Sometimes I wonder if Blizzard really grasps the fact that the reason a lot of females, from the first time their eyes flit across the game box in the store, or even down the list of games they are choosing from at some online store...the very name of World of Warcraft is a turn-off to most females like myself.
So, often, female buyers-but-non-players choose to NOT BUY that for the nephew/ son/ cousin / brother for the holidays. Bad enough the odds are so high that real war will end the lives of several of our kin, quickly, in battle, or slowly, years later...as my own brother-in-law, a suicide almost two years ago, now, from the endless horror that is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and the deep underlying guilt he held within himself, that so many young men under him had died or been maimed for life.
Yes, 'warcraft' is all too real in our lives, why play a game of war when what we seek from a game is to escape the real world?
The word 'War', I think, doesn't mean the same thing to men as it does to women. Women see the name Warcraft and dismiss it in nanoseconds. More women would choose this game if it had a different name. Blizzard is losing out on millions more paying customers, due to the very name of the game, in my opinion.
Women, if looking to buy a game, will resonate much more with other games with nice names, nice box graphics. Sims, or Rift, or Dragon Age would appeal more to a non-gamer-shopper/female.
Blizzard could easily make commercials that would appeal more to the female audience. I myself, female, middle aged, married, have played WoW happily, daily, for four years.
I know that I was turned off by the name of it, husband played it for many months before I happened to see him playing it, and he was doing something on the screen...I inquired what he was doing...he was 'mining'. Mining a node. Oh? There is more to this game than just fighting? As a female I was drawn to the gathering aspects, so I rolled a character to try it out. I stayed in the starter area to level 9, reveling in the beauty and music of Teldrassil.
It was weeks before I happened into range of Trade Chat and stumbled upon another aspect of WoW that
now constitutes at least 50% of my interest in the game: the SOCIAL INTERACTION.
Whether chatting with guildies or helping low level noobs with advice or reading the stream of idiocy that is Trade Chat, I never feel alone when I am in the game. THAT is something that Blizzard should emphasize if they ever decide to advertise WoW to women. The social aspect, in real time, which you cannot get from any of the Facebook games like Farmville.
I dont know why Blizzard underestimates the drawing power of the social interaction aspect of WoW. It would bring in many more players....so many of us cannot find a job...for years...alone at home and no money for shopping / restaurants / clubs or hobbies. $15.00 a month is cheaper than cable tv and WoW is socially interactive in real time!!