These facts provoked me to think. What other games has an international reputation? Is "Hide and Seek" such a game played by every nations children? Do we know the origin of the game? For example 'origami' is peculiar to Japan and I think this is trivial since space is important in Japan and they fold or miniaturize things to use the space efficiently. Or most probably you cannot find water games and toys very common in India since water reserves are limited there. Hence, the physical environment must be an important factor.What other factors do we have? For example, is it a priori that 'lead soldiers' have been manufactured after the World War I ? It will not be a false statement if we say historical events affect the game industry. Monopoly, for instance, is it a coincidence that Monopoly has its origins from the early 1900s? A woman created a game -later it evolved to Monopoly- through which she hoped to be able to explain the tax theory. Why in 1904? Most probably, it was because of in 1894, a new income tax act was approved and this act was the premise of the modern corporate taxation. This event affected all the society in some level: some people developed theories, some protested it, and some created games about it.Why do some games have an international reputation? Independent from history, culture, society and place, some games talk to all human beings. For example, let's consider 'Hide and Seek': children like finding out things, they check every single drawer hundreds of times, they discover the world, they like seeking, they like finding the hidden. So even the children have cultural, social, historical differences they have something in common: the instinct of discovering the world. Hide and Seek. What else? "In play, children are not interested in achieving unequivocal ends and they overcome problems by imagining new ways of acting or by inventing new descriptions of the situation in which they find themselves. ...action is both means and ends." (Mc Carthy, J. & Wright, 2004).
What about the WoW? Is it just a travel or an escapism to a fantastic world. I think what Mc Carthy and Wright said is true for this game. And I think it also includes some common experiences for the humankind: 'hide and seek' and 'seek and destroy'. Is 'destroy' part common to all human beings? Is it a fundamental instinct or drive? If it is, then why are the majority of players are male? It is said to be an instinct but after girls' birth into a gendered society, the patriarchal system files the characteristics of men and women diversely. Women is associated with 'body' and men with 'mind' in this dual world. That's why women prefer playing Sims while men prefer WoW.
According to a recent research, conducted by Ms. Krotostki, "more women than ever before are playing games" and as there are women players who prefer to play 'Sims', there are women preferring to play 'Final Fantasy' which is probably not less gendered but more a fusion of the mind-body dualism. However, I think we are still behind the integration, we need more designers who create and design ungendered but still progressive games which lead us to fulfillment and in turn create an aesthetic experience.
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