Gender Inclusive Game Design - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

About This Presentation
Title:

Gender Inclusive Game Design

Description:

Avoid using content that contains sexual humor based on put-downs of females. ... Sheri Graner Ray. ACC Summer Institute. Austin Community College. July 14, 2005 ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

Number of Views:48
Avg rating:3.0/5.0
Slides: 49
Provided by: sire7
Category:

less

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: Gender Inclusive Game Design


1
Gender Inclusive Game Design
  • Expanding the Audience

Sheri Graner RayACC Summer InstituteAustin
Community CollegeJuly 14, 2006
2
Sheri Graner Ray
  • Started in games in 1990
  • Worked with such companies as Origin/EA, Her
    Interactive, SOE, Cartoon Network and others
  • Author of Gender Inclusive Game Design Expanding
    the Market
  • Co-founder and Exec. Chair of Women In Games
    International
  • Hard Core Gamer (20 hours a week)

3
Pink Poison
  • a brief history of the girls game
  • movement in the U.S.

4
1995
5
Why should we make games for girls?
6
1996
7
How do we make games for girls?
8
1997
9
1997-1999
10
March 1999 Big Pink Buys Purple Moon 
Oct 2001 Mattel Sells Interactive Division
11
See? We told you girls dont play computer
games!
12
(No Transcript)
13
Why did this happen?
  • A lot of bad assumptions were made regarding
    girls and games

14
Bad Assumption 5
  • Girls love BarbieTM! We'll make all our girls'
    games just like BarbieTM!

15
Bad Assumption 4
  • Girls would love our game if they played 'em! We
    just need to trick 'em into playing them!

16
Bad Assumption 3
  • Girls hate violence. We'll make non-violent
    versions of our game!

17
Bad Assumption 2
  • Girls love cute cuddly things! We'll make games
    about that!

18
Bad Assumption 1
  • If we make a girls' game, we'll make a fortune
    because all the girls will play it!

19
The Dark Side
  • By stating Girls don't like ______ type of
    video game we are blaming the GIRLS for not
    playing because they are GIRLS.
  • By making it the girls' fault they don't play
    computer games, the industry has let itself off
    the hook for making any changes to what they are
    doing.
  • By believing that there is one silver bullet
    game that all girls will play, we are telling the
    game industry they don't have to change anything
    they are doing.

20
Broadening your audience
21
DISCLAIMER 1
  • In this talk I'm going to discuss developing
    titles for an audience that is expected to
    contain females, but are not targeted directly
    FOR females.

22
DISCLAIMER 2
  • When I say a particular trait is a male or
    female, I mean the population that expresses
    that trait is made up predominantly of that
    gender. However, it is by no means exclusive to
    that gender.

23
DISCLAIMER 3
  • I am speaking in broad population generalities.
    It is highly likely that you will know someone
    who does not fall within these descriptions. If
    you are female and currently play games, that
    person will likely be YOU!

24
Broadening the audience
  • Decide if you are making a title for a diverse
    audience or a specific audience
  • Identify a market you wish to include in your
    target audience

25
Houston, we have a problem
  • 52 of internet users are female
  • 70 of casual, online gamers are female
  • Girls control 14 billion a year in disposable
    income
  • 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

26
What can we do?
  • We can remove barriers from our titles today that
    prevent women from accessing them.

27
Just a few areas where barriers exist
  • Learning styles
  • Avatars
  • Communication
  • Production environment

28
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.
29
Solution
  • Design tutorials that use imitative models as
    well as explorative models
  • Look at educational software for examples

30
  • Avatar \Avatar"\, n.1. ltchat, virtual
    realitygt An image representing a user in a
    virtual reality space.

31
We need a hero!
32
  • Because they represent heroes, male and female
    avatars will often exhibit exaggerated physical
    signals of youth strength, and fertility/virility

33
Youth, Strength and Fertility/Virility
  • Males
  • Large Shoulders
  • Slim waists
  • Slim hips
  • Large, muscled legs
  • Long, thick hair
  • Females
  • Large breasts, placed high on the chest
  • Slim waists
  • Round derrières
  • Long, thick hair

34
  • Very often female avatars display exaggerated
    physical signals of sexual receptivity.

35
Sexual receptivity
  • Red, full lips
  • Heavy lidded eyes
  • Heavy breathing (usually indicated by a slightly
    open mouth)
  • Erect nipples
  • These signals are the same for the human male
    body as they are for the female body.

36
(No Transcript)
37
(No Transcript)
38
Solution
  • Build attractive female figures that are not
    hyper-sexualized.
  • Use female athletes as body models.
  • Focus group test your avatars with female players.

39
Electronic Communication
  • Males and females communicate very differently,
    and this carries through to electronic
    communications.

40
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

41
Just change the keymap to WASD!
  • Avoid the use of industry specific jargon in your
    documentation, tutorial and game scripts.

42
Solutions
  • Check your command text for formality and rapport
    building language.
  • Avoid using content that contains sexual humor
    based on put-downs of females.
  • Check your commands for terminology that is
    industry specific.

43
Production Environment
  • What were you thinking?

44
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.

45
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

46
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.
  • Involve more women in your development process
    find them through creative recruiting

47
Where to start
  • Adjust tutorials to allow for modeling learning
    styles
  • Make female avatars attractive, but not
    hyper-sexual
  • Clearly state you intend your audience to contain
    females
  • Seek out qualified female candidates

48
But what if the player is female?
Sheri Graner Ray ACC Summer InstituteAustin
Community College July 14, 2005
Write a Comment
User Comments (0)
About PowerShow.com