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Soapbox:
I have to speak up, because I’m sick of the drivel. When the men making video games for males occasionally look up from their passion to realize that they are missing 50% of the population market. Then we hear the whine of why we can't get more girls to play games, and why women, who can seem to find time for innumerable interests, should be playing video games, but they don’t. And the excuses are trotted out, that women have more demands on their time than men, or at least they choose to spend that time differently, or that they might be interested if they could learn something in the process, or build or understand relationships with the game or something besides hacking enemies into pieces. And then the men making video games go back to their passion, because there is the pervasive notion that you must be passionate about games in order to make them. And the passion of males in games is very different from that of females.
“How can we get more girls to play games? In fact women, who can seem to find time for innumerable interests should be playing video games. How come they don’t?” Now, don’t get nerdy on me about the one or two girls you know who play games. Or that there are women like Kornelia, the top-ranked professional Doom 3 champion, because we all know that the few females who play well are the exception. Most women and girls play video games infrequently at best, and usually when it involves other people - or the men in their life. Males, on the other hand, often play alone, and a large amount of males become game addicts. How can our genders cause such a difference? To start with, there are basic physical differences between men and women in visual focus, described in the following contrasting passages from Leonard Shlain's book 'The Alphabet Versus The Goddess' (Penguin/Compass, 1988): "Rods, named for their cylindrical shape, are extremely light sensitive. Like trip wires, they detect the slightest movement in a visual field…they see in dim light and appreciate the totality of the visual field, seeing images as gestalts. Rods share with the right brain the ability to perceive reality all-at-once." (female) "Cones, in contrast, congregate densely in a small spot in the central part of the retina…and accordingly, is vision’s focal point. Cones have two attributes. They appreciate color and intensify clarity. Concentrating on one aspect of reality at a time, cones view the visual field as if through a tunnel." (male)
Examples we have all experienced: 3. A couple is watching an action flick at the movie theatre. The man exclaims: “Did you see that move?!” He turns toward his female companion. Her eyes are half closed and she looks sleepy. “Mmm?’ she says. She was thinking about the landscape behind the battle scene; anticipating a flanking strategy by the opposition. In terms of what men and women see in video games, in my own experience as an artist with an acute visual memory, perfect eyesight, and spatial sensitivity, I really can’t even see the moves that an advanced male player makes, as a female. I can’t tell one technique from another, and I find it boring. My eye roves restlessly over the background, and I compare color compositions of the moving figures and the environment. I weigh the layout of the architecture or the level. I look for clues and think about solutions. I become irritated if the terrain has a structure like a giant kitty-litter box. My son, on the other hand, couldn’t care less. To him, it’s all about game play, unless a puzzle stumps him, and then I gain the pleasure in solving it. In fact, I find the need for action to be slightly distracting and annoying, because I’m really more interested in the mystery, discovery and just looking around. But the heavy character-based RPGs don’t do it for me either; they remind me of those days in third grade when the substitute teacher with the syrupy voice would come in and read aloud my favorite book in a theatrical and ridiculous manner. I don’t like my thoughts to be directed to such an extent. Yet I resist being directed through action just as much.
This brings me to point out another area of difference in motivation between men and women and their need or resistance to competitiveness. Shlain's book comments on this: "Because of their different roles, evolution, in time, equipped men and women emotionally to respond differently to the same stimuli. This resulted in men and women having different perceptions of the world. Nurturance requires emotional generosity combined with warmth. And a mother must keep a field of awareness of all that is going on around her, [it is also an important defensive technique] for females to form cooperative alliances with other human beings." This means more than men and women just having different interests in competition. In terms of video games, it has serious implications on a player's willingness to learn manual skills in order to play, and the notion of slaying all others to win, or even the idea of playing in isolation, by oneself. Men enjoy the process of developing game skills that require an initial commitment of time and perseverance, and then being challenged to use those skills. This satisfies their emotional instincts. But women just want to pick up the controller and play when they have the time. And hacking droves of enemies into bits is not their idea of fun; it is against their emotional instinct, and forcing women to narrow their focus makes them feel uneasy. Men view the frustration of a difficult game action-based game as something to overcome. Women feel that it something to be avoided. While some women do play anime or character/story based RPGs, it hasn’t become immensely popular among females because the motivation for this type of gameplay is still linear, and the focus and structure of the quest is invariably narrow. On top of those constraints comes the overt focus on the characters themselves. As discussed previously, a female’s awareness is centered broadly rather than specifically. Men often mistake a woman’s desire for fashion to be about the clothes themselves. If you tell a woman that you are taking her out, she won’t get dressed until she asks: ‘Where are we going? Who will we be with? And what will we doing?’ A woman is interested in fashion because she wants to make a statement in the context of her environment, as a means to attract alliances with other people. In this light, the over-wrought and nattily dressed characters of the dramatic genre RPGs who simply move from one uninteresting environment to the next in A-to-B-to-C quest fashion are generally a disappointment, a bore, and terribly superficial. The Sims is not a great game, its isn't even plot driven; it's impulse driven, but it’s success with females’ lies in that the developments are not linear; and even though the player can try to adapt, the outcome is uncertain. There's also the fact anybody can pick up the controller and play, and there are things to mess around with in the environment. A successful game for females would have a complex environment, adaptable characters, puzzles and spiraling mental challenges involving human nature. It would not have layers of menu screens or require manual skills with the controller. The character would be tangible but non-verbal, with expressive animation (think Link) and utilize a reactionary emotional profile (Black & White, The Sims). The game would not rely on the ‘he with the most power or evil or highest body count wins’ mentality. The character would not supercede the interest of the environment or the plot.
Finally, I’m going to talk about the part of this issue that nobody wants to hear; that the video game industry is heavily gender-biased. I think, however, that a good portion of that is unavoidable; that like politics, corporate leadership, and making movies, the requirements involve so much sacrifice of personal and home life that most women wouldn’t volunteer, even if they pay was great and the way was open. Now add insane competition, and it is understandable that these career paths often need singular male focus and a specific type of passion to justify the means. [I’m sure to receive a barrage of comments which will discount my assumptions because of my failure to get into the video game industry; that I am resentful and blaming others for my lack of talent, hard work, or dedication to gaming. And, yes, I worked hard and didn’t make it and I am kind of pissed, but I did get close enough to gain some perspective. And it’s a female perspective. And though it may be unpopular, I care about the industry and I want to tell you the truth. I’m braced for the insults if they come.] I know that you want to hear from the people who are a success! Who know the secret! But I know a secret also, and it’s for those of you who understand; that not reaching the other 50% of the population is your failure too. Most men in the industry honestly believe that they are not gender or age biased, either personally or professionally. And they probably aren’t intentionally. In fact, most would welcome more women and diversity in the workplace, and are all too aware of what every scientific team knows; that more divergent viewpoints brought together ultimately creates newer and more original solutions. And that more originality and wider perspective in turn increases the market base. However, these same men turn a blind eye to the universal industry entry requirements which seem to be based solely on the profile of the current modern gamer: the young male game addict who plays all of yesterday’s and today’s game selections. Since these are predominantly male gender games, females are excluded right there. The profound implication of this requirement cannot be emphasized enough. Since today’s genre of game title selections is not particularly consuming to females, there are not droves of women compelled to enter the video game industry. In my class of 50, for example, there were 5 women. What is really important, however, is that the women who do enter, have very different goals than the males. Females interested in the game industry are likely to feel that games are the center of the universe, either culturally, artistically, or technically. Certainly the women with this interest have familiarity with games, but they are almost never game players with the kind of skill and devotion of their male counterparts. Their motivation will be as artists, animators, programmers, mechanics, or in other means of cultural expression. Women who are interested in the industry consider gaming to be the best means to this end. Alternatively, men in the industry feel that these things are a means to game play. Consider these common help wanted ads from game companies: (random samples from Gamasutra and flay.com on 10/29/04) Relic Entertainment, under ’Artist Skills ’: We can see that the first requirement for employment is to be passionate about gaming, and to be a passionate game player. Now, I know that veteran recruiters and others will interject here that there must also be superior artistic and technical skills to make the grade. From my experience, I must emphatically disagree. The first hires from our class group were not the best artists, but they definitely were the people most obsessed with gaming and willing to go to any length to get into the industry. In the end, the most inclined and skilled artistically were the last to be hired, if at all (I’m not referring to my own pathetic portfolio). This exclusion of all categories but one is also called elitism; the rule by a small but powerful group. And if you don’t worship at the throne of impassioned game play, you are not invited. A dedicated artist, animator, technician etc (of whatever gender, age, or ethnicity) who is wholeheartedly devoted to their profession is always willing to work on any product and bring to it the best standard of their craft. But a person only devoted to the current and past games would never consider working on anything else. How many takers do you think you would get from today’s elite pool of talent for development of a girl’s game? Or a game for the elderly? Or for mature women? Or for four-year olds? And so now, you men of the video gaming industry; you know that you are totally biased, every one, aren’t you? And you wouldn’t want it any other way.
DISCLAIMER: I also believe in the responsibility of those who create and express our culture; without accessibility and the exchange of ideas, our art forms (games included) will stagnate. How far did you get the last time you tried to make contact with someone inside the video game community? And do these people ever get out? As in mentoring, speaking, writing, teaching outside of their own territory?
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Soapbox:
On Girls and Video Games 
Features
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