Generally “games for girls” is the preferred phrase, but I decided to use the word “Woman” because I am talking about teen and above females. I have read things which mentioned that there are not enough games for these people (other species:p?). Descriptions were usually sexist. On the other hand, people’s individual opinions was that woman do not really want different genres. However it was made sure that they do not like GTA.
I want(need) to learn what woman want to play. If there are woman here please describe what you observe. (I assumed most of are males.) Man can share their opinion too.
Hi, I am a male, but I think I have some idea about this.
A friend of mine developed a match3 game to Bigfish. It was told by them that the majority of their gamers are female (75%+), and are above 30? or somewhat so. Bigfish mostly does casual games (match3, hidden object, etc), with rather high quality and a lot of polish (when comparing to an average indie or flash game).
I guess this is the demography you are looking for.
Yah, the first thing that came to mind was the huge casual gaming scene, which largely comprises things like hidden object games/adventures, puzzles, solitaire, that sort of thing. Probably not so much in the way of action games or violent games since women seem to equate with a gentler, smoothly progressing and more forgiving kind of game experience. That’s not all women though, some are definitely hard core gamers too… just the majority is more casual. So I think associating casual games with games for women is somewhat sexist.
You might be interested to check out a book such as men are from mars, women are from venus, which highlights some typical character/behavioral differences in how men and women experience life. I did actually read an iteration of said book/series once. From what I recall, generally speaking without trying to stereotype, women tend to have a more gradually progressive emotional life, while men are more like a fast hot fuse that burns bright and quick and is then gone. When a woman is not yet smoothly transitioned to the right timing to be totally ready for something she will feel a discord with it and complain about it, but then once that instant comes around where she is ready you as a man better be ready too because NOW is the time. lol Women will typically be less direct and take longer to gradually build up to something. Either the woman typically slows down the man or the man rushes the woman. Also a book such as in the company of women would highlight the way women deal with conflict and have power struggles, backstabbing, trying to side with each other to gain more power and support, etc… which is different than the confrontational show of strength and territorialism than men tend to use. Also recognize that most women in society have permission to be much more social and intimate with each other and act more intuitively and as a group while men tend to be more independent loners that kind of orbit around the women.
Women also tend to react to the world (passive energy), adapting to it and preparing and organizing it for safety, while men tend to just deal with figuring stuff out on the spot as they encounter it. This might relate to why women in general do not tend to like fast-reaction action/skill games. I for example like games using the keypad to control a character/spaceship to shoot stuff or whatever, while my wife can’t stand these kind of games and would much prefer Song Pop or Draw Something, or harmless strategy like Catan or a simple puzzle game. Women I think also prefer a different graphical presentation, more towards the softer-feminine pretty/colorful artwork, not so much dark dungeons covered in doom. Also lessons you can learn from casual games - such as to be more forgiving, to allow the game to save position at any time and allow for short game periods, etc.
So if you’re trying to design for a female audience you better not just be a man who makes the kinds of games you like yourself because that won’t cut it, unless you happen to be more towards the feminine side.
My kids all like the same kinds of games that I do (Rpg Adventure games). The only difference I’ve really noted is that they prefer to play as a female character. Otherwise, they’re happy running around looting, etc.
Most gamers today are women, and they don’t want just games for girls. Nowadays they play almost everything.
They are the ones making things like Portal and Minecraft explode in popularity.
They play, and them comes their kids and so on…
With all respect, this is something I don’t understand. Probably a cultural difference. How could this be offensive (sexist?) to any degree?
I know that saying “all casual games are for women, all hardcore ones are for men” is a stupid generalization, and I guess some might take it as offensive. But saying that the majority (well, 75%) of casual gamers are women is not a generalization, but pretty much a fact (if we are talking about Bigfish games). In Farmwille, it is 55%.
Or do you mean that overly generalizing is sexist? I didn’t intended to overly generalize, I just stated some facts I know.
My sister likes a lot of Nintendo games like Mario cart, Adventure island (has action but everything is cute) and many other Mario games, also note that my sister likes sports while I do not. I have met some females who play MMOs, but I can’t tell if they really like them or only play because their boyfriends encourage them to.
Perhaps many females only play video games because they want to be a part of their man’s lives and considering how much time a video game can absorb of a guy’s time, if females don’t join the gaming they may often find themselves left out with nothing to do for hours on end.
Males are probably the main force pulling females towards games, but I have seen genuine interest in games from females in which there was no male presence encouraging game play (such as with my sister).
To determine what attracts genuine interest for females, first consider what can attract males to games to have a base…
Males:
-The feeling of making progress in a short amount of time (instant gratification)
-The simulation of defeating enemies, killing
-Interesting graphics, immersive atmosphere
-Engaging story
-Exploration
-Sexy characters (It’s true that many males like games for this reason, even if it’s juvenile)
-Hype, marketing, peer pressure
Females (I’m speculating):
-The feeling of making progress in a short amount of time (instant gratification)?
-The simulation of nurturing helpless cute creatures?
-Cute graphics, immersive atmosphere?
-Engaging story?
-Exploration?
-Cute/pretty characters (females do tend to like fashion and atheistically pleasing designs)
-Social hype, viral marketing, boyfriend pressure
No, it’s not a cultural difference. It’s the fact that most games being made today are being made for men. They mainly feature nothing but men on the box, nothing but men as the protagonists, and often nothing but men in the game. Women aren’t playing games because there is a huge amount of exclusion, not because of a “cultural difference.”
Men don’t have an issue playing games where a female is the protagonist or on the cover etc. I think people read too deeply into what gender the game characters are. I once read an article in which it was suggested that tomb raider was only popular because the male gamers wanted to imagine being a female, obviously that article was not written by a gamer. I have played as both male and female characters in countless games, I’ve never really cared about their gender, it was certainty never a deciding factor as to if I would play said game. I don’t think females care either, I think it’s more about the nature of the character, not the gender.
I think this thread is nonsense. I don’t mean to be rude, but my solution to “Games for women” is simply to get females developing it on the team. I don’t want to guess. I don’t have to guess. Females will work on it, problem solved
I already receive regular input from female gamers. Long will this continue. I am not arrogant enough to suggest I would know what a woman truly wants. Best of all I don’t have to guess.
Re sexism:
Although sexism does exist and I am against it, I hate political correctness. If I make a game for a male audience and it has - oh no! - boobies then that IS ok. Equality here - next time a woman moans about portraying women in a sexual manner we’ll just have to cover up all the hot males. But then what of gay women complaining that we’re covering up females? what then? equality doesn’t exist from a pure design point of view. It cancels itself out.
Note: This is about portraying male and female in a game, not about the (actually real and horrible) sexism in terms of hiring females within the game design industry. So TLDR: sexism in games is the nature of entertainment - you can’t ask half the world to grow up because half your gamers aren’t grown up. But you can do what you can to make your company respect women as equals.
Men also have a massive amount of representation in games and all other media. Media, predominately, caters to men. It’s not just the fact that the characters are men, but that they are men to a ridiculously exclusionary degree. The women that DO appear in games most of the time are little more than simple objectives or there to further the goals of the male characters, or to be very much Typical Game Women™ to stand in the protagonist’s way. On top of this, games are specifically marketed toward a male audience with their marketing materials, showing a male protagonist even when the game offers a gender choice. In the games that DO offer a gender choice, the choice is almost always defaulted to male.
The majority of games are very much a Boy’s Club, and that’s going to very much affect how women perceive and purchase.
I think the push to draw in more women and the evolution of thinking that “womens games = bejeweled” will force the industry to take a few steps forward.
For example, perhaps we will see less of a “pure violence” push in how games are played?
Right now games are pretty much “hit stuff that moves till you win”. Instead, we could go a LOT further and offer more options to advancement (that stress different types of problem solving than pure aggression ).
Testosterone fueled violence and over-the-top blood and gore probably isn’t going to be a big draw for women. Sure, SOME like that… but, more often it is a put off.
Get more women developers, and they will make games that women like to play. Something like bejewel just doesnt appeal to males. Something like Kim Swift and portal, no T&A, just puzzle games that both genders liked. I dont think that we should be forced to make all games that only appeal to both genders, sometimes we are going to want T&A, bloods and guts and not be sorry about it.
As long as you treat women as some “other” group who’s external to your development you’ll never easily connect with them as an audience. And that’s not a male/female thing, it applies to any group. If you want to make a game for racing enthusiasts/chess players/RTS fans/any other identifiable group then you should definitely have some on your team.
If you don’t, just like hippo says, you’re making yourself guess.
Lol, yea, but the moment you suggest promoting or supporting a woman because she is a woman (or other group with different viewpoints)… everyone cries bloody murder and says gender has nothing to do with game development. I get that reaction whenever I mention I’m transgendered with my current campaign. Everyone cries “OMG SHUT UP! GENDER MEANS NOTHINGGGG”.
I believe you’ve quoted me by mistake there. I didn’t say that, I quoted hippo. (Though I do agree with it.)
Anyway, I don’t believe in letting politics and/or political correctness get in the way of jobs being done as well as they can, so I wouldn’t promote/hire a woman based solely on their gender. Fitness for a job, however, is a different matter, and if I were making something targeted at women then I’d certainly think that having at least some women on the team is a pretty important factor.
Of course, that doesn’t preclude them from also having to fit the rest of the acceptance criteria, whatever they happen to be. And I think that most of the time people get upset over “supporting a woman because she is a woman” the real issue lies in the perception that other criteria are getting overlooked or brushed aside in favour of the gender bias.
None of the above is to suggest that the games industry isn’t sexist, though.
The playing field isn’t close to even. If it was, we wouldn’t even be having the discussion. The only way things change are when people consciously make them change (because there are plentyyy of people on the other side consciously trying to stop them from changing).
