Culture Clash

(March 2004)

Men are from Zebes, Women are from Hillys

Building gender sensitivity into game design

The toast of game academia right now is Sheri Graner-Ray's book Gender Inclusive Game Design, a discourse on making games fun for both sexes. Without placing blame or pointing fingers, the book cobbles together and analyzes various theories of why computer games are currently so gender-intolerant, and discusses how we can make the business and its product friendlier to female developers and players alike. Graner-Ray's book supplements a very important segment of game scholarship and development, and lays down clear, easy-to-follow guidelines on making gender-sensitive games.

Game developers are not by nature anti-woman, but games themselves remain one of the last strongholds of unfair presentation of gender in literature, discouraging potential female consumers. Welcoming female gamers into the fold is partly a matter of community support and partly a matter of making key changes to the architecture of games and the philosophy of game design - especially in advertising and the portrayal of female characters.

It is the hypersexualization of females that Graner-Ray deplores. As a female gamer and developer, she is quite clear on how damaging shallow and boob-centric female protagonists can be: they are hostile to women in general and discourage nonconsumer females from trying games. No women in game development seem to have a problem with sexy female characters, but there is an obvious problem when they are portrayed as always physically "ready for sex," or as mere sexual objects, while male characters are not. For comparison, Graner-Ray wryly wonders how men would feel if asked to control a male avatar dressed as a Chippendale dancer and sporting an obvious and constant erection.

Also, development of most female characters seems to focus on making them pretty but depthless window dressing. In a recent series of emails I shared with a female indie developer, this very subject was brought into stark and rather hilarious relief. We were discussing Lara Croft, and she said, ".If we had gotten any inkling about what things at which Lara really sucked - maybe she can't cook, maybe when she tries to talk to someone she likes, her dominant personality makes her seem like a bitch and that's why she's not involved, maybe she can't walk in heels, maybe her sunglasses really are prescription and without them she's nearsighted, maybe all the other rich people hate her guts, you know, something, and why doesn't she have any female friends?" the indictment, of course, being that the designers had a real opportunity with Lara - an opportunity that they missed, robbing gamers of what could have been a extraordinarily compelling female character. Time and again, character proves critical in developing emotionally powerful narratives.

The right solution is to develop games that appeal to both genders simultaneously. The wrong solution is to further emphasize the gender divide by producing "pink" games for girls that focus entirely on cosmetics and the design of the ideal prom outfit. To begin, designers must incorporate believable female characters without the hypersexualization we see today, and provide multiple unique solutions to game challenges. Studies show that women and men approach and solve problems differently, and the inclusion of both female and male approaches would go a long way toward inclusivity.

In recent years, women have become increasingly welcome in development and peripheral industries (both the Chair of the IGDA and the former Editor-in-Chief of Game Developer are women, and there are more female developers than ever) which is a good start, though the ratio is still way off. But we are not yet seeing much gender inclusivity in games themselves. There are some exceptions: Oni's Konoko wears the same uniform as her male counterparts, Bastila from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is very much the modern empowered woman. Both are sexy and attractive without being hypersexualized. But that's not the case for most female characters, and the industry's advertising is, if anything, worse. Witness the open malice of Falcon Northwest's abusively degrading print campaigns (visible here and here and here and here and here), which bypass mere sexual insensitivity in favor of outright sexual vilification, succeeding only in offending women and male consumers alike; or the websites of a random developer or game. Such imagery leaves little doubt as to how women will be portrayed in game content, and why so few choose gaming as their hobby.

Then there is the need to evolve storylines and mindsets. As a male gamer, I admit I'd feel weird, at first, playing a female protagonist trying to rescue her boyfriend from Blortax the evil alien overlord - not playing a woman, but playing a woman in what society insists is a traditionally male role: protection/rescue/vengeance. But maybe making gamers feel weird now and then is the best way to encourage a reexamination of "traditional" gender roles - and the sense of discomfort would probably be short-lived. I don't know any male gamers who felt emasculated playing as Mona Sax protecting a helpless man in Max Payne 2 , or any who felt unnatural playing a female superagent in No One Lives Forever. These titles barely scratch the surface of what interactive narratives sporting compelling and respectfully developed female characters could be like. It's an avenue worthy of further exploration.

Women do play, they just play differently. Developers cannot claim that they lack the tools necessary to create gender inclusive games, since said tools are now widely available. Nor can they claim that openly sexist advertising increases sales to the male target, since games and hardware without such imagery often sell as well or better. Considering how relatively simple it would be to make games gender inclusive, and considering the obvious benefits of such a move, one can only assume (or hope) that the business is already evolving in that direction. It is ironic that the industry is looking eagerly toward opportunities provided by new markets in China and the subcontinent, granting the games business access to literally billions of potential new consumers, when a far more massive potential consumer base exists in our own back yards.