Women Playing Games
by Anne Zelenka

Camilla of Popgadget responds to Wired magazine's simplistic classification of women gamers:

Wired published an article about women and games, reporting how once again women who like playing games tend to be placed into two distinct categories, the casual gamers and the "rough" gamers. I still have quite a hard time trying to understand why someone even bothers to analyze the women's gamer market so scrupulously if the end result is so utterly lame.

As no generalization can be made for the male game consumer, so none can be made for the female one. Being a woman doesn't make you like a game genre more or less than another, though you as an individual might favor a genre over another.

Camilla doesn't agree with the Microsoftie quoted in the article who says that violence keeps women from playing certain games. Maybe some women don't go for shoot-em-ups not because of the violence but because they're just not designed to be played from a female perspective. From Guilded Lilies:

I like shooting stuff.  The problem is that real guns make me a bit nervous, and I seem to lack the kind of enthusiasm needed to overcome my general dislike for loud noises, the smell of gunpowder, and the exaggerated masculine company that I find at the shooting range.  Plus, it's expensive.  On the other hand, for less than the price of 100 rounds I can get a First Person Shooter computer game and  have all the fun in the comfort of my own home, PLUS the added experience of a consequence free environment.  The problem with that is, even in the privacy of my own computer game environment I can't seem to get away from the exaggerated masculinity.  What's a woman to do?

Guilded Lily has some ideas about how to make violent games more attractive to women, and it doesn't have to do with making them less violent. Read the whole thing for some insight from a committed female gamer.

Do you play any computer or video games? Which are your favorites? Does violence turn you on or off?

Submitted by Anne Zelenka (view blog) on Mon, 03/06/2006 - 3:40pm
Posted In

Comments

 

Video games

Oh God, Zuma!! I was absolutely addicted to that game a few years ago. I'd thought, as several of you have mentioned, that playing video games with my kids would be a bonding thing. But Zuma captivated me to the point of "Dinner? Um, just a minute, honey, mommy has to finish this level." An hour later... bad bad mommy. Shades of Myst. I agree, plot and interaction or at least cool puzzles are key. What I'm wondering is, are women into the Halo franchise? Will there be any moms or 20- or 30-something women in line at Best Buy at midnight tonight? Or is that strictly a teen boy phenom?

Jackie
http://www.cctextra.com/blogs/aparentlyspeaking/

Submitted by jburrell on Mon, 09/24/2007 - 19:54
 

Story Line and First Person Shooters

At two points in my career, about ten years apart, I managed video games stores. My first stint was in the 1990s in California for Software Etc. Then in 2003 in Massachusetts for EB.

The lay of the land changed a great deal in that time. It changed from less than 1% females to about 15% female in the "cartridge systems." By that I mean systems such as Play Station, X-Box, and Gamecube as opposed to PC based software.

I cannot recall at any time, females buying the "hottest" games such as "Halo," "Splinter Cell," or even the "Laura Croft" series for themselves.

The biggest volume was in "Dance, Dance, Revolution" and some of the puzzle games such as Busta-move (reminiscent of "Tetris"). "Silent Hill," a mystery game with a female lead and some shooting in it, seemed to be the only real crossover title.

The video gaming industry is shaking off its roots. In 1991, Origin Systems showed one of their new role playing shooters called "Wing Commander." The gamer could choose from several avatars (representations), but all were male; these were the days before Battlestar Galactica. I raised my hand and said that it would be good if a couple females were included. The Marketing Manager's mouth curled into a sneer at the suggestion.

Not long after, Electronic Arts (EA) acquired Origin, and the EA marketing staff had more than token women on board, and that culture changed and has continued to change.

Interestingly, the chief complaint I heard from females - apart from the violence and gore of some of the games - was that "they're so flat," meaning the two-dimensional screen did not draw them into the action.

It may just get down to story line. After you've shot the enemy a few times, it gets rather predictable.

The games that do well with females seem more toward the scavenger hunt or treasure hunt. "Find the secret key that opens the room to get the red jewel move the rock slab aside." The old "Zork" game (text only) was like that.

Just like there are chick-flicks and dick-flicks, so too is it with the gaming industry. It's not so much that females don't like video games, it's just that there needs to be more plot and interaction.

It isn't the special effects, but the story ... and we see that same phenomenon on the big and the small screen.

Submitted by Katherine Lawrence on Tue, 03/07/2006 - 12:45
 

Interesting perspective on gaming and women,
Katherine

I have found both games with plots and games without to be interesting. I enjoyed Zork, the text-based adventure game you mention, by I also loved a video game called Cabal, I think, that involved going into a terrorist nest and shooting up the bad guys. A couple years ago my whole family was into Zuma, a downloadable casual game with no plot and no violence. I also play the GameCube games that my son likes, because he likes to watch other people play. So I've played Super Mario Sunshine (sort of has a plot) and Animal Crossing (no plot, but lots of interaction).

At least part of what games you like depends on what the people you hang out with like. I started playing Cabal because my boyfriend of the time liked it. I play the GameCube games because my son likes them. I may even play Metroid, a shoot-em-up game, if my son ever decides to play it. We have it but he finds it too scary so far.

I'm sure there are statistical differences in what women and men prefer, but it's hard to know what we can conclude from them. Is it about plot and interaction? Lack of female avatars or perspectives? Overuse of violence? Cartoon caricatures of women?

Anne Zelenka
BlogHer Contributing Editor, Technology & Web

Submitted by Anne Zelenka on Tue, 03/07/2006 - 14:35
 

Puzzels and female games

"Cabal" sounds like a successor to "Splinter Cell." I agree platform games (like Mario) are fun - negotiating a maze and winning by jumping on a sprite. My favorite of those was "Pandemonium" for Playstation - with a female main character. It is a lot like hopscotch.

I liked the games with humor. "The Secret of Monkey Island" was great, with the hero Guybrush Threepwood, who marries Governor Marley - a strong female character - and the adventures fighting Le Chuck the pirate. This came out before the films "Pirates of the Caribbean," but it is out of the same sort of humor.

In my own life, I have found playing video games with children is a good time to bond with them, and even sometime to point out moral lessons. For example, in "King's Quest IV, the Perils of Rosella," after we steal the "eye of the witches" do we give it back to them so the witches can again see, even though they have wished us no good? In "Road Rash" - granted, with an older youngster - do we run pedestrians down during the chase - for no points - or do we focus on winning the race?

I also like "Colonization" and "SimCity." Creating worlds can be fun.

Submitted by Katherine Lawrence on Thu, 03/09/2006 - 07:14