Category Archives: Gaming

Video Game Industry Hopes to Harness Girl Power

As I read this article I felt disbelief, disapointment, and insulted.  Is this all that girls amount to — video games around Lizzie Maguire and the “Bratz.”  I was once a ‘tween and I played video games with both male and female friends and my little brother.  I remember playing games like Super Mario Bros, Contra, Mega Man, 1942, the Legend of Zelda, and various fighting and car racing games.  Never did I imagine that video game marketing people actually thought that games like “Barbie Horse Adventure” were good games for girls.  Maybe my friends and I were not typical girls — although I highly doubt that.

As an older female gamer (the ripe old age of 33), I now play games like “The Sims”, “Bejeweled”, “Final Fantasy”, “Xenosaga”, “Diablo”,”Lumines”, “Loco Roco” and the “Forgotten Realm” PC RPG’s.  Every once in a while I’ll indulge in a fighting game (I still can kick my 23-year little brother’s behind), car racing, and straight up twitch games like “Onimusha” and “God of War.”  Anyhow, what catches and holds me in a video game is a compelling story and strategic game play.  Yes, I’m one of those people who likes character and resource management.  I also like to figure out how to beat a game’s battle engine — overcoming a tough boss battle makes my day. 

WOW:  I don’t play play online video games for fear of having the game dominate my life.  I’ve lost my husband to WOW, and, to be honest, WOW looks like a sad existence.

Anyhow … I think most of today’s females are beyond “pink” and those that are not … well, I really don’t know what to say about that.  I have a best friend with a daughter who is very into pink and I just bought her a princess coloring combination sticker book.  She put it away and instead asked if I wanted one of her plastic insects that she kept in a pink Easter basket.  Last year I bought her a Barbie princess dance video set which she liked.  It served the dual purpose of toddler exercise video, too.  Maybe Barbie DDR would be a good “pink” game.  Sigh … Somebody help save the girls of America from the “Bratz”!!!

Articles about Gaming in Korea

The PC gaming phenomenon in Korea was one of the subjects talked about in the MMORPG session I went to at Comic Con 2007.  This was something I didn’t know about so I decided to do a little digging on my own.  Below is a list of article I found and read during a quit little web search.

My key take aways for this articles:

–  The PC is Korea’s primary gaming platform due to a trade embargo steming from political issues from WWII between Korea and Japan

–  High penetration of broadband enables rich content in Korea

–  Internet cafes and pay as you go fee structure enable PC access to everyone

–  Korean culture encourages collective behavior, hence the success of MMORPG’s

Korean Gaming

Gaming in Korea Part 1:

http://www.gaming-age.com/cgi-bin/specials/special.pl?spec=koreangaming1&pagenum=1

8/13/2001

Why is Korea the King of PC Gaming (Gamespy)

http://archive.gamespy.com/gdc2003/korean/index2.shtml

3/7/2003

Gaming Offline: Is Korea a harbinger of a Western Boom?

http://archive.gamespy.com/gdc2003/korean/index2.shtml

12/18/2003

Whither Korean Gaming – Have Korea’s Online Gaming Companies Peaked?

http://playnoevil.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/684-Whither-Korean-Gaming-Have-Koreas-Online-Gaming-Companies-Peaked.html

8/17/2006

Forget Reality TV. In Korea, Online Gaming is it

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17175353/

2/21/2007

Zoom Cloud Index of Stories out of Korea

http://www.zoomclouds.com/tag/PlayNoEvil/korea