Gender Inclusive Game Design: Expanding the Market [Anglais] [Relié]

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.

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.

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.