Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Just finished giving my presentation at the institute on the theme “What do women want…. when it comes to gaming?” The presentation went quite well I think; at least I had fun giving it. Tried a new presentation strategy of using lots of graphics and practically no written text. It was the first time that I just spoke freely and though this was initially quite a terrify leap for me to take, I did better than I thought I would.

In a nutshell the presentation develops as follows: most women like content/storyline (e.g. television drama series, so called “chick flicks”, women literature and magazines); guys like action and interactivity (e.g. see the majority of computer games); in an ideal world content/storyline and action/interactivity are the two essential components for enjoyable gaming; most media today (print, film (DVD), television, Internet, and gaming) promotes some successful products which contain both components, though obviously of different proportions concerning storyline development and interactivity; my concept for a successful women’s game does not emulate the current computer game experience but rather, it is simular to the experience of watching American television (60-70% viewing film (storyline development), and 30-40% gaming elements).

Think the fact that there wasn’t any text made it hard for some of the (male) audience to understand what I was talking about. They found it hard to listen. They also found it difficult to understand/accept/internalise some of the topic material. You could even say that some of them got a bit huffy about some of the ideas I presented.

The female audience unanimously said they loved my gaming concept and they want to play my Talkshow Rivals game or any other game that has this concept, the moment it is out on the market. (Only the gods know when that will be).

After the presentation, I talked things over with two colleagues and it was surprising how much the fellows just didn’t understand, even material that I stated slowly and clearly. Was this because I did not present the material succinctly enough, or I did not repeat myself enough at relevant moments in the presentation, or, was it just the fact that the guys turned off their ears and minds the moment I said the talk was about creating computer games for women? They obviously “got” what I was saying on some level, but there were a few questions and observations posed which demonstrated just how difficult/provocative they felt the presentation to be. Oh, well, tant pis.

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