So, I'm a 35 year old guy with a wife and kids who was invited to play this game several weeks ago by someone at Tiny Speck. I immediately found the game to be fun enough to play as a casual experience, but I honestly have been losing interest as quickly as I progress due to the feeling that it has little or no appeal for males to play.
Glitch has a lot of potential for many kinds of people, but I honestly feel it is focusing in on the 10 to 30-something female, thus limiting its appear to the other gender ENTIRELY. If I hung my masculinity on the wall and just played Glitch, I could easily spend hours of having endless fun with this game, but I am all too often reminded of how this game is NOT geared for men. Whats more, even my wife laughed when she saw me playing this during the EOTW party, asking if I was going homo on her.
So, while I could cite several examples of how this game personally makes me unattracted to it, I'll just offer the following obvious examples as seen while visiting the site:
1) Pastels, everywhere!
Is this really necessary right down to character customization? I mean come on, this is fine in San Francisco and NYC, but as stated before: No appeal for the manly figure.
Perhaps a customizable skin chooser for the game's frame, a set of "REI-like" clothing choices and less effeminate choices would help. The awards are atrociously gag-worthy... pink buttons for planting beans or cooking... lovely: beta.glitch.com/achievements/
2) Subscribers are designated as pink hearts.
Most men (who prefer women) would not be comfortable with this and I doubt that they would buy a membership strictly because of it.
Almost anything at this point would be preferable, seriously. You can go to the grocery store and watch many men pass up on purchasing products that offer immediate donations to breast cancer. It has nothing with support the cause and everything to do with the fact that it's a pink ribbon.
3) Characters, while cartoony, lack any wardrobe or vanity customizations that would be considered masculine in ANY way.
From feathers to MORE pastels to kilts and pumps, I see nothing here created by a straight male.
Simply have a man make some shirts with sports, trucks or booze on them... add basic sneekers and steal toe boots... might help just a *wee-bit*.
Bash me if you will, but I am not trying to say the game sucks as much as I am trying to offer constructive criticism as to why this game will lack male players, especially ones whom have insecurities about maintaining their masculinity (which is a majority of men). If you note, I am also trying to offer suggestions to make it more appealing to the potential male players out there.