Austin panel asks: Wither women gamers?

AUSTIN, Texas--Games that appeal to both female and male audiences have been among the top-selling games of all time, and The Sims franchise has been emblematic of this success. So what content choices should developers be making to broaden the success of their games to include female gamers in their target audiences? This was only one of the many questions posed at the Women’s Game Conference in Austin, Texas, last week. The panel, titled "It's What's Inside That Counts," included T.L. Taylor, an assistant professor at IT University of Copenhagen; Gano Haine from Stunt Puppy Entertainment; and Kiki Wolkill, an art director at Microsoft.

The first question posed by moderator Raph Koster, chief creative officer with Sony Online Entertainment Austin, dove to the heart of the issue. “Is it finally safe to talk about the gender and cognitive differences in gameplay mechanics?” In other words, do women really play games differently from men, and if so, can we start talking about it without the PC police interfering? And assuming so, how can game designers leverage these differences in the game design process to build games that have greater resonance with a gender-inclusive audience? According to Wolkill, one way Microsoft is starting to address this issue is by developing games with more options. For example, in the upcoming action RPG from Peter Molyneux, Fable, combat is only one of many ways to advance the game's storyline.

One hot issue with both the panel and the audience was avatars in games. Avatars, or player characters, visually represent the gamer in-game, but in the online space, this relationship is taken one step further: It also determines the way other players react to you.

In most popular titles, gamers face the choice of an oversexualized female character or none at all. Do theses choices alienate female gamers? Top-selling titles such as Quake, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, No One Lives Forever, and The Sims have given players the chance play as the gender they choose, but unfortunately, in an industry where production cycles are growing shorter and budgets are growing higher, incorporating female characters--even the bodacious, cleavage-prone variety--is not always an option.

So what are the barriers to entry for female gamers, particularly in the console market? Is it reflective of the content choices in the game, or is it sometimes the result of the game's marketing efforts?

In Haine’s opinion, with the massive growth of the game industry over the last few years, a more corporate mentality has taken over. If Madden is what makes money, why rock the boat? She recalls a mobile phone exec she once approached on the topic of his company's lack of marketing outreach directed toward the female market. “My business partners will never do anything for women,” the exec told Haine, to which she replied, “Women. The phone. Hello?”

Koster was quick to bring up the recent ad for the The Sims 2, a historically popular title with women, that ran in a game magazine this month. The ad depicts a wife walking in on her husband, who happens to be in bed with two other women. Above her head are five options, including “join.” How can you expect more women gamers to join the fold if the industry refuses to even ask?

Is game development inherently locked into cliched gender patterns? And what content choices can the industry make to bring more players into the console market? While the panel, not atypically, posed more questions than answers, opening the dialog--all agreed--is a step that one day may result in a net that's cast to include women as well as men.