Gender Inclusive Game Design

Expanding the Audience

Sheri Graner RayACC Summer Institute

Austin Community CollegeJuly 14, 2006

Sheri Graner RayStarted in games in 1990Worked with such companies as

Origin/EA, Her Interactive, SOE, Cartoon Network and others

Author of Gender Inclusive Game Design: Expanding the Market

Co-founder and Exec. Chair of Women In Games International

Hard Core Gamer (20+ hours a week)

Pink Poison

a brief history of the girls’ game movement in the U.S.

1995

“Why should we make games for girls?”

1996

“How do we make games for girls?”

1997

1997-1999

March 1999

Big Pink Buys Purple Moon 

Oct 2001

Mattel Sells Interactive Division

“See? We told you girls don’t play computer games!”

Why did this happen?

A lot of bad assumptions were made regarding girls and games

Bad Assumption #5

Girls love BarbieTM! We'll make all our girls' games just like BarbieTM!

Bad Assumption #4

Girls would love our game if they played 'em! We just need to trick 'em into playing them!

Bad Assumption #3

Girls hate violence. We'll make non-violent versions of our game!

Bad Assumption #2

Girls love cute cuddly things! We'll make games about that!

Bad Assumption #1

If we make a girls' game, we'll make a fortune because all the girls will play it!

The Dark Side

By stating “Girls don't like ______ type of video game” we are blaming the GIRLS for not playing because they are GIRLS.

By making it the girls' fault they don't play computer games, the industry has let itself off the hook for making any changes to what they are doing.

By believing that there is one “silver bullet” game that all girls will play, we are telling the game industry they don't have to change anything they are doing.

Broadening your audience

DISCLAIMER #1

In this talk I'm going to discuss developing titles for an audience that is expected to contain females, but are not targeted directly FOR females.

DISCLAIMER #2

When I say a particular trait is a “male” or “female”, I mean the population that expresses that trait is made up predominantly of that gender. However, it is by no means exclusive to that gender.

DISCLAIMER #3

I am speaking in broad population generalities. It is highly likely that you will know someone who does not fall within these descriptions. If you are female and currently play games, that person will likely be YOU!

Broadening the audience

Decide if you are making a title for a diverse audience or a specific audience

Identify a market you wish to include in your target audience

Houston, we have a problem

Less than 10% of the audience for traditional PC games is female

Less than 15% of Nintendo’s user base is female

Less then 20% of the audience for traditional online titles are female

52% of internet users are female

70% of casual, online gamers are female

Girls control $14 billion a year in disposable income

We can remove barriers from our titles today that prevent women from accessing them.

What can we do?

Just a few areas where barriers exist

Learning stylesAvatarsCommunicationProduction environment

Gender Differences in Learning StylesMales Females

•Risk-takers•Explorative

•Want to know how it works first •Modeling/Imitative

Most of the tutorials in today’s games are designed to appeal to an explorative learning style.

SolutionDesign tutorials that use imitative

models as well as explorative modelsLook at educational software for

examples

Avatar \Av`a*tar"\, n.1. <chat, virtual reality> An image representing a user in a virtual reality space.

We need a hero!

Because they represent “heroes”, male and female avatars will often exhibit exaggerated physical signals of youth strength, and fertility/virility

Youth, Strength and Fertility/VirilityMales Large Shoulders Slim waists Slim hips Large, muscled legs Long, thick hair

Females Large breasts,

placed high on the chest

Slim waists Round derrières Long, thick hair

Very often female avatars display exaggerated physical signals of sexual receptivity.

Sexual receptivity Red, full lips Heavy lidded eyes Heavy breathing (usually indicated by a

slightly open mouth) Erect nipples

These signals are the same for the human male body as they are for the female body.

SolutionBuild attractive female figures that are

not hyper-sexualized.Use female athletes as body models.Focus group test your avatars with

female players.

Electronic CommunicationMales and females communicate very

differently, and this carries through to electronic communications.

Communications differencesMales

Rough language Attempt to dominate

through “put downs” Use sexual humor

Females Formal language Attempt to build rapport

through questions Ceased to communicate

when faced with sexual humor that contained female put-downs

“Just change the keymap to WASD!”Avoid the use of industry specific jargon

in your documentation, tutorial and game scripts.

SolutionsCheck your command text for formality

and rapport building language.Avoid using content that contains sexual

humor based on put-downs of females. Check your commands for terminology

that is industry specific.

Production Environment

“What were you thinking?”

Who are you really designing your games for?

If we do not regularly state that a percentage of our audience is expected to be female, we assume we are designing for males.

Sometimes the best man for the job is a womanThe game industry isn’t on women’s

career radarMust recruit in non-traditional areasBuild today for employees tomorrow

SolutionsHave a clearly defined targeted

audience statement that states you intend to design for females as well as males.

Throughout your documentation, avoid using only “he” to describe your player.

Involve more women in your development process – find them through creative recruiting

Where to start:Adjust tutorials to allow for modeling

learning stylesMake female avatars attractive, but not

hyper-sexualClearly state you intend your audience

to contain femalesSeek out qualified female candidates

“But what if the player is female?”

Sheri Graner Ray ACC Summer Institute

Austin Community College July 14, 2005