SIMS

Gamers not all 'spotty teenage boys': "University of Queensland business school academic Frank Alpert, who has just published a paper on the industry, said his research showed the average age of players was now 'thirtyish', with up to 43 per cent of players being women."
We like to think in stereotypes and then when it all falls apart we tend to go back and see where we went wrong. As someone with a daughter who has grown up with a passion for computers I am more than aware of how stereo typing has marginalised girls. She loves her Playstation as well and used it as an indoor exercise machine because there was a programme you could get for it. I have watched her go up against the violent, warlike, shoot 'em , kill 'em aggressive games and I have watched how she has selected what she wanted. For a while it was Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Then it was the Matrix. She fell in love with Lara and the Tomb Raider games and at the time , they not only forced her to think and challenge herself, she'd use the games when she had some really tough life issues to deal with and they would help her resolve her problems. She has since gone on to SIMS and I have watched how much she enjoys them. She is mid 20s now and when she needs down time, time out and a bit of creativity she goes to her SIMS. In her real life she is very creative and very good with graphics, so the SIMS have appeal to her. It's complex, it's distracting and it like making your own show in lots of ways. It really deals with social issues and I guess its the more complex and grown up version of the Theme Hospital she loved to play when she was little...when she was really little she was a big fan of Donkey Kong and just loved to play that. So it's good to see Frank Alpert set the picture straight with his research and I hope there is more of it, because , truly, the markets needs to broaden. it would be beneficial to all sorts of people to have games which represented varying levels of emotional and intellectual intelligence. The games market has been really myopic.