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Games Entertainment

Look Ahead To Women in Games Conference 29

Posted by Zonk from the scotland-is-a-lovely-place dept.
The Guardian Gamesblog has a look ahead to one of the two conferences to be held in Edinburgh this August. In the first look at the Women in Games conference, some of the headlines speakers share what their expectations are for the event. From the article: "It is not enough just to get more women making games. Game developers have long tended to make games for themselves, and the problem is that they are an atypical audience. This will be true of women too...The kinds of women who want to make videogames are rather different from the kinds of women whom I hope to attract as consumers. I'd like to reach out to female consumers who don't have any interest in making games, and just want to play them. That means thinking beyond the female developer to the female customer."
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Look Ahead To Women in Games Conference More

Look Ahead To Women in Games Conference

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  • I work at a software company and the girls who work here aren't your "typical" girls in any respect... but then again I guess by any standard of normalilty none of the guys that work here fall in that category either :) Make me a game that my girlfriend can sit down and play with me and i'll be a happy man. Well.. unless she it's single player and she won't let me play!
    • Well the problem is people keep making games they think 12 year old girls will want to play and that's not what most women want..lol. Women tend to enjoy a lot of the same games as men, they just tend to shy away from the overly violent/action oriented games, just like with movies. They're more interested in compelling characters and good stories more than things like that. Games where you get to be creative also tend to apeal more to women too... It's really not as hard as most people make it out to be.

  • The Problem isn't "women", it's "people" (Score:3, Insightful)

    by EvilMagnus ( 32878 ) on Thursday July 14, 2005 @04:30PM (#13067305)
    The barrier that's preventing more women from playing games is the same thing that's keeping a wider audience from computer games - they're perceived as childish passtimes. I have a sister-in-law who is perfectly normal and intelligent (holds two advanced degrees) who absolutely refuses to play computer games - calling them 'childish' and 'a waste of time'. She'd rather spend her time partying, mountain biking or watching TV.

    Part of this is a perception problem, sure, but she's otherwise a perfectly well-adjusted, 'normal' member of society.

    It will take many more years for the stygma of computer games to erode and for them to be seen as a socially-acceptable passtime on equal footing with watching TV.
    • Or you could convince her that videogames are actually therapeutic, a sensible way of releasing tension, frustration and stress...better to take out your Road Rage in Burnout 3 than actually Speed Racering people over cliffs in the real world...
      • Believe me, I've tried.
        She's normally a very logical person. But logic does not work here - the stygma of 'computer games are childish and not something a Responsible Adult does' is too strong.

        I'd really like to hook her up with another friend of mine who's a Many-Lettered Psychologist so they can chat about that. But they're on different continents, so I don't see that happening any time soon.
    • Hmm... As someone who comes from a family of female gamers, I have to speculate that her perception of video games might have less to do with her gender and more to do with those two advanced degrees she holds. I realize you said as much in your post, but I felt it needed reiterating.

      As for what's keeping "normal" people from playing video games, I think it has a lot to do with the perception that play requires a lot of specialized knowledge and they will be punished harshly for losing (a reasonable ass
  • The Women in Games conference is in Dundee, not in Edinburgh. This is the conference page [womeningames.com].

  • wtf? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by oblivionboy ( 181090 ) on Thursday July 14, 2005 @04:32PM (#13067322)
    Game developers have long tended to make games for themselves, and the problem is that they are an atypical audience.

    Actually I work for a major video game company, and I know very well that video game companies DON'T make games for themselves. Video games are a business, and lately a very serious one at that. I was recently talking to the big guy here in charge of releasing games (the chief editor you might call him), and I asked him where new games and ideas come from, how did they decide on things. Well you know what? It comes from Marketing. Now this is not a surprise, because thats how its done everywhere else too (and yes I'm not saying its a GOOD thing).

    Whenever this topic comes up, being a humanist, I say everyone is equal and you go do whatever you have to do. So men can go run around and push for their stuff, and women can do the same. But don't EXPECT me or anyone else to do it for you. I'm not a feminist, and when women ASK me why not, I basically tell them that because I'm a guy.

    Now the reason I bring all this up, is because I haven't been convinced that there are a lot of women who WANT to play games. There certainly is a vocal minority. And I think that the video game companies know this too. There are ALOT of female produces on our games (out of say eight or nine producers at least four are women), and its not because we're lacking "femaleness" that "female" games aren't made.

    But in staying with the paragraph before last, I say go for it. Go and make your lesbian hot tub racing -- er your bikini lounge---um...well whatever game you'd like to make, and we'll see.

    But don't say that the video game companies sit in a vacuume and make games for themselves.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • I'm not sure if your comment was to me or the other poster, but the kind of feminism you are talking about is generally regarded as "Liberal Feminism". There are many kinds, some of which are still active now, some of which more historically so.

        I think the idea that feminism promotes equality, is a bit nieve, and doesn't go deeper into the issue. Its true that on the surface this is what it might look like its try to do -- especially if we consider what facets of it are seen through the media.

        But ultimate
  • the real questions that will be answered are how can the industry create a demand for computer games beyond the traditional demographic of males between the age of 14-24,

    Ok, so that's the "How?" of it. Where's the "Why?" Did we skip that step?

    and what role can women play in this seemingly-epic task.

    Oh, I get why now. It's the money. You mean it might be difficult to suck as much money out of women as they've been getting from men?

    As a male I'm insulted to think women could possibly waste as much mone
  • Great, a campaign to get women into software. Equal opportunities is a great thing.

    Now can we look forward to a campaign for men to become nurses, or physiotherapists (our nearest hospital shows no male physiotherapists qualified for the last 5 years - less than 1% representation), or - shock! - stay at home and take care of the kids whilst getting equal rights for paternity leave? Or get equal rights for access and maintenance after divorce? Or even allow boys to be educated in ways that suit them bett
  • whats with the sudden splurge of articles about women in games? They play games just as much as us, just the ones they play are all called Chuzzle or Sims or something.
  • There appears to be a huge schism opening up between what constitues a female gamer and what video companies should be doing to attract more gamers.

    The more I think about it, the more I realise that 'casual gamers' is what both sides are talking about. The female gamers who can't find games to play are just casual gamers and the market that games companies are chasing is the 'casual games' one.

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