According to Sheri Graner Ray, back in 2004 as many as 70% of casual online gamers were female. That's a pretty staggering figure. Most of the casual games from that period were web-based, and the proportion appears to have stayed at that level, even with the addition of smartphones & tablets into that mix.
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| Bejeweled, an example of a casual game which is more popular with women than men |
It's pretty clear from that statistic that I need to know more about female gamers.
At that same time, female gamers were always under-represented on the non-casual game market, but the the rise of the Nintendo Wii & DS saw an explosion of products which finally started to exploit that enormous market.
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| Girls' Life: Sleepover Party -- exploiting a very specific demographic. |
Over the last 5 years of teaching Games Design, fewer than 8% of my students have been female. And in a recent poll, when I asked this year's (90% male) cohort to guess the top selling games of all time, they were genuinely shocked and surprised to see so many Nintendo products in that list.
A major question is, if women are playing so many games, why are so few involved in designing them? Who is writing the games that appeal to women, and how do they know what they want?
For this reason I've started investigating what some professional game designers have to say about the subject of women & video games.
Ralph Koster's Theory of Fun suggests that gameplay relies upon learning to master abstract formal systems, which is something that appears to appeal more to male players.
Jesse Schell extends Koster's theory by arguing that, although games are inherently male, the range of experiences that surround the game may still appeal to a female audience.
He goes on to draw up a list of aspects that appeal differently to the genders:
(Obviously this is based on generalisations and stereotypes, but they are formed from examining wider social studies into gender preferences.)
Male Female Mastery Enjoy, regardless of purpose Only if it has meaningful purpose Competition Enjoy proving they are the best Demoralising (whether losing or beating other player) Destruction Enjoy. A lot. — Spacial puzzles Strong skills Frustrating Learning Trial-and-error Learn by example Emotion Interesting but not essential Like very much. Real world — Strong preference Nurture — Strong preference Dialogue — Enjoy
Schell gives an example from Toontown, Disney's MMO for kids, where he needed to develop a way to replenish character strength. Initially he considered a traditional approach where the player pursues healing (whether as an in-game "pick-up" or by visiting a medical location). However, they eventually decided on a tactic which emphasised nurture, by getting players to heal each other. This helped enhance the enjoyment of the game for female players.
Sheri Graner Ray suggests that the early emphasis on technology in video games attracted a predominantly male audience, which in turn meant that most early games were designed by men for other men. This is reinforced by an examination of common female avatars in games, which are more often fuelled by male fantasy than realistic portrayal of women.
She also postulates that the consequences of failing a task in platform or shooting games -- usually player death -- are too punitive to sit comfortably with a female expectation of a pleasurable experience; Myst is used as an example to illustrate this point, highlighting the 'try again' approach to puzzles and lack of player combat.
This gives rise to the importance of conflict resolution and emotional & tactile stimulation as the main factors in female enjoyment of games. Graner Ray highlights the appeal of clicking on hotspots, which I note are particularly popular at the current time -- for example, the Professor Layton games.
This definitely deserves further study, whether as part of research into casual gaming or game experience. It's apparent that the charm of a game is different for different genders too. I shall return to this topic in the future!
Bibliography
Graner Ray, Sheri (2004) Gender Inclusive Game Design: Expanding the Market, Charles River Media Inc, Massachussetts
Koster, Ralph (2005) A Theory of Fun for Games Design, Paraglyph Press, Phoenix, Arizona
(Updated 20 Oct 2013 -- fixed a number of dead links)