But what if the player is female

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But what if the player is female?

• Gender Inclusive Game Design

Sheri Graner RayGenConIndianapolis, INAugust
2006
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Sheri Graner Ray

• Computer game designer since 1990
• Worked with such companies as Origin/EA, Her
  Interactive, SOE, Cartoon Network, and others
• Recipient of 2005 IGDA's Game Developer's Choice
  Award
• Author of Gender Inclusive Game Design
  Expanding the Market
• Co-founder and Exec. Chair of Women In Games
  International

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Pink Poison

• a brief history of the girls game
• movement in the U.S.

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1995
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Why should we make games for girls?
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1996
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How do we make games for girls?
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1997
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1997-1999
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March 1999 Big Pink Buys Purple Moon 
Oct 2001 Mattel Sells Interactive Division
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See? We told you girls dont play computer
games!
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Why did this happen?

• A lot of bad assumptions were made regarding
  girls and games

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Bad Assumption 5

• Girls love BarbieTM! We'll make all our girls'
  games just like BarbieTM!

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Bad Assumption 4

• Girls would love our game if they played 'em! We
  just need to trick 'em into playing them!

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Bad Assumption 3

• Girls hate violence. We'll make non-violent
  versions of our game!

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Bad Assumption 2

• Girls love cute cuddly things! We'll make games
  about that!

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Bad Assumption 1

• If we make a girls' game, we'll make a fortune
  because all the girls will play it!

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The Dark Side

• By stating Girls don't like ______ type of
  game we are blaming the GIRLS for not playing
  because they are GIRLS.
• By making it the girls' fault that they don't
  play computer games, designers have let
  themselves off the hook for making any changes to
  what they are doing.
• Believing that there is one silver bullet game
  that all girls will play, is a little like
  believing there is one game that all Japanese
  people will play.

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Broadening your audience
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DISCLAIMER 1

• In this talk I'm going to discuss developing
  games for an audience that is expected to contain
  females, but are not targeted directly FOR
  females.

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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.

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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 and in the audience today,
  that person will likely be YOU!

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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

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What can we do?

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

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Just a few areas where barriers exist

• Learning styles
• Character Representation
• Conflict Resolution
• Reward and punishment

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Gender Differences in Learning Styles

• Males

• Females

• Risk-takers
• Explorative

• Want to know how it works first
• Modeling/Imitative

Most of the tutorials in todays games are
designed to appeal to an explorative learning
style.
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Solution

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

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Character Representation

• Game art
• Marketing materials
• Illustrations
• Box/book covers
• Game avatars
• Miniatures

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We need a hero!
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• Because they represent heroes, male and female
  characters will often exhibit exaggerated
  physical signals of youth strength, and
  fertility/virility

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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

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• Very often female characters display exaggerated
  physical signals of sexual receptivity.

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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.

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Solution

• Build attractive, heroic female figures that are
  not hyper-sexualized.
• Use female athletes as body models.
• Focus group test your art with female players.

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Conflict Resolution

• Males and females deal with conflict situations
  in very different ways.

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Conflict Resolution Differences

• Males
• Prefer a confrontational, head to head
  situation
• Prefer a binary win/lose resolution
• Prefer direct competition
• Will attempt to dominate the group to enforce
  their rule set

• Females
• Prefer indirect competition
• Prefer to use negotiation, compromise and
  manipulation
• Prefer emotional resolution
• Will build consensus

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Solutions

• Consider providing for indirect competitive
  models
• Include emotional resolution as well as
  win/lose resolution
• .

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Response to Error

• Males and females will choose to impose different
  responses to error upon their fellow players

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Response to Error

• Males
• Prefer to impose punishment for error

• Females
• Prefer to impose forgiveness for error

Forgiveness for error encourages play.Punishment
for error tests tolerance.
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Solution

• Design your victory/loss conditions so that error
  on the players part does not lead to
  irretrievable loss of progress
• .

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Where to start

• Adjust tutorials to allow for modeling learning
  styles
• Make female avatars attractive, but not
  hyper-sexual
• Consider alternative conflict resolution models
• Use alternative error response models

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But what if the player is female?
Sheri Graner Ray GenConIndianapolis August,
2005