h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well if you are confused you only have to ask ))

Just wanted to point out that i am girl and i LOVE civilization. I don't know what it is about being a world dominating dictator that is so much fun.
Also, congrats to yoz on becoming the community editor. Look foward to seeing what you think of some of our wacky chats.

The legendary star of his own laundry, Lord Loonytunes (pending) sadly predicts the almost infamous Yos, will end world peace, womens pathetic, lemming like, descent into free market serfdom and produce slightly neglected amazing twins. 10 years later she finally realises, why did I end world peace.

Hey Community Editor, you should check out the h2g2 club on Yahoo for some thoughts on what the h2g2 public want.

I'm female and I work with computers all day and the last thing I want to do is play computer games. Most of them are REALLY dull. However, I did like Abes Odessey just coz the character was sooooo cute but I prefer the puzzle type games like Day of the Tentacle and The Beast Within (got a thing about werewolves and vamps too).

Women seem to be abundant on h2g2 which is good. Not so with general techie type stuff though. I'm an electronic engineer and out of the six people in my research group there are two women (i.e 33% are women). That is actually reamrkably high percentage compared to engineering in general though.

Oh, and I hate chocolate but a fre t-shirt would not go amiss.

No offense meant to ANY of the games mentioned above, but I'm still waiting for something better. I have Starship Titanic. I've played it twice in fact. It's fun, but there's no community interactivity. You're playing wiff yerselvis. It's all puzzles. I enjoy the atmosphere and look of the game. It's a stupendous artistic achievement, but it's a pretty lonely game, like Myst or Riven were. The much publicized character interactivity with the bots was impressive, but for the most part the robots just come off as unintelligent, even after you tweak them. It's still a matter of getting the right combination of words right. In that category, Starship Titanic doesn't do much better than the old Hitch Hiker's Guide textbased game was. If you say the right things you'll get rewarded. Otherwise, the bots just scratch their heads at you and make you feel like you're speaking swahili.

As for the other games, they're puzzles. I'm not sure what I'm looking for actually. If I did know, I would patent it. However, you've either got puzzles with no interaction with real people, or you've got networkable games in which the goal is mostly to blow the other person away or outrun the other person. If there was some way to interact with people in a virtual manner that wasn't limited to beating the other person to a senseless pulp, you'd be on the right track.

Attempts to do that in the past have devolved into very fancy chat programs. Active Worlds at http://www.activeworlds.com comes to mind. Great idea, but not fully realized. There you can create virtual worlds that look breathtaking, but after you're done building, people just basically come by and ooh and aah at what you built for awhile and then revert to talking like they're in an IRC chat room. Attempts to build WITH other people in that program is difficult due to "building errors" and other limitations of the program, but if the program didn't have those limits, you'd suffer from vandalism by unintelligent pranksters. It's a frustrating dilemma.

Maybe an Extreme Games kinda thing. Where you're in a virtual setting somehow, and each participant would control an avatar that can perform cool looking stunts. Groups of avatars could work together to participate in grandiose stunts or spectacles... Why do I think if someone went in this direction with computer programming, it would dissolve into a cybersex thing?

Maybe the problem is that computers are being made for human beings.

Smurf, unofficially I'm sure the Powers That Be have at least glanced at the yahoo club. However, in hindsight, the yahoo club does seem to counteract what they are trying to achieve. In fact, some of the stuff mentioned over there might have gotten more attention and faster if it was mentioned over here.

The yahoo club still serves a purpose. It gives a place for regular field researchers to interact outside the h2g2.com interface, and if a few of them can time it properly, have a realtime chat conversation which is not yet available over here at h2g2. It has other nice advantages, but I've always seen it as a complement to this place, not a replacement.

If we have something we want said directly to the Powers That Be, here is where we do it. If they want to eavesdrop on the yahoo club they're always welcome, but the yahoo club is basically a place for field researchers, and should probably stay that way.

Been away this weekend. My god I DO have a life... Games I play Civilisation, and Sim 2000 which I like. Civ I would prefer if it wasn't quite so warmongering (but it would be less like real world then I suppose) I just get a bit bored building walls and bombing people. Myst and Riven are great for puzzles/graphics, but as someone else said a bit desolate. I think there might be a potential for a 'physical skill' game, where you had to sneak or balance or swing; dodging rather than garotting. My daughters favourite 'game' is tesco home shopper, so there must be potential for a game there. Call it Knightsbridge!
I do think that the whole female game sector is totally unexploited. I am not suggesting 'girly' games, just things more suited to female minds. I have a few ideas for games, but never known how to proceed with them...Guarantee me a cut and I will tell you .....!!

I was thinking actually thinking of a bucket of water, as per wet T-shirt contests..

Why not interesting, not doing well?

Have had a look, yes might suit my daughter. But very American, ie

Ginger's Fruit Dip
2 cups strawberry (or other fruit) flavored applesauce (whats this? yuk!)
1/2 cup cream cheese
Fruit slices
Directions
Put applesauce and cream cheese into blender. Blend until creamy. Pour into a bowl. Dip in the fruit slices and eat!

Nationality can be problematic when dealing with children,ie spelling, toys, films, tv, language and that's just thinking of usa/uk.

More women would buy games if they appealed to them. I play Age of Empires because great graphics and yet is is addictive, but I still don't really like the going off to war bit.

Oh yes, they're a pain. After 3 weeks in the US I was occasionally referring to trousers as pants. You should have seen how mercilessly my girlfriend ribbed me about that.

-- Yoz

So you like big strategy/construction games, but not the war-based ones. Perhaps give the other Sim games a go (SimEarth, SimTower and the upcoming "The Sims") along with Theme Park/Hospital, Railroad Tycoon, stuff like that.

-- Yoz

Sim fatigue tho'! Played, sim city sim ant, sim hospital and theme park. Simpsons virtual springfield. Pleased to say SST was good. Puzzles and virtual space.. No war (I am not particularly anti it, just gets a bit boring)

My brother lives in Boston. We went to a resturant in london and he asked the waitress where the bathroom was. She looked at him as if he was potty.

I read in paper that 55% of web purchases are made by women.

Flight/race games don't appeal much to me, they do to my brother - maybe just me though. I would still put them down as boy games. What is thief - never heard of it...could be interesting. If anyone has a good idea for a game - what should they do? Lots of people here must think that they have a good idea, but can't develop it themselves...

You want to take a look at MOO, text-based worlds (like MUDs) where the players have the ability to build and program new objects and features. It's completely wonderful in all sorts of ways - I'm currently writing a short piece on why MOOs are so fab, I'll post it here when I'm done.

The only problem with MOOs, as regards your post, is that it's not really a game as such, though ActiveWorlds isn't either. It's a collaborative community building & interaction environment. (Much like h2g2, in fact...)

-- Yoz

>But not interesting enough, it would seem.

A rather large girl toy manufacturer thought the brand worth buying though < g >

Yeah, my mother buys webs frequently.

-- Yoz