Comments on: Video games for girls

By: It’s the Thought that Counts » Blog Archive » More on gamer stereotypes

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:19:10 +0000

[...] way of follow-up on my post from Wednesday, here are some interesting tidbits from a recent LA Times article [...]

By: Emily K

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 23:47:55 +0000

The girl gamers I see in forums will often have avatars from “male” video games. The “boy” games can be popular with both genders. Look at Final Fantasy. At least as many girls are into it as guys. Kingdom Hearts probably has a larger female base than male base. Females are more likely, in my opinion, to make Kingdom Hearts fanfiction, for example. Both games are made by the same company. Why the dual appeal? I think it has less to do with a game being “girly” or “boyish” than it has to do with it being complex and diverse. Final Fantasy explores relationships between characters as much as it provides battles and mysterious things to seek. Kingdom Hearts defies gender norms by putting what virtually amounts to a homosexual love story (in all but name) in their game.

But it’s more than just the story-telling – going back to the 80′s and early 90′s, games like Super Mario Bros were not only extremely creative and popular, they were cracking the gender divide. And perhaps the very first video game to attract boys and girls was Pac-Man, which today remains popular in arcades and food joints. As a girl, I was delighted to find out that Samus Aran, the hero in Metroid, was a girl. The game developers in fact took great care not to over-sexualize her, like so many “Lara Croft”s. In more detailed renders of the Metroid character, she seems to be more boob-heavy. But the original sprite is just a robotic character – a being inside a metal cybernetic suit. The game was lauded for breaking gender boundaries.

I think in the end, it’s not a lessening of the “male” qualities of a game that will make it appealing to boys and girls; it’s in not treating anything remotely “female” about a game like a passive thing to be sexualized.

The Wii sports games have done a great job with this. Dance Dance Revolution is also gender neutral.

AND, this will ultimately come about much quicker when there are more girls in the gaming industry alongside the boys.

By: Chris Guin

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:56:28 +0000

I agree wholeheartedly that game developers (and educators, btw) shouldn’t view “relevance to my daily life” as the highest creator of interest. Fantasy is huge – and that would seem to be a truth generalizable across demographics.

I wouldn’t be surprised if game developers are getting better at courting demographics who aren’t 14-year-old nerdy boys, though. The Wii and the Nintendo DS seem to have opened up gaming to a number of women and girls I know who would never have dreamed of being a “gamer” a few years ago. What aspects of those games are more appealing to women I couldn’t say necessarily, but it seems like a positive development.

By: Margaret Johnson

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 04:55:11 +0000

I just downloaded the Nancy Drew pack from Steam for my two daughters. I am a firm believer that playing video games increases our kid’s chances of success in work/life.

As you point out, it is the design of the game that matters.

As a creator of breakthrough learning games that inspires kids to read, I know people buy the games (ItzaBitza and ItzaZoo – http://SabiGames.com) because the kids find them really fun. Reading practice is just the amazing byproduct. I love this because learning was DESIGNED in, but the GAME DESIGN was NOT compromised.

thanks for this post.
Margaret, CEO – Sabi, Inc. and mom of two