E is my girlfriend and she is a non-gamer. That term has had a lot of definitions during our relationship - in the beginning, it meant she didn't have any tolerance for games whatsoever, of any form. Now it means she sort of accepts gaming as a legitimate pastime, and is willing to dabble a little bit in the different types of gaming available. These days, she will happily play poker with me at the pub, and at home whenever we have other players around for drinks. Without casting any aspersions, I'd still like to highlight the heavily social aspect of the game - she makes friends through poker, and gets a real kick when she wins money.
On the 360 she quite enjoyed creating characters on Soul Calibur 4, naming them after pornstars and charging through the single player campaign by mashing the throw command. It's by far the game I have seen her log the most time with and I'd say at least 80% of that time was spent on the customisation features. This doesn't surprise me, it seems to be a commonplace assessment of girls who play games, as recently mentioned by Tycho over at Penny Arcade. It has certainly been reinforced by the increased attention the NXE dashboard gets now that customisable avatars have been included.
I know it's kind of a stereotypical attitude, but I think it's fair to say that this type of approach to gaming is almost entirely exclusive to the fairer sex. E enjoys her video games most when there is no pressure, or at least very little of it. She doesn't respond well to heavy challenges in her games and is more than prepared to give up when they present themselves.
Tonight, she sat down in front of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, prepared to relive some of the magic she experienced ten years ago on her older brothers' Nintendo 64. She was unfamiliar with the driving mechanic and crashed into walls a lot. Very soon after beginning the game, she said "I remember why I don't like games now. It's because I'm not very good at them." My response to this would be that it's not a matter of lack of skill, but lack of patience and persistence. For most gamers the teething process for a new game is much shorter, but we all struggle with a new mechanic when presented with it. This is no different for us than it is for inexperienced girls.
A quick Google search on this subject unearthed this little gem - a study on the gaming habits of girls, circa 2005. It's a little out-of-date, because the general gaming lifestyle landscape has changed drastically over the last three years (Wii, increased acceptance of casual gaming, World of Warcraft etc.), but it backs up some good points. Girls respond very well to a game like The Sims because it totally circumvents many traditional game conventions (violence, challenge and competition) and places the highlight on the elements of gaming that appeal most to the ladies. Without repeating their definitions, I'll outline them here - character customisation, realistic but colourful art design, and control over the narrative. They also mention player relationships but I'm going to lump that into the narrative heading.
For the gaming public at large we're used to having these element isolated for us, but they're usually tied into one or more of the traditional aspects - creativity is based around optimising our approach to challenge, narrative control is pre-set based around how we complete those challenges and how well we did it etc. E tells me now that she enjoys customisation because it allows her to alter her own appearance vicariously through the characters. My guess is that the very same attitude extends to the actions and challenges performed by her as she plays a game. SC4 works because she makes hot, badass chicks who assert their authority over other characters quite easily because she spams the throw command and the computer can't handle it. I doubt the same theory would apply to characters created, no matter how simply or intuitively, in a game like Quake or Gears of War, because she doesn't have the dexterity or tactical mind to overcome the challenges presented. Nor does she have any control over the narrative - she wants to tell the story, not have it told to her.
A recent article in Hyper Magazine called Driving the Wedge: The Real Story of Female Gamers contains a quote from Nikki Douglas of Grrlgamer where she says "Community and collaboration are what women bring to the table? God, that is so 1950s, so retro. Well screw that, I don't want to be friends! I want to be King!"
Well, that is totally valid and okay, Nikki, but I feel you're in the minority, and that doesn't help me or my girlfriend at all. What you're saying there is that you fit square inside the demographic that is unconcerned with the "girl gamer". You're happy to play traditional games because you relish the challenge. E does not. What I would like to see are more games that straddle the line, where creativity and narrative control are paramount, but my girlfriend still gets the feeling of being 'fucking awesome' without having any of the pressure and stress that the rest of us so willingly face.
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An interesting but misguided take on female gamers, and since I'm not sure which point I disagree with most, allow me to start from the top.
While the character creation utility of SoulCalibur 4 is indeed a place where one can spend hours, I'm not sure it's an activity that's performed "almost exclusively" by females. Why would you think it is? Why wouldn't any gamer, male or female, wish to create a custom character, and why wouldn't they wish to spend hours changing and tweaking it to perfection? I do hope you're not drawing a conclusion for an entire gender based on the activities of a single participant, and I'm glad you and I can agree on calling such a statement a "stereotypical attitude".
As for the game itself, I'd posit that the mechanics of SoulCalibur 4 make it "work" for your girlfriend, rather than the character design. Compare this...
"SC4 works because she makes hot, badass chicks who assert their authority over other characters quite easily because she spams the throw command and the computer can't handle it."
...to this:
"SC4 works because she spams the throw command and the computer can't handle it."
Do you see the difference? You're applying a gender bias where it doesn't need to be applied. The game mechanics are the primary means of interaction, and a character's appearance has nothing to do with how SoulCalibur 4 is played. If a fight can be won by using the throw command, so be it, but what impact does appearance have on the gameplay? Can you win a fight with those giant porn star breasts? The role of gender comes after the fact, and your assessment of the game reaches exactly the same conclusion without it.
(Side note: Perhaps -- and I'm about to make a bold statement of my own -- there's an element of wish fulfilment on the part of your girlfriend, and her seeming desire to create a narrative of strong, bold, powerful, dominating women fighting towards success. Then again, maybe not. But it's fun to assume, isn't it?)
"No different for us", you say. Ugh. Surely you can see how such a statement positions male gamers as the default and female gamers as the alien "other", and subsequently applies a different set of standards and concessions. This is as unnecessary and degrading as your statement of "inexperienced girls", and its suggestion that experience is proportional to gender; that males somehow have an automatic advantage, especially in light of your previous "us" comment.
Can there be such a thing as "experienced girls"? Seemingly not. You seem to wish to hold all female gamers to the same standards as your girlfriend, and dismiss those who aspire beyond those standards as being "in the minority". With regards to Nikki Douglas's statement, you say that her desire for challenges and success in gaming places her "square inside the demographic that is unconcerned with the ‘girl gamer'." Why make such a tethering assertion? (And just what is this "demographic", anyway?) Forgive me, but it's as though you know exactly what females are seeking from a game, and what type of game they should be playing. And it's as though you seek to steer anyone who desires more back on to your path of customisation, no "gamey" pressures, and pretty pictures.
I'd ask you to look at your reasoning. "My girlfriend likes to spend more time customising characters than actually playing a game. My girlfriend doesn't have the patience to learn how to play games. Some other girl thrives on the challenges offered by gaming, but I think she's in the minority. My girlfriend wants games that offer reward without pressure." Hmm.
Since you drew so heavily on your own personal experiences, allow me to do the same. My fiancée awaits the console release of Street Fighter IV more fervently than myself. A female Hyper contributor hates The Sims and likes everything else. A close female friend thrives on action games like Gears of War and Day of Defeat. Heck, back in the day my mum was a dab hand at Pac-Man and Frogger.
I'm not convinced that the games you describe are as gender exclusive as you make them out to be. Game mechanics are gender neutral, and it's offensive to suggest that females are not as capable to play or as willing to learn as males. It's offensive to suggest that females automatically gravitate towards a game that removes "violence, challenge and competition". (Regarding The Sims, is there any reason why the elements you described would not be of interest to male gamers? Or is that another assumption based solely on gender?)
Still, I'd ask the two of you to check out LittleBigPlanet. Creativity and narrative control are paramount, as you can make anything from a standard obstacle course to an all-out three-act journey. Levels are as easy or as hard as you want them to be, and success in a properly made level does indeed come with a feeling of profanity-laced jubilation.
And just so you don't get any wild ideas: I'm a male, and I loved it.
Okay Darren, I've enjoyed your contribution to Hyper for some time so I'm not going to hate you on prinicple but I have to clear some thing up.
The statement you 'altered' is a fair point but only if you take the statement out of context. "SC4 works because she spams the throw command and the computer can't handle it." I have to totally, and respectfully disagree with you there.
I can't see E picking up any game and attempting to complete it using some sort of pre-fabricated unappealing avatar, presented to her without any other options. The whole point was, in SC4 she does this with a sense of ownership and empowerment, and this is what I find to be the 'sale point' for her. She saw the ad for SC4 in the cinema before The Dark Knight with me and laughed at it. Quite loudly I might add. She found the presentation fairly ridiculous. However, once she saw me creating characters and realised she could quite easily do the same, the barrier was broken down. She never liked DOA4, and she wouldn't touch Street Fighter in a million years. The mechanics are similar enough, and both games are easily beaten using spam tactics.
As for applying unnecessary gender bias, well, I'll argue that. The article is titled 'Gaming for Girlfriends' and the entire piece warrants it.
I'll summarise by trying to reiterate the point I thought I clearly made at the end of the article. There are a lot of ladies who say "girl gamers get unfairly pigeonholed". The word that must be acknowledged there is 'gamer'. I'm not talking about girl gamers, I'm talking about girls who game occasionally - I did mention at the beginning that my girlfriend is a non-gamer then I defined that as somebody who doesn't game very often but is willing to give it a go sometimes. When I say "no different for us," I'm putting those girl gamers under the 'us' umbrella. I will concede one point - when I said "inexperienced girls" I could have said "inexperienced players" and made the point better. But, again, I was talking about my girlfriend. She is an inexperienced girl when it comes to games.
Oh, sorry, I guess I need to concede another one - I did mis-word the call on Nikki Douglas' statement. I didn't mean to say girl 'gamer' I meant to say 'girl who games occasionally', but I did write it at 2 in the morning and I don't have an editor to call me out before I publish. (on that note, you want a second job? I pay quite well in the form of cheese slices and high-fives)
I'm going to shut up now because I don't want to argue with somebody I've respected for some time, but I think you misread my article aa a sexist rant as opposed to a blog on what I think appeals in 'hardcore' games to girls who have only a passing interest in the medium at best.
Thanks for the comment Darren, I couldn't have asked for anyone more knowledgable to be the first to pick holes in my theories.
Thanks for the reply. It's becoming a little clearer what you were aiming towards, but I'm still not sure on its success. What starts as a piece examining the gaming habits of an individual soon turns into applying those findings to an entire gender. Statements such as "Girls respond very well to a game like The Sims" are simple generalisation, while statements such as "she doesn't have the dexterity or tactical mind to overcome the challenges presented" come across with an air of genetic superiority, as though you're laying the blame on her chromosomes. That mightn't have been the intention, of course, but considering your entry is an examination on girls who play games written from a male viewpoint, the effect is there.
I understand what you're getting at with regards to SoulCalibur 4, but using a custom character as an entry point is a personal choice of your girlfriend, and has nothing to do with gender. If it helps her get into the game, then great, but what difference does it make that they're "hot, badass chicks", and why apply a reading that they're "assert[ing] their authority"? For the former, that's kind of SC4's bag -- it's somewhat hard to create a muleface -- and for the latter, it's a fighting game. Every character asserts their authority by virtue of the game's genre. There's no reason to apply a "taking back the night" interpretation from its presence of female fighters, just as there's no reason to be outraged at the male characters' seeming penchant for beating up women.
Help me understand this better, though. Is it because your girlfriend is female and she solely creates female characters? Or are you describing the feeling she gets from injecting a personal creation (and by personal, I mean something made from scratch, as opposed to a digital doppelganger of one's self) into the game?
As you've no doubt gathered, your piece did wave the red cape to me a tad. That's due in part to the use of the trite "girl gamer" label, and society's continuing determination to examine females who play videogames separate from gamers as a whole. Honestly, I just think it's an unnecessary discussion. "Let's examine girl gamers" has the same sexist overtone as "Let's examine female drivers". And it rarely produces anything constructive, simply because there isn't really anything worth discussing.
The "girl gamers" label (or "girls who game occasionally", or whatever you want to call it) induces prejudice where it doesn't apply. Got a brain and two hands? You can play games. Who cares whether you're male or female? What difference does it make from the view of a controller's buttons or a computer's mouse? Banjo and Kazooie don't care, and they sure as heck didn't ramp up the steering difficulty as soon as they saw someone with a va-jay-jay pick up the gamepad.
At the end of the day, we're talking about how your partner plays games, not about how her habits mirror those of her gender, or that they're a result of it. And we all play games differently. Me, I invert the Y-axis before messing around with character creation for around 15 minutes, and during gameplay I'll catch myself swearing a little louder than I'd like.
We all play games differently. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
PS: Have a Happy New Year.
Alright I'm going to pick through your first paragraph because I still think you've totally misread the article. "Girls respond well to a game like The Sims" is lifted from the article linked to in the preceding sentence, but is also common knowledge what with all of the marketing statistics and research that spewed forth from the zeitgeist in the time following it's release. So I don't really need to defend that, but I do want it to be realised that I wasn't spouting shit. The last thing you said there implied that I was speaking with chromosomic arrogance, which is untrue. Because the sub heading of my blog states that I am a gamer, and the opening sentence of the whole thing defines my girlfriend as a non-gamer, quite clearly I might add. The fact the she is a girl is totally relevant because, as stated in the title, the post is about "gaming for girlfriends".
Enough about semantics though, activating real discussion!
When you say that my girfriend only appreciates SC4's character creation as a matter of preference, I think you're making a good point. But I want you to think about why she has that preference. As kids, girls play dress up with dolls, while boys smash them together and make 'pew pew' sounds. Maybe not all of them, but an overwhelming majority of children fit these stereotypes. Is it a genetic thing? Some research seems to indicate that. Is it a result of early social conditioning? A LOT of research tell us that. So it's not hard to readily believe that those conventions stick with us as we grow up, and are still applicable to things such as the videogames we play. Again, I'm going to mention the results of that study I found - the girls studied responded better to certain elements of games and not to those that involved conflict and challenge.
I think maybe your reaction (and don't take this the wrong way, please) was maybe a case of Knight in Shining Armour Syndrome. Did you take that stance because you know girls who break that mold and you wanted to take to their defence? It's understandable, I would stick up for my mates at any given moment, no matter what the situation. But what I really want to see is a game that I can stick in my XBox, hand controller 2 over to my girlfriend and have both of us enjoy at the same time. I think you hit the nail on the head by mentioning LBP. I think it intentionally contains elements that appeal to both sexes, and also both denominations in the gamer/non-gamer divide. I don't however, have a PS3.
Just as a footnote here, I went to the Grrlgamer website after reading that article to see what I could find, and the first thing that caught my eye was a big fat advert for Neopets. Which, funnily enough, I first came across in my high school library when I saw a bunch of girls all sitting at different PCs and conversing loudly about their in-game exploits. Maybe it's gender bias, but I think that certainly says something.
Semantic discussion: "Girls respond well to a game like The Sims" is a generalisation. "72% of girls respond well to a game like The Sims" is a statistic.
Actual discussion: My reaction was not Knight in Shining Armour Syndrome, it was Here We Go Again Syndrome. Why are we still discussing female gamers in a bubble? ("We" meaning "society", as well as you and I on this blog.) You now posit that the two genders play games differently because of our upbringing; that males prefer to destruct while females prefer to nurture. From the Hyper article alone you have evidence of examples to the contrary, but consider them unworthy of discussion because they're "in the minority". Why not look at multiple instances and examine possible reasons for the spread, rather than dismissing those that do not fit? It might mean it ends with a simple conclusion of "we're all different", but would that be so bad?
A piece titled "Gaming for Girlfriends" treads dangerous ground. Broadly, "Gaming for Girlfriends" has as much credence as "Gaming for Aunts". It implies that somehow, once that mantle is taken up by a female in a relationship, a girlfriend plays games "differently", prefers "different" games, or otherwise partakes in gaming in a manner that's unlike the male. Besides -- and this is the case with your piece -- it's only as accurate as the information pertaining to the writer's better half. It's impossible to write and expect it to apply across the board, as though becoming a girlfriend results in a universal way of thinking and behaving. It just doesn't work that way, and in that regard perhaps "Gaming for my Girlfriend" would have been a better title.
But to what end would we be discussing the gaming habits of Aunt Bertha? To what end are we discussing those of your girlfriend? You've gone from saying "E likes to create characters because there's no pressure", to "E likes to create characters because it allows her to alter her own appearance vicariously through [them]," to a broad-sweeping "E likes to create characters because she's a product of early social conditioning". Which is it?
As for Xbox games that foster two-player camaraderie, the only one that comes to mind immediately is LEGO Star Wars. Along with LittleBigPlanet on the PS3, there's Mario Kart and Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii. No doubt there are others, but for the minute they escape me.
I wish to take nothing away from the exercise of debate, but I do think other aspects of gaming warrant it more. Oh, how I long for the day when one can say "Sam is a gamer", and rather than grilling for Sam's gender or arguing about what defines a gamer, one can respond with "Oh, cool. Has Sam played Halo 3 yet?"
From a social standpoint, gender is very important because it defines our interactions between people. From an industry standpoint, gender is important because it's the first thing noted in a demographic, followed by age. Whether we like it or not, game publishers have marketing departments, and they will not look at a new game like Gears of War 2 and say "oh yeah we could totally put an ad for this in Dolly magazine, because girls like games too." It's naive.
I am not saying that girls don't like games, I never said that. All I am saying is, that (to use the above example) girls aged 16-25will follow a majority trend across the board. You can argue that all you like, but marketing departments are not wrong - they can't afford to be with the amount of money spent on promoting a game (or a soft drink, or a new film).
What I'm saying, and what I have been saying all along, is that 'girl gamers' are in the minority of the "Women 16-25" demographic when it comes to gaming, the same way I am in the minority of the Men 16-25 demographic when I go and see some cheesy girl film occasionally.
The Hyper article seems to say "everyone thinks girl who play games are a certain way, but we're not" but I see evidence to the contrary - a) in the behaviours of both my girlfriend, and of other girls that I know, have met, and have heard of, b) in the results of aforementioned studies, and c) in the great big Neopets banner plastered acorss the fromt of the website where a key quote from the article was pulled.
Don't get me wrong, I am all for gender equality. I treat girls with the same respect I treat guys with. I do not discriminate and I do not operate with any sort of gender bias in day-to-day life, or when I come across a girl playing Halo on Xbox live or whatever. But I also think that adequate marketing is healthy for the industry, as well as 'focussed play experiences' (i.e. games for girls who only play games occassionally) being healthy for the industry too.
I have to cut this short due to NYE commitments but I'm sure I'll get a chance to say something further in the new year. Thanks for your comments thus far, it's a lot of food for though. Enjoy whatver revelry you partake in tonight!
Your new year's resolution should be to never let Jethro Powderkeg review a AAA title ever again.
Wait, so now we're talking about how games are marketed and advertised? Then we need to examine the suits behind the companies, not the gamers in front of the consoles. Or are we talking about the number of gamers within a specific age bracket? Where was such a thing mentioned in your original post? The age of your girlfriend was not given, nor was a reason for picking such a specific (arbitrary?) age range.
I didn't accuse you of saying girls don't like games. But I did take issue with your assertions that:
- Creating custom characters is an activity that's performed "almost entirely exclusive[ly]" by females
- Females prefer games without "violence, challenge and competition" (Though, to be fair, you cite this conclusion from a study, and is not a statement of your own.)
- Females who seek a concerted challenge from gaming are "in the minority" (You've now said that "the minority" refers to that portion of challenge-seekers within a subset of "non-gamers" within a subset of age. Again, no allusion to this was made in your original post, hence my taking it to believe that you meant across all ages.)
I don't wish to take issue with how your girlfriend plays games. We all game in ways that work for us -- everybody is different, as I've said. But again, I do question your belief that gender plays as large a role -- in any aspect -- as you think it does, and ask why you have assumed this.
Amid our discussion on SoulCalibur 4, you haven't specified at what point, and to what end, gender comes into play. You say your girlfriend's penchant for character creation is due to social conditioning (after saying she does it because she can alter her own appearance through them, after saying she does it because there's no pressure), but I'm yet to understand why you go to lengths to paint a picture of "hot, badass chicks ... assert[ing] their authority". As I've mentioned, there are no gameplay benefits to be had in siding with female over male (or the reverse), while the aesthetics only fit in with SC4's "beautiful people" mould.
Let's get specific: Does your girlfriend enjoy making custom characters, or does she enjoy making solely female custom characters? If it's the former, then that may lead to something as simple as the feeling of satisfaction that comes with creating something (a sculpture, a painting), or it may lead back to your fallacious assertion of "If ‘female', then ‘likes to create'". If it's the latter, then we need to examine whether there is any sort of role-playing, wish fulfilment aspect at work, or why she needs to feel any sense of identity in a game where character back-stories have no bearing on the ensuing action.
(With this last point, you may refer back to either the study that posits a female's desire for "control over the narrative", or your girlfriend's preference for "want[ing] to tell the story". I'd not only ask you to consider that this might also be an individual choice for E and not necessarily reflective of any larger picture, but to question why this would not also be true of males).
Your original post made a number of assertions on the gaming habits of females, using your girlfriend as the case study. That's what I was taking issue with. Over our ensuing exchange, I've subsequently questioned the merit of discussing a group as specific as "girlfriends who play games occasionally", and posited that a piece examining the unique gaming habits of individuals has unnecessarily (and, at times, unfairly) used gender as its crutch. In our debate I haven't expected you to suddenly turn around and change your tune, but I do ask you to consider some of the other possibilities, and to not automatically point to gender when it comes to examining how and why people play games. Regardless of whether or not this happens, I thank you for letting me say my piece.
This is starting to get kind of disappointing. You're picking holes in my method and not my theory - we're having a discussion, right? Am I not entitled to seek out different examples to reinforce my points? I was kind of hoping you'd do the same too. Instead I feel like I'm being forced to backpedal and defend myself using the same words I began with. It's hardly a progressive conversation.
Either way, I think I'll have to do that again here:
- Creating custom characters is an activity that's performed "almost entirely exclusive[ly]" by females
No. Ignoring a game until finding out that there is a way to take ownership of the narrative, and finding that so appealing that they're willing to take on aspects of the game that would normally drive them away, is an attitude towards gaming that I feel is exclusive to the fairer sex. Yes, that is an opinion. Yes, this is a blog, not a research paper. However, noticing that particular attitude in my girlfriend did lead me to do a (little) bit of research and guess what I found? The answer to this point:
- Females prefer games without "violence, challenge and competition" (Though, to be fair, you cite this conclusion from a study, and is not a statement of your own.)
You answered that one yourself. But, since I'm totally narcissistic and really, really know that I'm right, I'll be petty and issue you a challenge. You go out and find as many girls as you can who prefer violent, challenging and competitive games. I bet a bajillion dollars that I could find twice as many girls out who would be repelled by those very aspects. I know it's a childish call-out but since I'm not allowed to bring up new points here...
Riposte, parry, en guarde?
I feel we're both now wielding parrots on this swordfight.
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