I'd love to give ya'll a bit of history on
the girls’ game movement as it may give you a bit of insight into
how "girls games" ended up such a
emotionally charged concept.
In early 1990's American Laser Game's VP of Marketing, Patricia Flanigan decided that there was a market for games for girls. So with the help of the Albuquerque Independent School District and over 3000 jr high and high school age girls, she designed a game. This was McKenzie & Co. which I was hired on mid-way through development to help bring out. We took our work, demographics, prototype and half finished game out to the publishers. Every one of ‘em responded with "girls don't play games" and shut the door in our face.
So we self-published the title and sold 80,000 units. With this success we went back to the publishers with our next game idea but we were still met with "girls didn't play games."
Fortunately at the same time there were other
companies just about to
release games for girls as well. One year after McKenzie & Co came
out, Barbie Fashion Designer came out, Purple Moon released their titles,
and Girl Games in Austin released theirs.
All of these titles had good success, but
Barbie Fashion Designer sold
OUTRAGEOUSLY well. 600K units in the first year. This was unheard of and
suddenly the publishers changed their tune from "girls don't play
games" to "how do we make games for girls??"
Unfortunately, they did what they've always done. They looked at Barbie and said, "GET ME THAT MARKET!!" and began to produce Barbie-like games at a fever pitch.
Needless to say, as the Barbie clones flooded
the market, that niche
quickly became saturated and the individual titles performed quite poorly.
Add to that the fact that only Barbie can be Barbie and everything else
pales in comparison. Then Purple Moon closed its doors and Girl Games
moved their business strategy away from games and changed their name,
and American Laser Games (Her Interactive's parent company) went through
bankruptcy (from which Her Interactive survived.) All this combined with
the lackluster sales of the Barbie clones caused the industry to scream
“See??!! We TOLD you girls didn’t play games!” And then
they quickly retreated from the idea of games for girls.
So, while Barbie helped us by opening the door to the idea of games for girls. She also hurt us as the industry used her as the definition for an entire MARKET. That is they redefined a broad and diverse market into a GENRE of "fashion, shopping and makeup for girls ages 6-10." … hence.. Pink Poison.
Unfortunately... at this time the industry
STILL defines "girls games"
this way today. They do not see it as a potential MARKET, rather they
see it as a single genre.. like "flight sims" or "god games."
This is, of course, a terrible disservice to the market that so rightly
deserves its own specifically targeted entertainment!
For now, I think we will have to deal with the fact that "casual games" essentially means games for which the audience is 70% female, because you can not pitch a "girls title" to anyone without the shadow of the "pink games" hanging over you.
Please understand I've NEVER EVER said that girls/women shouldn't have computer entertainment/games developed specifically for them. In fact, I would strongly SUPPORT ANYONE who wants to target titles to that audience!!!! I specifically target my talks and information to those who are producing traditional titles and want to learn how they can expand their market to include female players. But I also believe we can target the female audience quite successfully. (Notice that I use “female” instead of “girl” or “women”. There is no term for the female gender that does not carry with it some baggage in its definition.)
The female market is a strong, viable market and is, in my opinion, ripe for development. Just ask the publishing industry how lucrative the romance book market is. Just ask the film industry how lucrative Chick Flicks are (Titanic, anyone?)
What I want is for developers to decide AHEAD OF TIME who their market is .. and that they GET PAST the idea that “games for girls” has to be this tiny little genre of "fashion shopping and makeup for ages 6-10"!!
Gender Inclusive Game Design: Expanding the Market