Q: Do you base your ideas about what makes a good girl game on market research on girls’ play patterns and girls’ interests? If so, what has the research taught you?
A: I base my ideas on market research (other people’s studies, surveys, statistics etc.), book research (books I’ve read, courses in feminist theory and women’s studies I’ve taken) and my own research (focus groups, surveys, etc.)
Here’s my "designing games for girls" theory in a nut shell:
When designing games for the girls market you should take into consideration some of the basic "differences" in males and females. Some of the big ones I use are: Stimulation, Conflict Resolution, Reward, and Learning Style
(WARNING – broad population generalities being talked about here. Obviously not every one fits into these categories!!!!!)
Stimulation:
- Males are visually stimulated meaning when given a visual stimulus they will experience a physiological response: increased heart rate, increased respiration, increased perspiration.
- Females, while appreciating visual stimuli, do not experience the same physiological response. They react physiologically to tactile input and emotional input.
Conflict Resolution:
- Males will choose to resolve conflict in a head-to-head confrontation manner; pushing for a win/lose situation. The "victory" is what is important.
- Females will chose a non-confrontation method to resolve the conflict. This may include negotiation, compromise, diplomacy and manipulation. They will take their opponents feelings into consideration. (This is usually a revelation to my male audience members!)
Reward:
- Males will accept the physiological "rush" of the visual stimulus as the reward. They want the "victory."
- Females want an "emotional resolution" but do not necessarily require a "victory."
Learning style:
- Men learn by doing.
- Females want to know how it works before trying it.
Now, apply this to a flight simulator out there today. There you are, flying that plane, solo, "mano-a-mano" against that other plane. You zip and zoom with bullets and rockets flying by until you lock onto him and blow him away in a huge, seething, fireball of an explosion. The guys all scream YAH!!!!!! And boot it up to play again.
And the girls are completely bored, if not turned off, because not only does the dogfight example not meet their entertainment criteria, but it actually opposes some of them. Head to head conflict, visual stimuli as reward, victory/death…all very male.
Or how about that fighting game? There you are beating on some other person until you rip out his beating heart…again and again and again and……yawn……again. Or, you can’t rip out his heart until you happen to stumble upon those "secret moves." Big fun for the guys to figure out……really annoying and even frustrating for the girls who wanted to know how it worked before trying.
And there is another misconception about girls games. When I start talking about girls not liking what’s out there today, someone in the audience will invariably nod their head and say, "Yes, all that blood and gore…girls HATE that." Well, according to my research, that’s not the case at all. Girls have no problem with violence AS LONG AS THERE’S A REASON FOR IT! What girls DON’T like is violence for violence’s sake. And not because it’s "icky or yucky" but because it is boring! As far as the girls are concerned….why would anyone want to rip someone’s beating heart out 15 times in a row??? BORING!Articles on WomenGamers.Com solely reflect the experiences and perspectives of the author(s). Feel free to agree or disagree in the accompanying forum thread.
