I'm not a big computer gamer and statistically, according to this article not many women are either ..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/h[...]519.stm

.. Are you a Game fan and what kind of games do you go for? Are you a shoot 'em up kinda girl or do you think there's some mileage in the idea that girls prefer the more interactive multi-player experience. Beyond that, do you find yourself playing different kinds of games when you're in "girl" mode?

Cerys xx

What games do I play.
"You Don't Know Jack
"Scattergories
"Pandora's Box(puzzels)
I did play a game called "Alice" Based on Alice In Wonderland with a sick twist.
I think my favorite was Zork Grand Inquisitor. But it won't run in XP.

American McGee's Alice is pretty good. The twist may be sick, but it makes it intriguing.

At the moment, I'm playing at www.runescape.com, which is a Massively Multiplayer Online RolePlaying Game (MMORPG). The community seems to have gone downhill a lot since I started playing it though.

Besides that, the only games that hold my interest, even for a little while, are the civilisation building and management games.

...but then, I'm 23 and grew up through the 'golden age' of games consoles.

i can get shot down in just about any flight sim going, crash any car, get pummelled in the stragegy game of your choice, i plays em all.




just not very well

I'm big player of Guild Wars, its a MMMOPRG kinda game, what I love about it is that I can appear as female character plus I've been naughty and told a few people that I'm female too.

Plus I've picked up a little german from playing it, we plan to meet next year

i definitely prefer cooperative games, whether RPGs or shooters. For some time many of my friends in my first-person shooter favorite were gg females. Many are gone now, they have moved on to "Battlefield Vietnam". There's a little bit of TG in all of us.

The major attraction of computer games to me was....cats...I had 7 cats. When you spend two days learning the rules and setting up a boardgame with hundreds of little cardboard squares 1/4" across, only to have "Fluffy" land in the middle of it after 4 hours of play..."Hi, friend, what you doing up here that's making those intriguing sounds? Are these edible?" The second attraction is being able to play alone during the period before online play was an attractive and available option.

I recently received a small credit for being a consultant on "ER", a new medical simulation that recently went Gold. I had dreamed for years about designing a board-game simulation that could be used to train nurses, so this was very gratifying for me, even just being a technical resource on what is a medically focused sim that has some mental training applications for both medical and nursing students preparing for clinical work.

Kendra you've inspired me .. for next year's Sparkle I'm going to get a huge Twister mat made up and positoned in the road on Canal street, big enough to take about 30 girls all playing at once ... Left Leg Red .. Right Arm Blue .. it would be a riot!!

Cerys, that would be a sight to behold, and probably not a pretty one.
xx

Actually, the more I think about this the more sense it makes. What better way to get us girls and members of the public interacting (intimately) than a jolly game of twister on a giant scale. Specially after a drink or two!



Even better if everyone paid a nominal £1 to join in and that money went to the GIRES charity or similar. OK, I might be mad but I'll suggest it to the powers that be. (And they'll probably suggest that I go ahead and organise it ...for my sins)

Cerys xx

It's not really a tucking-friendly game though is it?
Might go down well in Napoleon's though.
xx

Think of the photo opportunity's. Might be best played after dark.

I love video games, but I play on consoles rather than my PC. I have a Nintendo Game Cube and a Sony Playstation 2, with over 100 discs for both. I'm looking forward to the Nintendo Revolution and Sony PS3 coming out in early 2006. I never cared for the Microsoft Xbox, though. I've been playing console games since the Atari 2600 days.

Some of my favorite games/series are...

Zelda
Tomb Raider
Mario Kart
Crash Team Racing
Resident Evil
Silent Hill
Grand Theft Auto
Bomberman
Madden Football
Parasite Eve
Ridge Racer
Tekken
...and several space shooters.

I also have some of the old arcade game ports for those systems (Space Invaders, Asteroids, Galaga, Pac-Man, etc.). I have a MAME emulator on my PC, but I think it's more fun to play on the consoles in the living room.


Do you remember the arcade game "Gorf"? It was my favorite game, back in the 1980s. The designer is transsexual.

Gorf = http://www.klov.com/G/Gorf.html

Jamie Fenton article = http://www.sfbg.com/SFLif[...]73.html

I have played computer games since the early 1980's, and I have even written a few, but there are very few games that came out in the 1990's or later that I will play. The gaming world has moved too far from my interests.

I find violence upsetting, so I will not play the modern shoot-em-up games. I also can't stand conflict and competition of any type, so I will not play any multi-player games. Even those that are supposedly cooperative probably get competitive people who spoil the whole thing. I don't like to interact with people in a gaming environment anyway, so a cooperative situation doesn't really appeal to me anyway.

Now that I have finished complaining about the modern gaming world, here is what I do like.

The Ultima series of single-player role-playing games, especially Ultima VII. From IV to VII, this series developed a philosophical system. No longer could one kill townspeople or steal with impunity; the player actually had to do good, and this was the major theme of the game. The philosophical system makes a lot of sense, and it has influenced my own philosophy of life.

SimCity series. SimCity 4 is the only game made within the last few years that I have played. I can waste hours playing it!

Text adventures or interactive fiction. The Infocom games of the 1980's are classics. These games have no graphics - only text descriptions. You type in commands to move through the game. They are essentially interactive books. I have written text adventures, and I am sure I will write more in the future.

Classic arcade games: Millipede, Donkey Kong, PacMan, Space Invaders, DigDug, and many others. Whatever violence is in these games is so stylized that it doesn't bother me, and the simplicity of the games appeals to me. I still have an Atari 800 with lots of games, and I still play them occasionally.

Atari 2600 game "Adventure". True, the dragons look like ducks, and the main character is a square which is always the color of the room's walls, but that old classic is still a lot of fun. I can play it for hours.

Heather Harrison

I love Atari's "Adventure." That was the first console game that I fell in love with, and the reason I wanted an Atari 2600. I've played that and Zelda more than any other games. After the industry crashed in the early 1980s, I didn't play games for my first couple of years in college (which was a good thing). Then, when Nintendo came out with Zelda for the NES, it had the same affect on me as Adventure, and I bought a console and never looked back. By the way, I have the Atari Anthology disc for the Playstation 2, which includes Adventure. I also have the Adventure ROM file for a 2600 emulator on my PC.

Heather, I completely understand what you're saying about violence in the modern console releases, but I'm one of the adults who thoroughly enjoy both violence and competition in video games. They aren't right for children, but, for me, it's fun to do things in a game world that I would never even want to do in reality. In 1992, Mortal Kombat was the first high-profile game that introduced unnecessarily (but cool) extreme and graphic violence, and in more recent times, Grand Theft Auto 3 (PS2 - 2001) changed the whole gaming landscape, by allowing players the freedom to commit violent acts that have absolutely nothing to do with game play. Also, foul language and explicit sexuality have become standard elements in these games. As an adult, I can enjoy such games just as I enjoy novels or movies that contain those elements, without being encouraged to emulate them. Unfortunately, too many children and teenagers are being influenced by these games, so I'm all for strict measures to restrict sales to adults only. The games might not encourage kids to become murderers, but they can certainly influence their attitudes toward social interaction.

On the other hand, there are some very cute G-rated games that still offer fierce competition, such as the series based on the Mario and Crash Bandicoot characters. The kart racing games are my favorite (recently... Mario Kart: Double Dash, Crash Team Racing, & Crash Nitro Kart). All of the characters are adorable, living in bright happy surroundings, but the actual competition is cut-throat! LOL Bomberman is another great competitive game, especially if you have four players. A lot of the modern sports series, like Madden Football, are also suitable for all ages, while still offering solid competition.

Anyway, single-player adventure games are still my favorites. I recently finished Resident Evil 4, and have started Silent Hill 4. Those are often classified as "horror-survival," but they're still adventure games. The next big one is Zelda: Twilight Princess, which should be out around Thanksgiving for the Nintendo Game Cube.

Sometimes, though, it's relaxing to sit back and play Galaga or Galaxian for a while.

Have played games since well.. the beginning of video games. loved Space invaders and astroids back in the day..
Love games.. anything to keep my mind occupied when i need it.. Guild wars, City of Heroes and GTA San andreas are some of the more recent games ive taken the time to play and enjoy.
I also used games as an escape during the really tough times in my life. During the collapse of my marriage and the loss of so many jobs over the years were reasons for me to run to games and the non-reality they allow me to venture into..
I'm a techie what can i say.

as to the violence well.. its a game. how else can i say it. the language.. im use to and use it .. colorful metaphors are so useful when needed.. though no where near the amount when i was typically male.
but on that same note.. since ive been on hormones and the changes that come with that are also changes in my enjoyed forms of entertainment. As of recently Ive gotten somewhat bored with video games.. but that could also be because of the lack of imagination in current games.. nothing REALLY new.

take care
kyli

Final Fantasy 7 was great, especially the part where Cloud has to dress as a girl to get past the guards.

That's interesting, Cher. I've never felt any differences playing while dressed as a woman (which is how I usually play, because that's how I'm usually dressed) vs. dressed as a man, unless I'm in the same room with other human opponents. Once I get into a single-player game, I don't think of myself as a woman or a man, but as a player, or even as the on-screen character, if the game is good enough to pull me in that far.

Could you go into more detail about your different attitudes/approaches to video games, based on your mode of dress? It might be an interesting parallel to the ways in which we approach life in general, based on which gender we present.

The time passes quickly for me, dressed either way. I can easily lose a whole day (or weekend) playing games. I don't play them all the time, though. Sometimes, I'll go for weeks and barely touch them, but I always come back, sooner or later.