Gender and game culture: Lessons learned and answers still unquestioned

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Gender and game culture Lessons learned and
answers still unquestioned

• Aleks Krotoski
• University of Surrey

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Gender and Game Culture Answers left unquestioned

• Gamings always been a boy thing
• Girls dont play games
• The games industry is no place for a woman
• Its them who have to change not us.

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History of gender diversity and gaming Gamings
always been a boy thing?

• Proud beginnings
• Ada Lovelace
• Grace Hopper
• Donna Bailey to Roberta Williams
• Girl Games
• From Barbie to Mortal Kombat
• The Sims
• Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games
• SingStar

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Current Player Demographics Girls dont play
games?
GameVision Dromgoole, 2004
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Current Player Demographics Girls dont play
games?

• Men play 12.34 hours per week
• Women play 9.22 hours of play per week

GameVision Dromgoole, 2004
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Current Player Demographics Girls dont play
games?

• Girls
• Preferred console is PS1
• Bargain purchaser, relies on recommendation or
  existing IP

• Boys
• Preferred console is PS2
• New games, sports games, FPS

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Girls dont play games?

• They most certainly do! They are
• Active players and purchasers
• Older than men
• More cautious in their purchases
• Boys dont necessarily play games.

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Is the games industry a place for gender
diversity?

• Demographics
• Art and Design 91 men 9 women
• Programmers 98 men 2 women
• Senior Management95 men 3 women
• Sales/Marketing/PR 64 men 26 women
• Applicants per year???

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Is the games industry a place for gender
diversity?

• Methods of recruitment
• 42.9 advertise in specialist magazines
• 64.3 recruit through specialist agencies
• 14.3 approach schools, colleges
• Job disparities due to gender
• 353.57 less at starting salary
• 6,738.03 pay gap
• 0.4 women hold Lead, Director, Management
  positions versus 1.2 of men
• Slower promotion times (approximately 6 months)

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Is the games industry a place for a gender
diversity?

• All signs point to no.
• Future research
• What would a broader appointments drive do for
  games industry diversity?
• How girl games scholarships (e.g., SMU) increase
  female participation in games courses
• How an increase in role models in the games
  industry increases female participation in games
  courses

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Deterrents Solutions They have to change - not
us.

• Play
• something a woman is not (Turkle, 1985)
• Marketing and its malcontents
• Products that dont speak to a broader audience
• Economics
• Bargain bins and the hardcore gamer
• Time
• interstitial gaming
• Work
• male culture
• Quality of Life

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Deterrents Solutions They have to change - not
us.

• Play
• something a woman is not (Turkle, 1985)
• Marketing and its malcontents
• Products that dont speak to a broader audience
• Economics
• Bargain bins and the hardcore gamer
• Time
• interstitial gaming
• Work
• male culture
• Quality of Life

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Summary

• Gaming options attractive to a more diverse
  audience are on the increase
• Women do play differently than men Industry
  responds
• Social, economic and temporal deterrents stop
  people from playing
• Gaming culture needs to change before more women
  engage as consumers or as creators
• The best way to do this is to raise awareness!

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Gender and Game Culture

• Thank You