Gender Inclusive Game Design: Expanding the Market Sheri Graner Ray Women in Games Conference 2004 University of Portsmouth June 11, 2004

Sheri Graner Ray Sr. Designer, Sony Online Entertainment Co-chair of the IDGA’s “Women in Game Development” SIG Author of Gender Inclusive Game Design: Expanding the Market

Pink Poison: a brief history of the girls’ game movement

1995

“Why should we make games for girls?”

1996

“How do we make games for girls?”

1997

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? The industry took an entire market of women and defined it as a genre of “fashion, shopping, and makeup games for girls ages 6-10.”

Computer game revenues have topped 9.4 billion dollars, outranking Hollywood box office receipts. Salon magazine. So what’s the problem?

The traditional target market of males ages is not growing as fast as the games industry. Salon Magazine

Today, females between the ages of 15 and 25 control over 14 billion dollars a year in disposable income. -Newsweek Magazine

52% of internet users are female 70% of casual, online gamers are female 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 “Houston, we have a problem.”

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

Just a few areas where barriers exist Learning styles Price of failure Avatars Communication Production environment

Warning The following information is based on broad population generalities. It is highly likely you will know of someone that does not fit exactly into these profiles. (If you are female and you are in the audience today…then that person will most likely be you!!)

Gender Differences in Learning Styles MalesFemales Risk-takers Explorative Want to know how it works first Modeling Most of the tutorials in today’s games are designed to appeal to an explorative learning style.

Solution Design tutorials that use imitative models Look at educational software for examples

The Price of Failure MalesFemales Punishment for ErrorForgiveness for Error Most games today punish the player for errors either in the form of loss of “lives”, irretrievable loss of items or loss of progress.

Solution Identify the victory conditions for your titles and consciously design such that failure to meet those conditions does not result in irretrievable loss.

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

Male and female characters will often exhibit exaggerated physical signals of youth and fertility/virility We need a hero!

Youth and Fertility/Virility Males Large Shoulders Slim waists Slim hips Long, thick hair Females Large breasts Breasts placed high on the chest Slim waists Round derrieres Long, thick hair

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

Sexual receptivity Red, full lips Heavy lidded eyes Heavy breathing (usually indicated by a slightly open mouth) Erect nipples

Solution Build attractive female figures that are not hyper-sexualized. Use female athletes as body models. Focus group test your avatars with female players.

Communication Males and females communicate very differently, and this carries through to electronic communications.

Communications differences Males 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

Solution Avoid using content that contains sexual humor based on put-downs of females. Check your command text for formality and rapport building language. Check your commands for terminology that is industry specific.

Production Environment Or “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.

Solutions Have 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.

Adjust tutorials to allow for modeling learning styles Consider forgiveness for error rather than punishment Make female avatars attractive, but not hyper- sexual Remove sexual humor that belittles females Clearly state you intend your audience to contain females Where to start:

But what if the player is female? Sheri Graner Ray Women in Games Conference 2004 University of Portsmouth June 11, 2004