(05-07-2014, 06:58 PM)Ashren Snow Wrote:Or, to put it another way, just because you don't like it as a principle doesn't mean that companies don't inherently judge us that way. Â And I'm hard pressed to say they're always wrong. Â When games are "localized" for us from foreign companies, they take the same demographic information they get from our companies. Â Which are horribly out of date and not inclusive (I'm assuming the same thing happens in those countries).(05-07-2014, 01:03 PM)Flickering Ember Wrote:Woah woah woah now, let's not pull the race card so quickly here. I never said that the targeted demographic had to be a hetero white male, I just stated that companies determine a demographic early on and focus their design decisions based around that demographic. If the targeted demographic were burly homosexual steel mill workers, then you can bet your ass that the game would be heavily focused on burly homosexual men (or women, I'm not here to judge) who were probably blacksmiths or something.(05-07-2014, 11:33 AM)Ashren Snow Wrote:Â Most female characters aren't played by male characters though. As 'allgivenover'Â(05-07-2014, 11:23 AM)Naunet Wrote:Oh don't get me wrong, I totally agree with you. I was pointing out that most female characters are played by guys, and the counter point to that was how there were(05-07-2014, 11:12 AM)Ashren Snow Wrote: As for the ratio of female to male gamers in MMOs, you also have to consider how many female players also play male avatars. My FC is actually a pretty even split between male and female players, but amusingly enough most of the females playe male avatarsÂ
This is in no way a common thing across MMOs and has more to do with FFXIV's male models not all being steroid beefcakes - the same reason a lot of women play male high elves or male castanics in TERA.
so many more female players than I was giving credit to, so I countered that with the fact that many female players also play male characters (for much the same reason most guys play girls). More often than not it has nothing to do with gender identity (not to say that this isn't the case some of the time) but more to do with liking the way dem pixels come together.
mentioned, this is all anecdotal. But recent research has shown the idea that there are 'no girls on the internet' is a very outdated belief. In your experience, most female avatars are played by men. Your experiences differ from others' experiences as well as the various censi lying around. That does not mean your experiences actually pull weight in a discussion.
Additionally, it is rather foolish for businesses to ignore minority demographics. The differenceis that there is a vicious cycle in society that places white straight men as default human beings. This means that not only can straight whit men relate to their own demographics but minorities can too. Businesses do regard minorities and are foolish should they choose not to. They just don't put as much effort into targeting minorities because it is presumed that while minorities can relate to straight white men, straight white men can't relate or respect minorities...according to marketers.
And, according to the games industry, young men play more video games than women and older men. Â Our games industry and localization for us are both geared heavily towards that demographic. Â In the end, they may be right, in a way. Â As Nintendo proved with their Wii, though, and subsequent phone games, the market is bigger than that. Â However, the mega-blockbuster video game (and MMORPGs are generally included in that) bank on the 18-34 year old player demographic.
That's not so say that's a good idea, considering the average age of a modern player is 30, but it's as much of a reality as targeting cleaning products towards married stay-at-home moms. Â It seems demeaning that every vacuum seems to be cleaning up after kids midday by some well-made-up married woman in advertisements, especially considering we all own a vacuum, it's just where their advertising bucks can get the most bang.
In video games, it's targeted towards a demographic that hasn't been clinically true for at least a decade or two, but who knows? Â They may think that if they target young men, they'll get the most bang for their buck as older men and women will still play, but losing the target demographic would be suicide. Â I'm not sure; I'm not a marketing exec. Â I have a soul.