well that was depressing.

I totally agree to your opinion on the length of games. Since when is longer better? If we are talking about hours, even sex can get boring.

@axcho

Kind of goes with your post about the importance of animation? In a way… but even more immediate. Like for example if the game world looks dirty and gritty, it doesn’t matter how things are animated. It’s just considered by her as an ugly place she doesn’t want to stay in. For me that’s quite the braintwist but I come to understand her perspective.

Sometimes I am amazed by the number and diversity of design decisions that must be done right to end up with a fun and accessible game.Yeah, it’s a wonder games are being made at all. As you know, it’s even more daunting when you are actually in the midst of doing it ^_^

@ Yu-Chung Chen
As for the affinity cuteness I say with certainty that it’s the particular preference of YOUR girlfriend. Still, it’s a valid perspective and there is a HUGE audience that thinks the same. But I wouldn’t call us design geeks because of that.

Have you tried World of Goo? You know – it’s cooperative and very cute. And also I almost forgot: the first game my GF actually played trough was Pikmin. I think nowadays with the Wii version out it’s also a great choice.

As for text reading: that was the most amazing thing. She reads a lot so I showed her Hotel Dusk and Phoenix Wright. She enjoyed it but complained that it was too slow and too boring. Different game with same complaint: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. When she plays, she enjoys instant action. I mean RIGHT NOW GODDAMN! That’s why Street Fighter works.

Funny thing happed when I let my GF play Resident Evil 4. First of all, the game was spooky and very scary for her. But she was doing well up until the village. Then a bunch of zombies approaches and one of them stabbed her with a trident in the face. At this point she completely freaked out started shooting and screaming. Emptied her entire amunition, devastated all opponents, quit the game and wishes never to return again. She sometimes even recalls that specific even when she was stabbed in the eye… even if that attack was just a generic animation from the game. It left such an intense impression in her.

So what strikes me is that my GF is actually in a way much more into the games as I am. She actually takes the things that happen there much more personally then I do. She totally buys into it and takes some events for face value, especially visual clues. But this actually makes her reject a lot of games because she can’t distance herself from them emotionally. So actually seeing the mean faces of viruses of Doctor Mario contributes to the addictive quality of the game for her more than the actual mechanics. At least that’s what she claims. That was an eye-opener for me because I thought the graphics were only important at the early stages and later the mechanics would take over. It seems like that’s not always the case.

As for the Wii. Yeah, for my GF it’s better than a pad console but the DS is the system of choice. She wouldn’t idle in front of any console anyway and she actually commented negatively about the Wii controls when we were talking about getting the Dr. Mario Clone on the Wii. For example, she sometimes struggles with “finding” the screen with the pointer. Just shows that there is still some mapping involved. On the DS it’s really touching the things you interact with. That’s a big deal!

She has no motivation whatsoever to pickup the Xbox pad, but checking out Wii stuff seems natural for her. Also other friends that come over prefer Wii.

It’s amazing to see Nintendo’s concept working out.

—-

Jesse Schell’s The Art of Game Design has a short section on gender preferences, roughly only of course:
Male: Mastery, Competition, Destruction, Spatial Puzzles, Trial and Error.
Female: Emotion, Real World, Nurturing, Dialog and Verbal Puzzles, Learning by Example.

I can relate to many of his points.

My girlfriend got into gaming because of me. First she only tried my stuff, also we sometimes talk about classic titles she have nostalgic memories of, from the Famicom days. Now she occasionally does purchases on her own, getting games I don’t play.

She can get serious/obsessive about certain games, like Tetris DS and Ouendan (Japanese Elite Beat Agents). Basically any rhythm-based game is potentially a hi-score fest for her. Rhythm Heaven of course, too. Likes Mario Kart Wii but NOT Mario Kart DS. I’m guessing the comfort when playing is a major point here.

Games with straightforward mechanics are a must. She often says to my games “I would get lost (spatially) there” (Zelda, GTA, expansive worlds are scary), “games you play are so complicated” (Braid, Street Fighter, re: the move commands), “that’s too many buttons” (Street Fighter series). I remember her expressing dislike for pads. Wiimote works its magic as intended.

Brutal games are dismissed. Ninja Gaiden, Resident Evil and the like are barely referred to by their names, but as “perverted killing games” or something to that effect (using appropriate Chinese expressions).

Layton was liked for the puzzles but has too much texts for her taste. Same reason why she didn’t get into Phoenix Wright, despite enjoying the trademark charaters.

Traditional Mario is liked too, going only from left to right. Mario 64 doesn’t seem to attract her at all, but she enjoyed Galaxy a lot (maybe thanks to the visuals?), gathering more than 70 stars (IIRC), was ahead of me (!) for a while and only stopped playing because the comet levels towards the end were insultingly difficult (and because I got all 120 before her).

There you can see how well Nintendo manages to make the perspective twisting gameplay accessible even to the spatially challenged.

Interesting note about Zookeeper and the importance of superficiality: She doesn’t like Bejeweled at all, and Puzzle Quest’s additional layer of gameplay complexity was a total torn-off, despite the same basic gameplay. On a side note, when I show her some WIP stuff of mine or other visual designs I do, the most enthusiastic reaction I can get is “THAT’S SO CUTE!!”. Intellectual designs are appreciated but don’t excite her that much unless it’s really practical at the same time. I guess we are not only videogame-geeks but also design geeks.

Lately, she’s into a silly dog breeding game on Facebook. Where you hatch dog eggs. Yeah that’s right. Dog eggs. The game uses RPG mechanics to hook the player, but otherwise it’s extremely dull from my POV. Waiting time are deliberately integrated (for the eggs to hatch) so you’d play short sessions but check back often. She even sets time alarms to check back asap.

We generally like very different games though. I get bored of visual novels quickly, but she likes them. In fact I haven’t been playing games much at all. I almost feel like she could apply this article to me instead.

I like making games but I don’t generally like playing games that are longer than 5 hours. I get bored quickly. I read “60+ hours of gameplay!” on a box and I immediately put the game back and find a different one.

“superficial things like visuals and audio are SUPER-important. If a game has music that she doesn’t like or visuals which she find unpleasant (like most of the games do), she won’t even consider playing.”

Good reminder. Kind of goes with your post about the importance of animation? Sometimes I am amazed by the number and diversity of design decisions that must be done right to end up with a fun and accessible game. :p

“You might think that sharing hobbies in a relationship is nice but you get even more advantages from not doing so.”

Interesting point. I think I feel better knowing this.