We Don’t Need A Pink Playstation!
This article from the BBC interviews Kirsten Kearney, a member of The Frag Dolls.
Kirsten is right on target with her ideas. She believes the new Pink Playstation might attract girls, but just slapping a coat of pink paint on something isn’t necessarily going to help:
“But pink is not enough. There needs to be changes across the board. So, for example, if I go to choose a character to play as and they are all male then I am going to think this isn’t aimed at me.”/p>
Even when they try to be inclusive, it’s pathetic. I love the game SSX3 for the Xbox, but I only have a couple of female characters to choose from. The male characters outnumber the females by a longshot. So, I have to choose between the Japanese girl or the blonde. I’m not either. I go with the Japanese girl because she has dark hair, but she swears in Japanese. It kind of busts up the illusion of the game. I don’t really feel like I’m the girl on the screen.
With Animal Crossing, however, I can eventually make that little cartoon girl have dark hair (don’t ask me how many Bells I spent at Shampoodle trying to get the right hairdo). I can choose her clothing based on my tastes and I can even design clothes to my liking. THAT is a game that was made for me.
I don’t want a pink Playstation (even if it’s that really cool coral color of pink like the Nintendo DS Lite came out with). I want more games like Animal Crossing that seem to believe that girls AND boys will want to play them.