A “Girl Gamer’s” Perspective of Eurogamer Expo

I’d like to start this post my stating that I have been a gamer from Commodore64 era, and i want people to know I am not just a bored girlfriend trying to have something in common with my gamer boyfriend. Now with that said lets get on with my thoughts on this years Eurogamer Expo.

On Saturday, Neil and I treked to London for our first gamer expo, both not really sure what to expect but neverthless very excited, after arriving at London Bridge and desperately trying to use our iPhone’s for directions we found Old Billingsgate Market, home of the expo. In the queue we met a very nice guy (@daverage) who runs Yet Another Review Site and has been running it for 2 years so had lots of tips and pointers for us both. Once inside with our yellow press wristbands it was straight off to find our new favourite games!

First game of the day for me was Rabbids Go Home, which, surprise surprise, didn’t have many people queuing to play, which brings me to my first point…

Few Games For Girls

Now I know this is the biggest sore point for the industry; how to get more female gamers? Well I’ve got to be honest here, the games at Eurogamer Expo, which I would call “girlie”, were a bit sparse. Of course you had the above mentions Rabbids, the new Mario and Blue Toad Murder Files – which looks brilliant by the way – and two DS titles but that was it.

Now I’m not a typical “girlie” gamer; yes I do like Mario and Rabbids but I also like Assassin’s Creed, Bioshock and Call of Duty, and really don’t appreciate it when you can’t get near the games your really interested in (Left 4 Dead 2, Assassin’s Creed 2 and Borderlands for example) because they are surrounded by guy gamers who think that I need to be shown how to play or am just keeping my boyfriend company… I’m just going to say this, the industry isn’t going to change without the players changing their mindsets. Unfortunately gaming isn’t just for guys anymore, and there are alot of gamers who haven’t realized that yet.

I’m aware that this is a bit scathing, but I didn’t realize quite how bad the divide was until this weekend. I was watching a girl play Assassin’s Creed 2 and this guy who was stood next to me kept shouting instructions at her as if she didn’t know what she was doing, and it got me thinking “would that guy do the same thing if it was another guy playing?”

So it was soon midday and that meant the best part of the day as far as I was concerned; the dev session with Quantic Dream talking about the most hyped game of forever… Heavy Rain!

We settled in out seats and waited for David Cage to take the stage and show off his new gem. I can’t even begin to describe how much I am looking forward to this game and seeing actual gameplay made me even more excited about it – I am pretty much plugging Heavy Rain to anyone who is reading this. After the session we headed to the basement to have a go on the actual game and it is as amazing as I hoped and i’m pretty certain I’m going to be taking a month off work to play it when it is finally released.

Talking about Heavy Rain brings me to my second point…

You Need Good PR

After playing Heavy Rain we went to have a look at Blue Toad Murder Files only to be greeted by the PR Manager for Relentless Software, Helen Jones. She was so friendly and happy to talk about the game to us that it made me turn to Neil and say “we’re buying this as soon as it’s released” and of course that’s the response they wanted, and that’s the reason Helen is stood there making time for everyone. A few of the other bigger companies at Eurogamer Expo should take a look at Relentless Software’s approach rather than teach their staff to just snap at people that they are playing too long or telling people they aren’t allowed to take photos. I understand about the photo’s its a game that hasn’t been released, and someone’s taken photos of the story but no need to be rude about it, and if it’s such a problem have a sign up or simple don’t allow cameras to be brought into the event.

One of the main reasons for us to attend the expo this year was to do some networking and to get the GameAbuser name out there, but instead we mainly got turned backs or ignored when we tried to approach publishers’ staff; maybe they are under the illusion that the games are so good they sell themselves?

So after the delight of playing Heavy Rain and Blue Toad Murder Files, we explored a bit more in the dark basement and stumbled across the new Saw game. That brings me to my last point…

Choose Your Games Carefully

I’ve never been a big fan of the Saw film series but I really liked the idea of the game so I eagerly waited for a free console to have a go at solving Jigsaw’s puzzles but alas I couldn’t… I couldn’t hear the game properly and I didn’t have a clue what was happening or the controls (trust me they weren’t easy to work out either)! In the end, after been killed by a guy with a chainsaw for the third time, I gave up playing and walked away disgruntled.

I had this same problem at a few of the other games and it made me think, that even though they were unreleased or new games maybe they just weren’t suited at a massive gaming event and more suited to a one-on-one showing where the game could be shown in all its glory.

Another good example of this was Assassins Creed 2; three times I queued up for 20 minutes to have a go at this highly anticipated game and every time I ended up walking away because the queue wasn’t moving, of course everyone wants to have a good go at a game, but seriously; a whole mission per player, which can take up to 30 minutes to complete depending how good a gamer you are? I think this could of been handled better by the publisher’s staff, after all surely they want to show their new game off to everyone?

All in all I had a great day, made some new friends and came away with a game I definitely wouldn’t of picked up if I hadn’t played it at the expo. The Eurogamer staff were helpful, approachable and genuinely really excited about gaming and showing off a great array of unreleased and new games to the general public. I’m already excited about next years Eurogamer Expo.

Related posts:

1. Eurogamer Expo Info
2. Heading to Eurogamer Expo Tomorrow!
3. Eurogamer Expo 2010 Announced
4. Assassin’s Creed II Black and White Editions
5. Grab the Heavy Rain Demo Now