Gender Inclusive Game Design: Expanding The Market

by Sheri Graner Ray

Women and girls of today are more tech savvy than ever before and research shows that they currently make up over 52% of Internet users and 70% of casual online gamers. Why then, is the game industry still producing computer games that primarily target males ages 13-25? With this tight focus, game developers are not only sharply limiting their possible total income, but they are losing sight of the bigger picture. The games industry is currently growing faster than the target market. To keep the industry strong and growing, game developers must start looking at expanding their market, which means designing titles that are accessible to the female audience. Successful entertainment industries have sustained growth for decades because they have considered the diversity of their audiences. Today's blockbuster products, be it movies, recordings or books, are most often the ones with elements that directly appeal to many market sectors, while containing very few barriers to access for others. By understanding the issues and barriers connected to gender, the game industry can benefit from a similar growth strategy. Gender Inclusive Game Design: Expanding the Market addresses issues that help designers and developers understand the real differences between how the genders approach and resolve conflicts, and what their entertainment criteria and responses are. It also explores the differences in reward systems, game play preferences, and avatar selection criteria, and how these issues all apply to game design, regardless of genre. By understanding these differences, designers can apply this knowledge to the traditional genres that make up the contemporary computer game industry and begin tapping the future market. Perhaps the real question developers need to be asking themselves is, "but what if the player is female?"

Genres: Game Design, Nonfiction, Games, Feminism

350 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2003

Reviews

[Hesper · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is dated. Dated. And ways it dates itself say a lot about the state of the industry today. Some things have changed, but there are myths that persist: women are inherently technophobic, uninterested, and only able to play the simplest and most casual of games.

Sherri Graner Ray's solutions to the very real problem of sexism in the game industry, however, are simplistic at best, and even have a whiff of apology about them. She has some good points, particularly on the topic of hypersexualization of female characters, although they are drowned out by a tide of puerile assumptions about gender and play preferences.

Evidently, I'm a total outlier in my fondness for shooters because I'm not a bro, thus I am not evolutionarily predisposed to crave tossing projectiles at a moving object.

Then there's the so-called pyramid of power paradigm, according to which women feel inherently uncomfortable playing male characters because men are culturally privileged, causing women to instantly forget how to think when thrust into a culturally dominant position. So yeah, Game Industry, don't frighten women out of their little minds; offer female avatars to keep them from running away in terror. The analogy she uses to illustrate this genius concept is that of a casteless beggar being offered the use of an indoor bathroom and becoming paralyzed by fear as he is suddenly expected to act outside his caste. Because, presumably, that leads to forgetting how to pee. And women, presumably, forget how to operate a controller or mouse when offered a male avatar.

Uh, what? Was this really published in 2003? I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, given the games that were available then. Let's see: Lara Croft and her cone boobs were still the only notable female protagonists, eclipsing the superior Jade of Beyond Good and Evil; GTA 3(ish?) was running strong, and that's a real beacon of gender inclusiveness; Shadows of Amn was three years old, and while the Baldur's Gate series was well-written, it didn't exactly win any prizes for gender parity (anyone who knows Anomen, that blight of a character, knows what I mean). Yes, this book is definitely dated.

Anyway. The real problem with the prescriptive action offered by Ray is that it is based on an essentialist view of gender, where there are constant, inherent and absolute qualities to the way men and women play, thereby eliminating the possibility for any kind of realistic discussion about what truly makes a game worth playing.

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a breath of fresh air! In an era of emotional, anecdotal narratives where I cringe to read the comments and tweets sure to follow, along comes Sheri Graner Ray with a research-based look at the differences in how men and women interact with technology and games. She offers suggestions not for changing or taking away the games men play, but how to expand the market. This book, written by a developer for developers, offers practical advice for expanding the market and improving the bottom line—nothing more.

The only downside to this book: it was released in 2003, well before the prominence of mobile, social, and casual gaming. If there is a second edition (and I'm told there will be), I'll be first in line to see how the scene has changed.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit shallow compared to many of the other texts on this genre, but a few interesting citations of studies that I'd pursue further.