A clever pun title about Female Gamers.

No more markets to tap, did I really say that? I apologize, there is one major market left. At least for major, high cost video game projects. Why doesn't the average woman spend $60 on the newest video game they just have to have? I see no reason this can't be done.

But first, let's define “video game”. So we can define exactly what it is that's being sold here.

“Video Game” an interactive computer program that creates and artificial context in which designed actions may be performed that are meant to elicit a desired emotional response.

Why is that important? So we don't have any confusion later on. Since I hope to be challenging some traditional notions of what a “game” is, or could be, I thought I'd get a solid definition of the word set down immediately.

Moving on, there's nothing in that definition that precludes women from liking a “game” any less than men do. So why isn't there a huge market for games targeting the female half of the population? We have Call of Duty, and will have whatever will eventually replaces it for males. But video game developers and producers are missing out on huge potential, where's the female equivalent?

In other words there could very well be a “Titanic” of video games. Or even better something that appeals to both sexes like “Avatar”. Two billion dollars (and more) to be made, but right now “hardcore” video games are mostly “for guys”.

So why is this?

The first thing I'm going to talk about is competition. Not in the economic sense, but in the broad sense of the word and how it applies to games. Competition is often thought of as a defining factor for something to be a game. And males love competition.

We have huge industries centered around competition. Billions are made just by people watching a bunch of guys compete with each other. “Sports”, at least as the average male defines it, is nothing more than competition.

To compete, to win, is a huge motivating factor for males. It's considered fun in and of itself. “To win” is as easy and nearly universal an objective for the average male as you'll ever find. In a lot of video games today that is the sole objective. Starcraft 2, Call of Duty, Halo, Forza, the list goes on. The mechanics of each vary widely. But the fun comes from competing, from trying to win. If you removed the competition most of the “game” would be lost.

Not quite a bombshell time

“To win” is not a universal concept for females. It is not a huge motivating factor. And why should it be? All of the games mentioned are completely arbitrary. The only reason that there is to care about winning is that it makes you feel good. And this is mostly because of testosterone, a hormone women don't have much of.

So, you can't expect victory or competition to be a huge motivating factor if you're going to create a game “for” women. That's not to say having victories is not a good thing. Women still enjoy winning at monopoly and etc. But you can't ping the “it's a competition” reward and expect women to flock to your game.

It's the journey, stupid

Guys like the destination. When traveling for vacation their only goal is to “get there”. Anything else is a frustrating waste of time. How can you be on vacation if you're not there yet? For women, when traveling for vacation they are ON vacation. Stop on the roadside to see that wonderful little store, look at the souvenirs in the airport, the destination is just something to move towards eventually.

Now these are broad strokes, to be certain. But they are also a fairly accurate portrait of the “average” female and male. And the same can be said of the video games each enjoy. In my experience, both personal and anecdotal, women enjoy games where the journey can be more important than getting to the objective.

One example is The Sims. This has been called, by males, not a game at all. There's no objective but one you create for yourself. There's no competition whatsoever. How can it be a game? Well it does meet all the requirements of the definition of a game I posted up above. It's also a highly successful series.

Cave(wo)men

For a solid understanding of what roles males and females enjoy we wouldn't go wrong by going back to the days of cavemen and hunter/gatherers. Humanity hasn't evolved that much beyond the time of these seemingly distant ancestors, and a lot of the behavior we still enjoy can be traced back to the roles played in such societies.

For males, the role was hunter, or warrior if two disparaging tribes or even families collided. Objective based behavior was rewarded, in evolutionary terms. Teamwork in small groups, fast reaction times, physicality, and the directed application of violence. Of course competition was also rewarded in direct attempts at breeding as well as food gathering when in contention with other groups.

For females, the role was gatherer, or mother eventually. Since, before the rise of agriculture, the location of edible plants from season to season for sedentary, partially or fully nomadic tribes was unpredictable evolution rewarded patient wandering. It also rewarded a love of bright colors since flowers are at least usually a sign of a plentiful land, and often edible fruits and berries are quite colorful and bright.

Since females would stay with the larger tribe, more social interaction, with a wider range would also be rewarded. Finally, to get all of this done females have evolved more towards a multi-tasking, management based style of thought rather than a singular, large objective based style.

Finally, since men were a bit more “disposable” from an evolutionary standpoint (at least after they bred) men have grown towards a more self sacrificing defensive posture and women towards a more self preservation defensive posture. In other wrods, while women get more reward from raising a child, men get more reward from defending one.

Now all of this not only carries into the modern age, but into how we craft our entertainment. Action movies, with their directed application of violence and usually defensive protagonist (notice how many of them have to save their women /children?) appeals a lot to the average male psyche.

Meanwhile horror movies seem to appeal more equally to the sexes; because while there is usually adrenaline inducing situations the goal of the protagonists is usually more geared towards survival than self sacrificing aggression.

Examples

So, my postulate is that one of the primary designs decisions that can be made for a game to appeal to females is to remove any intense, time sensitive objective that must be completed. And two, that the general interactions of the game must seem enjoyable themselves rather than just in the context of the end objective.

Chess: Usually a male dominated game. Highly competitive and the act of playing is not really enjoyable in and of itself. Moving a pawn a space up isn't really interesting, it's only in the context of the competition and the end goal of winning that the fun comes in. This holds up to the hypothesis.

Viva Pinata: Bright colors, no overall objective, management based gameplay, interactions that are supposed to be fun individually. It's no wonder this was popular among female gamers. In fact much the same can be said of Pokemon, another game that, while still having a male audience, seems to have at least as large a female audience. If not larger.

Sims 2 vs 3: This is an interesting case study. It's a virtual dollhouse, a game girls already play at a young age. But it has been noted that the third installment has been less well received than the second. One of the major changes between the two is that in the third “the sims” themselves, your virtual little dolls, are a lot better at taking care of their own needs.

Remember when I said females had evolved towards a multi tasked, management style mindset? This is why I believe that very change is what cause the series popularity to drop. Married suburban women may complain that they are overworked and harried, but millions still choose that life over a perfectly socially acceptable life of a career women. In fact many choose both a career and still attempt to do as many different household chores and obligations as possible.

The only conclusion I can come to is that there is some evolutionarily built in desire to lead such a life (regardless of whether it seems rewarding upon reflection). Having played both Viva Pinata and The Sims 2 I can honestly say I was overwhelmed by the amount of tasks presented by both games when they got to a certain point.

When watching women, and girls, play the games later they seemed not only far more capable of managing such a myriad of tasks but enjoyed doing so. Thus, a note to anyone at EA reading this: Bring back the ridiculous amount of management needed for the Sims 4 and it will probably gain back some of its popularity.

Fallout 3/New Vegas: Directed application of violence? Yes. Ability to gather? Yep. Choose your own objective? Yes. Bright colors, simulated social interaction, raising of other creatures? Not so much.

While popular mostly with males there is also a sizable portion of female fans that enjoy Bethesda RPG's (the makers of Fallout 3 and producers of the New Vegas, a game with near identical gameplay). As you can see these games meet the two basic requirements to appeal to the average female psyche. Interactions that seem fun in and of themselves, and no time intensive singular objective. It also meets two of the extra basic motivations for females. Thus, it sells to some in a decent amount.

Conclusion

Women are as perfectly willing to pay $60 for a game as males are. And while, due to spending habits and other factors they may not buy as many games as males there's still a market there that hasn't been fully tapped.

Perhaps part of the problem is that game designers are mostly male. This may be because males objective based thought and competitive nature proves better at climbing the corporate ladder or otherwise ending up as the lead designer for a game.

Other factors probably include the (culturally decided) edge males have in mathematics and thus mathematics based professions such as programming. Certainly the popular cultural notion of “cute idiocy” for females in the US is at least partially to blame.

And while it's beyond the scope of this blog to discuss methods for changing such we have never the less arrived at a business motivation for it. If game publishers and developers want to tap into the potentially much larger market of female gamers, encouraging an education and culture of women entering mathematics and game development would be a great start.