From: lawtonj@p4.cs.man.ac.uk (Kaleidoscope)
Subject: Re: CULTURE: Game Design
Date: 26 Feb 92 19:13:48 GMT



In <1992Feb19.204450.11139@u.washington.edu> hssiarl!rice@hacgate.SCG.hac.com 
(Jason Rice) writes:

>These markets will no doubt support some percentage of gluttonous
>violence but will be offset by (my feminist friends will shred me here)
>the feminization of the games. 

You probably will - my most 'feminist' friend, a female fine arts student owns
a Sega, loves the idea of VR, and likes nothing than a good few hours of
cartoon violent destruction. The likes of Tetris & Populous bore her...
(while me being a male Comp Sci student doesn't own a computer, but prefers
the likes of Sim City, Flight Sim, et al)!

>exceptions to that (Tetris for one) are indeed turning the heads
>of game designers, encouraging skill and exploration as game goals.

On a more serious note - Gauntlet and SuperSprint are two of the few actual 
arcade games that have had a 'I want to play that' reaction amongst girls in
general (from personal experience) - possibly due to the 'team competitive-
ness' (?) of the games....

>rules, developed from more timely subject matter and directed towards
>teamwork and nurturing.

It's a bit sad that teamwork/nuturing are seen as female values I think. The
problem is making these sort of things exciting and involving, which is the
challenge (Sim City is a case of something very involving that seems very bor-
ing to the outsider - games of destruction attract the eye much more, and 
offer a quicker simpler level of gratification).

Which brings us to the state of the hardware at the moment ---- it's expensive,
at the stage where 'hire' is the only option, like early video games - so
people want a quick easy to assimilate entertainment....

It wasn't till the advent of the home micro that 'deeper' games escaped the
academic environment (didn't the original 'Adventure' exist before Space 
Invaders? But it was only available to people with access to long unbroken
periods of computer time).

So it seems likely that more interesting uses of VR as entertainment will only
occur once we have home VR systems.

While the possibility of a D&D style adventure fantasy using VR seems possible
now when the cost of use is (in the UK) 3 pounds for 10 minutes, the hour or
so neccesary to become involved in & 'solve' such a game would be beyond the
reach of all except the very rich or curious. Hence the fact that the only 2
sites I know of running commercial VR in the UK are a racing simulator, and a
stand up 'shoot the other guy' game.


Julian Lawton - Member of the Pop Kid Internationale
`There is no such thing as good music in a vacuum -
 Only good listeners' - Everett True - 1991
-------------lawtonj@p4.cs.man.ac.uk-----------------