Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
or the other from playing. To make a game that both sexes will play, don't build
content that will limit the interest of, or offend, either sex.
The biggest turn-offs for women are usually:
Hypersexualized female avatars and other characters.
■
Repetitive, monotonous play.
■
NOTE
For further
reading, check out
Gender Inclusive Game
Design
by Sheri Graner
Ray (Ray, 2003). She
discusses these issues
in considerable detail.
■
Play without a meaningful goal. Simply racking up the highest score isn't
enough.
■
The solitary nature of single-player play. If you're making a single-player game,
there is nothing you can do about this; it's just something to be aware of.
A Few Generalities
Having warned you not to treat men and women as polar opposites, this section
offers a small number of generalities about how male and female play patterns tend
to differ among Western men and women (the only group for which much research
exists). These observations may not apply to women in Japan, China, Korea, or
India—all important new markets for games.
■
Men and women like to learn differently.
Women generally like to know what
they will be expected to do before they have to do it rather than be thrown into
the deep end to sink or swim. Unfortunately, this makes most arcade games unat-
tractive to women because arcade games make their money from the player's
ignorance.
■
Men and women have different attitudes toward risk.
Women are more likely
to avoid risks that they cannot compute. Men are more willing to experiment even
if it means losing frequently.
■
Women are more interested in people than things and like to socialize as
part of their play experience.
This explains why online games are more successful
than single-player games among female players: Online games allow the players to
socialize.
■
Men and women have different conflict resolution styles.
Women prefer that
violence have a justification; fighting for its own sake is of little interest to them.
They are not opposed to violence per se, but they like the violence to be given a
context, such as a story. Women also like to use lateral thinking to find alternatives
to brute-force approaches.
■
Women enjoy mental challenges and finding elegant solutions to problems
.
This accounts for the popularity of puzzle games among women.
■
Women like to customize their avatars.
Men often treat their avatar characters
as puppets rather than people, someone simply to be controlled for the sake of win-
ning the game. Women tend to identify with their avatars more. A woman uses the
