Greetings, I am currently a student working toward my Batchelors in Video Game Development at a college for game development and design. I was recently asked to assist in a workshop at a local gaming convention that promoted video game development to younger girls (armound middle school age). The workshop was a rather large sucess and a lot of the girls said that they found themselves contemplating a career in video game development for the first time in their lives. Upon the conclusion of the workshop the school website asked if I could write an account of the event, which I did. The article was then flamed by many other students in school who argued that the female gaming market does not need any special consideration as there are as many females in gaming as there are males. Most of these posts came from female students who claimed they were living proof of that. The fact remains that of the 700ish students enrolled in the video game development program where I attend only a mere 2% of them are female. My original intent was not to prove one way or another that there are more females in gaming, it was merely to promote gaming to younger girls who may not have been exposed to it. Though now I would like to know peoples feelings on this. I am not asking for anyone to spend hours gathering hard evidence to back anything up one way or the other, merely some thoughts on the following couple of questions: 1) Is gaming now as much a female hobby as it is a male one? 2) If it is not, how could it be made more so? Thanks for your time :)

1) No way, females have just recently started gaming in enough numbers to actually find in almost every room on a game. And then it's only 1 or 2 compared to the rest being male. They are definately starting to "get in the game", and numbers are increasing, but there are still more than twice as many males gaming, whether the girls will even it out over time I have no idea but it's increasing nontheless.

2) Just expose them to it like you'd expose any other male. I'm sure you have male friends that aren't into gaming but you still play games around then and talk about them with them and show them them. It took me about 12 years to finally get my one fried who was completely non-gamer to now actually sort of be into games. Aiming at middle school girls is a bad idea in my opinion, because first of all they have no idea what they're doing or what they want to do, plus girls say anything and even if they're really excited about something, the next day they'll forget. They may have been really interested in what you showed them, but within a week they would've been on something else. Girls are just like this. Guys are too at a young age but it will eventually fade away, but even a high school girl would do the same thing. Just do what I said any female friends or females you know just expose them to games as you would any other friend, they may get into it, they may not.

1) Dont think so, still males dominate the gaming world but I would think the femmale population is growing quickly. I saw some really hard core female proffesional gamers on mtv a while ago :).

2) tough question, I think females will migrate into the gaming population on their own.

The content of your post deals with "girls in game development", but the questions are aimed at "girls in gaming".

These are 2 very different things, are you sure you intended it to be like that?

Any girls here on gamedev.net?

Quote: Original post by rip-off
The content of your post deals with "girls in game development", but the questions are aimed at "girls in gaming".

These are 2 very different things, are you sure you intended it to be like that?

I am sorry. I see how that could be confusing. Whith the two questions I meant female game players rather than game developers. Though, in saying that do you think that the proportion of female game developers is directly linked to the proportion of female game players?

i feel that there are more girl gamers than there were before, but still their percentage pales in comparison to the male percentage. its growing though. but its a sticky issue when you say 'they need special consideration'. because who are we talking about? are we talking about the girl that walks around with a yoshi plush doll on campus who likes to talk about her 2 male characters in The Sims? or are we talking about the girl who is a chapter leader in Delta Delta Delta and enjoys doing her nails and tanning all day? this is where the market gets 'iffy' for special treatment.

ask anyone in the game industry though. the female market is the largest untapped market around. one of the problems right off the bat is that games are designed for males for the most part. few games have broke the threshold as well (see The Sims). But now a days with mmo's, there are a lot more girls playing than before. most of them will play with the boyfriend/husband.

btw, do you go to UCF?

Quote: Original post by Redcoat
Greetings,
I am currently a student working toward my Batchelors in Video Game Development at a college for game development and design. I was recently asked to assist in a workshop at a local gaming convention that promoted video game development to younger girls (armound middle school age). The workshop was a rather large sucess and a lot of the girls said that they found themselves contemplating a career in video game development for the first time in their lives. . . .


1) Is gaming now as much a female hobby as it is a male one?
2) If it is not, how could it be made more so?

Thanks for your time :)

I believe that hardcore games like FPS's are still focused on the male desire to see things blow up. The lines start to blur when we talk about interactive games. Take The Sims as an example. I would say that the success of that title alone says there are definitely some benefits to targeting girls.

So your question shouldn't be "is it as much a female hobby as a male one." but what is the percentage of games that target what females in general gravitate towards. If there is a larger portion of the market that is dedicated to designing games that appeal more to guys, of course you are going to have more guys playing.

Quote: Original post by Redcoat
Upon the conclusion of the workshop the school website asked if I could write an account of the event, which I did. The article was then flamed by many other students in school who argued that the female gaming market does not need any special consideration as there are as many females in gaming as there are males. Most of these posts came from female students who claimed they were living proof of that.

Well, think about it: if there were more girls/women in gaming and game development, your female schoolmates wouldn't get to feel so special. As for the males, it's just their sublimated misogyny, indignation and the notion that women are receiving "special treatment." I say ignore 'em.

Quote: 1) Is gaming now as much a female hobby as it is a male one?

Not even remotely. Women buy a lot of games - one survey put the figure as high as 51% - but they are perceived as buying them for partners or children.

On the other hand, if you expand your definition of "gaming" to include Flash-based games on the web, puzzle games and social reasoning games, the ranks of women swell significantly.

Quote: 2) If it is not, how could it be made more so?

Based on the immediately preceding paragraph, it's obvious that the game industry needs to stop just making games filled troglodytic cave-male trophes: gravity-defying, bouncy balloon breasts; pubescent fascination with profanity, gore and sex; a definition of "social" that revolves primarily around hypercompetitiveness, taunting and insult... I'm not saying there isn't a place for those things in gaming. There always will be. I'm saying broaden the types of games available and you'll draw in a broader audience. Hardly rocket science.


Look into Girls in Games, Inc.

Quote: Original post by Redcoat
...do you think that the proportion of female game developers is directly linked to the proportion of female game players?

The IGDA conducted an unscientific diversity survey that included gender data for game developers. It might be a nice starting point for informally answering questions about females in game development. Their survey had over 6000 respondents and gave this breakdown: Male = 88.5%, Female = 11.5%.

The report can be found here: IGDA Game Developer Demographics Report

Regarding players, I think that there is a connection between female players and developers, but I don't think it is necessarily a direct link. The more female players there are, the greater potential awareness of game development as a career. However, I'm led to believe that there are far more cultural and social factors which drive women away from game development in spite of an initial interest in playing. These factors are not limited to the game industry but are apparent in many technical fields which are based in math and science. These cultural and social factors also spill over into the less technical areas of the game industry such as script writing, music, and art.