Women in Gaming

by Stevie Case, posted: January 12, 2004 for Microsoft

When I signed on as the first ever Cyberathlete in 1997, female hardcore gamers were viewed entirely as a novelty. The online community was small, and women involved in computer gaming generated tremendous amounts of excitement, curiosity, and even derision. But the landscape has changed, and according to the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA) women now account for 43% of all computer gamers. It must also be noted that half of all game purchases are made by women.

The skeptics remain of course, and would suggest that women only play casual games or adventure games, or that the women buying games are all moms buying games for their sons. But it only takes a cursory tour of the internet to see that female gamers are carving out a significant space for themselves in Windows gaming. Countless websites now exist for female gamers of all types, from the Quake Woman's Forum to EQ Women for EverQuest fans. For as much as gamers have been told that ‘women only enjoy casual play,’ IDSA research reveals that 30% of gamers who play more than 10 hours a week are female.

The advent and increased accessibility of the Internet has played a major role in attracting women to the pastime of gaming. Although it was once seen as hobby to be undertaken in isolation, advances in technology have made gaming one of the most social pursuits in modern entertainment. Advances in the Windows XP operating system in particular make connecting with other gamers over the Internet or on a local area network easier than ever before. In fact, some of the biggest hits on the gaming scene can attribute their success to a strong social multiplayer aspect that takes advantage of Windows XP’s ease of connectivity.

Indeed, Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) have attracted a surprisingly large base of female devotees. Research has estimated that nearly one-third of the popular MMORPG game EverQuest’s players are women, despite the fact that some elements of the game’s design might easily drive female consumers away. Many experts speculate the community and social interaction that massively multiplayer games deliver is a draw substantial enough to encourage women to overlook unappealing design elements including violent in-game combat and stereotypical female character designs.

Although several companies have strived to create "pink" games that appeal to the traditional girl, the biggest hits among women are games that offer a gender neutral approach to design, and eliminate the stereotypes that frequently have driven away female fans in the past. The Sims is a fantastic example of a game that has seen huge success, due in large part to its appeal to gamers of both genders. Nearly half of all Sims players are female according to a recent Newsweek cover story, though the game has no specific element or character that is clearly designed to be female-friendly. It’s just a great, fun game that is equally accessible to both men and women. The Sims is specifically designed to encourage exploration and experimentation, and includes very few ways for players to fail or lose. These are all elements that have been shown to appeal to female gamers over time.

The wide availability of a huge and diverse set of games makes Windows XP not only friendly for female gamers, but also for the whole family. No other platform can hope to compete with the incredible selection of games available on Windows XP that appeal not only to hardcore gamers, but also to the most casual players. And though the big-budget games available both on PCs and consoles can be great fun, Windows XP allows true innovation on the most personal scale.

Once a game is released, users can often modify and create communities around it that appeal specifically to their interests, in this case female gamers. For example, many fans love to create original “skins” for the characters of action games that more closely represent what that admire. This ability to personalize appeals to the female gaming audience and allows a sometimes ignored group to create an experience they can enjoy more deeply. The accessibility of Windows XP also allows the development of truly independent and innovative games, keeping the creative process fresh and inviting new players into the fray. In fact, casual games playable under Windows XP have proven to be one of the most popular categories of games for women.

Several other factors have contributed to an increase in the number of women gaming for fun. Though it may once have been a novelty for your female relatives to use the computer at all, even my grandmother sends email now! As technology has become more accessible and easy to use, women are consequentially much more likely to use it for fun. Windows XP encourages even the newest of users with an easy to understand interface, faster boot times, the high performance, rich media, and easy communication through instant messaging, chat, and email.

Though much progress has been made, considerable obstacles still stand in the way of bringing more women actively into interactive entertainment. There is still a major shortage of women creating games. This lack of female input on game design has lead to a preponderance of games that, at a minimum, fail to provide a gender-neutral environment in which women new to gaming can feel comfortable and simply enjoy the play. Other games go further and unintentionally alienate female gamers, unaware of the impact small design choices can have on the overall accessibility of the game. The Tomb Raider series is a great example of how an overly-objectified female character can completely skew the demographics of a game’s audience and drive women away from play.

The best solution to these challenges is more involvement by women in the design and creation of games on the whole. The entryway to professional game design has always been amateur work and additions to existing games created and made available online by fans. The open nature of Windows XP makes this work infinitely more accessible, and will only encourage more female fans to take the next step into creating their own designs.

As a medium, the available slate of games at any given time ought to offer the same diversity that can be seen in movies, television, and books. Of course there will always, and should always be, games that appeal to one gender or another. But ideally most games ought to be just plain fun, no matter what a player’s gender happens to be. As a game designer, I’m striving to create more games that focus on entertaining game play, an aspect that appeals to everyone.

Stevie "KillCreek" Case is a life-long gamer turned creator; a rare female expert in the male dominated world of video games. Once best known for beating John Romero, co-creator of Doom and Quake, in a one-on-one virtual deathmatch, Stevie has put her gaming skills and genius-level IQ to work as a professional Cyberathlete, writer, game creator and designer, television personality, and accomplished business woman. In recent years Stevie co-founded a new video game development studio with a focus on creating interactive entertainment for wireless and handheld devices. She has most recently relocated to Los Angeles to pursue new opportunities in interactive entertainment. Concurrent to her work as a game creator, Stevie has gained extensive experience as one of the video game industry's rare media icons. Known by titles ranging from the Queen of Quake to the Gaming Goddess, Rolling Stone featured her in October 2000 on the cover of the Net Book technology section, calling her the "The Perfect E-Babe."

Reprinted with permission