Gender Inclusive Game Design: Expanding The Market (Charles River Media Game Development) [Hardcover]

Sheri Graner Ray (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2003 | ISBN-10: 1584502398 | ISBN-13: 978-1584502395 | Edition: 1

Women and girls of today are more tech savvy than ever before and research shows that they currently make up over 52% of Internet users and 70% of casual online gamers. Why then, is the game industry still producing computer games that primarily target males ages 13-25? With this tight focus, game developers are not only sharply limiting their possible total income, but they are losing sight of the bigger picture. The games industry is currently growing faster than the target market. To keep the industry strong and growing, game developers must start looking at expanding their market, which means designing titles that are accessible to the female audience. Successful entertainment industries have sustained growth for decades because they have considered the diversity of their audiences. Today's blockbuster products, be it movies, recordings or books, are most often the ones with elements that directly appeal to many market sectors, while containing very few barriers to access for others. By understanding the issues and barriers connected to gender, the game industry can benefit from a similar growth strategy. Gender Inclusive Game Design: Expanding the Market addresses issues that help designers and developers understand the real differences between how the genders approach and resolve conflicts, and what their entertainment criteria and responses are. It also explores the differences in reward systems, game play preferences, and avatar selection criteria, and how these issues all apply to game design, regardless of genre. By understanding these differences, designers can apply this knowledge to the traditional genres that make up the contemporary computer game industry and begin tapping the future market. Perhaps the real question developers need to be asking themselves is, "but what if the player is female?"

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Sheri Graner Ray has been in the computer industry for over ten years and founded a game development company dedicated to designing games for girls, Sirenia Software, Inc. She was also the Director of Product Development for Her Interactive, Inc., and was a designer/writer for Origin Systems, Inc. She is a frequent speaker at the Game Developer Conference and is the co-chair for the Women in Game Development committee of the International Game Developers Association. Sheri is currently a Senior Designer for Sony Online Entertainment.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 193 pages
• Publisher: Cengage Learning; 1 edition (September 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584502398
• ISBN-13: 978-1584502395
• Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 0.8 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #608,212 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Important subject - poor analysis July 5, 2007

By Gustav

Format:Hardcover

Graner Ray raises an important topic: how game designers can create games that appeal to women as well as men. Unfortunately, her advice is simplistic and poorly motivated. This is a summary of what I take to be the most important suggestions the book has to offer:

- Don't use stereotype or hypersexualized avatars
- Provide a well-designed tutorial
- Don't force the player to resort to confrontational resolution of conflicts, provide non-confrontational options
- Females only respond physically to emotional and tactile input, males only by visual input - so include an engaging back-story in the game
- Males prefer punishment for errors in a game, females prefer forgiveness
- Females want non-zero-sum (mutually benefitial) game designs
- Males want to conquer the computer, females want to work with the machine - so don't include hidden benefits that you have to "explore" the interaction space to uncover (e.g., hidden combos in fighting games)

The research results quoted are, when not of questionable quality, often taken out of context. Graner Ray also has a tendency to generalize from isolated anecdotes, which doesn't help. Another problem is that much of the research is dated: some of the games research quoted is from the 1980s and is surely not relevant today! Because of its publication in 2004, the book does not foresee the cross-gender success of titles such as World of Warcraft, and it only consideres the North American market: Europe and Japan are ignored altogether.

Game designers that wish to expand the market for their products to include women probably won't have much to gain by reading this book. Since they already have the necessary motivation, they will acquire more relevant information from well-executed market research and focus group testing than from this book. The book may be an eye-opener for game designers who have never considered women as potential buyers, though.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Key Text September 22, 2004

By Robin Koman

Format:Hardcover

As an instructor, a gamer, and a female, it is a constant effort to educate people about videogames.

People assume that the game industry is populated by a clan of pale, introverted, cave-dwelling males avoiding human contact in favor of glories of the computer screen. In truth, game development and/or design students (and industry professionals)are a group of individuals as diverse as any other industry: there are the introverts, the extroverts, the creative geniuses, and the genius coders. There are individuals of every minority and majority. However there is one exception-it is a fact that there aren't nearly as many women involved in the making of and playing of games.

What the author, Sheri Garner-Ray, has been able to do with this text, is give an explanation to what has long been considered an unanswerable question-how can the game industry consistently broaden its audience to female players?

The attribute that makes this text key to my instruction is it's audience-this is a book for everyone. It is written in an extremely approachable manner, using realistic examples and language that is academic without being exclusory. It is a superb blend of quanatative and qualitative psychological analysis and offers an amazing insight for both men and women readers.

A personal example. I have long favored games that many did not consider "usual" for the female player. I do not play sims, or Barbie Makeover (lord forbid) or Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing. Two of my favorite game series are Metal Gear and Onimusha.

It wasn't until I read Sheri's text that I was able to form an objective reason for myself and my students as to why I loved these games. Yes the graphics are visually stunning, but both games also have incredible backstory, opportunities stealth, and Onimusha has great puzzles worked into gameplay.

If readers of this critique wish to know why these different elements make difference, then I sincerely suggest you pick up this terrific book.

My sincere thanks to Ms. Ray for giving female gamers, present and future, a voice.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Hyper-sexualized Avatars be banished! October 22, 2004

By P2

Format:Hardcover

This book says what needed to be said to the game industry and their consumers. Those who are just entering the industry will want to keep this book handy during 18 hours crunch times as a guide through the haze of game character portrayal, especially female characters. Like many others, I want to play an avatar game character that is smart, strong, and attractive not some hyper-sexualized, implant poster girl with nipples on her metal armor, thong chaps and cleavage reminiscent of the Michelin Tireman

Most (although this is beginning to change) female avatars are so absurdly depicted that (as this book discusses) if the character were to perform the flips, jumps, and various game tasks, in reality she would be physically unable to. The enormous breasts, for example, that Laura Croft has would have to be carted around in a wheel-barrel just so she could stand upright! I'm so glad that Sheri wrote this book bringing up these very obvious deficiencies in game design - and all so easy to correct and who knows even expand the game market.

Of course who plays for a dose of reality? We all want to get lost in the game, but there are better ways to make games that are less distracting to both males and females. I found that the book's many solutions were straight forward, simple and yet the kind of ideas that would not diminish the game for anyone.

It is so ironic that whenever someone brings up the topic of `inclusivity' - be it racial, age or gender there are always those who resist the idea by attacking the `style,' `presentation' or some other trivial factor. Don't shoot the messenger just because the author is bringing up observations that are difficult to hear - read the book if you are looking for constructive ideas that can repair this nagging problem concerning females and gaming. This is the right message, at the right time for some in the game industry that have been wrong about women.