WOMEN, GAMES, AND WOMEN'S GAMES

Phi Kappa Phi Forum, Summer 2005 by Sweedyk, Elizabeth, de Laet, Marianne

During the last twenty years, computer and video games have become a huge commercial market. But as the computer-game industry has grown, it has spawned a gender gap - a gap that shows up in the demographics of computer-game players and designers alike. Games are, for the most part, built by and for men. And when the industry does target girls and women, it usually fails miserably.

We should care about this, for it is often through games that boys and men become proficient with computer technology. The gender gap in computergame play results in a gender gap in computer literacy (AAUW). Furthermore, computer games are a source of enormous pleasure for men; women are arguably missing out. Finally, computer games have become a powerful cultural force; as compelling, interactive, and immersive environments for story telling, they have the potential to reshape perspectives, norms, and values. If such a reshaping is taking place, women need to have a voice in this process.

So why is it that women do not play computer games? Can we - should we - build games for women? If so, what would these games be like? And would women play them? To explore these questions - and the assumptions and values that we bring to them - we have developed a new course on gender and computer games that combines cultural criticism of games with game-building exercises. Our course mixes theory and practice - computer science and cultural analysis. With this course we aim to bring together men and women from a variety of disciplines and with different levels of expertise in the development of digital technology. We seek to provide budding game designers and builders with the tools of cultural criticism. Most importantly, we want to interest women in game-building - because we believe that their involvement will lead to better games.

WHY WOMEN DON'T PLAY COMPUTER GAMES

Common wisdom has it that women do not play computer games. Or do they? Actual numbers are much higher than one might guess: almost 40 percent of all computer/video-game players are female (The Electronic Software Association), and for online games the number is more than 50 percent (Taylor). If these statistics surprise you, think Bejeweled, think Solitaire, think online Bridge. These are the games that women play; these are the games that they play a lot.

But Bejeweled, Solitaire, and Bridge do not spring to mind when we think "computer game." Our students - who are, after all, the experts on computer games - tell us that Bejeweled, Solitaire, and Bridge are not "real" computer games. Yes, these are games; yes, these games are played on computers - but real computer games they are not. What, then, makes a computer game "real"? Is it a matter of cost and revenue? Is it a matter of genre? Is it game play, or graphics, or technical complexity?

We know "real" games when we see them: Grand Theft Auto, Halo, Half-Life. These games offer rich, three-dimensional (3D) worlds, complex technology, and intricate game play. They are expensive and timeconsuming. They are games that gamers play. But what matters is not so much what these games are, but what they do: these "real" games make gamers. They act as rites of passage into the gaming world. "Real" games are the material objects around which this gaming culture organizes; they are the objects by which the culture defines itself. These games embody the shifting and unarticulated aesthetic of the gaming community - and it is embracing this aesthetic that makes one a player in this community. But as the gaming culture defines "real" games it also defines what does not count as "real." The misperception that women do not play computer games stems from the fact that the gaming culture does not consider the games that they do play as "real."

BOYS' TOYS

Computer and video games have not always been toys for boys. In 1972, Magnavox marketed the first home console, the Odyssey, as a family-entertainment device. Early games such as Pong were gender neutral; they bear far less resemblance to presentday "real" games than they do to games such as Bejeweled. But the evolution of computer games went hand in hand with advancements in computer graphics. The power of computers to create fully interactive three-dimensional worlds was seized by technology developers to create worlds that realized their fantasies. These developers were men; their fantasies led to game formulas that are highly gendered.

Today, men spend more money on computer games than they do on music (The Detroit News). The huge growth in the sale of computer games has come about because of the boys who started playing games in the early 1980s and who never stopped. Boys are inducted into gaming culture at an early age and remain loyal members as they grow up. The industry recruits new game designers from their ranks. "A passion for games" is often explicit in job advertisements, and it goes without saying that the advertisers are seeking a passion for "real" games. And so it is that gaming culture reproduces itself.