Genders in Gaming Target Audiences.

[Acies]

Absolutely disgusting. Should black people also have their black people games with black people undertones? How about we stop speaking in vaguenesses and lay down some concrete definitions: What is a female undertone? And here's a bonus question: Can you point out any male-specific undertones?

EDIT: Just a fair warning, these questions are rhetorical because I don't believe in them. I can and will (unless you make impressive arguments) dismiss them with a reference to vicariousness.

Hahaha, I'll take the bait. This might come off a bit crude and vague, but I think there's a difference in upbringing between ethnicities, gender etc. Assume that there is a difference in treatment between boys and girls, for example; boys are brought up wearing blue and girls are brought up wearing pink. This of course not true in every case, but I'll generalize for the case I'm making. Some values are passed onto people depending on gender, because they are inherit in western society. They (the values) are not something which was decided and agreed upon at a set time in history, but have slowly spawned as society advances.

In ads for example, a man is supposed to be wealthy, independent, have good physique and a beard. A woman is supposed to be sleek, alluring and with voluptuous forms. The rape of a man is taken more lightly than the rape of a woman. A man who is sleeping around has a greater chance of being called 'a player' rather than 'a slut'. These are not universal truths, each individual is different, but if generalizing each of these values can be tied more strongly to one of the genders.

I believe that there are many more of these values, covertly inherit in society and tied to different genders, ethnicities etc. These values, imparted on individuals, change them. And with these changes in mind, people approach situations differently depending on how they evaluate them. When you set out to create a game, a piece of art or a piece of music for that matter you cannot plan each stroke or each key played. They'll come to you over time, through inspiration. Creating something artistic is seldom a mathematical equation, where each step is set in stone. When calculating gravity the answer is always the same, the parts are always the same. The task 'paint a lady' will always yield different results. The human mind cannot hold a plan where stroke 934 is angled 34 degrees upwards spanning 4 centimeters RGB (0.34, 0.55, 0.7).

As you progress through creating something you fill in the 'unplanned' blanks with your best judgement. Your judgement is based of what you think fits. What you think fits is based on your values. It is a taste aquired over your lifetime. You know that you like the color blue, but you cannot point to the exact moment in your life when you conceived 'your liking of blue'. It becomes vague, because you like a certain shape, a certain color, a certain smell but cannot pinpoint the origin of all these likes and dislikes. Some of these values and tastes are imparted upon you by society, tied to your gender. As you tie all of these thousands of likes together into a personality it becomes even more complex of deducing anything concrete at all.

Would wuthering heights be the exact same book if written by a man? Would GTA be the exact same game if made by a company solely consisting of women?