Women and/in Video Games

I was remembering myself playing a video game earlier, while at the same time noticing one of my friends got a new girlfriend, and then remembering that, when I went to see an action movie recently, this friend had asked me if he could bring that now-girlfriend along. Then, the three thoughts collided in this. Why is it that women tend to like action movies, as do men, but many women don’t particularly care for video games, at least the way many men do?

Notice I’m using the absolute term “many” instead of the relative term “most.” I’m trying desperately to avoid stepping into stereotype territory.

Anyway, after pondering this for a while, I thought of something that had been bugging me concerning various video games I’ve been playing in the past. I’m particularly interested in the stories video games present, and by extension I love getting to know the characters in the story. But one thing that has bugged me recently is noticing how the female characters in video games (at least, the female lead characters) always tend to be cookie-cut from one of three designs. Male leads are generally varied in character (let’s forget Final Fantasy V exists for a moment), but female leads usually get the same general treatment. Or, one of a few general treatments.

2 Hidden Issues with Game Designing Programs

My idea for a youtube video upload fell apart (suffice to say, I need better screen recording software, or something), so I figured I should make up for it by filling out another one of the ideas I’ve had hanging out in my drafts. Actually, RockFlor (head of graphics for Megaman Battle Network Chrono X) uploaded the new track I was planning to upload, though in a different way, so you can still see (eh…hear) what I was planning to upload. I’ll be uploading it myself soon as well. Anyway, onward with today’s post.

So you’ve just found a cool new game design program. It lets you create any type of game you want, all without any coding! It does everything for you, even coming with a ton of pre-made graphics and sounds and music so your projects will be ready to go in the snap of a finger! And, best of all, you can SELL any game you make! You’ll be a rich one-man game design factory! Right?

Unfortunately, no, at least, not that easily. You will mainly find disappointment with any game design software unless you are aware of two pitfalls beforehand and know what you’re going to do to avoid them (or at the very least, reconcile with them) before you even get started.

Source: http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/easy-button1.jpg

The Greatest Game Design Sin of All

(Sorry, this was written a week or so ago, but somehow I forgot to click publish…)

SoulRed is back y’all! School ended so I’ve finally got some (SOME) free time to write to this blog. I’ve had quite a few post ideas saved as drafts for a while and now I get to write one of them. And this will actually be a real blog post, not another here’s-a-blog-post-to-keep-you-happy-that-doesn’t-actually-say-anything-interesting.

So this blog post is about the greatest game design sin of all, in my opinion of course. Perhaps there are worse things that others may cite, but this is what gets me the most. Note that I’m not including things like playability issues, etc. Just something in certain playable games that bugs me to no end. What is it? Well first I’ll give you a list of games that (again, in my opinion) commit this sin:

Megaman Battle Network, Megaman Battle Network 6, Megaman 5, Megaman 6, Megaman Zero 2, Megaman X6, Sonic 2006, Sonic Advance 2, Super Mario Bros., Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland, Almost every level-based RPG if you train enough, …

And these are just out of the games I’ve played (and only the ones I can think of right now). What do they all have in common? Read on to find out!