I chose to write about Brenda Laurel, because I believe her take on interactive media and gaming is a unique one. Brenda Laurel makes video games designed for girls, which is something that is rare. She believes the game industry to be geared more toward males and that as a result females have to play male games. This led her to create a game company for girls called Purple Moon, which was bought by the game company Mattel. Laurel has an interesting background as well, having worked for various companies such as Atari, and Activision, and Apple, which are all famous and popular companies.
Laurel’s belief was that girls had a predisposition for narrative play. Laurel wished to create a world of characters that girls could truly affiliate with, while giving them the chance to control the narrative. One of the features included in the game was a locker, similar to the types real school children have. This allowed the players to draw connections with the real world, thus making the game more realistic. The games created by Purple Moon also allowed the player to choose which paths or decisions the playable characters made, thus creating a unique storyline that would be different from others who played the game. Laurel also created a way for players to contribute to the game itself, as well as contribute articles to the company’s newspaper for the game.
Brenda Laurel gives a lot of thought to the people who will be playing the games, rather than to the game itself. She really seems more interested in the interaction the player has with the game, which to her influences how the game is played. She shows that she cares more about the player, which is a different standpoint than other game creators take.
I didn’t think games like Techno Bowl was biased and sexes! Hey when I was little there was no such things as teaming with a girl unless it was a turbo graphic 16 game, or super mario brothers(rated-girl). Also, Donkey Kong and Pacman had always since then been universal, because they are arcade favorites. Today girls are propably competitors thanks to Brenda Laurel. I would like to run a game of mascot Madden with you and Laura sometime. She’s great!
Never really thought of games games really only being for guys, but she’s striving to make video games for girls and I’m actually pretty happy about that. Only about 1/5th of my female friends are gamers and most of the 4/5 thinks gaming is sadly a waste of time… Maybe it’s because video games really are aimed more toward boys, so if there were more games aimed toward girls than maybe those 4/5ths of my friends will think of games as a sort of entertainment rather than a waste… I strongly approve.
completely agree about games being tailored for boys and not girls. But the industry have grown past that now and there’s a lot of girls gamers. Now we all are just gamers no matter your gender. there’s so much role playing games that lets you customize your character how you want it to be and drive the narrative like the Mass Effect series.