Choice is good, right? (re Destructoid)

June 23, 2012 2 notes Full Story startup press marketing

Ah controversy :)

It stirs up emotions when it’s on a topic near the heart - like our debut game, lovingly crafted over several months.

Amid the positive articles on our Style Me Girl launch from ,  and others, one popped up by  from a very different angle:

Jim’s view as I read it was that a fashion RPG designed for girls and women playing as a stylist was patronizing.  His final paragraph:

Rejoice, GURL GAMARZ, no longer will you have to play Calling Duty or Grand Auto Grab with those smelly boys. Now there is a game that you little ladies can play while you’re shopping for shoes and thinking about kissing the high school leader of the footbasket team. Aren’t you lucky?

Well before responding, to be clear I have a lot of respect for Jim and his work.  He’s among the best in the business and it’s refreshing to see someone call it as they see it. Not to mention it’s way more fun to read, which is why I count myself as one of many Destructoid fans.  

That said I have to respectfully disagree and respond:

  • The piece mentions that we’re described as the “first mobile RPG exclusively for women.” Rather, what we did say was that it was the first 3D fashion RPG game, because we feel our 3D technology is quite unique, and that it was among the relatively few RPG games for women.  And yes, there are boys and guys who play as well which is just fine by us.
  • We feel female gamers should be able to enjoy different types of games including ones made specifically for them.  Our new designer Moona loves World of Warcraft as well as girl games like Fashion Story. Jasmine, our marketing manager plays Crime City and D3 as well as Top Girl.  Shouldn’t there be Vogues and Cosmos to complement GQs and Newsweeks? Imho, the more choice the better.  Hence Me Girl.
  • Finally playing a game where you are an aspiring stylist, shopping and doing photo shoots is to us, a positive thing.  Fashion is fun and creative!  Games are fun and creative!  Both have no age limits. Why not bring the two together?

And whilst there was plenty of debate in the comments, it’s good to see others in the Destructoid community who feel the same way:

Anyway long live freedom of opinion and choice. Now it’s back to work :)