Gender Inclusive Game Design Expanding the Audience Sheri Graner Ray ACC Summer Institute Austin Community College July 14, 2006

Sheri Graner Ray  Started in games in 1990  Worked 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

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 Barbie TM ! We'll make all our girls' games just like Barbie TM!

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 styles  Avatars  Communication  Production environment

Gender Differences in Learning Styles MalesFemales 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.

Solution  Design tutorials that use imitative models as well as explorative models  Look at educational software for examples

Avatar \Av`a*tar"\, n. 1. 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/Virility Males  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.

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

Electronic 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

“Just change the keymap to WASD!”  Avoid the use of industry specific jargon in your documentation, tutorial and game scripts.

Solutions  Check 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 woman  The game industry isn’t on women’s career radar  Must recruit in non-traditional areas  Build today for employees tomorrow

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

Where to start:  Adjust tutorials to allow for modeling learning styles  Make female avatars attractive, but not hyper-sexual  Clearly state you intend your audience to contain females  Seek out qualified female candidates

“But what if the player is female?” Sheri Graner Ray ACC Summer Institute Austin Community College July 14, 2005