I love how this turned into a discussion about hacking
Also on the subject of "girl appeal"- well this died like last page but- I think if you like something considered "girly" or "boyish" and want to see more of it it's totally fine, but saying "add x thing
because it's girly" is when it can be considered... Well, sexist(even if you're a girl saying it). Again, I'm not saying adding those things would be wrong, but your suggestion probably wouldn't work if it's just for the sake of adding "girly girl appeal", and not because it would actually add to the game(it can add to the game, but it shouldn't be tossed in for the sake of it, only if it actually
fits in the context...). It's also somewhat presumtuous to assume it would really get girls interested.
The notion of "girly" and "boyish" things just needs to die already. Thankfully where I live people generally don't make assumptions about those things much and since I've been playing video games for a long time, people usually accept that it's really part of me and that I'm not trying to be "hip" or "geeky" or anything, but when I was a kid (like, really, really young) people treated me... Different... Just because I was a girl who liked video games. Even the boys who liked video games- people with a common interest.
That's because it was considered a "boyish" thing to play video games and since I was a girl, people were
shocked that I loved this "boyish" thing and didn't care a lot for things considered "girly" like fashion, then people assumed I didn't operate "normally" and would never fit in even with the "boy gamers". Should I really be treated differently from a guy who plays video games, too, just because I'm a girl who does it? Is it REALLY that outlandish and do I deserve this different treatment because I'm not "usual"? No, we shouldn't be creating different "expectations" for each gender, and shouldn't treat people differently in that way because they're outside of the expected norm of their stereotype. Also, it leads to a horrible
self-fulfilling prophecy, reason girls who play games are less "prominent" is because this sexism (and
sexism still exists-
I just gave you my own example! In some form, no matter how big or small, destructive or harmless,
all of us have some "sexism" because that's part of what we're used to with society, and this will carry on for a long time generation and generation because they'll usually learn by example) can discourage us from being open about it. I want to become a game developer some day but the sexism in the industry makes me sad- I'm still going to pursue this dream because I truly do I want to make my own games and do something for this thing and truly love it, and I can "get over" those cries of sexism from people who attack me and just want to be jerks to me(that's something I'd like to fight against to help benefit the industry though, to help other girls be more welcomed and try to change some of the presumtiousness), but it seriously disappoints me that I'm more likely than not going to have to deal with "assumption" issues too just because of my gender.
good my life stinks
darkspyro
net