http://mr-cappadocia.tumblr.com/post/51654909375/your-response-to-eyeliner-and-algebra-didnt-really[/spoiler]
So I'm calling bullshit on this one.
The same group of people that have mocked, ridiculed, shamed, harassed, and often just tormented them… for about the past 20+ years.
See here is the thing, most games aren't marketed to the geeks and nerds that copped this abuse. I mean one of the issues we can bring up is that the cover to Bioshock Infinite was audience tested... On what were describes as 'frat boys', that is to say the CoD playing douchers now so legendary in gamer culture.
You don't market your games to nerds unless you are Bethesda, and if you
are Bethesda then what happened buddy? Nerds play pirated retro games on their emulators, obscure indie games with shitty graphics and minecraft (And that
used to be an obscure indie game with shitty graphics). Ok I realize this is a generalization, but generalizations is what marketing is all about.
On that note, if anybody follows Jim Sterling I think he has a pretty good read on the games industry right now.
Basically the developers don't understand how business works. They see the occasional game become hugely popular and want to emulate that success, and they do so by
attempting to copy as many aspects of the good game as possible while throwing more money at it. Because greater investment equals a linear return on investment, right?
Point is you get these games with a huge budget that need to sell millions just to break even, and it never happens. CEOs are in regular rotation (Who even saw that coming? Not Square Enix!) because there huge bulking games can't sell to an impossibly large market, especially when the games themselves are just pale reproductions of something we already have.
Publishers response to this? Games must appeal to as many people as possible within their proven markets. Loyal niche groups and unproven markets are bad, while the same proven mass appeal is good! It isn't but that is just what they think. I'm sure publishers don't think women are less deserving of enjoying a good game, they just look on their spreadsheet and see a male majority for the kind of game they are making and assume it will always be that way (And it will as long as they keep making the games they are making) and don't want to risk anything that might unbalance this very specific formula.
The solution is to spread the eggs into many baskets, so to speak. Instead of a big game for everybody, some games just need to focus on what they do well (Dark souls is often shown as the ideal example of this, it was a commercial success despite selling less than many failures) and sell what they need to make their profit. I'm not saying that this will magically cause all games to be more successful, but it will mean publishers can have some of their games make a loss and still have a good year. Once publishers have the room to make a bit of loss on a game, they can start to take some perceived risks. They can give the green light to games they think might fail, but it isn't costing them too much and it is worth the chance to open up in a new demographic.
Until that happens... Enjoy your Final Fantasy XIV.