Greetings forum-goers,
Before diving into my suggestion, I'd like to introduce myself. I used to work in the games industry (casual games and FPS) on the business side. Beyond being involved in the business strategy, for fun after work I contributed to beta testing for several games (e.g. Turok, Army of 2). I've since moved to a management consulting firm but I like to stay involved with the games industry; that's the reason I'm here!
I have a few simple suggestions to make the game more female friendly, and thus appeal to a larger audience.
1. In the unit creation screen, allow the creation of female units.
2. Provide visual character customization options (e.g. sovereign and soldiers can change hair colour, clothing colour, doesn't even require more character models, just textures).
3. Feature women prominently in roles throughout the game (e.g. soldiers, sovereigns), and in a normal way (i.e. normal looking women, not ones in bikini armor with giant chests).
4. Allow user to change the appearance of their soveriegn (e.g. hair) whenever they wish.
To men, these options seem superfluous. But to women, the ability to roleplay and "get into" the game is a critical component in the suspension of disbelief. Customization is one possible avenue to this, as is the ability to play as a female. It doesn't even need to be extensive; a few options go a long way.
Here's an example of this in another context. One game that I helped manage was a casual puzzle game called Paparazzi that was targetted toward a female demographic. The dev team initially put work into developing an interesting storyline, engaging puzzles, and beautifully drawn graphics. But of course, the dev team was mostly male. When we tested the game with a female audience our most consistent feedback was that they wanted to change their character's appearance. Once we spent a few days building customization options, the ratings from our female test group increased significantly.
The key learning was that men don't know what women want in games. We need to ask them.
Have a great day everyone!
Stardock:
Please make Elemental in the way you first intended. Do not be influenced by the "possibility" of making a few more sales out of possibly a few more weeks work. After all, more work means more expenditure. Shy away from the elusive $ sign that may or may NOT be real in such ideas. Esspecially, if actual, concrete data hasn't formally been put on your doorstep.
The way I see it, you originally defined Elemental as a modern representation of some of your favourite classic games while giving it a new Stardocky feel. I liked that, very much! If the original idea presented in this thread fell within your scope of what you wished the game to be... good. However, I don't want to see the game morphed from your original vision for Elemental. I don't want to see gender, social and religious issues cloud judgment about how the game should turn out. If you envisioned a female dominant society represented in the game from the start. Great! If you envisioned a male dominant society represented in the game from the start. Great! If you even envisioned a bear dominant society (wink, wink) represented in the game from the start. SUPER GREAT! JK. The point is, don't stray too far from the original vision. Don't change the scope of the game to satisfy some socio-political void. Make the game stay true to the roots of the genre, make the game hold true to the classics you adore, make the game the way you wish it to become.
I implore you to stay far away from the trivialities of socio-political issues; in much the same way they don't have a place at work, I don't believe they should influence the games being developed. Please, make Elemental the way you intended.
P.S. I actually wanted to post a lengthy and drawn out reply to the many different issues responded in this thread. The issue represented in the original argument, the issue of realism within fantasy, the idea of chainmail bikinis, LOL. But it was late, I was tired and frankly this socio-politcal bullsh@% makes my head spin so very often.
Maybe I will get around to it all in another post, as I am sure there will be more of these.....
Hey you made it! The great new sorceress customization feature! What I have in mind if we speak about "Female friendly features" is actually having the possibility to create super hot awsome looking sorceress, so actually the title "lonely programmer friendly feature" would be more accurate.
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