The above is a photo from EA's Sharon Knight's opening keynote at the Women in Games conference, and it nearly comes complete with an implied question: do women love their PCs, their Wiis, their DS Lites and Phats, and their phones? Lately, the industry seems keen on making sure we know that women just love casual games, and when one combines that fact and the above slide, we can't help but wonder ... are the DS and the Wii branded with the idea that they're filled with nothing but casual games?
Certainly most of us have run into that attitude among the various fanboy communities; here, especially, we're frequently hit by that particular brand of troll what seems determined to convince everyone that the PSP is the only real handheld for anyone over the age of 12, and sales figures be damned. But forget all that -- overall, do you feel that most of the games on the DS casually-oriented? It's a handheld, after all, and part of the idea of a handheld is that it is casual. But does the DS go beyond that? Should it? After all, it's not just women who are playing casual games ....
1. To be honest with you, I haven't played my DS in awhile.. reason being that I've got the Wii now and I'm plowing my way through Zelda,plus I just bought Shadows of the Collossus on PS2(on sale at Target for $14.99!) and my ever present WoW.
I guess I'll go over these point by point:
I guess I do like my Wii, my DS, and my PC, but i will never, ever play on my phone (why bother when I got a DS?).
I was not introduced to gaming by a male friend or family member, my mom bought me and my sister a nintendo in 1988.
SSX, Burnout, crap, I hate those games. Harry Potter - first two were really good but the others (especially prisoner) were sucky.
Sims is alright, my sister likes it mostly to decorate the house, and I have no idea what Pogo is.
It'd be interesting to know how the demogrphics break down in this, where they got their information and what age group they were focusing on, because I don't like to get lumped in with 11 year olds and 45 year olds alike just because we are all women. Wow, sorry for the long post.
Posted at 9:56AM on Apr 20th 2007 by Sarah