I understand your point about harrassment, I've seen it enough to wonder why a woman would ever want to reveal her gender on the internet, however the comments about the interface aren't really tied specifically to the female demographic - I, personally, hate Steam's Colour Scheme and UI, and while I enjoy Impulse's better its not really that great either. I believe Steam has the ability to be custom skinned to some degree, and knowing Stardock I assume Impulse has some sort of customisation hidden away. It's not a matter of them appealing to any one specific demographic, it's more about making themselves appear unique. When I see Steam, I instally recognise it as Steam, and same with Impulse. However, I would kill to change Steam to something more user friendly.
Interesting. I assumed I didn't like the interface or the colors primarily because they were designed for young guys. I took a couple of CS classes while in college, and there discussion about UI and sex and different expectations. Between the two, Impulse's colors are better, but they are both rather depressing. You're right about how they look different enough where you can't mistake one over the other, but the grey theme between them just baffles me. And with Impulse, at least you don't actually have to go into Impulse unless you want to. I have a few BigfishGames and well, that's not great either. It's sort of a giant in your face interface plus they do some weird stuff that require every game I download from them to need a dozen permissions to get online which always makes me frown. I suspect BigFish has a lot of women consumers too, but I don't know for sure since they don't seem to be tracked much.
I agree whole heartedly with this point, and we're certainly seeing this more and more. Diablo II, for example, featured Gender Locked Classes, while Diablo III will feature both genders for each Class. I, again, understand where you're coming from. L4D is certainly an example where they could have provided several additional character models, as the narrative is general enough that they could include as many girls or guys as they wanted and their ommission doesn't really make sense besides to cut costs where possible, and highlights - as I'm sure you're well aware - a deficeit in their ability to provide for their female customers.
Oh I loved D2. One of the first online games i got to play via modem and LAN. If they follow through with D3, and make it as good as I expect it to be, plus allow the gender change without breaking the game up into 3 pieces or try to sell me a bunch of DLC out the door, I will be exicted. I doubt blizzard will sell the game any differently, but at least those of us already hooked on these kind of games will have a choice. I will give credit to L4D for having a female character in the campaign, but sometimes I just can't help but feel she's a little like Lara Croft, as in a female character not actually made for women but for the guys to look at (no I am not saying she is as exaggerated as croft but certainly has an appeal. I think Bill and Francis are rather cool characters, but they were not put in the game for their good looks by comparison).
As for cutting costs, I see that all the time with half-ass attempts to accomodate women choices. Like Tropico 3, Space Rangers 2 and Patrician III. All three of them offer female avatars, but none of the text is changed in those games... it still says "he", your still a womanizer in Tropico 3, in Space Rangers 2 there is a text adventure where you hit on the queen or something of that nature. Hey I hear Dragon Age gives you a lot freedom with gender roles, which is great, but in these other cases they just didn't bother to change half the game to acknowledge the choice you made at the beginning of the game. RPGs (PC not console traditional RPGs like Final Fantasy), MMOS, life type simulations (Sims), and non-historical base FPS are getting better (FPS still has the biggest community issues for women though. I just don't play with people I don't know in those, but the same people who are pigs to women are jerks to other guys too so there seems to be a perosnality defecit in a lot of the FPS community).
Well, your frustration is understandable. As a self-professed hardcore gamer, I've seen the Hardcore go from the majority to the minority and I'm starting to feel like an outcast in several 'camps' myself. The difference is that I had my time where I was pampered, women gamers are still waiting for their turn. As companies begin to see the money involved when catering to their female demographic - sorry to refer to another stereotypce, but the best example I can offer is the film 'New Moon', which already has movie makers scrambling to find the next big chic flick because there is alot more money in Girls movies than Guys, it seems - you'll start to see the kind of changes you want. And if Developers fail you, the modding communities will pick up the slack. There are female models available for Counter-Strike within the modding community, for example, so there are still options, even if they are not quite offical.
Yeah there is a reason PG movies tend to rake in a lot of the bucks. The kids have a lot of money, correction, can get their hands on a lot of money. I guess that's why there is still this games are for kids issue going on here.
I'd say that modding is one of the biggest selling points for PC gaming.
Anyway, I guess I was shocked and extremely disappointed with seeing 4% in terms of women (at least that is the number I am remembering) of users of Impulse being women. Steam is larger than Impulse in pretty much everyway, but I don't know that it's much better over there. I would be curious to know because some of their biggest selling points, the community, isn't much of a benefit to me at all. I saw a thread on here title something about a sausage factory, and I clicked on it thinking it was about the fact that almost everyone around here is a guy, but it had had something to do with the industry and niches I think, relevant info, but not the first thing that came to mind obviously.
I know I sort of spat something out about white guys too, which I should have addressed differently I admit. But the studies don't just show guys are being catered, it's white men. Minority charactesr aren't plentiful either (except in sports titles), so as a woman of minority status, you can imagine how frustrating it can be because if there is a woman character available, she's usually an attractive young white woman.
But hey, one step at a time and I would settle for more customization in general which would address a lot of issues right off the bat, and not all games should look and being more gender friendly, but a lot of them could rather easily try harder.
