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November 03, 2003

gaming girls

Gamegirladvance, a blog on gaming that often has entries about women in gaming, recently cited statistics showing that 26% of electronic game-players are women over 18, 21% are boys 6-17, 12% are girls 6-17, 38% are men over 18.

This growing awareness of gamers not primarily being teenaged boys means that game developers are becoming - or should be becoming - more interested in creating games women like. I'm reminded of a story Brenda Laurel tells in her book Utopian Entrepreneur, about a 1985 Barbie game for the Commodore 64:

Barbie was at the mall, shopping for the right outfit to wear on her date with Ken. Now, "everyone knows" that girls aren't good at shooting games, so the designers reasoned that the game should make it easier for them. The brilliant solution: make projectiles that move slowly. And so it was decided that the action component of the game would consist of throwing marshmallows. "You see", the game execs would say, they did everything right, but sales were dismal. Therefore you can't sell computer games to girls. Post hoc, ergo propter hoc. (page 22)

Utopian Entrepreneur is a fascinating book about a woman's attempt to create better games. Other utopians include Ian Bogost and Gonzalo Frasca, who's new blog Water Cooler Games tackles computer games with an agenda, games that want to change the world. A category discusses women and games.

Posted by Jill Walker at 11:01 AM in Gaming | Permalink

Comments

"26% of electronic game-players are women over 18, 12% are girls 6-17
should be becoming - more interested in creating games women like."

Apparently they are already pretty interested in writing games for feamle players if they already have 38% female players.

For some reason in this comment portion of this blog I can only see a 85% section of the comments. for some reason the right sidebar appears in the comments section and obliterates 35% of what I am reading and typing. I am using IE 6 for win. Is this a gender issue? Can the women read the entire coments section? This is very disconcerting.

If women can only read 65% of what men are writing (or meanig) then NOW I certainly understand what all the hoopla has been about.

Posted by: -g. at Nov 3, 2003 12:12:44 PM

That's pretty funny (about "girls aren't good at shooting games"). I've been playing
video games since "Pong". I've always done better at shooting and driving games. Oh,
and I am a female!

Posted by: kt at Nov 3, 2003 1:35:43 PM

g, i think you (deliberately?) missed the point.

*most* video games are designed by men for men with male characters and (arguably) male themes. yet they're *still* attracting an audience that is 38% women and girls.

so now, imagine the market potential for games with broader interest. for example: "grand theft auto" with a woman character who kills pimps. or "wnba live 2004."

Posted by: tiffany at Nov 4, 2003 8:10:34 AM

Oh, I think I'd have fun playing that version of Grand Theft Auto, Tiffany...

Posted by: Jill at Nov 4, 2003 8:15:56 AM

PlayStation: Danger Girl

Posted by: GenuineGenius at Nov 4, 2003 2:36:55 PM

The Sims is one of the largest selling PC games of all time and has an audience that is nearly 50% female. I stumbled across it a few years ago and was instantly hooked. The EA developers did a nice job of mixing the struggle to gain objects, money and power, with the ability to pursue artistic tasks such as building homes, interior design, establishing relationships and even having children. I think their decision to focus on creative and emotional goals, as well as opportunist ones, gave them the ability to achieve a more balanced gender split. It's probably also interesting to note, that a large portion of the female audience is comprised of fulltime homemakers.

Posted by: Lauren Michele at Nov 7, 2003 9:54:58 AM