[Interview] General: Ever, Jane: Bringing Women's Fantasies to Video Games

SBFord

Ever, Jane: The Virtual World of Jane Austen is a game in the making that is simultaneously bringing new game play elements to the MMO genre. We caught up with project founder and 3 Turn Productions' CEO Judy Tyrer to talk about her unique project. It's a great read and one that sheds a lot of new light on Ever, Jane. Read on before leaving your own thoughts in the comments.

MMORPG.com: Please tell us more about Ever Jane. Why Jane Austen? Where did the idea for developing a social MMO come from? Why an MMO over a single player experience?

Judy Tyrer: I was actually working on an MMO at the concept level and struggling to make the game play I wanted to work when the artist had a horrific accident and lost the use of his hand.  A huge fan of Jane Austen, I turned to Sense and Sensibility as a comfort read as I was trying to figure out what to do next.  And it hit me like a ton of bricks.  THIS, do THIS next.  And thus Ever,Jane was born.  

Read more of Suzie Ford's Ever, Jane: Bringing Women's Fantasies to Video Games.

nerovipus32

Bringing women's fantasies to videos games to be played by  males. This one of the reasons im uneasy around gamers..

SBFord

Originally posted by nerovipus32
Bringing women's fantasies to videos games to be played by  males. This one of the reasons im uneasy around gamers..

You are mistaken if you think there isn't a significant percentage of female gamers. I will look it up, but the last analysis I read stated that 30-40% of all gamers are female. Maybe having more games geared directly at women will increase that even more.

eric_w66

There are no women on the internets, Suzie! It's all a evil fabrication to give hope to guys like me that there might be a female with the same taste and interests as I have ....

 

 

 

Edit: Name was misspelled... oops!

nerovipus32

Originally posted by SBFord

Originally posted by nerovipus32
Bringing women's fantasies to videos games to be played by  males. This one of the reasons im uneasy around gamers..

You are mistaken if you think there isn't a significant percentage of female gamers. I will look it up, but the last analysis I read stated that 30-40% of all gamers are female. Maybe having more games geared directly at women will increase that even more.

I never said there wasn't a significant percentage of female gamers but they don't want to play this shit. I expect the large majority of players will be male roleplayers. Most female gamers i know prefer games like call of duty.

Razeekster

Bringing P2W in the form of Jane Austen novels to you soon! And yes it is P2W when their are subscription "tiers." If it was just one subscription price of $15 then it would be fine, but different levels of increasing amounts? P2W indeed.

 

Nadili

As a female gamer this is the last game I would even think of touching.  I want the same MMO guys want , this separation only amplifies the stereotype of the typical female gamer.  Disgusting imo.

Sovrath

Originally posted by Nadili
As a female gamer this is the last game I would even think of touching.  I want the same MMO guys want , this separation only amplifies the stereotype of the typical female gamer.  Disgusting imo.

I would offer that women might like various types of games and that to automatically assume that a woman doesn't want this is just as bad.

I would never base what what women want in games based upon the women I know becuase, with the exception one woman I know who likes SIMS, MYST and puzzle games, all the women I know think they are a waste of time or are just not interested.

I also know women who love being "traditional women" and actually want to stay home and "cook and clean for their man" (yup,k that's an actual quote that was said to me once) as well as women who want nothing more than to hike and travel.

Perhaps a better title would be "Bringing some Women's fantasies to video games".

LittleBoot

It's a bit of a silly headline; but there are also far too many people out there who enjoy finding reasons to take offence.  

Ice-Queen

This is interesting and new, I will gladly give them my money, Thank you Suzie.

Razeekster

[mod edit]

Wow, this this level of complete rudeness and ignorance in 2013 is a bit surprising.

 

Treciatus

Originally posted by SBFord

Originally posted by nerovipus32
Bringing women's fantasies to videos games to be played by  males. This one of the reasons im uneasy around gamers..

You are mistaken if you think there isn't a significant percentage of female gamers. I will look it up, but the last analysis I read stated that 30-40% of all gamers are female. Maybe having more games geared directly at women will increase that even more.

I read a recent study about it too, that mentions that female gamers make 45% in general and 46% of the game purchasers. But it also mentioned that, Online: Casual and Social along with Puzzle, Trivia, etc, make 53% of the market. It didn't go in to too much detail, sadly, so I'm unaware of the actual numbers of female gamers in specific genres.

But then again, the study could be garbage for all I know.

Source: http://www.theesa.com/facts/pdfs/ESA_EF_2013.pdf

Po_gg

I admit, I'd support the insert of Jane Austen's work into the Geneva Conventions among the grave breaches   and I'm not the target audience of "well-educated woman of above average intelligence" (though I occasionally kid myself of being above average and well educated.)

And still, I think the concept of Ever, Jane is cool. The in-game mechanics sound interesting and new, with a promise of a unique and different gameplay from the "same old" mmo's.

The pricing model is an interesting one as well, honestly I'm curious how will it working in practice.

 

Nice interview Suzie, I'm not saying I will pledge for it or anything, but I'll follow how Ever, Jane will fare in the future...

and I don't really understand a few comments, folks longing for something new since years, well, this is something new.

Unknown

I'll be the first to admit when I saw the title my first thought was "What the... They're making 50 shades of gray into a MMO?" Then I realized they weren't talking about those types of fantasies.

Anyways, all humor aside I think the concept of a social based MMO is a pretty cool one, and one I'd be interested in trying.

Unfortunately for "Ever, Jane" the setting just doesn't sell me. I generally play games to experince something that isn't in RL, now if this were a gothic horror type with vampires and werewolves I might be a little more piqued in interest. Likewise they could go with a fantasy or sci-fi setting and if built around social concepts and interactions I think it'd offer a unique gameplay. 

I'm not sure social games should aim to appeal based on gender, I think they appeal more to personality type then anything else. Which is another reason this articles title struck me as a little bit odd.

Distopia

Originally posted by nerovipus32

Originally posted by SBFord

Originally posted by nerovipus32
Bringing women's fantasies to videos games to be played by  males. This one of the reasons im uneasy around gamers..

You are mistaken if you think there isn't a significant percentage of female gamers. I will look it up, but the last analysis I read stated that 30-40% of all gamers are female. Maybe having more games geared directly at women will increase that even more.

I never said there wasn't a significant percentage of female gamers but they don't want to play this shit. I expect the large majority of players will be male roleplayers. Most female gamers i know prefer games like call of duty.

Most I know play RPG's... go figure, there's more than one type of female gamer.

Ice-Queen

I pledged because it's different. I'm sick of the same old mmo's we've had for years now. Quest and pvp gear grind til you're bored to death, that's not a true mmorpg to me. I like that companies are starting to lean toward more sandbox ideas for mmo's...back to where it started, and what made them mmorpg's, we need more of this.

Sovrath

I actually think their game concept is solid.

I don't like their payment model.

itchmon

its an absolutely brilliant idea, although Austen isnt the writer I personally woulda picked.  (I probably would have done something like Jack London's Alaska or the Victorian london of Arthur Conan Doyle, but that's just one bro's thinking)

stragen001

CLEARLY they are ripping off Jane Austen World from the Red Dwarf episode "Beyond a Joke"

I wonder if there will be a hack that allows you to gatecrash Mrs Bennets tea party in Mr Bingleys gazebo using a WW2 tank like Kryten did?

 

LittleBoot

Originally posted by itchmon
its an absolutely brilliant idea, although Austen isnt the writer I personally woulda picked.  (I probably would have done something like Jack London's Alaska or the Victorian london of Arthur Conan Doyle, but that's just one bro's thinking)

Or Dicken's London.  

I have never understood what the fascination with Jane Austen is.  

Scot

“Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings.”

It seems that life online is much like the real world.

itchmon

Originally posted by LittleBoot

Originally posted by itchmon
its an absolutely brilliant idea, although Austen isnt the writer I personally woulda picked.  (I probably would have done something like Jack London's Alaska or the Victorian london of Arthur Conan Doyle, but that's just one bro's thinking)

Or Dicken's London.  

I have never understood what the fascination with Jane Austen is.  

 

dickensian london is one i almost wrote but then i realized it would be sooooo depressing!

aspekx

Originally posted by Razeekster

[mod edit]

 

Wow, this this level of complete rudeness and ignorance in 2013 is a bit surprising.

 

its not rude, its called misogyny.

 

secondly, as a white heteronormative male in the US i love jane austen. and i know quite a few others who do as well.

aspekx

Originally posted by Sovrath

I actually think their game concept is solid.

I don't like their payment model.

 

agreed, i think Ms. Tyrer is mistaking this for an all or nothing decision. frankly, it never crossed my mind that this game should be f2p. i dont think it could survive launch that way. its clearly a niche mmo, so it needs support, ie., subscriptions.

 

yet, tying real world wealth (50USD/month) to ingame wealth is a mistake. it creates a situation in which those who are trying to enjoy an imaginative retreat for a few hours each day to remember just exactly what their real place in the world actually is right now.

 

not good for immersion, but perhaps the devs think we'd all be better off living with regency social hierarchies. not that ones based on hedge funds are much better. but reaffirming that this the way things are and should be in real life ... just goes a step too far for me.

Sovrath

Originally posted by LittleBoot

Originally posted by itchmon
its an absolutely brilliant idea, although Austen isnt the writer I personally woulda picked.  (I probably would have done something like Jack London's Alaska or the Victorian london of Arthur Conan Doyle, but that's just one bro's thinking)

Or Dicken's London.  

I have never understood what the fascination with Jane Austen is.  

Personally I'm an Oscar Wilde fan myself, practically read everything that I can find of his.

Still, Jane Austen has decent characters, decent humor as well as a somewhat apt criticism of the Aristocracy.

It's probably important to evaluate her work based upon what was  going on at the time as opposed to looking at it through highly romanticized 21 st century eyes.

sort of like pre-raphalite work. You see it on post cards and mugs and people think it is so sickly "sweet" yet at the time it was considered highly avant garde.

aspekx

Originally posted by LittleBoot

Originally posted by itchmon
its an absolutely brilliant idea, although Austen isnt the writer I personally woulda picked.  (I probably would have done something like Jack London's Alaska or the Victorian london of Arthur Conan Doyle, but that's just one bro's thinking)

Or Dicken's London.  

I have never understood what the fascination with Jane Austen is.  

 

honestly, i didn't get it either, until later in life. my greek professor in grad school who was from oxford kept mentioning it and ... i just didn't get it. i thought he was just being hung up on the old english stereotypes. and perhaps he was, but i dont think so any more.

 

then something clicked. i saw a recent BBC remake of Persuasion, bought the novel and fell in love. i can't really explain it even now. i don't reread most books, but i have her collection on my shelf and i have reread most of them. a couple several times.

 

i think what my professor saw was how Austen deals with relationships, their difficulties and rewards. while her world was bound by social conventions we would hardly recognize i think many people are still bound in their relationships by inner conventions, things inside them that keep them from speaking up on how they truly feel to those dearest to them. that sense of being bound tight and inescapably i think resonates.