“Prime World offers discounts to women, encourages mixed-gender play“
What. The. Hell.
The developer says that it wants to introduce the League of Legends-style game and the MOBA genre (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) “not only to hardcore players who already love it, but to their friends who might be more casual, and of course to their sisters and girlfriends who may not be as hardcore.”
Oh, of course.
Some details from the PA report:
- Female players playing male avatars don’t get these bonuses. Female players must play female avatars. Because while they want lady players playing, they also want those lady players to be identifiable because otherwise what’s the point? Dudes want to know if they’re playing with ladies.
- Oh, and when you’re in mixed-gender play, you apparently get this awesome defense buff. For, I guess, protecting women. Because women need protecting, yanno.
- “When boys gather around to play games just with each other, it’s not really social. When girls gather around just to chat, it’s not very social.” Yes. People interacting isn’t social. Also gender stereotypes. Wow.
- And of course, let us not forget that this is some heteronormative, gender-binary, stereotypical crap going on right hurr.
You want more women playing your games? It’s pretty easy, actually: cut this pandering bullshit, check your product for sexism (if you cannot identify any sexism in your product, I recommend hiring a feminist, just to be sure), and monitor your community with an iron fist. When someone pulls any vile, sexist nonsense, boot them from your community. Women will feel welcome, and will feel all right dragging their friends into the game, knowing they’re in a safe environment. You may think booting someone is bad for your sales in the short-term, but if your goal is building a mixed-gender community, you’ll be better off in the long run.
But I guess it’s easier to just call it ladies nite up in your game and kick back, amirite?
