.

I've pretty much summed up what you said here:

"dark_inchworm: I agree, that's why I dislike the idea of a "girl genre" period. The best entertainment, in my opinion, is not the kind marketed towards only one specific demographic. I want developers to get it out of their heads that they need to make things very girly and cute in order for something to appeal to girls. They also need to get it out of their heads that games are only played by guys, so it's okay to hypersexualize women in games and make men hypermasculine. When most of the games in the industry are that way, it's no wonder the average girl feels alienated from the world of games.

Make good games and both genders will enjoy them."

@Maverick: Hey, you can't summarize something with an even longer post! That's cheating! :O

"Maverick: Gears, definitely for boys. Nothing gets more hypermasculine than that. If you want a real example, look at Dead or Alive or, better yet, Leisure Suit Larry.

I'm not arguing FOR there being a girl genre, because I think it's just as stupid as you do. I'm just acknowledging that it's there."

I agree, Gears is an ego trip, but thats the whole point of it in the end, personally I would have prefered if they added a few bad attitude cigarette smoking girls in it too to kick alien ass, that way it wouldn't be a cock fest, but then, some girls prefer that to cutesy pink, what better way to get rid of stress, if my mum or gf can sit and enjoy a game of GTA, Gears or Halo the same way I do, it already defeats the idea of 'girl-targeted' markets.

If girls like chick flicks with romance etc, simple, make an rpg with elements guys will like and a romantic plot girls will like, instead of making a game based on Renee Zelwegger or Britney Spears going on an adventure and calling it a girl targeted game, thats a bit of an insult, my gf doesn't even like Britney Spears or pink for that matter.

DOA is just perverted, the only reason that game gave the perception it was targeting males only is because it was made by a bunch of horny males like Itakagi who happened to like 3D fighting hentai and made it for thier own pleasure, only to one day realise, hey, why keep this all to ourselves when we can share it with the masses and make money! Lol

i was just about to say that.
South Park forecasted this...