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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
Page:
Asher D wrote:
> Good points there. Although a lot of games feature large chested wome, a lot of
> games also feature 'macho' men.
which both seem to apeal to men. so what appeals to women?
> Good points there. Although a lot of games feature large chested wome, a lot of
> games also feature 'macho' men.
which both seem to apeal to men. so what appeals to women?
I must echo the comments so far, majority of gaming is down to game-play, however I have to agree with some of HHH commments regards characters. Take for example MGS 2, many people have been complaining because you only play as Snake briefly in the game and then you have to play as Raiden. Someone I know said to me "He looks like a Girl..bring back Snake!" Many people have also said this is the reason they haven't bought the game, however I ask myself is this a character infactuation or the fact that Raiden isn't made to look as Rough and Rugged as Snake?
I have to agree with Belldandy, the majority of gamers are more concerned about the game play rather than the person you are playing as. I never mind who it is who I have the destiny of there’s in my hand, whether it be Lara, Snake, Gabe, Leon or Raiden, that’s not what I look for, its the game play. Sure, you want to play as a person that suits the game; after all, playing a Barbie in MGS would look a tad out of place right? But as long as the person looks the part and does the job that doesn’t really bother me. Going back to Raiden though, quite a few people have said that they didn’t think that he was the right person for the game, but I disagreed, but I suppose that’s down to opinion.
The main reason why Tomb Raider is still selling on the PS1 is not the fact that its later games are so good because there not. Its Lara that’s selling the games, and more often than not that’s the whole point of making a big thing out of a character, to sell the games themselves, and who better than out beloved Lara...erm yeah.
I don’t think it bothers Male or Female gamers what gender the character is that they are playing on, its not something that I can say I really look for when choosing a game. Games like FF have a variety of sexes to play, as having a large party of characters to play as, but that doesn’t make it a game for the masses just because of this.
The important thing in a game is whether it plays well, the gender of the character comes down in reality to the graphics argument really, more of a looks argument than a game play one.
Triple_H wrote:
Girls also said they would like to see games that appeal to both girls and boys.
I suppose that the majority of games out there do focus on the likes of action and sports which at the best of times aren’t girls most desired topics, but there are many other games out there that im sure that the female gamers will enjoy, but these may be in smaller numbers.
Why? Well you have to say that the industry is really male dominated, and so to make money the companies need to aim at the mass rather than minority so I guess unless girls start to change there likenesses then they are always going to get games based on male ideas.
The main reason why Tomb Raider is still selling on the PS1 is not the fact that its later games are so good because there not. Its Lara that’s selling the games, and more often than not that’s the whole point of making a big thing out of a character, to sell the games themselves, and who better than out beloved Lara...erm yeah.
I don’t think it bothers Male or Female gamers what gender the character is that they are playing on, its not something that I can say I really look for when choosing a game. Games like FF have a variety of sexes to play, as having a large party of characters to play as, but that doesn’t make it a game for the masses just because of this.
The important thing in a game is whether it plays well, the gender of the character comes down in reality to the graphics argument really, more of a looks argument than a game play one.
Triple_H wrote:
Girls also said they would like to see games that appeal to both girls and boys.
I suppose that the majority of games out there do focus on the likes of action and sports which at the best of times aren’t girls most desired topics, but there are many other games out there that im sure that the female gamers will enjoy, but these may be in smaller numbers.
Why? Well you have to say that the industry is really male dominated, and so to make money the companies need to aim at the mass rather than minority so I guess unless girls start to change there likenesses then they are always going to get games based on male ideas.
Good ideas, but I think that for most people, its the gameplay that matters, not what or who you control.
Okay, a lot of fuss was made about Tomb Raider and Lara Croft, but most of that was marketing driven to get media attention. At the end of the day that first game offered a new kind of game and played damn well, as did the sequel, and the next game. From the fourth one onwards the gameplay has become less than brilliant and this is relfected in the sales of that game.
Maximo on the PS2 has a little cartoon guy in it, is he supposed to appeal to one sex or the other ? More to the point does anyone really care, because it's a good game.
Female characters isn't a solution, especially in todays games, as we'll just be seeing more DOA3 model clones, you know what I mean. The majority of male characters in games are not at all representative of the averga male gamer are they ?
The cold reality of it is that an exisiting male market exists that can be guaranteed to purchase titles, and yes there's that small majority who will buy a game just for the fact it features certain characters (probably). Same goes for magazines, many of the next gen game adverts - such as Championship Manager on Xbox - use adverts of the style seen in magazines like FHM, because they are proven to work.
Maybe, just maybe, males are the easiest to influence with just a glimpse of a gorgeously rendered semi-clad computer model on the cover, or feature in the game, guaranteeing precious impulse buys....and maybe female gamers would be less easily swayed by this kind of marketing.... ? Think about it ! :)
Okay, a lot of fuss was made about Tomb Raider and Lara Croft, but most of that was marketing driven to get media attention. At the end of the day that first game offered a new kind of game and played damn well, as did the sequel, and the next game. From the fourth one onwards the gameplay has become less than brilliant and this is relfected in the sales of that game.
Maximo on the PS2 has a little cartoon guy in it, is he supposed to appeal to one sex or the other ? More to the point does anyone really care, because it's a good game.
Female characters isn't a solution, especially in todays games, as we'll just be seeing more DOA3 model clones, you know what I mean. The majority of male characters in games are not at all representative of the averga male gamer are they ?
The cold reality of it is that an exisiting male market exists that can be guaranteed to purchase titles, and yes there's that small majority who will buy a game just for the fact it features certain characters (probably). Same goes for magazines, many of the next gen game adverts - such as Championship Manager on Xbox - use adverts of the style seen in magazines like FHM, because they are proven to work.
Maybe, just maybe, males are the easiest to influence with just a glimpse of a gorgeously rendered semi-clad computer model on the cover, or feature in the game, guaranteeing precious impulse buys....and maybe female gamers would be less easily swayed by this kind of marketing.... ? Think about it ! :)
Good points there. Although a lot of games feature large chested wome, a lot of games also feature 'macho' men.
Sorry about the paragraphs....for some reason it didnt copy from Word properly :(
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
Page: