LogFAQs > #963679349

wpot posted...

There's been a lot of focus on characters, and I think that end of the equation is largely on the way to being solved (albeit moreso in movies than in games): you see a fair amount of character variety nowadays. (Even, at times, when it doesn't make sense for the setting of the movie, which annoys me a bit)

Like you say, though, the more interesting question is whether there is a AAA type of game that should exist to appeal to traditional female audiences. Maybe, maybe not. I would personally guess that a MMO Farmville-type game (cooperative gathering/finding/building) might be what's missing, if anything. Add in some Dragon Quest-like sidequests and minigames, maybe. I know a few women something like that might appeal to. Could/should that be AAA? I dunno.

I don't think that's realistically feasible as an MMO. MMO's require a high degree of co-operation between players to complete a task. I'm not saying everything needs to be a raid fight and/or dungeons are an absolute 'must', but I can't see how that would be able to break into the MMO market, let alone the AAA category. Animal Crossing is probably the closest we'll realistically get toward something like that as an AAA game. While something like Farmville can rake in a lot of cash it's just not in the same category.

I suspect it will be more character/aesthetic design as opposed to game design, but even if a game like that for the female audience could be designed there'd be a lot of difficulty convincing the female demographic to play. However, I suspect it won't be an issue as modern generations are increasingly involved in this sort of thing. IIRC quite a few games have about a 33% female player-base. Sure, that's far from 'ideal', but it's a big step forwards. In a generation or two it will probably be near 50/50 regardless of what gets put out.