Getting Girls into the Game

[Akasha]

An Entertainment Software Association (ESA) study on demographics issued earlier this year reported that females make up 39.0 percent of the game playing audience, with that number slipping to 25.0 percent when counting just console gamers.

An AOL Games survey reported that female gamers over the age of 40 spent more time playing gamer per week than men, by 9.1 hours to 6.1 hours.

More research, this time from Nielsen/Net Ratings, stated that women between the ages of 35-49 were the single highest user group in the month of May, 2004, in terms of visiting online game websites.

A Yankee Group study published just this month reported that women far outnumber men in the you.S. mobile game space, by a 58.0 percent to 42.0 percent margin.

Her Interactive's president and CEO is not impressed with what the numbers seem to imply�that females are more likely to play casual games and perhaps seem to relish a certain kind of simplicity in interactive entertainment. "Keep it simple…that's an erroneous assumption," she began. "It's the same stuff our company was given early on, when females were simply critical of the current computer culture."

She added, "Women are, for the most part, very busy. They don't have a lot of time to play these huge games, so that is why I think the attraction to some of these casual games is high. But I contend that the two audiences will soon merge."

Her Interactive launched in 1995 as a division of American Laser Games. Its first title, McKenzie & Company, was an eight CD-ROM "high quality" game that targeted girls with content about makeup, shopping and boys. "It sold 30,000 units when no one believed in the market," added Gaiser.

In 1997 Her landed the Nancy Drew license, eventually issuing the first game in 1998. "We went to every publisher to get them to take it to retail and not one of them would put the game on the shelf." Gaiser continued, "They (the publishers) said 'Females are computer phobic, there is no market in interactive entertainment for females and, by the way, Nancy Drew is old hat.'"

Now able to laugh at the recollection, Gaiser didn't find such comments amusing at the time, "I thought that was it. If we couldn't get into retail, we were dead. I was incensed! We had targeted girls between the ages of 10-15, who had clearly been dismissed. They target females in books, films and music...why the hell would they stop at computer games?"

In reaction, Her Interactive decided to self-publish the first Nancy Drew title on Amazon.com. "The games took off and we started winning Parents Choice Gold Medal Awards. We also put a lot of marketing funds into public relations and consumer outreach." Such an approach, combined with the title's non-violent, family-friendly fare, garnered both the game and the company attention in a wide variety of mass media, including a story in the New York Times that labeled the Nancy Drew interactive product the "un-barbie" of videogames."

Once the initial Nancy Drew title proved successful, the publishers who previously spurned Her Interactive returned, now circling the company for a piece of the action. "We finally did a deal with DreamCatcher in 2000," began Gaiser, "And then, two years ago, we took the giant move of becoming self-publishers." Her has Atari as a distributor.

Since the year 2000, Her has moved over 1.8 million units according to Gaiser.

Gaiser is not a fan of pigeonholing content based on gender alone. "The mistake has been that no one has asked what females like or want. There are as many girls as there are interests and the same is true for boys, so to stereotype gets really dicey. Not all boys love shoot 'em ups or mystery games. Also, 10.0 percent of our audience is male."

"Barbie proved the market for girls eight and under and eventually we proved the market for girls ages 10 and up. To think that Barbie would suffice for all girls is absurd. If you look at the big picture, videogames is still in its infancy. In time the market will be segmented, hopefully, to include as many preferences for girls and boys as there are interests."

Girls also play games differently. As Gaiser explained, after conducting some focus testing, it was noticed that while some girls do like shooting games, they often require more information, wanting to know what their goals are and why the violence is necessary. To that end, Her has included mission statements before such segments are played in the Nancy Drew games, informing gamers with the "why" behind the pending action.

Has the popularity of The Sims with females helped advance games for girls at all? "Absolutely!" answered Gaiser. "The Sims is a great example of creating something that appeals to females, though I don't know that they realized that aspect going in."

Gaiser does think the overall landscape and attitude has changed in the interactive space in regards to girl gamers. "We have gotten a lot of calls from publishers asking us to create many types of games for them, because they want to go after the female market and want out expertise."

Such expertise has led Her's Nancy Drew series to become the number one PC adventure franchise claimed Gaiser, citing 2004 NPD year-to-date figures. In terms of customer loyalty, Her may also be unmatched. According to a recent poll, "over 65.0 percent of Nancy Drew fans have played all nine games in the series," said Gaiser.

Gaiser offered these parting words, "As a whole, the game industry is always gazing into its crystal ball trying to predict 'the next big thing.' At Her Interactive, we firmly believe that the future of gaming in terms of true market growth and opportunity is women."

"Many studios and publishers have perfected the formula for creating games that appeal to the male demographic and have collectively built a multi-billion dollar industry that rivals Hollywood box office revenues. How we cannot, as an industry, harness that same energy and creativity to develop games that grab the attention of women keeps me up at night. Our experience tells us that successful games for this demographic require an inspiring storyline; strong female characters with whom girls and women can identify; and highly targeted marketing campaigns."

Source : Game Daily