What girls like in RPG games

[brutalizer]

Can we attract girls to RPG games? I will tell what my girl friend likes in RPG games. She is not nerdy, fantasy loving, playing live games all the time. She is a normal girl, with girlish hobbies. No nerd. But I have forced her to sit with me when I play Fallout 3 and Fallout 1 and Baldurs Gate 1 and Mass Effect. Here is what I have found about what she like. (She is 27 years)

Fallout 1. Not fun. Too bad graphics. Did not want to try. It looked antique.



Baldurs Gate 1. Same as above. Sat one hour, and quickly lost interest.



Fallout 3. Love it. What she loves is the feeling of post apocalypse, being lone, scary. She also loves the ability to buy a house. When we play, I play to level up and kill monsters and buy bigger and bigger weapons so I can kill better. And I buy perks to kill better. To be more powerful.

She plays differently, she loves to collect lot of money, and loves to buy and sell things, and micromanage. And she collects beatiful things to have in our house. One cupboard for clothes (armour, robes, etc) and another cupboard for weapons. The fridge holds food. She likes to buy outfit for the house (love outfit), jukebox, etc. The new Bards Tale remake converted all loot into money automatically and you did no micromanagement. She would hate that. She likes to do micromanegent.

She likes to interact and read stories that NPCs tell. She like dialogue. She like the ability to talk out of a situation. She does not like violence. She loves the ability to have a house - that is the best! And when we level, she wants to buy "Barter / influence" and other communicative things. She likes to customize appearance and clothing. To sum it up, she plays like The Sims: interact, buy house, collect things. She does not like to play when it is dark in the game, because it is scary, then she wants to sleep in a house.


Mass Effect 1. Love it. She likes all the stories everyone tells. Cinematics. Plot. She loves our ship, so she can place things in different cupboards/drawers. She likes to be able to talk out of bad situations.


So to conclude. Buy a house that she can equip. She would love to be able to buy furniture and move it around in the house. She like relations. When she talks with NPCs she wants to help. If one mission involves killing, she always refuse to do it. She likes stories. Mindless killing is not interesting, but sometimes it is exciting.

I suggest the Wasteland2 designers play Sims a while and tries to understand that game. Then maybe girls will be attracted to Wasteland2, too.

A house, a home to return to, is vital. Maybe you could buy addons on the house, like a new bath room. Build a basement. Get neighbours. Interact with the neighbours. Get good karma.

[krellen]

Fallout 1. Not fun. Too bad graphics. Did not want to try. It looked antique.

Baldurs Gate 1. Same as above. Sat one hour, and quickly lost interest.

Your girlfriend will probably not like this game, as those games are probably the upper limit on how "good" the graphics for this one will be.

[DerRidda]

Brian: Well here is the beauty of fan funding... we don't have to convince some younger RPG player of anything. I am making this game for the wonderful fans who put their money behind us and not some nebulous group of new people. Let's make the game they all expect and let the chips fall where they may. There is just no way I'm going to consider anything that could let down the core.

from http://www.gamebanshee.com/interviews/1 ... age-2.html

Nobody cares what your GF thinks, this is not for her. Other girls have been pretty active on the Kickstarter page though.
In general, this game won't aim for mass appeal, in fact, it aims for niche appeal.

[falloutgod13]

Word, I'd break up with her. If she doesn't like Fallout it's a deal breaker for me. Just Kidding.

Does she even like isometric or turn based games?

[brutalizer]

Brian: Well here is the beauty of fan funding... we don't have to convince some younger RPG player of anything. I am making this game for the wonderful fans who put their money behind us and not some nebulous group of new people. Let's make the game they all expect and let the chips fall where they may. There is just no way I'm going to consider anything that could let down the core.

from http://www.gamebanshee.com/interviews/1 ... age-2.html

Nobody cares what your GF thinks, this is not for her. Other girls have been pretty active on the Kickstarter page though.
In general, this game won't aim for mass appeal, in fact, it aims for niche appeal.

You know, nobody cares what you think. My post is not for you. It is for the designers of Wasteland2.

(How did my reply make you feel? Warm and nice?)

[Cowboy Moment]

From my experience on RPGCodex, they like hardcore dungeon crawling and cute stuffies. Nya.

Though what you describe seems to be a dislike towards games in general. People who don't like games often like The Sims.

[brutalizer]

Word, I'd break up with her. If she doesn't like Fallout it's a deal breaker for me. Just Kidding.

Does she even like isometric or turn based games?

She has no real problem with that. But the thing is, if W2 is a bit more like Sims, where you can buy a house and lot of other equipment, not only weapons, but a book, jug, etc would be nice for some people

[Hyaon]

But the thing is, if W2 is a bit more like Sims, where you can buy a house and lot of other equipment, not only weapons, but a book, jug, etc would be nice for some people

Arghhhhhhh.

[infestor]

Well here is the beauty of fan funding... we don't have to convince some younger RPG player of anything. I am making this game for the wonderful fans who put their money behind us and not some nebulous group of new people. Let's make the game they all expect and let the chips fall where they may. There is just no way I'm going to consider anything that could let down the core.

—Brian Fargo

It's Wasteland way or highway

—infestor

[Brother None]

But the thing is, if W2 is a bit more like Sims

This isn't happening, and this is simply not a crowd InXile is interested in targeting. This is exactly the kind of thinking a publisher would apply to reach people who weren't interested in RPGs before. Wasteland 2 isn't about reaching those people, it's about pleasing the people who love RPGs.

We've already had a house thread anyway, and it was widely voted/talked down. Thread locked.