Dare I believe my eyes?

[ultranos]

I occasionally read Joystiq. Not nearly as often as I check out Engadget or RPGamer, but I do. Anyway, in my obsessive drive to avoid schoolwork watch P3P trailers endlessly find out if an English release date for P3P has been announced, I stumbled upon the following:

New 'Gaymer' Survey Explores Sexual Identity, Interest in Games

I haven't looked at the survey yet, but, holy shit you guys, it could be the exact opposite of SurveyFail! The guy who wrote the survey is himself a member of the community he's surveying! And his goal here is to make things better because he's a baby game designer!

Anyway, I'll probably take a look at the survey at some point, and I really, really hope it isn't full of Fail. But these excerpts from the Joystiq article are promising:


What do you hope to learn from this new survey?

Ideally, I want to learn what exactly it is that gaymers want from their games and how that differs from their heterosexual counterparts. I'll take that information to develop guidelines the industry can use when trying to make gaymer inclusive games that don't become offensive or insulting to any gamer regardless of sexual orientation. If someone had done the same kind of research when the industry was trying to reach out to female gamers, girls wouldn't have had to suffer through the wildly unsuccessful attempts of games like "Mary Kate & Ashley's Winner's Circle" pony racing. I'm hoping to help the industry avoid the same mistakes as it reaches out to gay gamers.

It's called the "new gaymer survey," but is it inclusive of all orientations?

My survey is absolutely inclusive of all game players, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. In fact, one group that I would love to hear more from is straight women who play video games. I'm also really interested to see what straight male gamers think of games that contain homosexual content -- like the optional gay content in Bully, Fable and The Sims.

(And yeah, he totally has a point about the pain female gamers have gone through with the industry trying to "reach" us. Oh, the stories I could tell...)

Comments

[surreallis.livejournal.com]

Wait. The gaming industry was actually trying to reach us? I mean, I haven't played in about 5 years, but back then, 'reaching' us meant: "HEY. We're letting female avatars wear a fur bikini, aren't we? Be grateful she isn't naked!"

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

Yeah, didn't you know?! I mean, I kept getting "Barbie Fashion Designer" shoved into my face! They were TRYING, man! I mean, I CLEARLY couldn't have wanted the copy of Final Fantasy Anthology I was trying to pay them for.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Sounds like someone who knows what he's talking about. Which means no one will pay any attention to it. *sighs*

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

Trout! You know the rules about Nice Things!
Why were you thinking anything else could possibly happen?