Gender Inclusive Game Design

Expanding the Market

Sheri Graner RayEGaDs

University of TexasSeptember 28, 2005

Sheri Graner Ray

Sr. Designer, Sony Online Entertainment

Game designer since 1990Co-founder of the IDGA’s “Women in

Game Development” SIGAuthor of Gender Inclusive Game

Design: Expanding the MarketHard Core Gamer (20+ hours/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

1997-1999

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?

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.”

Computer game revenues have topped 9.4 billion dollars, outranking Hollywood box office receipts.

Salon magazine.

So what’s the problem?

The traditional target market of males ages 15-25 is not growing as fast as the games industry.

Salon Magazine

Today, females between the ages of 15 and 25 control over 14 billion dollars a year in disposable income.

-Newsweek Magazine

“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

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 stylesPrice of failureAvatarsCommunicationProduction environment

WarningThe 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 today…then that person will most likely be you!!)

Gender Differences in Learning StylesMales Females

•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.

SolutionDesign tutorials that use imitative

models as well as explorative modelsLook at educational software for

examples

The Price of Failure

Punishment for error

Forgiveness forerror

Most games today punish the player for errors either in the form of loss of “lives”, irretrievable loss of items or loss of progress.

Males Females

Solution Identify the victory conditions for your

titles and consciously design such that failure to meet those conditions does not result in irretrievable loss.

Avatar \Av`a*tar"\, n.1. <chat, virtual reality> An image representing a user in amulti-user 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 Long, thick hair

Females Large breasts,

placed high on the chest

Slim waists Round derrieres Long, thick hair

Very often female avatars display exaggerated physical signals of sexual receptivity.

Male avatars rarely display these signals.

Sexual receptivity Red, full lips Heavy lidded eyes Heavy breathing (usually indicated by a

slightly open mouth) Erect nipples

SolutionBuild attractive female figures that are

not hyper-sexualized.Use female athletes as body models.Focus group test your avatars with

female players.

Electronic CommunicationMales and females communicate very

differently, and this carries through to electronic communications.

Communications differencesMales

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.

SolutionsAvoid 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.

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 womanThe game industry isn’t on women’s

career radarMust recruit in non-traditional areasBuild today for employees tomorrow

SolutionsHave 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.

Have more women in your workforce – find them through creative recruiting

Where 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 Clearly state you intend your audience to

contain females Seek out qualified female candidates

“But what if the player is female?”

Sheri Graner RayAustin Community College

Summer Lecture Series July 8, 2005