illustration by Jen Oaks
Play like a girl
Issue #34
Video game companies finally tune in to female market
By Amy Westervelt
Published: December 1st, 2007 | 1:53pm
From Nancy Drew games designed to attract 10-year-old girls to online gaming communities focused on female gamers, the video industry seems to have suddenly discovered its female market. Truth be told, they’ve always known we like to play video games; it’s just taken a while for them to figure out how to best serve us.
In the online gaming community, female-founded online groups with names like GamerchiX and PMS Clan provide a supportive environment for female gamers who otherwise feel targeted right off the bat by their mostly male opponents, says San Francisco gamer Yvonne Gill. “Sadly, it’s true that a lot of the guys you’re playing against either decide to start shooting at you because you’re the only girl in the game,” she says, “or figure they should hit on you since you’re obviously a cool chick that likes video games.”
While Gill and many of her gamer friends are disheartened by the fact that a females-only gamer club has to exist, she’s thankful that it does. Meanwhile, some women are taking gaming way beyond a hobby and becoming pros at games such as Dead or Alive. At the other end of the spectrum, gaming companies are beginning to have designers plan out games with women in mind, creating games that are either specifically for women or designed to include both sexes. Called “casual games,” these run the gamut from the latest Sims game to sports games like Nintendo’s Wii Fit or Nintendo’s Iron Chef–like Wii Cooking. Both Electronic Arts — the video-game giant responsible for the Sims series — and Nintendo recently emphasized their casual games at an industry conference. It’s all in the name of good business: According to market research firm NPD, 41% of U.S. gamers are female, and Nintendo says 33% of Wii purchasers are women.
Comments
Please login to be able to comment on this article.
more