Newsmaker: Video games--a girl thing?

When game developer Sheri Graner Ray attended her first Game Developers Conference in 1992, she was one of just a handful of women at the event.

When she delivered a talk on women and games that year, "they said, 'Why are we even bothering to listen to you? Girls don't play games.'"

Fast-forward 13 years. Ray says she was told that about 1,000 women attended the 2005 Game Developers Conference, representing 10 percent of those present. Ray, who has devoted her career to making games--and the industry--friendlier to women, can take such progress personally. In 1993, the year after her first GDC, she held a GDC women's roundtable that became the seed for her volunteer organization, Girls in Games.

She got her start as an avid "Dungeons and Dragons" player, moving into video games when she was hired by Origin Systems to work on the "Ultima" series. While working on an unreleased game

I enjoy gaming so much, and I'm such a hard-core gamer, that I didn't understand why other women weren't. That's where it really started.

called Arthurian Legends, she protested the lack of female characters and began her crusade to crack open games, and the game world, for women.

Ray began taking note of the trends that repelled would-be women gamers, as well as the kinds of things females looked for in games. She founded Sirenia Consulting to provide her insights to other companies, and in 2002, Charles River Press asked her to write a book on the topic. "Gender Inclusive Game Design: Expanding the Market" was released in 2003, and has since become a textbook at several universities.

Ray returned to the developer world, where she is currently content lead for Sony Online Entertainment's "Star Wars Galaxies." She continues to speak out in support of women's presence in the game world.

At the GDC last week, Ray was presented with the International Game Developers Association's Community Contribution award. We caught up with Ray to discuss the industry's progress in welcoming women, and what more needs to be done.

GameSpot: This year you won the Community Contribution award from the Independent Game Developers Association for your women's advocacy. What does that mean to you?
SGR: It's the most amazing thing I can imagine. To have gone from this conference in 1993--when they had their very first roundtable on girls in games and there were six people--to driving it all that time, and now having the industry recognize...it's more than just recognizing me, it's recognizing the validity of the work that the women's group has been doing. It's so exciting to see that kind of shift in attitude. It's wonderful.

The industry, back in '93, was still saying, "Women don't play computer games." Period. End of story. Won't talk about it.

And we know that's not true.
SGR: Of course we know it's not true, and we knew it wasn't true back then. But the industry didn't. The industry is now actively addressing: how do we capture this market? What barriers are in our titles right now? As you see, we are now moving over into racial and ethnic issues as well. It's like the industry's growing up. It's wonderful.

What put you on the path to being an advocate for women?
SGR: I enjoy gaming so much, and I'm such a hard-core gamer, that I didn't understand why other women weren't. That's where it really started. I always thought it was an untapped market, and (I wanted) the ability to share my passion with other women and also the ability to grow the industry.

Do you think you've answered that question of why other women weren't interested in gaming?
SGR: I think we're beginning to answer it. We haven't got a full answer yet, and we won't have that answer until we see 50 percent of our playing audience is female, and 50 percent

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[Bob_Barker]

Ok, good points.

I see how a lot of her points are valid and her analysis of the female gamer is pretty much spot on as I've noticed all these things in my girlfirend when she plays. (I'm lucky enough to have one of the very few girls that are avid gamers.) <br /><br />But, I just hope this doesn't go so far as to force developers into making their games "PC" not Personal Computer but Politicaly Correct. The point behind games is to create a fantasy world. <br /><br />As for what race or gender the hero is, is up to the story being told. I guess what I'm saying is I hope it doesn't get to the point where an activist group demands some developer like Bungie to include the option to play as the "Mistress Chieftess". <br /><br />Maybe I'm going to extremes but just trying to make a point.

[mikeburek]

You go girl

There's nothing sexier than a smart and self-confident woman. I encourage and help out when I can with women's groups to help them realize their potential. <br />Being "PC" is just a cheap way to hide from reality. But the games I've played have a variety of male characters, and just 1 girl, if any. Why can't there be a variety of girl avatars as there are in real life. <br />Some guys like playing a short char, or tall, or bulky, or thin... Women should also get that choice.

Atta girl!

I'm happy to see how a smart woman after fighting her way(for she and all women) through the videogame market have achieve some of her goals.<br />There's still a long way to go, but this is a very important step in a journey to create good titles for gals, different from those silly games like Barbie or some with over-sexualized characters like Lara Croft, who cause disconfort and don't get the women identified with them.<br />Congratulations Sheri!

This is wonderful but...

The industry will end up altering the present games to make them "more girlie" for the gamer girls out there, who honestly, and not to gender type, but aren't "really girlie" (I include myself in this one). They'll try to figure out what people want based on a very small sample of the population. I would hate to see any computer game that I play already, changed to be more "girl friendly." Girl friendly is a phrase that causes me grief. It's never what I want, as I said before, it's based on a isolated sample who probably have never played games to begin with. <br />Who cares what the sex of the character you're playing is? I like games because they don't discriminate, I can be whatever character because IT'S ONLY A GAME. The point is, why change something that's not broken, I don't want to see the industry alter what is out there merely because they think it's what ~I~ want and that it's a way to open the market to women. I already have what I want in games, that's why I play them. <br />I am glad there are more females present in the gaming industry, I really am. I just hope nothing changes too much.

A ground less fear.

I really doubt that game makers are going to jump on the band wagon and start create pc games for girls.<br /><br />It might be an inclination in the back of their head, something to be reminded of.<br /><br />But have normal great female leads in video games, would be great. But the game has to be good, too. <br /><br />I think game producers should start to contemplate games that are both gender friendly.

Women in Games 2005

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[caskhyron]

Girls in Gaming

any time an activist group gets involved in a successful industry, it goes down the tubes. <br /><br />Coolness sells. Cool = Manly and Sexy. If you want to test this theory, make a game where the heroes are average, ok looking, low muscle-tone, males and homley looking girls that are covered up and have no figure and see how well it sells.<br /><br />Nothing sells better than a sexy chic with automatic pistols and machine guns. Sell a game where your stereotypical nerdy IT guy dons some chainmail and a sword and you will be laughed off the shelves. Sell a game with a girl in an oversized sweatshirt and sweatpants with her hair pulled up in a hairclip with glasses, give her machine guns and watch your product sit on the shelves until it is forcibly removed by something that WILL sell.<br /><br />Girls have very little patience in general so the best games for a girl are ones that you can play and walk away from like mario brothers. There are exceptions to this, surely. Guys are dumb and will keep trying and trying until they get it right or win, no matter how long it takes. "Tom-girls" are the girls that are more like men in that they are into sports and have more patience and therefore, silly things like what Sheri is talking about don't bother them. I think the group of girls she is after is the girlie girls and the only way you can get them into a game is if it doesn't take alot of thought (not saying they are dumb, just that they don't want to think about the game and all that is involved), patience, or time out of their busy social schedule which automatically excludes online MMORPGs which invariably require tons of time to play and reduces them to playing light-hearted, low dexterity, non-time intensive games like mario brothers that are fun, but you can pause or save them at any point and come back to later.

[caskhyron]

Girls in Gaming (Cont'd)

And just to add another point. To "PC-ify" all games in order to increase your audience, only serves to bring down a great game and make it a mediocre game or even kill a game altogether because it is too "soft-core" The attraction of a game is to be cool and elite and the best representations of the cool and elite are the most sexy and handsome men and women you can think of. end of story.<br /><br />Only puzzle games that are non-gender specific appeal to everyone who either enjoy puzzles or would appreciate the graphics of the game.<br /><br />Another good point about gender-fying games is if there is no difference between playing a male or a female as far as visually apealing differences, why not cut costs and make a hermaphrodite character like "PAT" so you don't offend anyone. Yeah right, that'll sell alot of games.... 0.o<br /><br />If you try to make a game so as not to offend anyone and make a character so customizeable to fit your lifestyle or how you want to represent yourself in the game,only serves to increase programming time, delivery time and the cost of the game.<br /><br />Keep it simple stupid. We like Stupid - why do you think we sit in one spot and hit buttons all day?

[aleatory]

Re: Girls in Gaming

In reply to Caskhyron's post:<br />I agree with what you've said about the marketing of games. It's just the nature of sexuality in marketing these days, and it's found in all media (movies and television, especially). <br /><br />However, you really lose your perspective in the second half of this posting. You've got a lot of gender stereotypes you need to re-examine. Comments like "Girls have very little patience in general" and" "Guys are dumb and will keep trying" are pretty ridiculous claims. I've noticed these qualities in varying degrees in both males and females. <br /><br />It's funny that you've excluded MMORPGs almost entirely, because this is one of the top genres female gamers have been going into as of late. And I'll tell you what, Mario Brothers does require a fair amount of dexterity to play, much more than EverQuest does unless you're botting 5 accounts simultaneously. I know girls that play Counter-Strike well, and I know girls that play strategy games well.<br /><br />The reason girls don't play games is not because they're incapable of playing them. They absolutely have both the brain-power and dexterity. They don't play games because games are stereotyped as a more "guy" activity to do, much like sports are. Girls don't have to become "tom-girls" to play games or sports. Girls can still be girls and enjoy these activities because they should be neutral, enjoyable activities for everyone. However, as I'll describe in my next paragraph, they games are more often designed with a male-oriented perspective these days.<br /><br />I can understand why women are offended and turned-off by how females are presented in games such as Tomb Raider and Dead or Alive. It's a stereotype of qualities that men want to see in women. Similarly, I'm a little offended by the stereotypical buff "male" action character who gets the job done without wit, and don't enjoy games which boast that role. Fortunately for me, the gaming market has a diverse amount of male characters so that I can find games with characters I better connect with (anti-hero types like Squall in FF8). The same should occur for females: we don't have to totally get rid of sexy-looking, big-breasted characters, but we do need to add some diversification in female characters because women are just as diverse as men, and what different roles they can assume. Women might play more games if game design becomes more unisexual and uses less stereotyping.

[CollegeCandyGirl]

Here is a great article about girls and video games. Check it out:<br /><br />http://www.collegecandy.com/wired/14036