Video Games and Girls script
Hey guys! My name is this and we’re talking about these. Sort of. Actually our main focus today are
these (girls), and why we don’t see more of these playing these (games). So I’ve found a friend who is one of
these who plays and writed about these to talk with us about why you don’t see these playing more these …
alright, sorry, I’ll stop.
I guess before we get started, I should introduce my friend here. Today we have a guest speaker of
sorts. Say hello to Ms. Leigh Alexander. She is a game journalist. If you keep up with video game news at all,
you’ve probably read some of her work. She’s the news director for Gamasutra, she used to be an associate
news editor for Kotaku and she maintains a regular blog called Sexy VideoGameLand. I asked her to join us
today because she has written a good deal about today’s topic and I really like her perspective. And, since I
have already stolen her notes [surprised Leigh suddenly realizes her notes are missing], why don’t we get
started?
The video game world has long been a male-dominated culture. A majority of game design
professionals are male. A majority of the people we affectionately call “gamers” are also male. We guys have
been enjoying our games for many years now and we’re looking forward to many years of gaming to come.
But every now and then, when we stop to look around ourselves, we sometimes wonder why women don’t
seem even remotely interested in our favorite hobby.
And that’s our question of the day: “Why aren’t women interested in video games?”
Now, I don’t mean to say there aren’t girl gamers out there, because there are. We’ve all probably got
a sister, cousin or friend who can kick our ass at Halo. I know I do. And more women are working in the game
industry than ever before. But even so, the ratio between male and female in this gaming culture is still
extremely inbalanced.
Actually, I say that, but I guess it depends on how you look at it. Female interest in video games has
actually skyrocketed in the last decade thanks to the rise of Casual Gaming. In fact, if PopCap’s surveys are to
be believed, these women outnumber us, and the average gamer is no longer the 18-34 year old male, but a
woman in her 30s. Of course, these surveys fail to mention that this “average gamer” is only playing Snood all
day. This new wave of female gamers mostly fit into the casual demographic, so they are drawn to the
browser-based puzzlers, the pet simulators, The Sims. But look at any line outside a GameStop on the release
of a major new console title and there’s nary a woman in sight.
And the women who do stand out in those lines – the ones who are counting the days until Final
Fantasy XIII comes out – are a very small minority. In some cases, their fandom may even alienate them from
other women. Whenever Leigh tells people what she does for a living: “Video game journalist,” men tend to
be surprised and intrigued, women … kind of weirded out and uncomfortable. I’m sure there are plenty of
exceptions to this, but how many of you girls can actually talk games with your girlfriends for more than five
minutes without things getting awkward?
Now, the game industry has been making a focused effort to recruit more women into the workforce
and diversify their consumer base. There are a lot of women out there who could be regular customers, and it
seems we’ve finally figured that out. Efforts are being made to bring more women into the fold but, outside of
the casual market, nothing seems to have worked. Meanwhile, we guys would love to have more girls join in
the fun, but it seems to take just as much finessing to get your girl to play games as ever. I know it’s kinda
condescending to say, but that doesn’t make it any less true.
Why aren’t women interested in the big console hits? The Prince of Persias, the Bioshocks, the
Starcrafts, the Halos? Is it something about the gameplay that just doesn’t appeal to the feminine mind? I
guess that could be factor but – like I said before – there are women who like these games. Is it a problem
with the premise these games tend to all share? The sci-fi, space marines, explosions and big breasts?
Actually, that probably has a lot to do with it, but I think that is just a part of a much larger issue.
You see, looking at our industry from its humble beginnings to now, we’ve always had this image of
being kind of a “Boys Club.” This industry has been male-dominated for a long time, and our games reflect
that. Games have been designed and marketed to suit male tastes for so long that women may be conditioned
to feel excluded from our culture. This world and these games, they just aren’t “for them.” Just because we
aren’t trying to exclude women doesn’t mean they feel welcome.
Naturally we want to solve this problem and our first instinct is usually to try to address past
grievances. Months ago, Eidos announced plans to reinvent their most popular character, Lara Croft, to widen
franchise appeal. Eidos was unsettlingly vague in describing what they meant by “reinvent,” but the most
obvious option would be to dial back the pandering sex appeal and market Lara to someone other than just
teenage males.
In theory, this maneuver makes some sense. Lara Croft has always been one of the most well-known
sex symbols in gaming. And this trend she helped start toward hyper-sexualized female characters may very
well be a big reason why women are put off by our passtime. Even female gaming fans have often expressed
anger at the exploitive way in which women are often represented in this medium. And it’s hard to argue with
them. You can’t really blame women for looking at box art like this and thinking: “You know what? I don’t
think that was made for me.” Even if you enjoy playing a game with an attractive avatar, the obsession with
breast physics has to get irritating eventually.
So in a way, Eidos’s gesture makes sense. But, assuming they did give her a complete makeover,
would a mundane, conservative Lara make the game appeal that much more to women? She’s been gaming’s
biggest sex symbol for so long, it’s going to be hard for anyone to perceive her differently. And if women as a
group feel that the Tomb Raider games just aren’t for them, even a complete Lara overhaul probably isn’t
going to change their perception of the brand. Change Lara all you want, I don’t think women are paying
attention. It would be like Hooters announcing that they were going to reinvent the Hooters Girl. Sexual
innuendo will no longer be our mission statement and, from now on, our scantily-clad waitstaff will dress in
full business-casual attire. Would that really make women any more interested in Hooters? No. Women don’t
care what Hooters does. That place isn’t for them and it never has been. It’s the same Boy’s Club mentality,
and a little makeover isn’t going to fix it. This is going to be a much harder problem to solve.
So what should we do instead? How can we start breaking down this barrier and make women feel a
little more welcome? As an industry, there’s a lot we can do.
I think it’s great that we have a growing female presence in the industry. It’s not going to break the
stigma of the “Boys Club” overnight, but having more women on board will bring a much broader perspective
to our design and our approach to making games. If it’s true that women are more inclined to using the right
side of the brain than men, they could be the key to creating games with a more universal appeal. I think we
can look forward to much more variety in our future gaming as more women join the team.
As for recruiting new game players, there are a few ways we can go about that. We can always try
making games that appeal to women at a younger age so the next generation of women can grow up with an
appreciation for our medium. Actually, I think that’s what Ubisoft has been up to for the last few years. [DS
Petz, Babyz, fashion games] My hat is off to our French and Canadian brothers; you boys know how to plan
ahead.
But I think the greatest impact is already being made with the growing popularity of the Casual Game.
The sudden rise of the casual gaming market has taught millions of newcomers the fun of video games.
Games are reaching completely untapped audiences, and women make up 74% of that audience. That’s a huge
number of women who are discovering gaming for the first time. It’s easy for game fanatics like us to dismiss
Wii Fit, Bejewled and Diner Dash, but these games are drawing this new audience in and, with time, many of
them may grow curious enough to cross over and try their hand at a Halo match or something.
Once we’ve got their attention, though, we’re going to have to keep it, and that’s where we can
definitely make some changes for the better.
As an industry, we need to seriously reconsider our marketing. We need to examine our habit of
manipulatively using women for appeal. Booth babes at our conventions, exploitive character design … I’m
not saying all of this has to go away – it has its place – but we need to consider the effect this stuff has on our
industry’s image.
Let’s go back to Lara for a minute. Toby Gard, Lara’s designer, made her to be a sexy, powerful, overthe-top heroine. Pretty much a female Indiana Jones. Intelligent, strong, sexy as hell. Attractive, but capable.
But she’s never really been marketed that way, has she? You may see a hint of Toby’s Lara in the games
themselves but, outside them, she is marketed as a sex symbol and posing in topless photos. Toby designed a
strong, classy woman. Marketing reduced her to eye candy; a label she may never be free of.
See, it’s not just an issue of character design. I don’t think women are so fragile that they can’t handle
playing a sexy fantasy character. Almost every game character you have ever played is an idealized fantasy
character. It’s not just about the way they look. The way you market these characters and the way they behave
is just as important. If a strong female character is thrown nude into an issue of Playboy, her image as a strong
female character is tarnished. She ceases to be a character that anyone can respect. Maybe if we stopped
treating all of our heroines like floozies, we’d have a few more female role model characters for women to
identify with.
And while we’re on that subject, it’s worth mentioning that certain women – you know who you are –
have been contributing to this problem. While the industry is using women for sex appeal, some women are
guilty of using the industry for the same reason, and it’s not really helping things. “Being sexy” and “being a
girl who plays games” are both easy ways to draw attention, so I understand why some people would
capitalize on that, but I don’t think this trend is doing anything to help the industry’s image. What does a
photo like this say about women’s place in our gaming culture? Yeah, we guys may appreciate the imagery,
but we’re smart enough to see the lack of authenticity behind it. I mean … most of us. I think. Most of these
girls aren’t actually gamers, and we know it. They aren’t part of our club, they’re just using our hobby as
marketing material. And what do posed shots like this communicate to other women? Maybe that this is the
only role women have in our gaming culture. They can’t be equal participants; they can only be involved in an
exploitive way.
Admittedly, it’s a bit unfair to point fingers. A lot of these girls may be legit gamers who just enjoy
flaunting what they’ve got, and it would be unfair of me to demand that they “set a good example.” But at the
same time, we have so few other types of female presences in gaming, and this can’t be helping either gender
feel more comfortable with one another in the game space. Women feel alienated, men feel manipulated. I’m
just saying.
But aside from those grievances, we have to learn to make games that will appeal to our newly
expanded audience. This is where the game industry’s new female recruits can be particularly helpful. With
greater variety in the industry’s workforce, we will begin to see greater variety in the kinds of games that
industry produces. New settings, new gameplay innovations, new character archetypes (finally), and new
approaches to design. Greater diversity in the gaming industry and fanbase could be one of the greatest steps
forward for this medium.
In fact, perhaps the ideal solution will be to just stop drawing gender lines completely. It may be that,
when we stop thinking so much about “games for men” versus “games for women” and just make games for
people, things will start to improve. Yes, certain kinds of products and imagery appeal to men while other
kinds appeal to women, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But you have to wonder if all of this boundarydrawing around “women in games” has just kept them out, rather than invited them in. What good is all of this
effort to make games for women if it’s only keeping them at arm’s length from the rest of the culture like a
huge, exhaustively-researched kiddie pool?
In the end, I think we would all love for more women to “discover” video games, and I think this shift
of interest is already underway. Casual games may be just what the doctor ordered; a “gateway drug”, if you
will. It starts with an innocent game of Cake Mania, soon you’ve bought a DS and before you know it BAM!
You’re out on the street corner, teeth chattering, waiting in line for Burning Crusades. Casual games have
opened the floodgates to a nervous, untapped public. Let’s try our best to not scare them off.
And enough of this … seriously. Stop it.