how not to sell a game to me

[meganbmoore]

So, I'm sitting here catching up on my Captain America comics, and I turn to a 2 page spread advertising Fable II.  Normally I'd just skip past it, but there was what appeared to be a pouty nobleman with a vampire lurking behind him, and I was curious.

So, I know nothing about Fable, really.  Either one.  But this ad  features what looks to be a bar full of men from all walks of life.  And no women.  Not even a barmaid.  There could be a plot reason for this.  A good one.  I don't know.  But from the image and description, it seems to be a normal medievaloid fantasy adventure.  Mind you, 27-year-old women aren't exactly the target audience for Captain America in the first place, but my reaction to what appears to be a large, exclusively male, ensemble, is "no thanks," even if a few of them a quite good looking.  Hi there, Mr. Strategically Posed Swordsman and Mr. Hooded Man.

See, if I see one or two men and no one else, or vague background characters, my mind will go "ok, main characters."  If I see a full room, I'm going to take that room as representative of the entire world in the game.  (And yes, even a buxom barmaid in the corner would influence that impression.)

I suppose it's the flipside of things titled Male's Daughter and Male's Wife. (If the title of the work is defining the female by her relation to a male, there better be a pretty good reason.)

Comments

[archica.livejournal.com]

I haven't played either, but I had heard enough about the first game to know what the basic premise is. I thought the ad was kinda neat (and the text saying something along the lines of "You can become whatever you want. Who will you choose to be?" tipped me off on what it was trying to portray, although if I wasn't aware of the basic idea, I might not have caught it), but I agree a female version would've been a good idea, especially since they've made a big deal out of the fact that you can choose to play a woman this time around. I honestly don't understand why they didn't just make a female version of the ad to begin with instead of the male version. Trust me, male gamers are NOT afraid of a female protagonist. At all. All the Tomb Raiders and Resident Evils and Heavenly Swords are proof of that.

But, it is a fact that most gaming advertisements are aimed at males. There still seems to be the misconception that most girls don't like games, but that IS changing. More and more girls are speaking up about it, and recently I've seen a lot of talk about it, even in major gaming magazines. With all this attention being brought to the issue, hopefully game marketing departments will take notice.

Edited for clarity. XD

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

The world in general refuses to accept that girls might be into anything "geeky," and generally seems to think that we have to be "like the boys" if we do care about fiction.