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[oyog]

How is this any different than women deciding the mainstream porn on the market isn't appealing and producing porn primarily made and aimed at a female market?

If you don't like the games they produce, you don't have to buy them.  That's how the free market works.

[Xion]

oh look, a company catering to a demographic. Sounds like a business doing things businesses do. What is the issue

[Brother Android]

A studio that goes out of it's way to aim towards a specific gender is in itself sexist, because it's stereotyping the gender into a single personality that they can aim at.

I don't think I agree. My impression (from what they said about not being interested in making stereotypical pink princess style games) is that the studio wants to make games that avoid the sorts of tropes that are offputting to many women (exploitative depiction of women, overly violent gameplay, etc.), not necessarily make games that aim at any specific idea of what a woman is. As someone else said, maybe they're just making games they want to play. Isn't that something that the indie game world usually applauds?

Also, I find it interesting that the studio talks about making games for women rather than making games for girls. The latter is something of an existing target market; the former not really.

[Melly]

What is the issue

I don't think there is much issue with it here. The response on this thread seems to be somewhere between "meh" and "interesting". Some people here are just misinterpreting other people and putting words in their mouthes. I suggest them to tune down their defences a little bit.

[Gnarf]

And aiming product at a particular target audience isn't necessarily sexist.  This is just some people making the games that they want to play; good for them.

Uh. Aiming at a particular target audience is not the same as just making games you want to play.

It is one instance of it, where the target audience is "self".

If it's just about the technicality then I'll maybe argue that you don't "aim" at yourself

But sure, whatever. These gals are saying that their target audience is like half of mankind or so. That sounds pretty far away from just making a game you want to play. It also sounds pretty bland.

How is this any different than women deciding the mainstream porn on the market isn't appealing and producing porn primarily made and aimed at a female market?

It's not all that different from whatever else. It's marketing. Doesn't taste too good. Nothing out of the ordinary.

[John Lee]

On the one hand, I've never personally heard any of my lady gamer friends complain that games are not to their tastes.

On the other, it doesn't say that these games are games for ladies and only ladies will be allowed to buy them.


My roommate, a girl person, play Modern Warfare 2, which I am certain was targeted towards classic 18-22 year old males. I, a boy person, do not, because I think it's kind of dumb and boring. Even the most targeted demographics don't exclude people, it's just a form of trying to give people what they're most likely to enjoy. i don't think this company is necessary, but if they think they can handle it effectively, make people happy, and make a profit, they can go for it. As long as I'm allowed to play their games.

[LemonScented]

oh look, a company catering to a demographic. Sounds like a business doing things businesses do. What is the issue

This.

I have labeled it as 'sexist' because they made the point of making their target audience clear, but I do not think that it is negative or bad.

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. Saying that catering to a demographic is "sexist" just makes you look like a childish misogynist. There's a demographic for pretty much every product that gets manufactured and marketed, including games. Are games companies that make games in languages you don't understand racist? Are all games that don't feature openly gay characters homophobic?

[The_Flying_Dove]

Let's not turn this into a politically correct topic. We have enough of an infringement on our freedom of speech, with all of the hate speech laws that are now in place. Many of today's children and young adults are so ignorant already. Before we know it (if this persists), America will one day become a Marxist society (where the critical theory was born, with all of the ideas for feminism and other forms of equality).

Going back to the topic itself, I really don't see why a studio can't be all male-oriented or female-oriented. Maybe something good will actually come out of this decision. Besides, some inequality is a good thing for capitalism.

[Chromanoid]

Let's play Gender Wars! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqBKNESylQE

[Brother Android]

On the other, it doesn't say that these games are games for ladies and only ladies will be allowed to buy them.

Yeah. My impression is they're trying to make games that are friendlier to female players, in a non-stereotypical sense (i.e. not "Shopping: The Game"), not games that exclude male players.

My girlfriend is not into video games, but I showed her Seiklus and Knytt and she was hooked by them, specifically because they centered around exploring and the beauty of the areas in the game rather than a bunch of violence. The only other video game she's been very interested in is Audiosurf. I see those games as being friendlier to female players (I'm going to say here that female gamers who enjoy really violent games and whatnot are hugely in the minority as regards the gender as a whole, even though they're the majority of the female component of the "gamer" sphere) because they are not very violent and not exploitative in any way, but they're certainly not unfriendly to male players. Some more examples of games like this would be Myst and the old LucasArts adventure games.

I mean, who knows what kinds of games they're going to end up making, but if it's games like any of the above then I'd be way into it.

Let's not turn this into a politically correct topic. We have enough of an infringement on our freedom of speech, with all of the hate speech laws that are now in place. Many of today's children and young adults are so ignorant already. Before we know it (if this persists), America will one day become a Marxist society (where the critical theory was born, with all of the ideas for feminism and other forms of equality).

Pardon my chatspeak, but WTF?

1) not everyone here is American, and 2) how does this even pertain to the discussion?

[Gnarf]

I have labeled it as 'sexist' because they made the point of making their target audience clear, but I do not think that it is negative or bad.

[...]
Are games companies that make games in languages you don't understand racist? Are all games that don't feature openly gay characters homophobic?

Uuh. Those examples don't even imply that the target audience would be a particular race, or heterosexual people, so there's very little reason for that to follow from what lansig said.

I mean, if it was like Caucasian Studios releasing their Games For Caucasian Pack and telling everyone that the games are for Caucasians, then...

freedom of speech

Lol.

[The_Flying_Dove]

Please, excuse me, Brother Android. I meant to say not only that America is becoming more socialist as a country, but many other parts of the world, too, especially Europe (look at the UK). This is related to the discussion, in that some people find this studio to be sexist, which I see as a form of hate speech. Did you not know that a theory based around equality (like feminism, gay rights, etc.) that was developed by some Communist Russians at the Frankfurt School? Or maybe you're not so familiar with political correctness then?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKCjKDtOKrI

[Brother Android]

This is related to the discussion, in that some people find this studio to be sexist, which I see as a form of hate speech.

I thought you were talking about how less political correctness was needed in this discussion.

Let's not turn this into a politically correct topic. We have enough of an infringement on our freedom of speech, with all of the hate speech laws that are now in place.

[The_Flying_Dove]

Okay, once again, you've misunderstood me. When I said that I see the studio as a form of hate speech, I only meant that people would look at it that way, and that they would say "you're comments are sexist." I was just trying to tell you what others may be thinking, not what I think. For instance, courts may put you in jail or give you other penalties for calling an obese person "fat" and so on. In addition, many of today's universities do not allow for all kinds of debates. There cannot be any disagreement, especially when it pertains to having less equality.

THEY are the ones that are intolerant of hate speech, NOT me. Yet, don't misinterpret my words again, thinking that I'm a racist, or sexist, or hateful towards non-heterosexuals because I'm not.

But then again, even if it is bias in the form of PC (political correctness), I would assume that many forums have adopted this "justice" in the form of equality, so I guess that I don't have a right to say anything that may seem (even if it isn't) racist, sexist, etc.

And so, with that said, let's either lay off this topic, or discuss what good may come from it.

[SirNiko]

When I hear the name "Silicon Sisters" computer software is the second thing that comes to mind.

-SirNiko

[Gnarf]

Or third.

[The_Flying_Dove]

"Silicon Knights" was the first thing that came to my mind when I heard of this studio's name. Those studio's founders probably just look at "Silicon Knights" and removed the word "Knights," replacing it with "Sisters." Oh, yeah. How very original that is. (Of course, this is a joke.)

P.S. I'm no longer a conspiracy theorist anymore. Instead, I am much more focused on my own religion (Christianity). I've thought long and hard about the internet's inaccuracies on various pieces of information that I find it easy for anyone to accept the internet, especially if one is so dependent on it. That's probably one of the reasons why today's people's attention spans are so much shorter than, say, the people that lived in the 19th century (when it began our attention spans began to grow shorter).

So, please don't bring up the subject anymore around me, and I will be most certain to not bring it up either. If anything, I'll bash it into the ground.

[Gnarf]

I can't tell if you're joking or not

[Melly]

Flying Dove, you're still making long paragraphs about subjects that do not pertain to the discussion, derailing it. If you want to talk about something, wait until a thread about the subject in particular is created before you discuss it. Your initial paragraph about freedom of speech had very little, if anything, to do with what we're talking about here. And nobody asked you if you were a conspiracy theorist still.

[Zaratustra]

Watch out Melly, or he'll bash you into the ground.