Private Estates: Male Versus Female
by Kassadee Marie, HSM team writer
When I was younger, I thought colors had genders. Red, orange and yellow were females, and green, blue and purple were males.
Oh yes, I thought this way about numbers, too. Two, three, five, six and nine were males, and one, four, seven and eight were females.
Don’t ask me why I saw it that way; I don’t know. But I do remember it.
So, after a recent conversation, I was thinking about personal estates in Home and wondering why some spaces seem feminine and some seem masculine to me. These are some of the characteristics that seem more female than male to me: graceful, soft, gentle, tender, delicate, and pretty. And these traits seem more masculine than feminine: muscular, forceful, hard, strong, bold, powerful, and handsome.
Please note I said “more” and not “completely.” This is obviously a subjective point of view, but I believe that some personal estates on Home are designed to appeal to females, but most are designed to appeal to males — and not only to males, but younger males in a lot of instances. I imagine that Sony is catering to their largest audience, as most SEN users are young males.
There are three barracks spaces on Home that seem to scream out, “Young men, buy me!” These are the S.V.E.R. Barracks, the Raven Barracks and the Valor Barracks, all developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. They are full of military equipment like missile racks, crates of ammunition, oil drums, barbed wire, tanks, helicopters, planes, trucks and trailers. One of them even has NPC soldiers on guard duty. The predominant colors seem to be mud brown and metal gray with occasional splashes of rust. These spaces are very masculine, in my estimation.
But, there are other “young male” estates too, I believe, such as: the Villain’s Lair, the Warhawk Apartment, The Lost Dam Hideout and the Post-Apocalyptic Apartment. These spaces were also developed by Sony. It’s interesting that all of these spaces seem to revolve around war, or conflict, in some manner. There seems to be something about fighting and conquering that appeals to the male gender, especially. I guess that’s why war games, sports games and scary games are so popular with guys, especially first person shooters (FPS) which allow them to feel they are really there in the center of the action.
Not all gamers are male. Still, spaces with games, such as the Villain’s Lair and the Warhawk Apartment mentioned previously, are also popular with young men. And there are many, many of them. Some of the games are very simple, such as finding rewards in the bubbles at Bonk Living space or the dart game at the London Pub, and some are more complex, such as the shooters at Blaster’s Paradise and Aurora Island. Some of these other games are also basic shooters, such as the cannon game at the Pirate Galleon Apartment — but some require other skills, such as the Reversi game at LocoIsland, the fishing game at Waterfall Terrace or the puzzle game at Neptune Suite.
Some other estates, including the Musicality Apartment, Andy’s Room, Tron Apartment, Ansanda Fone Apartment, Cutteridge Estate, Red Bull House of Skate, VEEMEE’s three island spaces, SuperStar Jetsetter Private Plane and the Old West Saloon have built in games, also.
There is another style that seems to appeal to males and that’s the “woodsy outdoorsman” style. This mode can be found in such places as the Lakeside Log Cabin, the MotorStorm Monument Valley Camp and MotorStorm Pacific Rift Camp, the Waterfall Terrace, the Tree House Personal Apartment, the Winter Vacation Villa, the Moon Forest Apartment, and the Old West Saloon. These were all developed by Sony, except the Old West Saloon which was developed by Digital Leisure. Some of these spaces have appeal for their peaceful nature and scenery as well, and some of them also offer games.
Anything with a lot of gray cement not only looks masculine to me, but seems to appeal to males. This belief stems from conversations I have had with them, and also from remarks I’ve read or heard from guys about specific spaces that many of them seem to like.
As examples, there are these spaces: the Summer House, the City Penthouse, the Luxury Race Box, the Luxury Weekend Lake House, the Hollywood Hills House, the Tycoon Penthouse, the LOOT’s Space Apartment and the Hillside Apartment. All of these personal estates are presented by Sony, except for the Space Apartment which is by LOOT, obviously.
I just don’t understand the appeal of all that gray cement. When I occasionally buy a space like one of these, I’m sure to add as much color as I can. If I could add wallpaper or paint, I’d buy more of them.
So what spaces appear especially feminine to me? There are seven estates, all designed by Sony, that I deem as feminine, due to the beauty of these spaces. It’s not that men can’t appreciate beauty. I just think they are more likely to appreciate a beautiful woman than a beautiful view.
These spaces usually have gorgeous scenery, such as Tropical Escape, Creek Falls and the Plum Tree Pavilion Apartment; interesting and lovely details, such as Santorini, Greece; and lovely gardens, such as the Japanese Apartment, Plum Tree (again), the French Chateau and the Gnome Secret Garden, which has the curling game. Another interesting thing to note is that the Luxury Weekend House has a lovely garden, but you can only view it, not walk in it.
I can’t think of any estates that specifically appeal to younger females. What would appeal to us in my opinion? I believe something beautiful and other-worldly like a fairyland cottage or goth and fantastical like a vampire’s castle would generate a lot of sales.
I haven’t listed every personal estate here. Some spaces, such as the Midnight Glade or the Paris Clocktower Apartment seem to defy gender identification. And some, like the Living Room Stage Set from LOOT have a very specific purpose that is not gender related. You should see my 1950’s diner and nightclub in the City Penthouse.
Nothing is absolute. If you are a female who likes any of the spaces I view as male, or a male who likes any of the spaces I deem to be female, please don’t take offense. I myself own spaces that seem mannish to me, because they appeal to me on some level, have a game that I like and want to share, or I find a specific style that goes in one of these spaces.
April 24th, 2012 by Kassadee Marie | 4 comments
Home is endlessly entertaining to this California girl. Kassadee has been in Home for about four years, and loves almost everything about it (with a few notable exceptions). She spends way too much money there, and perhaps too much time... Someday she will travel the world and write about the people she meets and the places she sees.
yes i definitely agree with you that most spaces are very masculine, and are very much geared to male tastes, what is ironic is that stereotypical notions tell us that men aren’t into decorating (it maybe stereotypical but i love decorating). The war/adventurer theme is very overused for male sensibilities because the boys from birth are bombarded with the hetero male persona idea. Our society deems the notion of a pretty blonde fashion doll is for girls, and the ripped muscular war GI Joe or tights clad superhero to be for boys, which seriously it is very ironic if you think about it. Genders are even applied to colors, pink is for girls, blue is for boys, once children are a certain age that changes to pastels being for girls, and primary colors or neutrals being for boys. Colors make us react emotionally too, so if a color is neutral it follows the notion that men are supposed to be unemotional and stoic, hence the concrete gray overuse from the military barracks to the racing box space and the lake houses. Metal Grays, and concrete look has always been applied to the industrial feel and look of a place again another male theme. The masculine perception is very cultural too, different cultures have different ideas of what is acceptable standards of masculinity, most of these themes in home follow the American culture ideas of masculinity. I’ve always thought of the Paris Clock tower as a very steam punk themed space, which steam punk is a Victorian, Industrial Revolution, future punk mash up of themes. The themes used are safe though, if you try to appeal to females what themes can you use that wouldn’t walk the line of sexism or be too stereotypical? Personally at least gender neutral themes I would love to see like a country ranch, with a coral or barn, a venice theme space that wasn’t renaissance like the assassins creed apartment, or A cottage with a view of dutch windmills in the background, or a victorian house that wasn’t haunted a la cutheridge estate.
Nice article Kass and I agree with you for the most part. But I bought the Waterfall and then the Log cabin as my first two estates ever. I don’t particularly see them as male at all. They are esthetically beautiful spaces and I bought them as representations of dawn and dusk respectively. I believe those two are more gender neutral as the way you decorate them makes them male or female. Another space with a game that is definitely male is the Red Bull Skate. I bought it for the game and had fun decorating it really funky and different than I would normally.
I think any type of castle would sell well for both males and females as it can go either way depending on decoration. I have been advocating one of those for a long time now. I have several male friends who love to decorate as well and many are quite good at it. I think they feel that it is a safe way to let the artistic or more feminine side of their nature to come out.
Nice read!
Thanks, Burbie! But I have to say while I find that the Lake Cabin could be made more feminine with nice furniture… the Waterfall Terrace with that fishing/hunting motif seems very male to me. (Female fisher-persons and hunters, please don’t yell at me. I can’t help seeing those as masculine activities.)
Good point but I always saw the Waterfall terrace as very Shire-ish. Other than the fact that its a hollowed out log and not built into the side of a hill, it looked remarkably like Bilbo’s house in Hobbiton, at least the interior -- so it always had that fantasy appeal to me more than the outdoorsman thing going for it. I really wish they had built into it the ability to take the canoe into the fishing lake.