Silicon Sisters Say Game Industry Still Doesn't Understand Women

[Dense_Electric]

So games about killing and violence are exclusively enjoyed by men, which is of course in no way a horrible generalization itself, so the logical thing to do to combat this disgusting sexism is to imply that all women are gossipy bitches driven by raw emotion and nothing else.

 

[zehydra]

I think that, like other people have already pointed out, there are PLENTY of games out there that are not specifically male-oriented.

 

[chinangel]

as a girl gamer I have to say:"WHAT THE FUCK!?" My favourite games are shooteres. When people say 'games for girls' i automatically think of cooking mama or harvest moon with breasts or something.

-_-

Seriously..just make GOOD games. Forget which gender you'r pandering too, just make games! I'll play Bayonetta just as much as any other game if it's done WELL!

 

[SouthpawFencer]

From what I know of women gamers (being one, and having several other female gamers as friends) I would say that we like games, but we aren't exactly satisfied with games "just the way they are".

I can like something and still wish it were better. Like... Alfredo pasta. I love Alfredo sauce, but it just isn't as good without grilled chicken on top.

Right now, the games industry feels like Alfredo pasta without chicken. It's good - but it's missing something. I think these guys have a start on that idea.

Generally (from what I've seen) women tend to like RPGs because we have a finer control over the story, and what we tend to chafe at (again, from my perspective) is where the only options the game gives feel... off. Subtlety is one thing, but I don't think it's the only thing - but it would be a nice start.

I'm going to sort of put you on the spot here, since I'm a male gamer and really have no idea what would make games appealing more to women: Can you name any SPECIFIC changes or additions you'd make to a game like Dragon Age: Origins or Mass Effect (1 or 2) so that you'd find it more appealing? Or failing those, another game that you can think of? Alternatively, aspect of games that make you say "...And they wonder why there's so few women gamers..."?

In the name of fairness, I'll start:

Jiggle physics and other blatant pandering detract from my enjoyment of a game. And, having mentioned DAO: earlier: Having the characters wearing a shirt to bed. The bra/underwear attire always struck me as gratuitous. Hardly the worst offender, granted, but still...

I was also annoyed in Mass Effect 1 that I couldn't give Femshep a nice, big noticeable scar like I could my male characters. And the restriction also seemed unnecessary. Plus... makeup? For an Alliance Special Forces Marine...? Am I going to hit that Geth Shock Trooper with my purse next?

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

Not only do many women gamers ENJOY the shooting and such, but like it or not, the majority of gamers are guys and companies must market games with this in mind.

 

[Sylveria]

"I use persuasion as an example. That's something women are incredibly good at: persuading people with our words and our thoughts and our bodies... and how do you translate something like that into a mechanic?" she said. "If that's something that we're good at and gives us a visceral sense of satisfaction, then how do we turn it into gameplay?"

Thanks sis, you've effectively stated that women want game mechanics where they can sexually and emotionally manipulate people. Way to put a good stuff forward for women in gaming. They also come off as those oh so wonderful modern feminists, ya know, the kind that are truck drivin, flannel wearin, man hatin, lesbians, saying that all men want is mindlessly violent shooters and sports. I guess all those other genres don't exist? And it really kinda disgusts me that anyone can sit there straight faced and say that games, any games, are "perfect." That reeks of small mindedness and leads to stagnation, but judging by their comments, that's an area they are very comfortable with.

It sounds to me like this girl wants to play interactive story games like Sakura Wars and the like, just with a more fem-dom twist to it... which there's plenty of hentai games that fit that description. Or on a less disturbing note, what about the Pheonix Wright games? They're all about using verbal persuasion. Or the the social sim segments of the Persona games?

What someone enjoys in a game is unique to the individual, not a sex. I(one of those female things) like playing RPGs, watching my stats go up, getting new skills and figuring out strategy. My brother likes wrestling games, mindless, impactful combat. My 53 year old mother loves those mindlessly violent shooters and time management games.

Silicon Sisters, for the sake of all women who game, shut up, you're not helping.

 

[The Unworthy Gentleman]

I think she's a sexist twat that can fuck off.

Silicon Sisters' first game, an iPhone released entitled School 26 [http://www.school26.ca/], is a game of "empathy, strategy and relationship building" aimed at girls aged 12 to 16.

So what women want is empathy and relationships in their games? I would very much like to see their studies that show this, otherwise it's sexist assumption. These people are as bad, if not worse, than their male counterparts, boxing everybody up and then releasing a stereotypical, shit game.

No, games for women certainly aren't perfect and yes, most games are targeted at men, but that doesn't mean we need to start making games where the objective is drive to the shop, buy some tampons and then manage a stressful relationship with family and friends, people get enough of that in real life.

 

[Halcyone3]

In all seriousness, the fact that its considered serious "research" and money was spent on it, to get to this result, is truly saddening.

 

[jameskillalot]

Who is going to take the words of a company called Silicon Sisters Interactive about anything, the title displays an obvious lack of gender sensitivity, so why would you listen to anything they have to say on behalf of females. People like what they like, so they make games that sell, most - I say MOST - of the gamer population is male so obviously they are the focus of the industry. It's like how fashion is targeted towards mostly women, certainly anyone can appreciate it, but women are the main focus since they spend more money on it as a general rule. If you think this is insensitive please take into account how many males play Halo vs Females and how many men have more than 3 pairs of shoes (work, gym, general) and how many women have less than 3 pairs of shoes.

 

[Char-Nobyl]

The founders of Silicon Sisters Interactive [http://www.siliconsisters.ca/] say the videogame industry has perfected the art of making games for guys but still doesn't understand what women want.

Oh God. I smell the distinct and frightening odor of "feminism." And I don't mean feminism, I mean "feminism," with the quotation marks. The sort of white-knighting that detracts from the accomplishments of actual/relevant feminism.

But eh, I'll keep going. Maybe I smelled wrong.

Life is good if you're a male gamer. You can shoot things and blow stuff up and drive around and punch people until you're blue in the face and you'll still never run short of videogames to play. But the situation is different if you're a girl gamer, according to Silicon Sisters CEO Brenda Bailey Gershkovitch, because the industry still hasn't figured out how to give you what you really want.

...goddamnit. And what about the girls that do enjoy that sort of thing? I guess they're just doing it wrong? "It" in this case being "their gender."

Why is it that a girl and a guy can't enjoy the same things? And why does it seem that only another woman is capable of ever comprehending what a girl wants to play?

"What we've seen is a fairly superficial offering where, in the absence of truly understanding what women want in terms of game mechanics and connection, what we're getting is a female wrapper around a game that's really designed for men," she told GamesIndustry [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-08-22-the-great-divide-interview?page=1]. "But while that works to some degree it's not going to, in my estimation, really build the gaming community, and really contribute to that aspirational goal of finding out what it is that women connect with when they game."

But by and large, people don't buy games based on whether they're "Man Games" or "Woman Games." You buy shooters if you like shooters, RPGs if you like RPGs, etc.

The Vancouver-based Silicon Sisters was founded in July 2010, following six months of research into the ways women "game differently" than men. "There are an enormous number of academic studies that cover tiny slices of female play in all kinds of different ways," explained Silicon Sisters COO Kirsten Forbes. "We complied all of that together and saw certain trends emerge."

"It took 30 years to really perfect the three things that males seem to really love, which are shooting, and driving, and sports," Forbes said. "And those are absolutely kick-ass games now, and you really have to sit back and go, 'What is the equivalent for girls? And please God, don't let it take us 30 years to get to as high a quality level as that.'"

Oh God. I'm dreading what's to come from their 'findings.' They've already stated that men love violence and high-speeds, so the inverse would be...?

Women have evolved to deal in "subtleties," Forbes said, and so the female equivalent of the visceral thrill men feel when they shoot something will likewise be more subtle. "I use persuasion as an example. That's something women are incredibly good at: persuading people with our words and our thoughts and our bodies... and how do you translate something like that into a mechanic?" she said. "If that's something that we're good at and gives us a visceral sense of satisfaction, then how do we turn it into gameplay?"

"...persuading people with our [words, thoughts, and bodies]"?

Wait a minute. Men prefer guns and car chases, while women prefer suave seduction? They didn't conduct any actual research! They just watched a bunch of spy movies and assessed how the male spy behaves versus the female spy!

Silicon Sisters' first game, an iPhone released entitled School 26 [http://www.school26.ca/], is a game of "empathy, strategy and relationship building" aimed at girls aged 12 to 16. The studio also has at least one game aimed at older players in pre-production.

*headdesk* I think I see what's going on. They're trying to make games for girls, and they're targeted at girls who aren't gamers.

Please...don't patronize female gamers like this. Say that you're trying to appeal to a wider audience, by all means, but don't say that girl gamers have been having fun by mistake because they enjoyed things from the supposedly all-male games market.

Look at the picture! "So that's why I'm going to get back at Emma"? Did your study indicate that women only have fun when they're being passive-aggressive and catty?

 

[NotSoLoneWanderer]

I play Pokemon and Nazi zombies with my female friends. Sure they're not very good and I have to single handedly save them all when they got downed after they wander away from me but they still have fun nonetheless. I can't beat them in Pokemon though because they all trade together to make dream teams. Oh and fan fiction anyone?

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

But but...I like shooting things and blowing things up

That screenshot looks like the most fail game ever.

I think these 'Silicon sisters' have no clue what they are talking about, I'm happy playing the current games although a female avatar is nice for immersion. I have been playing games for 25 years so I'm not exactly new to the party...

I just shook my fist at them on twitter.

 

[Roganzar]

I don't understand women. I have spent a lot of time around them too.
Most men don't understand most women most of the time. (Planetary alignments and freak accidents not withstanding.)
Hell, I bet most women don't understand most other women.
Double Hell, I probably don't understand most people in general. Serously, why are there shows like Bachelor Pad on primetime network TV.

If Silicon Sisters don't like humanity's misunderstanding of the entire gender, than please show us how a game should be made to properly appeal to the female gender. I will bet good money that it will be as much of a mess as Duke Nukem Forever turned out to be.
Seriously, the game about being super-manly was complete junk then a game about being a real woman/girl/whatever will be just as bad.
Eventually a good game with a well-written, properly voice-acted, female protagonist will come out.
On that day the gaming community will come together and probably HATE it regardless of all of the fine qualities such a creature posessed, because no one is ever happy on the internet.

 

[flatten_the_skyline]

Though I agree on the thesis that most games are aimed at men, I also think that the example they present is the worst stereotype POS I'Ve seen in a long time. What disturbs my gf in most games is the stereotypes in characters, where female characters are still often personalized as weak while the male saves the world. (There have been many good exceptions though) Okay, I admit, she wouldn't like to shoot things, and she LOVED the SIMS series, but I wouldn't exactly explain this with her biological sex or her gender, but with her personality. Right Now we're both playing Drakensang, enjoying it equally, and she didn't mind slaughtering a hundred religious fanatics either...

 

[fulano]

"I use persuasion as an example. That's something women are incredibly good at: persuading people with our words and our thoughts and our bodies... and how do you translate something like that into a mechanic?" she said.

I'm a guy and I find that depressingly sexist.

Sorry if I'm being harsh but that just sounds like a slut-simulator. One nasty stereotype of women is they use their sexuality to mainpulate people at the cost of demeaning themselves. I don't know, maybe like violent video games it works as a release mechanism but I really worry that such attitudes that women really get satisfaction from this should be pursued.

PS: not all games are shooty-blasty-racing stuff:
-Portal 2
-Civilisation V
-Flower
-Braid
-Mirror's Edge
-Flower
-Echochrome
-Minecraft

Don't tell me that Minecraft's satisfaction of building is purely a male quality. Even if that's true I think that's an instinct that would be good to instil in all females

I hope she is hideously hideosly wrong, but then I consider my sister and the only game she ever liked was The Sims, where she would micro manage and tormet these poor gibberish people's lives. Like a god.

Then when I blow up an alien invaders head to save the world from apocalypse she is like:

"Oh, why can't you play a nice game like The Sims"

Sorry. But as far as I'm concerned games like The Sims are softcore torture porn. It's not a game where the aim is to make them happy, they are playthings to manipulate and toy with.

They are not saying anything controversial and the list of games you cited does not further your argument of there being actual some meaningful choice involved one bit b/c I could easily cite a different one where all you do is blast shit.

They are all plainly pointing at the elephant in the room which is the simpole fact that games are made to cater to male tastes, mainly. Most of the action in the industry is geared towards a forceful form of agency; hence why many women prefer to exhert theirs in different ways like in The Sims where-while it may indeed be torture porn-they may choose to not play the part of the torturer; or in Mass Effect where shooting shit is not the most important aspect of the story; or, yes, neutral Minecraft, where they can play the game without an invisible arbiter enforcing strict rules upon them (the same as everyone else who likes the game irrespective of their gender).

Males and females do not approach agency in the same way. Our brains are wired differently. What is so wrong in acknowledging that? If you notice, games that are less constrained by specific mechanics are the ones that are more well liked across the board by different demographics.

And...so what if they wanna play a slut simulator?

 

[Zykon TheLich]

Hmm, yeah, I smell marketing bullshit to accompany release of game...an i-phone app targeted at young teenage girls, not really surprising that they would come out with such insipid twaddle.

 

[solemnwar]

I am a girl.
I love Bulletstorm.
I love Prototype.
I also l ike a myriad of other games.
I love it when those that accuse others of stereotyping stereotype themselves...

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Eventually a good game with a well-written, properly voice-acted, female protagonist will come out.

What like Mass Effect? That's good enough for me. I love my femshep.

I am a girl.
I love it when those that accuse others of stereotyping stereotype themselves...

Here here! Good way of putting it.

 

[Roganzar]

Eventually a good game with a well-written, properly voice-acted, female protagonist will come out.

What like Mass Effect? That's good enough for me. I love my femshep.

I love Mass Effect its one of the best modern day games, (I've been gaming far to long) and I will not deny the quality of Femshep. I played a Female Hawke in Dragon Age 2 as well.
I was trying to point out that a game that is the Feminine equivalent of Duke Nukem Forever (a hyper masculine focus to the game) would be equally as bad. Also, a little hyperbolic, and sarcastic, commentary on the internet. I bet you could find out there in this mass of tubes we call the interweb, a group of people that hate Femshep and find it very poorly written and not really a proper female.
I for one find Mass Effect to be one of the best written series in recent years.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Eventually a good game with a well-written, properly voice-acted, female protagonist will come out.

What like Mass Effect? That's good enough for me. I love my femshep.

I love Mass Effect its one of the best modern day games, (I've been gaming far to long) and I will not deny the quality of Femshep. I played a Female Hawke in Dragon Age 2 as well.
I was trying to point out that a game that is the Feminine equivalent of Duke Nukem Forever (a hyper masculine focus to the game) would be equally as bad. Also, a little hyperbolic, and sarcastic, commentary on the internet. I bet you could find out there in this mass of tubes we call the interweb, a group of people that hate Femshep and find it very poorly written and not really a proper female.
I for one find Mass Effect to be one of the best written series in recent years.

Actually I'd argue Lara Croft is a good parallel to Duke Nukem. The media made her into a bimbo, in game she is actually very capable, intelligent and deadly. It's a just a shame her image got so twisted.