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Games for Women & Girls Violence in Games

Foundations of Interactive Game Design Prof. Jim Whitehead

February 29, 2008

Help Sessions• Game Maker‣

Wednesdays, 6-8pm, Engineering 2, room 180 (Simularium)

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Enter on the plaza level between E2 and JBE

• RPG Maker‣

Wednesdays, 7 – 7:15pm, Engineering 2, room 280

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NEW: Thursdays, 5-7:15pm, Engineering 2, room 215

• CS 20/C# and XNA Game Studio Express‣

Thursdays, 4:30 – 7pm

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Engineering 2, room 399 (third floor, by elevators)

Course Reminders• No class Monday, March 3‣

Jim is attending a “workshop”

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On a cruise

• Final gamelog assignment‣

Due next week on Wednesday, March 5

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Game of your choice

• Final game projects due in class Monday, March 10

Gender Issues in Games

WARNING

Generalizations

Ahead!

Saturday Night Live Chess Skit (1997)• Chess for Girls!• Example from:

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“Chess for Girls? Feminism and Computer Games” Justine Cassell and Henry Jenkins, in From Barbie to Mortal Kombat

• Boys do play more chess than girls• Chess teaches important cognitive skills

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Should we be worried that girls don’t play as often?‣

US Chess Federation hosts an “All-Girls National” competition yearly, since 2003

• How can we make girls play chess?‣

Point out the benefits?‣

Bring it closer to something girls are familiar with, such as video?‣

Change the context by setting up girls-only chess clubs?

• Approaches similar to those taken by game designers making games for girls and women

E-GEMS Project

• Multi-year project in 1990’s‣

Run at the University of British Columbia

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Explicit goal to create educational math games for middle-school children (ages 9-14)

E-GEMS Project

• Girls liked‣

Puzzles

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Characters and story lines

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Games with worthwhile goals

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Challenge

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Creative activities

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Games with positive social interactions

•Boys liked‣Entertainment

‣Fast action & adventure games

‣Violence

‣Challenge

Gender: Use of Computers

• Boys tended to use computer game more than girls• Girls give up their slots to the boys, even when slots are

assigned• Boys much more engaged in playing educational games

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Much more sharing of game knowledge, focus on getting through levels, progressing through game

• Girls enjoyed games, tended to savor experience‣

Needed to have girls-only dedicated times to get their participation rates up, however

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Maria M. Klawe, “Computer Games, Education, and Interfaces: The E-GEMS Project” in Graphics Interface 1999, p 36-39.

Gender & Game Technology• E-GEMS project and research by Brenda Laurel agree:

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Computer game consoles are viewed as a male technology❖

Wii may break this stereotype, is first console to be marketed to women

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Computers are fairly gender neutral, with some bias towards being a male device

Military-style modding of XBox 360Gender of PSN Users, Sony 2008

Cell Phones• Since their research, cell

phones have emerged• Clearly gender neutral

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If any bias, it’s probably towards women

• Cell phone as game platform: unclear gendering‣

Most people don’t think about playing games on their phones, although this is changing

• Different genres of games‣

An FPS on a cell phone vs. a casual game on a cell phone

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Can explore communication as a game mechanic

Creating Games for Girls/Women• Need to perform studies of your audience

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Do not assume you already know this audience‣

Brenda Laurel discusses this in the assigned reading❖

Created Rockett’s New School and other Rockett games❖

Has PhD in interactive drama, is world-class researcher in this space❖

Extensive scientific literature survey❖

Interviewed people in academia and industry❖

Ran focus groups with adults who spend time with kids in play situations❖

Biggest and most intensive part: talking to kids and parents❖

In-depth interviews with over a thousand children

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Correct skill set for this work is a sociology or anthropology background

• Test final game with target audience‣

Must build time into your schedule for this

Laurel: Findings• What girls hate about computer games (circa mid-90’s)

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Hate to die and start over❖

“That is, like, way stupid and intolerable.”

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Not interested in climbing steep learning curve just claim mastery of something❖

Mastery for its own sake is not very good social currency for a girl,

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Demand an experiential path, and something has to happen right away

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Hate being stuck behind an obstacle or a puzzle that you must solve in order to move forward❖

However, Klawe notes that girls do like puzzles and challenges

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Take home lesson is not to dumb down games for girls. Rather, ensure that players don’t get stuck

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Not interested in beating the clock.❖

“It’s just sort of orthogonal for them to the enjoyment of a puzzle or a game”

Need to Understand Play Patterns•The industry has believed that girls don’t like computer games, and when they’ve tried on those few occasions to build computer games for girls, they’ve assumed that the games are too hard, so their solution is to make the projectiles move more slowly. It’s the computer game equivalent of pink legos. But they’re not understanding the play pattern here, so they haven’t asked the right question.

•The one huge thing that the game industry has missed is the tremendous attraction for girls of complex characters and narratives and materials for narrative construction.•Brenda Laurel, in From Barbie to Mortal Kombat

Examples of Successful “Games for Girls”• Rockett’s World• Secret Paths in the Forest• Barbie Fashion Designer• Barbie’s Ocean Discovery

Examples of Successful “Games for Women”• Games today:

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Sims series‣

Lumines‣

Tetris‣

Dance Dance Revolution‣

Second Life‣

Cooking Mama‣

“Casual games”

Gender-Inclusive Games• Instead of “games for girls” and “games for boys”, can we

make “games for people”?• Do not alienate your audience

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“Hyper-sexualization” of women• Design with the expanded audience in mind

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Multiple ways of solving a problem‣

Engaging story to make play worthwhile‣

Options for both direct and indirect conflict

Violence in Computer Games• Issue with a long history

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Death Race (1976)❖

Player drives over running “gremlins”. Rest of the world interpreted as running over real people.

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Stick figure graphics not very realistic

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Only ~1000 machines ever sold

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Stirred up protest

• “We were really unhappy with that game [Death Race]. We [Atari] had an internal rule that we wouldn’t allow violence against people. You could blow up a tank or you could blow up a flyer saucer, but you couldn’t blow up people. We felt that that was not good form” - Nolan Bushnell

Mortal Kombat

Mortal Kombat• Versus fighting game

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Arcade version, 1992• Key innovation: Fatalities

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A violent finishing move❖

Pulling heart out of body, pulling out spine and skull❖

Difficult to execute, signifier of game mastery

• Home versions made for SNES and Genesis‣

SNES version sanitized to meet Nintendo standards‣

Genesis version was true to arcade‣

Genesis version outsold SNES version 3 to 1• What lesson did this teach the industry?

Congressional Hearings (1993)•I was startled. It was very violent and, as you know, rewarded violence. And at the end, if you did really well, you’d get to decide whether to decapitate ... how to kill the other guy, how to pull his head off. And there was all sorts of blood flying around.•Then we started to look into it, and I forget how I heard about Night Trap. And I looked into that game, too, and there was a classic. It ends with this attack scene on this woman in lingerie, in her bathroom. I know that the creator of the game said it was all meant to be a satire of Dracula; but nonetheless I thought it sent the wrong message.

•- Joseph Lieberman, United States Senate•Lieberman researched issue

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Pre-Genesis data showed market was 7-12 year olds❖

Actual data: Average Sega user 22 yrs, only 5% < 13yrs

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Concerned about R rated content being sold to children

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Organized hearings

Congressional Hearings (1993)• Led directly to creation of first computer game rating

system‣

Announced immediately before hearings to diffuse situation• Tone of testimony was overwhelmingly negative• Main lesson to industry:

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Avoid Congressional hearings at all costs

• Outcomes‣

Industry wide computer game rating system adopted‣

Night Trap sold out across the nation‣

Sales of Mortal Kombat surged

Counterpoint

•In general, children understand that it’s make-believe. There’s tons and tons of evidence that boys and girls get that this is make-believe violence. And there’s also tons of evidence that says that boys and girls get equally upset as the violence becomes more realistic. If they see a character in a game get their head lopped off, well, it’s not real. It’s two-dimensional. It’s not gory. It doesn’t smell. You can’t touch it, you know? Kids in general think it’s funny. Parents don’t get that distinction a lot of the times.•- Lee McEnany Caraher (Sega) in From Barbie to Mortal Kombat

•As games have more realistic graphics, is this still true?

Violence: The Easy Conflict• Why is there so much violence in computer games?• It’s an easy way to add engaging conflict

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Ties back to fight or flight instinct, very basic

• The original use for computers was to compute ballistics tables‣

Determining where projectiles fly is the essential core of computing‣

Hence, very easy to add this capability into games

• Our society likes violent entertainment‣

Our favorite sport, Football, is a ritualized combat‣

Violence on TV is broadly accepted‣

That is, many people enjoy it