Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Girly Games

Now let’s not get too imaginative. That’s Zapak’s new venture – zapakgirls.com an online gaming portal exclusively for women. Post their successful launch of zapak.com, this gaming portal’s database showed 10% of their users were women. In order to capture a larger chunk of gamers belonging to the fairer sex, they launched zapakgirls.com. Men have always been skeptical of women’s gaming skills and this site is like their echo. In their heads all women are terrible gamers just like they are bad drivers.

No denying, the number of male gamers on the cyber space out number the women, but no serious woman in her right mind would want to play Barbie!!!

When I indulge my sudden sporadic interest in gaming, I would much rather play mind-bending games and loose than help Easter bunny find his eggs. They claim ‘girls play smarter’ then why would any girl be on zapakgirls.com if that statement held any truth! Developing a gaming site entirely for women is as good as equating her talent to that of a nose picker and equating her IQ to that of an ant.

The portal’s main focus is games for girls, and hence the site has employed all the stereo typical (pink logo) and subliminal messaging (Astrology, girly forums etc.) to drive home their point.

Zapakgirls.com is looking at adopting 4 models of advertising - banner advertising, in-game advertising, advergaming and sponsorships. It will be interesting to see who would pay to advertise on this portal. We could probably spot damsels in distress / super woman / candy floss girl sporting pretty branded lingerie or waving their tangle free hair after using the newest serum in the market. And maybe when they pause in between their snowy adventures to catch their breath they could also discuss their boyfriends. How incredibly cute!


On the flip side maybe the website is intended for frivolous gamers who would much rather pelt paint pellets than wonder how to assemble an army and deploy resources and take the enemy by surprise, all this while grappling with various keys on the key board. If it’s a stress buster then I would much rather see cute teddies than gory mutilated dead bodies.

Since there are not too many women obsessed with gaming Zapak did the obvious, added astrology and girl talk. Like every other girl I read my astrology daily and it only makes sense to have it on the site, that way they are assured of footfalls from non-gamers as well.

This definitely is a first of its kind venture and is a battle of wits. The site has hosted its beta version and is yet to get fully operational. Are they flattering or infuriating? Only women with time on their hands to kill can tell.

6 comments:

Ajan said...

Zappak??? i tot all gals were into gang of girls or somethin.... hmm...
anyways,but i kno a few gals who r into gaming..they jus dont participate in the coll gaming events coz they wont be havin company(i think)..i don hav ne solid reason abt y they don participate in those gaming stuff

kris said...

CHEERS to greater recognition that women do have more of an interest in technology than changing the clock on the microwave. :)

WELCOME TO INDIE BLOGGERS! Can't wait to read more of your writing.

Kick Ass Dude said...

its not new .....women do have interests in technology ......and gamign ofcourse....

no wonder u see huge gaming portals like zapak girls all dedicated to girls .....

Nataraj Kaushik said...

women have no sense of gaming ... reason --> evolution .. man was the hunter .. he has the spatial skills needed for the hunt ... gaming is an abstraction of the hunting ... technology and women ... ROTFL !!

Anonymous said...

Whatever, Natraj Kaushik! Girls have a sense of gaming. :( We just don't like what dumb boys like. :)

Nataraj Kaushik said...

Ok .. so I go this girlygame.net and what do I find --> "Sex and the City dressup" and "Paris Hilton Escape 2"

and you call this non-dumb .. ha ha !