Title: Gender Inclusive Game Design:
1Gender Inclusive Game Design
Sheri Graner RayWomen in Games Conference 2004
University of Portsmouth June 11, 2004
2Sheri Graner Ray
- Sr. Designer, Sony Online Entertainment
- Co-chair of the IDGAs Women in Game
Development SIG - Author of Gender Inclusive Game Design Expanding
the Market
3Pink Poisona brief history of the girls game
movement
41995
5Why should we make games for girls?
61996
7How do we make games for girls?
81997
91997-1999
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11See? We told you girls dont play computer
games!
12Why 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.
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14- Computer game revenues have topped 9.4 billion
dollars, outranking Hollywood box office
receipts. - Salon magazine.
- So whats the problem?
15- The traditional target market of males ages 15-25
is not growing as fast as the games industry. - Salon Magazine
16Today, females between the ages of 15 and 25
control over 14 billion dollars a year in
disposable income. -Newsweek Magazine
17Houston, we have a problem.
- 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 Nintendos user base is female
- Less then 20 of the audience for traditional
online titles are female
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20- We can remove barriers from our titles that
prevent women from accessing them.
21Just a few areas where barriers exist
- Learning styles
- Price of failure
- Avatars
- Communication
- Production environment
22Warning
- 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
todaythen that person will most likely be you!!)
23Gender Differences in Learning Styles
- Want to know how it
- works first
- Modeling
Most of the tutorials in todays games are
designed to appeal to an explorative learning
style.
24Solution
- Design tutorials that use imitative models
- Look at educational software for examples
25The Price of Failure
Most games today punish the player for errors
either in the form of loss of lives,
irretrievable loss of items or loss of progress.
26Solution
- Identify the victory conditions for your titles
and consciously design such that failure to meet
those conditions does not result in irretrievable
loss.
27Avatar \Avatar"\, n.1. ltchat, virtual
realitygt An image representing a user in
amulti-user virtual reality space.
28We need a hero!
- Male and female characters will often exhibit
exaggerated physical signals of youth and
fertility/virility
29Youth 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
30- Very often female avatars display exaggerated
physical signals of sexual receptivity. - Male avatars rarely display these signals.
31Sexual receptivity
- Red, full lips
- Heavy lidded eyes
- Heavy breathing (usually indicated by a slightly
open mouth) - Erect nipples
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34Solution
- Build attractive female figures that are not
hyper-sexualized. - Use female athletes as body models.
- Focus group test your avatars with female players.
35Communication
- Males and females communicate very differently,
and this carries through to electronic
communications.
36Communications 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
37Solution
- 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.
38Production Environment
- Or
- What were you thinking?
39- Who are you really designing
- your games for?
40If we do not regularly state that a percentage of
our audience is expected to be female, we assume
we are designing for males.
41Solutions
- 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.
42Where to start
- 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
43But what if the player is female?
Sheri Graner RayWomen in Games Conference 2004
University of Portsmouth June 11, 2004