Inizio Per i giocatori Player Profiles LadyRolePlay Profile - Page 2

LadyRolePlay Profile - Page 2

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Q: What interested you about playing RPGs on a computer? What games have you played?

BioWare is going to love this response; not until I bought a new computer, nice high-end computer did I consider playing RPGs. So I decided that, having a new computer, I would buy a game to play on the computer, and strolled over to the games aisle. While browsing, I happen to see a game called Baldur's Gate, and in examining the box, it jogs my memory of the old D and D games. Well, the rest is history as they say. From then on I became a rabid, avid fan of the genre. I have tried others, The Longest Journey, The Undying. Adventure games are okay-but because of crummy reflexes, first person shooter types are out (never finished The Undying because I could never kill the bosses before dying myself LOL). For me, there exists only the role-playing game. It is the least action oriented role-play game that I love the most. For example, Dungeon Siege (very action oriented roleplaying game) would lie on one end of that spectrum and Morrowind (very role-play, choice-oriented) lies at the other end. Besides Morrowind, my best loved of all single player games includes The Baldur Gate series, Fallout I and II (Fallout II played multiple times), Planescape Torment (wish with all my heart there would be another of these ), Icewind Dale and all it's sequels. Other role-playing games include Arcanum and Wizardry 8. Actually, I use the Baldur gate series, and Fallout II and Planescape Torment as teaching tools for adolescents in teaching them decision-making skills and how those decisions alter the course of their actions and lives. Planescape and Fallout II are especially good that way.

Q: You are recognized as one of the top players around. What sort of characters do you like to play?

It is in my choice of characters that I face my greatest limits so far as a serious role player. Among the biggest limits is my total inability to play an evil aligned character. I discovered that when I played the Baldur's Gate series. I think I must identify with the game so greatly, that in real life (RL) those actions and decisions required of the evil aligned character are just too difficult. I get a guilty conscience, and have trouble adhering to the role. Even a neutral aligned character is hard to play because in RL I am just to darned opinionated, but with effort I can do it. However, as I gain more experience I am moving towards playing a more selfish, self-centered character. But for now my characters are always some sort of good aligned. Other details of my characters:

• Female-and likely to remain so because there is a dearth of female players out there and in only one instance have I seen a male play a female character well. So as a woman, I love bringing the female point of views into games, it is badly needed component.
• They are good aligned characters, some few neutrals thrown in--mainly chaotic good, as this fits my own RL nature, and hence is the easiest for me to play, to stay IC do not have to think much or watch myself here
• Mostly human, but some elves- mainly human because of the allowances made for multiclassing. Really wish the wizard as a preferred class for elves had not been done as this causes me to forego playing this race, quite a lot, and truly feel that ranger as a preferred class would not have been unreasonable here.
• In about 80% of all games I am a Cleric, mainly because one is always needed by any party, yet not so frequently chosen. Other favorites of mine are Rogue, Ranger, Fighter, and a new one for me: Bard. I find the Bard the most complex and rich of characters to play well and am enjoying the new dimension to role-play this character offers.
• Things I avoid, the half-orc race ( I am too much of a female, I like to look pretty LOL) barbarians as a rule, and the spell casters (though am trying to learn these some, they are not my favorite).

Even those characters with the hardest edge, and even those that are the most neurotic, all have a kind side to them, some compassion, though that is not always apparent.

Q: BioWare ran a survey and found that about 95% of the players of NWN are male. As a representative of the minority, why do you think the male percentage is so high vs. female?

Actually if 5% of all owners of NWN are females, then give yourselves a pat on the back as most female owners of all games comprise only 2% of the population. You know I've read a lot on this subject and would have to say it is probably several factors, some more important than others.

Perception-look at the packaging of the games, for goodness sake and what do you see--men with swords and shields, orcs, hideous looking boss monsters and- tah dah- big breasted women wearing the most absurd looking armor. Look at Aribeth for goodness sake. Even the very coloring of the package as well as the illustrations are designed to catch the eyes of males. As stated above, only 2% of all computer game owners are women, and truthfully I have never seen any effort by companies to ever make the slightest effort to market to women. The exception to this are the so-called 'adventure games', Myst, The Longest Journey, a couple of others, and it has paid off for them, the percentage of women who play those sorts of games is much higher. I think another set of games that has captured a significant share of the female market *shudders* are the Sims games, all of them. Why? Well, they focus on the interactive and social aspects of the game. Take the packaging of any Sims games and the packaging of any role-playing game and look at the difference in the two boxes. What does one portray and show, what does the other show? Computer game companies are slitting their own throats here. Marketers over at EA have caught on to how to bring women into gaming, and sales show month, after month, year after year, The Sims games leading the pack.

It wouldn't be that hard *smiles* to make these role-playing games appeal to women. This is especially the case with NWN multiplayer. If women knew the chance they had to come online and play a rich, satisfying, socially interactive game, sales would go through the roof as a great many of the other half of the population purchased the game. Most men play for the fun and combat, most women play for the interactive and social aspect of the game. It is that simple. I will say from my experiences that males who do play, do *grins broadly* enjoy playing the romance and the male-female relationship every bit as much. With the exception of one game, my female characters all enjoy a romantic relationship, and they can, and do, flirt outrageously. This has sparked the RL interest of some of those males that I play IC with. With the exception of one male who plays a female character (and he is a happily married 39 year old man) even males who play females cannot play a woman the way a woman plays a woman. The genders are just too different in their approaches to the world. Hence the online multiplayer is sadly lacking the input of women. From my experience, males also enjoy this aspect and miss the fun and interaction that only a woman can bring.

Come on fellows, hire a woman and get her views and ideas on how to market. Let her take a look at the preliminary product and critique it. I know the industry is loaded with male programmers and it shows. Heck, just go look at how games are marketed to younger players, those games for boys and those that are meant to appeal to girls, just to get an idea of how to visually appeal to the female who walks into a store. Stress, advertise and promote those qualities that also appeal to females, *shrugs* I don't understand why both aspects to the game can't be promoted, it would not seem a hard thing at all to do- get a woman in there to tell you all how to appeal to a woman! It's a great action and adventure game, but it is, or can also be, full of romance, tenderness, the whole gambit of emotions and faults and foibles, and grandeur, and splendor and heroic and evil deeds that is to be found in RL. Plus throw in all the magic and the idea that anything can happen, everything is possible. Wow, you just don't understand how well this game could grab hold of females, if you just stressed a few things.

I have no interest in the action games, strategy games, and the first person shooters because there is no interactive aspect. Role-playing games are my love. It is because the character you create interacts with the world around them. This is true in single player and multiplayer mode. Of all the genres, the role-playing game has the single greatest chance to capture the untapped half of the market, with very little effort. It is a shame really, both for the gaming companies, and for women themselves, who can have no idea what they are missing.

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