Video games for women

It’s not that they didn’t exist at all, they did exist before but they were more commonplace in Japan. Especially video games specifically made for female audiences in mind, kind of interesting to think that Japan is ahead of the west in this regard. Particularly when it comes to consistently having video games and comics specifically made for female audiences, which is something the west tries to do and has been catching up on this lately. Well I feel when it comes to the western world, until recently with the advent of casual games on both online websites and mobile devices, there weren’t a lot of video games specifically made for women and girls in mind.

So a good number of female gamers would either stick to gender-neutral games or be put up with sexist garbage for years, that it’s not surprising why the western video game industry has so much difficulty attracting a female audience until recently. I actually have thoughts of contributing characters and storylines to a video game that I’d want to work on in the future, but one that’s more in line with what more women are into narratively speaking. Something like mystery and romance when it comes to the reading side of things, these were there in video games before. But it would be nice to create a video game that leans on both to varying degrees.

Admittedly, this is based around superheroes but changed significantly to meet certain markets and demographics as well as my own changing ideas for it. Something like how many of the superheroes in this story are in fact police themselves, which is thematically similar to Alan Moore’s Top Ten. Except I think Top Ten’s too mired in superhero leitmotifs to even resemble crime fiction, which I suspect that despite his desire to present such a world he neither has much interest in crime fiction nor law enforcement and criminal cases to convey it convincingly. Not that he’s a bad writer, but that these sorts of things aren’t his strong suits.

To make it even less similar to Top Ten is to take it out of the superhero school and make more recipient to outside influences, not just more true crime and crime fiction, but also something like Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, more nonfiction in general and so on, whatever they may be at present or in the future. That’s not to say I dislike superheroes as much as I feel Top Ten adheres much more to superhero school conventions, than it does to crime fiction proper which explains why it’s written the way it is. The fact that Alan Moore not only has read a lot of superheroes, but has written superhero stories for a long time that it shouldn’t be surprising why it turned out this way.

Even then this helps in establishing a strong identity for the game, as well as finding ways to make it reach out to different peoples. So I feel a superhero puzzle game would suit the theme of having superheroes as the police, it may not be the first superhero puzzle game as there were earlier ones before. Though primarily based around well-established brands like DC and Marvel at that, it could be said that there’s a precedent for this sort of thing. Not to mention, both mobile and puzzle games are popular with women, so a superhero puzzle game is just as likely to do very well with them.

As for the female character designs, sexualised female characters have fallen out of favour. No surprise why characters like Mortal Kombat’s Kitana and Mileena, as well as Street Fighter’s Cammy White dress more modestly than they used to. They have been criticised before and it’s only now that this aspect has been toned down or supplanted by something else instead, if both Capcom and Netherrealms Studio continued with the sexualised designs they’d be out of business by then. So they had to change to adapt to changing market preferences and tastes, that’s to be in step with the times.

When it comes to our own female characters, it would be nice to take cues from high fashion brands and the like to present female character designs that are more glamourous and stylish than sexualised, especially if some female gamers are uncomfortable with the latter. Sort of like how Disney Princesses are far more popular with women and girls, despite being idealised their character designs tend to be more glamourous than sexy. While the average DC/Marvel heroine is technically more agentic, this is often undermined by constant sexualisation.

Sort of like what Mileena, Cammy, Kitana and Sonya had for years, while the idea of a female martial artist is aspirational, the way they’ve been presented for a long time leaves much to be desired. Especially when it comes to women who aren’t comfortable with sexualised depictions, that it’s only now video games are beginning to pay attention to them more. This shouldn’t be surprising why the sexualised look fell out of favour in today’s gaming environment, it’s off-putting to other people and why it took time for the female gaming audience to rise in substantial numbers in the west.

Even if characters like Wonder Woman are technically/theoretically more agentic than Princess Aurora and Belle are, well at times I suppose, the way they’re presented seems more in line with popular men’s sex fantasies. This isn’t helped by that Wonder Woman sprung from the mind of somebody mired in BDSM, so it’s not hard to see why she carries such baggage like that. No surprise why more women are more comfortable identifying with Aurora and Belle than they do with Wonder Woman and Supergirl, the former two don’t appear in skimpy outfits that much. They also dress more stylishly, which’s appealing to more women.

The latter two have a history of appearing in skimpy outfits, though Supergirl now dresses more modestly these days (so far), but it’s not just that they’re skimpy they also have a lot in common with porn. It’s been long and frequently suspected that those working on superhero comics take cues from pornography, in some way or another, whether if it’s William Mouston subscribing to the softcore porn in his days, or how cartoonists do porn in their spare time. It’s no surprise why such themes and leitmotifs also occur in superhero comics, especially those coming from DC and Marvel.

This is finally getting better in today’s comics and video games, however small those steps are at times, is kind of praiseworthy. Then we get into the sort of stories women read, especially when we get to the storytelling side of things. Something like mystery and romance, since both do well with women a lot. Especially when it comes to the book side of things, that it would be nice to create a mobile game that leans into either one of these or even both. It’s already been done before to some extent, but it would be nice to inject bits and pieces of superhero storytelling to make it more distinctive. More immediately identifiable as its own.

It wouldn’t exactly attract a 100 percent female audience, but more than it would years ago (maybe except in Japan). But it should be noted that with the western video game market, it was something that catered to male customers a lot, far more than it did in Japan since the latter already had a substantial video game market for women earlier and longer, that it coloured the way video games were made and marketed to until now. It’s nearly about equal in America these days, though I think it would look different elsewhere. Maybe not exactly but you should get an idea of how far video gamers have come to near parity when it comes to gender composition, though this gets complicated by how some women don’t see themselves as gamers.

But this would mean that the number of female video gamers is larger than is officially counted, maybe not exactly near parity either, but larger than what the numbers tell. Though having more female game developers is nice, especially when it comes to creating something for other women in mind, that it would lead to something women would gravitate to and organically so. That and toning down the sexist advertising, which puts off women. I feel if there are women who are put off by idealised bodies, naked women and the like that it seems the naked female form isn’t quite as appealing to all people, especially if it risks putting them off from something.

Though this Redditor was referring to a comic book that someone gave to them, it does make sense why sexualised depictions of women are actually more off-putting than one realises or intended to. So we’re going to advertise this game, it shouldn’t have any of these portrayals because it would put off certain people and we’re trying to reach a broader audience here. Actually it shouldn’t have all of these portrayals either, so this is something video game companies are striving to do these days, the more they actively include different kinds of people in game development. It’s not perfect, but they’re getting there.

So it seems when it comes to creating something for women, we have to take their input into consideration that while I may not be able to speak for all women, common concerns include sexualisation, misogyny and the like. So we’re out to create a video game that includes/involves the things most women like, minimal or absent sexualisation of female characters, less sexualised violence against women and so on. Admittedly, humans may make mistakes so even this video game we could make wouldn’t be perfect either, but we’re getting there and we’re aiming to include women as part of our gaming audience and game development.

The video game industry has come a long way from where it was in the past, it’s still not entirely perfect but it’s something that’s doing its best to be inclusive to all walks of life as possible. This includes women and minorities.

Redundancy in a red ocean

Somebody pointed out some of the real issues with the Concord game is that at this point, there’s a lot of competition that there’s no way for it to catch attention from people and hold onto it in any way it likes especially if it doesn’t have anything else going on for it. This is called a red ocean where there’s a lot of competition and you’d have to find a way to stand out for long to get this much attention or something, whereas a blue ocean is when there’s not much competition and you could do the first mover advantage: that is being the first to introduce something new and different to the market.

I can’t help but wonder if this is the same fate that befell Dante’s Inferno, this game was commonly considered to be a God of War ripoff in gameplay and to some extent, the theme itself. But to make matters worse, there are other games with both of them to varying degrees and then there’s Devil May Cry, which is also based on the Divine Comedy. So such a game like that already felt redundant when there are more well-established games with similar themes and gameplay for others to turn to at any point, Concord could simply be the modern version of it in some regards really.

Now supposing if I were to come up with a game that’s pretty different from the rest of the market wherein it’s a mashup between superhero and mystery, because the superheroes here are actually detectives and police officers but even then there are superpowered civilians as well. Supposing if this game is the first of its kind and a mobile one at that, it could be a first mover in a blue ocean because there’s practically nothing like it before. The first of its kind really, but similar things can be said of God of War and Overwatch when they first arrived on the scene. Or even Devil May Cry when you consider this.

They were able to cultivate and hold onto the audiences they grew and got, moreso than what Dante’s Inferno and Concord desired to. They were really playing catch-up in a more saturated market, a red ocean scenario if you will. Supposing if this hypothetical game not only attracted an audience but also held onto it for as long as it did and continues into the future, it has succeeded in doing this and prompts other games to do something similar to varying degrees of success. But this poses another problem for some of the newer games, especially once the market becomes saturated that they can’t compete any longer.

Supposing if this same hypothetical game was also the first to introduce references to certain crime fiction stories and characters, something like that one character (Jemima Szara) is based on another (Jemima Shore) that it gets publicised a lot and prompts other game publishers to pre-empt similar games, including flat-out adaptations of Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple for instance. But the more other video game publishers churn out something similar like say licencing something from PD James’s estate, the more they risk running into a red ocean environment because their products could seem redundant by then.

Yep, another Concord/Dante’s Inferno. A game that can’t hold onto its audience for long, despite being rather serviceable but that’s not enough to stand out from every other game at this point. Because it’s such a competitive market that you’d have to fight hard to retain your customers/audience or else they’ll flock to something else altogether, especially a better established brand at that. Even if something is technically good and serviceable, because people develop emotional attachments to certain brands and products that it’s going to be hard adjusting to a new product in addition to all that added competition going on that it’s never going to succeed in the long run.

Supposing if somebody succeeds at creating an Adam Dalgliesh game yet does this when there’s so much competition around in a market for detective-superhero mobile games with literary references that it feels redundant, that it’s going to be stuck in a red ocean environment wouldn’t do it any favours even if the gameplay is good. Too much competition going on would be enough to render it redundant, especially if it’s not distinctive enough to stand out from its counterparts and contemporaries that it’s going to be another Concord/Dante’s Inferno. So history repeats itself with products like these.

Saturday in the park

Somebody had a prophecy of Chicago (and possibly other Midwestern cities) getting nuked, the entirety of Chicago will get destroyed and this would be bad news for other people. Particularly when it comes to the Mortal Kombat video game brand because its makers are located there, so unless if many of them move elsewhere for safety (well somewhere near and convenient like Toronto,) they too could risk becoming casualties if people don’t intercede for their safety. Some well known game developer would get saved, though it’s a matter of time when he and his cronies will ever make it to Toronto for safety, should something really bad happen in their lives.

There are a lot who’ve been given prophesies by the Lord about America’s downfall and inevitable, perpetual decline that it’s only a matter of time when America really declines as a superpower for good. But it could happen much sooner that expected, given America’s growing debt that it’s going to take more circumstances and factors to further lower its standing from now, perhaps lower and faster than we’d expect it to. Even if America’s decline may not come immediately, it will decline anyways for all the sins it has committed and never repented nor learnt from in any way. Chicago will be one of those cities that will be destroyed for the sins it has committed, whether if it seems big or small (to them), it’s still wrong in the eyes of the Lord.

What would be more frightening if Russia has the guts to nuke all American cities in a go, maybe with China’s help that both of them will destroy any major American city they can find. Not just capitals, but also each state’s largest city. American cities will be destroyed and made unrecognisable, both by natural disasters and by nuclear warfare. The windy city will be one of those cities to be hit by a hot and biting wind, that is the sheer power a nuclear bomb will emit when it detonates. Nuclear warfare will be used on any American city both Russia and China will find, with others joining in with their own grudges against the United States (Nigeria included, when it comes to slavery).

While some Chicagoans will have the sense to move elsewhere for safety, America will still be judged. It will be judged for the many sins it commits, despite proclaiming itself to be a Christian nation and it is a Christian nation only on paper. It fails on every other count that it’s Mystery Babylon in a way no other nation-state qualifies, come out of Babylon before time my dear Americans and Chicagoans, lest you all risk being casualties in the future. America is fallen, has fallen.