Gender Inclusive Game Design

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Gender Inclusive Game Design

• Expanding the Audience

Sheri Graner RayACC Summer InstituteAustin
Community CollegeJuly 14, 2006
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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)

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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
  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.

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Broadening your audience
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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.

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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 currently play games, 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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Houston, we have a problem

• 52 of internet users are female
• 70 of casual, online gamers are female
• Girls control 14 billion a year in disposable
  income

• Less than 10 of the audience for traditional PC
  games is female
• Less than 15 of Nintendos user base is female
• Less then 20 of the audience for traditional
  online titles are female

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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
• Avatars
• Communication
• Production environment

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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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• Avatar \Avatar"\, n.1. ltchat, virtual
  realitygt An image representing a user in a
  virtual reality space.

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We need a hero!
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• Because they represent heroes, male and female
  avatars 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 avatars 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 female figures that are not
  hyper-sexualized.
• Use female athletes as body models.
• Focus group test your avatars with female players.

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Electronic Communication

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

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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

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Just change the keymap to WASD!

• Avoid the use of industry specific jargon in your
  documentation, tutorial and game scripts.

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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.

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Production Environment

• What were you thinking?

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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.

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Sometimes the best man for the job is a woman

• The game industry isnt on womens career radar
• Must recruit in non-traditional areas
• Build today for employees tomorrow

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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

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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

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But what if the player is female?
Sheri Graner Ray ACC Summer InstituteAustin
Community College July 14, 2005