Gender Inclusive Game Design

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Gender Inclusive Game Design

• Expanding the Market

Sheri Graner RayEGaDsUniversity of
TexasSeptember 28, 2005
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Sheri Graner Ray

• Sr. Designer, Sony Online Entertainment
• Game designer since 1990
• Co-founder of the IDGAs Women in Game
  Development SIG
• Author of Gender Inclusive Game Design Expanding
  the Market
• Hard Core Gamer (20 hours/week)

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Pink Poison

• a brief history of the girls game
• movement in the U.S.

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1995
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Why should we make games for girls?
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1996
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How do we make games for girls?
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1997
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1997-1999
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March 1999 Big Pink Buys Purple Moon 
Oct 2001 Mattel Sells Interactive Division
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See? We told you girls dont play computer
games!
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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.

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• Computer game revenues have topped 9.4 billion
  dollars, outranking Hollywood box office
  receipts.
• Salon magazine.
• So whats the problem?

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

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

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Houston, we have a problem

• Less than 10 of the audience for traditional PC
  games is female
• Less than 15 of Nintendos 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

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What can we do?

• We can remove barriers from our titles today that
  prevent women from accessing them.

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Just a few areas where barriers exist

• Learning styles
• Price of failure
• Avatars
• Communication
• Production environment

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Warning

• The 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
  todaythen that person will most likely be you!!)

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Gender Differences in Learning Styles

• Males

• Females

• Risk-takers
• Explorative

• Want to know how it works first
• Modeling/Imitative

Most of the tutorials in todays games are
designed to appeal to an explorative learning
style.
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Solution

• Design tutorials that use imitative models as
  well as explorative models
• Look at educational software for examples

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The Price of Failure
Females
Males

• 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.
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Solution

• Identify the victory conditions for your titles
  and consciously design such that failure to meet
  those conditions does not result in irretrievable
  loss.

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• Avatar \Avatar"\, n.1. ltchat, virtual
  realitygt An image representing a user in
  amulti-user virtual reality space.

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We need a hero!
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• Because they represent heroes, male and female
  avatars will often exhibit exaggerated physical
  signals of youth strength, and fertility/virility

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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

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• Very often female avatars display exaggerated
  physical signals of sexual receptivity.
• Male avatars rarely display these signals.

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Sexual receptivity

• Red, full lips
• Heavy lidded eyes
• Heavy breathing (usually indicated by a slightly
  open mouth)
• Erect nipples

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Solution

• Build attractive female figures that are not
  hyper-sexualized.
• Use female athletes as body models.
• Focus group test your avatars with female players.

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Electronic Communication

• Males and females communicate very differently,
  and this carries through to electronic
  communications.

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Communications differences

• Males
• 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

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Just change the keymap to WASD!

• Avoid the use of industry specific jargon in your
  documentation, tutorial and game scripts.

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Solutions

• Avoid 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.

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Production Environment

• What were you thinking?

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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.

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Sometimes the best man for the job is a woman

• The game industry isnt on womens career radar
• Must recruit in non-traditional areas
• Build today for employees tomorrow

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Solutions

• Have 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

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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

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But what if the player is female?
Sheri Graner RayAustin Community College Summer
Lecture Series July 8, 2005