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From its humble beginnings in the 1970s, the video game industry has grown into a multi-billion pound commercial giant. The gaming industry can now boast that its products are the most popular form of entertainment in households all over the world.
Traditionally, the vast majority of video game consumers have been male. Although boys and girls spend almost the same amount of time using their computers, it is evident that boys can be seen playing games on them for much much longer than girls. So although many girls spend almost two hours a week using their computers, video games are not drawing them.
For boys, it's no longer snips and snails but snipers and star ships. The typical video games designed for and marketed to boys are sports or "first person shooter" formats. Typical sports games take a sport such as football or car racing and allow a player to select a team or particular athlete and then use skill and knowledge of the sport to play and win. Shooter games involve one or more characters shooting their way through several stages of a game until they finally eradicate the evil character. Other games popular with boys and teen males involve martial arts or other forms of fighting, and generally end with a character, or group of characters, either incapacitated or dead.
In the world of gaming, girls seem to be forever associated with sugar and spice. Games for girls tend to focus on physical appearance or fashion style. Currently, Barbie reigns supreme in the realm of video games for girls (even though these “games” are more like interactive software than anything).
A slew of video games now star female characters such as Lara Croft of Tomb Raider and Joanna Dark of Perfect Dark that attempt to appeal to teenage girls but fall short because of the violent nature of the games themselves. Even non-violent characters like Ulala, heroine of Space Channel 5, are physically impossible to emulate but are offered up as strong, independent role models. Ulala's strengths are her body and dance moves but her body looks more like Barbie's than that of your average teenage girl.
Video game designers and advertisers often take toys or products originally designed for boys and paint them pink in order to market them to girls as well. An early example of this strategy was Pac-Man. This pioneering video game was as popular 20 years ago as Pokemon is today. In order to appeal to a female market, designers created Ms. Pac-Man. She resembled the traditional Pac-Man in every way except she wore a pink bow on top of her head. In other words, producers appealed to girls by making the game's appearance girl-friendly. A more current example is Nintendo's Game Boy, available in bright pink for girls, which has sold 100 million units worldwide. While these marketing practices have been successful, they do not maximize girls' continued engagement because the games themselves do not include components that appeal to them.
There are many ways in which the gaming industry can encourage girls to embrace the world of technology. In fact, many young girls already do. But if young girls are only offered games that focus on their appearance and do not develop their coordination or computer skills, they will be less likely to play video games as they get older. It has been proven that children's early experience with computers and games informs their use patterns as they get older.
Some software developers have begun to explore the idea that video games for children should be fun to play and appeal to all children, regardless of gender. Unfortunately most of these are educational type software titles and hardly can be classified as fun, especially in the modern gamer’s point of view.
It's not that girls don't enjoy playing, they just can't seem to find enough games designed with them in mind. It seems that young women tend to favour games that star engaging characters, involve intricate plots and have a final resolution, as opposed to games where the sole objective is to destroy others. Boys, on the other hand, favour games with repetitive sequences, characters that have varying physical skills as opposed to personalities, and fiercely competitive objectives. CD-ROM sales indicate that girls prefer games that utilize problem-solving and cooperative play such as Myst, a fantasy-adventure game by Broderbund, or games that involve puzzles or spatial relation such as Tetris.
Most games I have met say that the qualities they want in video games include racing, challenge, mystery, adventure and winning cooperatively. They look for games that offer decision-making control and require strategy. Girls also said they would like to see games that appeal to both girls and boys.
Many young girls use their computers primarily for communicating with friends and gathering information. In gaming, they follow these social patterns as well and are more often able to name characters and describe story lines and character relationships than their male counterparts.
With few exceptions, such as the spatial skill game Tetris, games marketed to girls do not actively engage them in developing skills or testing their abilities. Sports video games designed with girls and young women in mind are rare, but the few that exist reflect the recent rise in popularity of women athletes.
Before the market and the game publishers complain any further that girls are not buying games, they need to take a good, hard look at the marketing efforts (if any) that have been deployed. It is important to compare these current "efforts" to the amount of marketing that is dedicated to the young male consumer as well as the amount that is spent on other media marketed to young girls. There is no comparison. In order to seriously engage girls and young women in this brave new world of interactive technology, producers need to design games that appeal to them and also make a real effort to reach them
· Create appealing characters that both genders enjoy.
· Avoid stereotypes.
· Create products and marketing strategies that feature healthy female role models.
· Have girls test products and offer their opinions on all aspects of games.
· Design feedback questions and consider thoughtful responses
· Show girls actively participating in and enjoying the use of technology on advertising and packaging.
Thank you
Traditionally, the vast majority of video game consumers have been male. Although boys and girls spend almost the same amount of time using their computers, it is evident that boys can be seen playing games on them for much much longer than girls. So although many girls spend almost two hours a week using their computers, video games are not drawing them.
For boys, it's no longer snips and snails but snipers and star ships. The typical video games designed for and marketed to boys are sports or "first person shooter" formats. Typical sports games take a sport such as football or car racing and allow a player to select a team or particular athlete and then use skill and knowledge of the sport to play and win. Shooter games involve one or more characters shooting their way through several stages of a game until they finally eradicate the evil character. Other games popular with boys and teen males involve martial arts or other forms of fighting, and generally end with a character, or group of characters, either incapacitated or dead.
In the world of gaming, girls seem to be forever associated with sugar and spice. Games for girls tend to focus on physical appearance or fashion style. Currently, Barbie reigns supreme in the realm of video games for girls (even though these “games” are more like interactive software than anything).
A slew of video games now star female characters such as Lara Croft of Tomb Raider and Joanna Dark of Perfect Dark that attempt to appeal to teenage girls but fall short because of the violent nature of the games themselves. Even non-violent characters like Ulala, heroine of Space Channel 5, are physically impossible to emulate but are offered up as strong, independent role models. Ulala's strengths are her body and dance moves but her body looks more like Barbie's than that of your average teenage girl.
Video game designers and advertisers often take toys or products originally designed for boys and paint them pink in order to market them to girls as well. An early example of this strategy was Pac-Man. This pioneering video game was as popular 20 years ago as Pokemon is today. In order to appeal to a female market, designers created Ms. Pac-Man. She resembled the traditional Pac-Man in every way except she wore a pink bow on top of her head. In other words, producers appealed to girls by making the game's appearance girl-friendly. A more current example is Nintendo's Game Boy, available in bright pink for girls, which has sold 100 million units worldwide. While these marketing practices have been successful, they do not maximize girls' continued engagement because the games themselves do not include components that appeal to them.
There are many ways in which the gaming industry can encourage girls to embrace the world of technology. In fact, many young girls already do. But if young girls are only offered games that focus on their appearance and do not develop their coordination or computer skills, they will be less likely to play video games as they get older. It has been proven that children's early experience with computers and games informs their use patterns as they get older.
Some software developers have begun to explore the idea that video games for children should be fun to play and appeal to all children, regardless of gender. Unfortunately most of these are educational type software titles and hardly can be classified as fun, especially in the modern gamer’s point of view.
It's not that girls don't enjoy playing, they just can't seem to find enough games designed with them in mind. It seems that young women tend to favour games that star engaging characters, involve intricate plots and have a final resolution, as opposed to games where the sole objective is to destroy others. Boys, on the other hand, favour games with repetitive sequences, characters that have varying physical skills as opposed to personalities, and fiercely competitive objectives. CD-ROM sales indicate that girls prefer games that utilize problem-solving and cooperative play such as Myst, a fantasy-adventure game by Broderbund, or games that involve puzzles or spatial relation such as Tetris.
Most games I have met say that the qualities they want in video games include racing, challenge, mystery, adventure and winning cooperatively. They look for games that offer decision-making control and require strategy. Girls also said they would like to see games that appeal to both girls and boys.
Many young girls use their computers primarily for communicating with friends and gathering information. In gaming, they follow these social patterns as well and are more often able to name characters and describe story lines and character relationships than their male counterparts.
With few exceptions, such as the spatial skill game Tetris, games marketed to girls do not actively engage them in developing skills or testing their abilities. Sports video games designed with girls and young women in mind are rare, but the few that exist reflect the recent rise in popularity of women athletes.
Before the market and the game publishers complain any further that girls are not buying games, they need to take a good, hard look at the marketing efforts (if any) that have been deployed. It is important to compare these current "efforts" to the amount of marketing that is dedicated to the young male consumer as well as the amount that is spent on other media marketed to young girls. There is no comparison. In order to seriously engage girls and young women in this brave new world of interactive technology, producers need to design games that appeal to them and also make a real effort to reach them
· Create appealing characters that both genders enjoy.
· Avoid stereotypes.
· Create products and marketing strategies that feature healthy female role models.
· Have girls test products and offer their opinions on all aspects of games.
· Design feedback questions and consider thoughtful responses
· Show girls actively participating in and enjoying the use of technology on advertising and packaging.
Thank you
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I didn't really see what the fuss about Raiden was, I mean its only a characer isnt it ? You've got to be pretty daft to have an issue about what kind of characters you're going to play ? How many of those moaning about Raiden have played a game where they control a woman, like DOA2 or Tomb Raider ? Did that matter, I don't think you were bothered.
But no, Raiden has blonde hair and doesn't have Snake's chiselled face so he's a lesser character to some gamers...*yawn*
But no, Raiden has blonde hair and doesn't have Snake's chiselled face so he's a lesser character to some gamers...*yawn*
nh wrote:
How did you find that - It's over a year old ?
I was going to do a similar post about girls & games and came across that website whilst trying to find some info.
How did you find that - It's over a year old ?
I was going to do a similar post about girls & games and came across that website whilst trying to find some info.
Totoro wrote:
> Is this relly your own work Triple_H???
Or was it copied from somewhere
> like.....
http://www.childrennow.org/media/medianow/mnwinter2001.html
How did you find that - It's over a year old ?
HHH - Come forward and face your punsihment.
> Is this relly your own work Triple_H???
Or was it copied from somewhere
> like.....
http://www.childrennow.org/media/medianow/mnwinter2001.html
How did you find that - It's over a year old ?
HHH - Come forward and face your punsihment.
Is this relly your own work Triple_H???
Or was it copied from somewhere like.....
http://www.childrennow.org/media/medianow/mnwinter2001.html
Or was it copied from somewhere like.....
http://www.childrennow.org/media/medianow/mnwinter2001.html
RM18 wrote:
> good post, why isn't this in Prime?
For some reason I get the impression they only reply to people they know well there....I am sticking with this forum because as you can see I got some really good replies
> good post, why isn't this in Prime?
For some reason I get the impression they only reply to people they know well there....I am sticking with this forum because as you can see I got some really good replies
good post, why isn't this in Prime?
did i say i had though? aye
G®åpô²ºº² wrote:
which both seem
> to apeal to men. so what appeals to women?
The same as what appeals to men, good gameplay ! I've definitely never ever bouhgt game because of some macho picture on it, nor have I bought one because it has some female character in it, how it plays is all that matters.
which both seem
> to apeal to men. so what appeals to women?
The same as what appeals to men, good gameplay ! I've definitely never ever bouhgt game because of some macho picture on it, nor have I bought one because it has some female character in it, how it plays is all that matters.
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