Gender-Related Gaming Considerations: A Practical Exploration
By: Jennifer Canada
Supervisor: Jon Skinner
Masters of Interactive Technology degree conferred May 15, 2009
Thesis / Project completed: May 15, 2009

As games become a more widespread cultural pastime, many developers and publishers are targeting previously underserved demographics in an effort to increase both their sales numbers and their overall saturation in the entertainment marketplace. One such underserved category is females, who have long been marginalized or outright ignored as potential consumers of video games. For the purposes of expanding girls’ and women’s interest in videogames, it is important for developers to be able to identify and capitalize on gameplay features that appeal to a female audience.

This project takes a step in that direction: a way of providing developers with a preliminary roadmap for appealing to female gamers. This document begins by giving an overview of why women have historically bought and played fewer games than their male counterparts. Then, it looks at currently accepted research about what women prefer when they do play games. Thirdly, this document outlines a plan for a level experience to test whether those gendered preferences are upheld under scrutiny. Finally, this document breaks down the results from players who played the test level and then took the survey, looking for gendered trends within the data. Some of the categories of gameplay preferences tested include nonviolence, emotional tie-in, player characteristics and behavior, and imparting game info.

The results revealed by the data show that there are strategies for an interested developer to increase their games’ appeal to the female demographic. As an added benefit, male enjoyment of many of the female-targeted gameplay features remained high, indicating that a developer does not necessarily need to alienate its core consumer base in order to expand a title’s appeal.

Within the mod, women appreciated opportunities for non-violent gameplay, enjoyed inhabiting a deep and complex world with opportunities for relationship building and meaningful choices, and appreciated access to detailed instructions written in a personal tone.

Suggested strategies for appealing to women gamers, corroborated by this project’s findings include:

1. Have important and non-stereotypical female characters.
2. Use backstory to give depth to the game’s world and its inhabitants: the player character, NPCs, and antagonists.
3. Provide opportunities for relationship building along with emotional, personal moments for the player to experience.
4. The victory condition should have positive meaning for the player character and, ideally, the game world as well, beyond simply overcoming a challenge.
5. Craft alternate play strategies, preferably non-violent, for progressing the action and for achieving victory.
6. Include optional access to more explicit in-game instructions, with a personalized, compassionate tone. 

Download entire thesis (.pdf)