Yesterday, Daniel Benmergui released Today I Die. Today, I spent a few minutes (okay, maybe a few hours) swimming around in his simple yet beautiful little world, trying to find all of the hidden secrets.

At first glance, it’s a rather depressing scene, marked by an equally depressing poem. But much like the real world, Benmergui’s little ocean in Today I Die is changeable, and capable of finding beauty.

The game’s biggest strength is its simplistic design and curiosity-provoking interface. There isn’t too much going on at any given moment, but that’s a good thing, because you can play around with what’s in front of you, and learn how the funny little world works.

Today I Die also wins points for being beautiful, in that artsy, abstract sort of way. The game art is so simple that it’s undistracting (and, let’s be honest, I have a weak spot for pixelated art), and the piano soundtrack is just plain lovely.

It’s worth multiple playthroughs just to see how the ending changes, and once you’ve got the hang of things, the game only takes a few minutes to complete. Without spoiling too much, I’ll say that both endings (that I’ve found, at least…is there a third?) are very satisfying, albeit in completely different ways. The story is very dreamlike and fanciful, and watching how it evolves is a treat — especially because it’s up to the player to determine the progression of the poem.

Seems pretty fabulous, right? It is, but there’s one major feature that poses a gigantic roadblock for players with limited patience: there aren’t any directions. If you’re curious by nature, that’s not a problem, but a design like this has the potential to be incredibly frustrating. Frankly, if I weren’t so stubborn, I might have closed the window without getting past the first iteration of the poem, and that would have been sad.

There are also some definite timesinks, perhaps intentionally placed, that do not contribute at all to the story’s progression. I spent quite a lot of time feeding jellyfish to the piranhas before I realized that they would just keep spawning, and that I was focused on the wrong thing.

I haven’t decided whether this is truly a negative point, but it’s something that sticks out to me: I have not yet figured out how to “lose” the game. Despite the title, it appears that the girl does not ever actually die, and that lovely piano soundtrack will just keep looping until one figures out how to complete the game or gives up in frustration.

Moral of the story: art is sometimes confusing, and the world doesn’t always come with directions, but despite all of this, it’s an interesting ride.

Play Today I Die here. At the moment, it’s hosted ad-free, thanks to a generous donor (unusual individual, as the site claims).

On a recent trip up to Chicago, I attended an event called “A Girlfriend’s Guide to Gaming” — a sweet little cocktail soirée aimed at twentysomething women and introducing them to the Nintendo brand.

Champagne + snacks + Wii + DS sounds like a fabulous time for me, but many of the other ladies in attendance (1) weren’t familiar with the Nintendo brand and (2) weren’t interested in gaming. And some of them still weren’t at the end of the night.

Obviously, the disconnect between girls and gaming is something that marketing people have been studying for quite some time, but I wonder what’s so different between gamer girls and our non-gaming peers?

Let’s break things down into the fundamental reasons women might say they’re “just not that into” games. I snagged these basic categories from the marketing types at that event, although this list is by no means a complete profile of non-gamer girls. I’ll throw my initial responses in, but I’d love to see where this goes in the comments.

Don’t have time.
Gaming can be time-consuming. It’s extraordinarily easy to lose track of five or six hours while you level grind/build a franchise/work your way through a story. And who are we to tell anyone how to spend their time?

Okay, so maybe some of us spend more hours every week playing games than we do sleeping, but shopaholics spend tons of time in their favorite stores, and foodies devote many hours to tasty treats — people make time for things that are important to them.

It’s a given that gaming isn’t going to be a priority activity for everyone. But what about those minutes and hours when there’s nothing to do? Like train commutes, bus rides, long lines, waiting rooms? Perfect gaming opportunities. Handheld and mobile games are still real games, after all. Bonus: you can play video games on the train or in waiting rooms; you can’t shop or eat.

Aren’t familiar with gaming systems/games.
Shocking as it may be to those of us who grew up with a controller fused to our hands, there are plenty of women who do not have a clue what FPS and RPG stand for. They can’t tell the difference between a PSP and a DS (is that a portable DVD player?), and Halo is an accessory for angels.

Something drew us into gaming. I’m sure it was something different for all of us — maybe we grew up alongside the industry and had consoles during every generation, maybe we played pen and paper games and video games were a natural next step, maybe we had boyfriends who were really into World of Warcraft — but there was some thing that brought us into gaming culture, and there was a reason we stayed.

Guitar Hero, Wii Fit, and the like are definitely a great step towards bringing more women into the market. They truly invite participation in a way that many other console and PC games aren’t able to do. Casual games like Bejeweled and TextTwist are doing a great job of capturing women’s attention, even if they’re not as “hardcore” as most retail games. There’s still room for growth, but I think it’s key that women can find at least one game that resonates with them. After all, the girl who tries out Mario Kart might decide to check out Wii Sports. And after that? Maybe she’ll be picking up a copy of Madden.

Don’t think it’s fun.
Shooters, sports, and sci-fi/fantasy (and action/adventure, strategy, sim, etc.) really deliver on fun for hardcore gamers, but they’re not necessarily interesting or fun to girls who aren’t already into gaming. And besides that, there’s still a very present “nerd culture” that surrounds games.

Breaking the “fun” barrier is tough, because you really just can’t educate someone in regards to what they will or will not enjoy. It’s doubly difficult if they have preconceived ideas that something will not be fun. I think the solution here is similar to what I said above regarding casual games and music games. In order to dispel the “games are for nerds” idea, girls have to encounter a game that they enjoy. Maybe they have to play a game without realizing – per se – that they’re gaming, to break that stigma.

So, gamer girls: what are your thoughts on the disconnect? Non-gamer girls: is there something I’m missing, or do you have a different take on why you’re  just not that into games?

A few of our readers may have seen me post this over on the Xbox forums, but I felt it deserved it’s own spot on G&G, so here it is.

I post (and lurk) on a variety of forums aimed at gamers who happen to also lack a tackle. I see a topic that appears quite often and I know a lot of you will have come across these posts also.  They seem to be related to how men only EVER seem to chat to girls gamers online because they’re after one thing – Nudes, n00ds, sexyfuntimechats or nudz.

I’ve seen a few posts elsewhere recently where a couple of male gamers were looking for women to game with. Now one of these posts seemed like the typical ~pervy~ guy looking to chat women up, but the other ones seemed like genuine requests. All three of these posts were flamed and/or locked. I understand why a lot of people get annoyed at men looking for women to game with. However, when I first started seriously gaming I would post threads saying “Looking for guy gamers to play with!” – NOT because I was some sad, lonely girl looking for attention, but because I truly hated the initial selection of female gamers there were out there. Nothing but cat-fights, back-stabbing and attention seekers. So I would specifically seek out male gamers. I also get along better with men, have more things to talk about with them so it seemed only normal for me to post about finding men to game with online! …But when a man wants to chat to a woman online, perhaps because he finds talking to women more fun than talking to a guy, while doing something they enjoy together (i.e; gaming), all hell breaks loose and that guy is officially branded a pathetic pervert. I have some male friends who come to me when they want to talk about their personal life, because they feel as though their male friends would laugh at them. I have some guys talk to me because I don’t just chat about cars and the latest FHM magazine.. And it goes in reverse as well, I seek out my male friends when I want to geek out about the latest Battlestar Galactica episode, or I hunt someone down because I’m sick of hearing about babies, shoes and handbags (alright, so I’m guilty of generalising on both genders here, but you all know what I’m getting at).

Now I realise that yes, there are a bunch of horny little boys out there jerking off to the thought of a hawt chick sitting behind their keyboard/controller. I too have been sent pictures of an erect dick via XBL, but unlike a lot of women, I laugh it off. I know that there are ladies out there who aren’t able to just shrug off things like that, but it is a very big shame that those women feel the need to attack any man out there who is actively looking to game with a woman. These are the same women who will spend their days whining at guys who think all girl gamers should be in the kitchen, while they sit there and do exactly the same. Branding a male gamer a pervert is the same as female gamers being branded attention whores who are ready to get to their tits out at any given moment.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not sitting here and telling women to forget about the behaviour they may have received from a small percentage of all male gamers, what I am asking is if it’s right to tar every male gamer with the same brush?

Lately, I’ve been reading up on some of the outcry’s of issues feminists are having with characters within games. The latest outcry is about the PlayStation game; Fat Princess. From what i found out, two feminists are having their 5 mins of fame by their petty outcry’s. So I will do my part and by extending their 5 mins to 6.
 
 
Let’s start with a quote from Liss’ post:

Anyway, congrats on your awesome new game, Sony. I’m positively thrilled to see such unyielding dedication to creating a new generation of fat-hating, heteronormative assholes. It’s not often I have the opportunity to congratulate a cutting-edge tech company on such splendiferous retrofuck jackholery. Way to go! The Fat Princess of Shakes Manor salutes you.

Regarding her problem, she isn’t doing any justice by the way she is trying to address her concerns. She is acting like a belligerent feminist, which I don’t think should exist in this period of time, along with acting like a 10 year old that, for the first time in their life, figured out what it meant to use the middle finger.

The second feminist with her outcry is Mighty Ponygirl. Unlike the former egotistical feminist, Ponygirl does have other suggestions and doesn’t attribute to the stereotypical feminist.

Instead of running out into the forest to find cake to fatten up the princess with, why not go out and find gold (which is a lot heavier than cake) to stuff into a treasure chest. The more gold in the chest, the heavier it would be, and the harder it would be to carry.

Oh, but that’s not as “cute” as cake and fat chicks. Right.

Her suggestion does seem realistic and addressed in a suitable manner.

My concern with their outcry’s are, why are they against the concept of this game? America already has a huge problem with people being overweight. This game is showing you exactly what happens when you eat a lot of junk food; you get fat, which means that you will be unhealthy. This game should be an awareness game for kids and grown ups.

They have tackled the overweight issue in a cute and unique way. If they were to switch the princess out for a chess, as Ponygirl suggests, it wouldn’t bring any awareness to the issue’s of reality, therefore it would be a typical CTF type of game, which even I wouldn’t be interested in.

Prior to Fat Princess, they were complaining about some of the characters in Soul Calibur IV. It’s pretty obvious that game is targeted towards males to begin with, I suppose this is why their issues weren’t as well known.

As feminists, they should probably stick to issues that portray females as sexual objects instead of focusing on a game that could help bring more awareness of being unhealthy beings.