Impressions from the Game Developers Conference:
The Discussion on Girl Games

By Atari

Article Discussion Forum

Jesyca Durchin, former executive producer for Mattel Media, was a speaker on the subject of games for girls at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose, California. The session was entitled, "Girl Software Introduction / Keys to Creating Great Girl Software". Curiousity-stricken, I walked into the session hoping to hear the many different approaches that developers had taken to target young girls, but instead it turned out to be solely about Mattel's strategy. Judging by the title of the session, I was hoping for some sort of balanced panel of girl game developers to discuss their different findings.

The Equation for Making Girl Games

Durchin made it clear that her lecture was not based off of research or psychological studies, but rather off of her personal experience working on software and media products for girls. Her keys for creating great girl software were as follows:

• Understand your audience.
• Hinge all or most of the interactivity on proven play patterns, the more traditional the better.
• Remember material stuff to collect in games is always good.
• Create familiar and relevant environments for your audience, and be mindful that girl's imaginations will influence your environment.
• Get over the shame and embarassment of making a game for girls.

According to Durchin, traditional play patterns are based off of instinctual ways a child will approach an object or activity. These play patterns for girls include:

• Fashion play
• Glamour play
• Nurture play
• Adventure play
• Action/Twitch play
• Collection play
• Communication/social play

She stressed that collecting stuff was essential for giving girls a reason to play rather than focusing on scoring, a more traditional approach for boy software. Durchin claimed girls like environments that are more reality-based than fantastical, and that they require their environment to either be beautiful or make sense to the story. She said that symmetry and color cohesiveness are important to girls, and that the interface needs to be colorful, magical, and to "feel good" rather than make sense.

Durchin made it clear that Mattel had no intention of being a market leader, but rather a market follower. Mattel isn't out to break stereotypes or encourage girls into technology, but rather to build games off of existing stereotypes. Durchin explains that although there are girls who enjoy other types of gameplay, Mattel is sticking with the play patterns they know works.

The Holes in the Equation

At this point, my stomache was going into a knot. Something was terribly wrong with the picture. Where did I fall into all this? Am I so very different that I am the exception to the rule? Did I not focus on getting a higher score than my sister on games like Decathlon, World Games, and Grand Prix? Did I not enjoy completely fantastical environments such as the ones in Sierra's Space Quest series? And for all those classic text-based games without any sense of color or symmetry... was it a fluke that my sister and I were completely addicted to them when we were kids?

After thinking through her key points, I realized some things didn't quite fit. Many of the things I recognized as girl play patterns were play patterns that aren't just attractive to girls, but to boys as well.

She kept pushing the idea of allowing girls to collect stuff in games. Why is it such a big deal to stress that girls are into collecting stuff, when boys collect as well? From baseball cards and hot wheels to the good weapons and armor in a game, the enjoyment of collection is not gender specific.

Similarly, boys like "nurture play" in games as well. Take any roleplaying game (RPG) for example. The whole purpose of an RPG is to beef up and "nurture" your character. Both male and female RPG gamers will spend an inordinate amount of time playing, just so they can make their character ultimately perfect.

Even fashion and glamour play has it's place among boys. Are there not boys out there who enjoy customizing their cars in racing games or creating new skins for characters? Does this not fall along the same sort of play patterns? Maybe they aren't ready to pick out the shade of lipstick but even a male reviewer got a kick at sticking a beard on his face using Cosmopolitan's Virtual Makeover.

It's like calling Barbie a "doll" and calling G.I. Joe an "action figure". They are both the same style thing with different names to distinguish what's for boys and what's for girls. Whether you call it nurture play or role-playing, fashion play or customization, it's the same pattern with a different name.

Looking at the large number of adult women who play cards, trivia, and classic games, why don't Durchin's girl play patterns reflect this? Where is the "strategy play" pattern and the "puzzle play" pattern? Are we to assume that girls don't get into those kind of games until they are adults? Am I to believe that the Barbie demographic of girls is so different from the rest of the girl market that they wouldn't be interested in these type of games?

Final Thoughts

It's important to keep in mind that in Mattel's case, their target audience is not the girl audience, but the Barbie girl audience. Another girl games company may be dealing with a whole different demographic of girls.

Durchin showed only one venue using strictly defined stereotypes to determine the needs of Barbie girls, but other companies such as HerInteractive are cropping up with different approaches to making girl games. Although the term "girl games" in itself seems to impose generalizations and stereotypes about girl's interests, girls aren't being targeted in the more gender neutral products, therefore many girls gravitate to games that do target them specifically. Having games for girls may be the only venue for some girls to play, because everything else they or their parents find seem to be boy-oriented. As long as the industry as a whole attempts to cover a variety of these girls' interests, and doesn't just hone in on fashion or traditionally "girly" subjects, girl games could help girls become more comfortable with gaming in general.