Genders in Gaming Target Audiences.

[Acies]

@Acies:
That's all true, of course, though I object to the notion that art can't be precise. It doesn't need to be, but there are many painters that do in fact think in exact dimensions, exact angles and exact colors. Maybe not counting strokes though because that is pointless.

Yes, of course. I was not arguing the point that there can be no planning in art :]

As you progress through creating something you fill in the 'unplanned' blanks with your best judgement.

This statement points at there being some degree of planning. The point I was making is that it is not possible to hold a 100% stroke-by-stroke plan of logical, weighed decisions, which in turn means that art will always contain elements of improvisation.

Otherwise, people do of course "inherit" values but it's the duty of any discerning individual to constantly question said values. I don't have the same values I was "told" I should have, though there may be some overlap. In my case it has mostly been a case of coming to a conclusion about what values I think are virtuous through trial and error or rational examination. I used to be quite illogically counter-culture and still to some extent am but have receded gradually as I discovered that certain views are too impractical to be tenable.

I believe any human being goes through the process of questioning the validity of values, it is a sound thing to do. The point I was making is that there are values imparted on you, beyond your control or understanding. As much as one would like to shape the person who is "I", solely by own choosing, you are a product of your environment. If one truly had the capability to separate, process and change each of the millions of values held within the human mind it would require you to have godlike attributes or be a robot conscious through programming. One would have to have 'total self-control' and like 'a programmer' rewriting any and all information passed onto the brain, which in turn is impossible. Therefore one can conclude that any human being hold values imparted on them.

Let me ask you, is there anything particularly that screams "woman" about the Harry Potter series? The protagonist is male and it has the whole "smurfette principle" that feminists like to point to and yet is, lo and behold, written by a woman. I don't notice, because it's not written with a shallow agenda in mind. The females are not given artificially inflated importance and it's not preachy in a feminist way. It's just a book. It's debatable whether it's good, I personally find it to be enjoyable but not exactly great. The fact that a woman wrote it has no bearing on the work.

A work doesn't have to 'scream' a value to hold it. I am sure Harry Potter holds values imparted specifically on women, because as I ventured on my above argument, no one is unaffected by their environment. No one can selectively build and choose their own consciousness.