Trigger Happy
was ranked overall favorite by equal proportions of men and women CESA respondents). Videogame developers in the future will appeal to more men and to more women only as long as their games mature aesthetically.
Character building
Let us return to one clear aesthetic preference of the female (and many of the male) CESA respondents: for videogames which have good characters. What exactly does this mean, and why are good characters desirable in a game? How does a false idol induce real worship? It is a commercial fact that successful game characters really do shift units, especially those, like Mario, that pop up in a whole series of different games over the years. Already by 1990, an American survey determined that the virtual Italian plumber was recognized by more American children than Mickey Mouse. By 1995, Mario games had sold a total of 120 million copies worldwide. A star character in a videogame also enables
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