Comments (21)

1. By far, the best set of games my daughter plays are the Nacy Drew mysteries. There are some 20 or so episodes…and the games that have been out a few years are available for $10 at Office Max, Best Buy, etc. A search on eBay can get you 4 or 5 in one purchase (just get the original CD and docs with it). They have who-dunnit stuff – clues, puzzles, working a lock, using a virtual phone to gather more clues, etc – (no guns, no violence) … just fun stuff that they enjoy solving and she’s played them from about 7 yrs old to present date (she’s 16 and still loves them). HIGHLY recommended!

   posted by Kevin in Vegas on 3-9-2009 at 3:54 pm

2. My 10-year-old daughter LOVES Solitaire. That is by far her favorite electronic game. She has a Gameboy, but only picks it up in times of extreme boredom. She plays more games on the computer, and the games she gravitates to most are learning games, seek-and-find games, clue-finding…that sort of thing.

   posted by bre on 3-9-2009 at 3:58 pm

3. When I was young(er), I played Super Mario Bros. for SNES a LOT. Then I got a playstation and was enthralled by Final Fantasy 7, Bubsy 3D, and the Space Jam basket ball game. In the later time of Playstation, I also had a really good PC where I played Starcraft, Command and Conquer, Diablo, Doom, and Red Alert. Then along came Playstation 2 with Guitar Hero, and XBOX with Halo. XBOX360 came out where I fell in love with games like Halo 3, Dead Space, Left 4 Dead, Gears of War, Mass Effect, Assassin’s Creed (like heroin…), and recently I’ve bought Street Fighter 4 (which is pretty friggin sweet). I’m weird, yes. But no, I’m not ugly, yes I have a life and a job and other interests, no I’m not a lesbian, and I’m 22. Yes, I’m already married. Sorry.

   posted by Kate on 3-9-2009 at 4:02 pm

4. My god-neice loves games. I get most of her games from sites like Reflexive. Her favorites are hidden item games where you hunt for items and solve puzzles to complete stories. She also likes the race games where you are trying to complete a series of increasingly complex actions to complete levels. Since a lot of these sites focus on younger people and stay at home parents, the games have a larger percentage of games with girl friendly themes such as fashion, non violent fantasy and adventures and recently several games based on movies and series with strong female heroes. even I completely enjoyed the puzzle hunt game “Women’s Murder Club” that followed several strong females as they strive to solve a string of bizarre murders.

   posted by Patrick B on 3-9-2009 at 4:02 pm

5. My daughters (aged 13 and 9) favorite series of games are the My Sims games. Simplified and cutsified versions of The Sims, but they can play them for hours building and decorating houses.

   Their second favorite series of games have been the Kingdom Hearts games. Same team that did the Final Fantasy series, but they added Disney characters to the mix.

   posted by Her Geek on 3-9-2009 at 4:07 pm

6. The biggest difference I’ve noticed in the way guys and girls my age play videogames is that the guys will sit for hours upon hours mastering a game and thus can usually tolerate a difficult learning curve while, meanwhile girls prefer a game they can pick up any time and play for a shorter duration. This is why most of my girl friends love Bejeweled, Diner Dash and the Sims.

   Myself, though, I’ve always loved fantasy RPGs like Final Fantasy and Star Ocean!

   posted by Lynn on 3-9-2009 at 4:37 pm

7. I’m with you, Kate.

   When I was little I was obsessed with Mario – I am ashamed to admit I stayed friends with a girl so I could play her Nintendo, which I didn’t have. Finally I got a Gameboy and all was well with the world.

   I played Atari Pitfall, all versions of Mario Brothers, Kirby’s dreamland, and lots and lots of puzzle games like Tetris or Kirby’s pinball. On the computer it was Ancient Empires, Where in the World/Space/USA is Carmen Sandiego, and DOOM 1 and 2 as a kid, then World of Warcraft for a while more recently.

   I can’t do Halo, I have no coordination with moving and aiming. I love Guitar Hero and Rock Band and all the SingStar games, but the best are Kingdom Hearts games and Soul Calibur games.

   I think in general little girls are more interested in cartoony adventures and role playing games or puzzles.

   posted by Leah on 3-9-2009 at 4:38 pm

8. Oh yea, and I’m 26, married, not ugly either, and work full time. My husband isn’t into video games as much as me – most of the systems we own are mine. We are both into regular nerd games though (Trivial Pursuit, Settlers of Catan), and I got him more into video games while he got me into Dungeons and Dragons.

   posted by Leah on 3-9-2009 at 4:42 pm

9. I’m not so little anymore, but when I was I still played video games. In fact, I owned Rockett’s New School, Secret Paths in the Forests, Secrets Paths to the Sea, and one of the other Rockett games. While I enjoyed the Secret Paths games, the Rockett games weren’t very good. Mostly, you watched as the characters acted on their own without you doing anything. Occasionally, you were offered an option about how you wanted Rockett to react to a question. The only other thing you could do was pause the game and rummage through other people’s lockers, which were generated randomly in the first so it was difficult to find the same one twice, and take pictures (the camera at the 10:40 mark). The second game also let you occasionally listen in on people’s thoughts. The game ended on a frozen screen of Rockett coming out of the bathroom at the end of her first day, so you weren’t even sure if you were done or if your computer had frozen. The Secret Paths games weren’t much better. You walked down a road and solved puzzles to win stones with words like creativity on them. If you solved all the puzzles, the stones were stringed onto a necklace and you got to listen to a story from another country that solved one of the character’s problems. They did come with Feelies, little extra things related to the game so you don’t feel as cheated. The Rockett games had cards with characters or lockers on them and the first game also came with a rubber Rockett doll. The Secret Paths games came with some of the stones, a bag to hold them, and a string to make a necklace from them. One of them had a fanny pack, but I don’t remember which. So Purple Moon made games for little girls, just not very good ones.

   Computerwise, I played Treasure Mountain, Muppet Treasure Island, Carmen Sandiego, and whatever Jumpstart Learning game was closest to my age. When I was a bit older I played Civilization, Zeus, Pharoah, and Sims. I remember fighting with my brother and sister over whose turn it was to use one of the two Gameboy Colors and the Pokemon games inside. I really liked the Harvest Moon and Legend of Zelda series. I always played either Link of Samus on Super Smash Brothers.

   ReCaptcha: Marianna Sapiens

   posted by Samantha on 3-9-2009 at 4:54 pm

10. About 10 years ago, I did holiday tech support for Purple Moon and it was an awesome place to work… they were going to keep me full time but then they got bought by Mattel and there was no place for me :-(

    posted by Sarah in CA on 3-9-2009 at 5:00 pm

11. I agree that girls tend to be more interested in role playing, fantasy, and puzzle games than first person shooter or fighting games.

    I can play games like Zelda, Final Fantasy, Bejeweled and Tetris for hours on end. I am also quite happy playing Warcraft. I am not very interested in shooting things & watching them bleed to death, but will happily for a good plot line.

    posted by tara on 3-9-2009 at 5:07 pm

12. Like Samantha, I played a lot of educational computer games when I was little, like the JumpStart games and the Super Solvers series. My favorites were ones that were heavy on logic and puzzles. Now I enjoy games like The Sims and LittleBigPlanet, but I have also recently become interested in WOW…

    posted by Kelsey on 3-9-2009 at 6:36 pm

13. When I was young girl I played many games but I was enthralled with Zelda. It’s what made me interested in games. Role playing and adventure and puzzles (like Warcraft III and Civ) were most interesting to me.

    posted by missdk on 3-9-2009 at 7:23 pm

14. See, I mostly grew up on Amiga’s (this was the 80s, early 90s) My brother and I used our savings to buy a CD32. Maybe I’m a weird girl, but one of my favorite games as a kid was Pirates. We never really had any “kid” games, and my parents refused to buy a Nintendo, since we already had the Amiga. Now as an adult my favorite games are probably Sims and Civilzation and RPGs

    posted by Merinda on 3-9-2009 at 7:46 pm

15. You guys are on to something here! I LOVE the Myst series of games(PC), and my favorite console games are either mixes of puzzles and action, a la Tomb Raider, or quest oriented/RPGs, such as Marvel Comics Ultimate Alliance. It’s satisfying to beat up bad guys now and then.

    posted by Valerie on 3-9-2009 at 9:39 pm

16. I think each girl might like different games. My niece is 12 and has a DS to play things like Fashion Designer or even the electronic version of board games. But she will play Guitar Hero or Mario Kart with her older brother.

    I think girls do prefer games that are shorter because they like to master a game easily and play a variety of games. I remember liking Sonic 1 but also liked Streets of Rage 3. As an adult I play a variety of games including Mario Kart and Harvest Moon (like the sims but you have a farm) but will also shoot bad guys in Time Crisis. It just depends on the personality. I also think girls are willing to play games that might be more geared to guys if they have a brother who plays video games.

    posted by Gina on 3-9-2009 at 10:48 pm

17. I tried playing the standard console games with my little bro when we were kids, but they never really appealed to me. I think it was more of a matter of manual dexterity – I’m all thumbs.

    As an adult, I enjoy room escape games and the Sims tops my list. I shamefully admit to playing silly Barbie fashion and makeover games as well. Platform games just aren’t my cup of tea.

    I think I always wanted a game that had broad objectives – nothing like “storm the castle” or “jump over this crevice”, nothing like that. More…dare I say? Girly stuff, like take care of that baby or something. Definitely not those time management games though. Hate those.

    posted by Anna on 3-9-2009 at 10:52 pm

18. I’ve watched my little girl cousins and nieces play videogames and they love casual games like Diner Dash, Zuma, etc. They will also play anything related to dressing up people or playing with pets.

    The reason might not necessarily be that girls shun games that have higher learning curves but they might also want to harness their creativity and imagination in some other way, just like how there is a marked difference between how an adult male and female perceive videogames (in general).

    In other words, all the violence and drama of high octane action and role playing games might not necessarily be suited for people with higher EQ levels.

    posted by Leizl on 3-9-2009 at 11:24 pm

19. I can’t say the video game creators don’t have boys in mind when they design games, but I’ve never heard of games being advertised as “for boys”.

    Wouldn’t most people agree that Laurel is promoting sexism by saying there should be “girl games” and “boy games”? In all my years of playing video games I’ve never once heard or girls complaining there weren’t enough games out there for them. In fact, I’ve played games marketed to girls, such as the Barbie games on the NES. They were horrible!

    posted by John on 3-9-2009 at 11:45 pm

20. Look who’s talking! I play Kirby and the Amazing Mirror A LOT, and am a newcomer to Nightmare in Dreamland.

    reCAPTCHA: ments Canned

    posted by Jen Pen on 3-10-2009 at 4:38 am

21. 1. Marketing to either boys or girls exclusively is silly. Why would you target only half your consumers? The little boys and girls I know share games amongst siblings, and it doesn’t matter to them if it’s Dora or Mario.

    2. I like(d) most all puzzle games, and action games can be fun if they’re not too stressful. I have all the Lego games- you don’t die, you fall apart and get put back together! I’ve always loved vintage Zelda.

    Most of my games now are social: RockBand, DDR, MarioCart… you know.

    I like to build and decorate houses for the Sims, but after that I’m not interested in telling people to use the potty.

    3. I have trouble with first person shooters because I’m always getting shot in the back. I’ve had this problem since the days of DOOM. I’d run into a wall, turn around and run into the same wall. I might like Lara Croft if I could control her.

    4. I hate the format for most RPGs. Wandering around and then surprise- You’re in ‘fight mode’ now! Seems tedious.

    5. As soon as there’s a time limit, or I’m underwater and need to breathe, I panic and fail. My guy friends have to do the timed parts on Spyro and Mario for me all the time. I concede it is possible that I’m just not interested in overcoming the learning curve for a thirty second snippet of video game.

    6. Who knew I had so much to say about video games?

    posted by Miss Kiki on 3-10-2009 at 4:48 am

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