"Girl" Games: Love 'Em, Hate 'Em

The Wall Street Journal ran an article today titled "Videogame Firms Make a Play for Women." While initially I had my hopes up, the secondary text immediately reminded me why, as a female who loves videogames in general, I can be so jaded about a thing that I enjoy. "Publishers Roll Out Fashion-Theme Games for Girls, Workout and Dance Titles for Older Females," the descriptive second-title reads. Cue the disgruntled harrumph and the cynical eye-roll, please.

"Videogames have long been considered the domain of teenage boys and young men. Though a few publishers have developed computer games for women, the genre wasn't considered significant until the past several years. Nintendo helped fuel the change with its touch-screen DS portable device five years ago and Wii console three years ago, providing easy-to-play games that appealed to a broader audience—including women—and helped spur its sales."

As someone who has been playing videogames since she was old enough to grapple a joystick or smash buttons on the keyboard, I have truly come to despise the way that the female gaming audience has been addressed in the recent years. Before I go further: of course it is better that the gaming industry is address their female market at all, which has by and large been the standard practice for the lifetime of gaming. That aside, it doesn't stop me from wishing they'd do, well, better.

I do appreciate that Nintendo releases a variety of games that introduce many different types of people to videogames as a whole. One of my all time favorite games, and probably the most memorable game of my childhood, was a Nintendo game (Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time to be exact). Nintendo deserves its well-earned success in the market of making extremely user-friendly games that really get at the heart of the light, carefree, and playful videogame experience.

That said, it doesn't just confuse me, it irritates me when the industry seems surprised that girls and women aren't more interested in their products. While there is something to be said for the fact that women and girls are less socialized to enjoy violent pursuits (little boys are targeted for dinosaur ads, while little girls get Barbie), there is a problem with how the videogame industry treats women in its content, and more relevantly to this blog, its advertising.

For example: it doesn't matter if you're making what is considered one of the best franchises (Soul Caliber) in its genre (fighting) -- if you treat women like objects and have players who go on and on about the physics behind how the stupidly-oversized boobs move, guess what, chicks are probably not gonna touch that with a 40-foot pole (unless they have already been introduced into the market by a different game).

The objectification of women -- or their sheer absence from many mass-marketed titles -- should make for a goddamn no-brainer in my opinion. It might be a myth that you draw more flies with honey than vinegar, but what the videogame industry is doing is the equivalent of soaking their product line-up in Raid.

How this relates back to Nintendo and the WSJ story: why do videogame marketers assume that the only way to get women to play games is to give them things that are "easy-to-play," let alone that have to be about fashion and weight-loss?

Since then, publishers have made a serious effort to develop mass-market games beyond the usual shooter, racing and sports titles. According to financial firm Wedbush Morgan, female game players now account for about 40% of the overall market, compared with the IDC research firm's estimate of less than 12% in 2001. Wedbush calculates that a 5% increase in female players could translate into as much as $1 billion in new revenue every year.

Five percent more chicks, a billion more dollars, and no one has had the bright idea to just try to INCLUDE female gamers into the games that are already being made successfully? I posted recently about the controversy behind Left 4 Dead 2, but regardless of how anyone feels towards the release of the sequel, Left 4 Dead is an amazing example of a game which has appeal among female players.

Among the characters one can choose from is a young woman (named Zoey) who is fully clothed, operates with exactly the same stats as the male characters, and rather than being a strained, sex-kitten personality in the post-apocalypse, she is actually more of a stereotypical "geek" than the rest of the characters. L4D, particularly the PC version, is often considered (within the gamer community) as the best chance one has of playing with female gamers in a FPS.

Now that I've been over the "hate" I have for the idea that the only games girls and women want are cutesy fluffy things, I will reiterate that, despite this, I love that girls and women are actually getting some attention from the industry at all. My mother bought a Wii and a WiiFit within the last couple of years and, though I know I'll never get her to play L4D with me (I've tried), it's nice to see someone enjoying the fun that comes with playing a videogame, regardless of how or why it got into their hands.

And who knows... I can snarl and spit about sugar-coated games being force-fed to the young female gaming audience all I want, but maybe Littlest Pet Shop is actually prepping the next 7-year-old girl for her introduction to dominating the leaderboards of future Call of Duty games.

Can DLC Effectively Advertise a Controversial Sequel?

The popular, many-time award winning game Left 4 Dead launched for Xbox 360 and PC on November 18th, 2008. Since then it has amassed an extensive and devoted fan base across both platforms. Players team up as survivors who must work together if they way to make it through the through zombie-ridden territory to safety -- or, alternatively, group up as "special infected" and do their best to separate and incapacitate the survivors.

Controversy arose amongst the PC gaming community (in particular the Steam Community, as Steam distributes the PC version of L4D) when a sequel was announced at the 2009 E3 Convention. Understanding the controversy -- and why it was so specific to the Steam community rather than the Xbox community -- requires a bit of knowledge about how PC gamers think.

Unlike console gamers who are accustomed to purchasing new games on a fairly regular basis, where DLC (Downloadable Content) is not as integral to the experience, popular computer games are released less frequently. They are often supported by a wide net of casual but talented programmers who add their own modifications to give the game more diversity, and more relevantly, publishers of PC games are much more likely to distribute DLC that further extends a game's shelf-life.

The announcement of a sequel was welcomed by the Xbox community, who was eager for new content. The Steam community, on the other hand, saw it as a distasteful act of greed. Over 25,000 players signed a petition against the release of Left 4 Dead 2.

Valve, L4D's publishing company, responded by attempting to pacify the petitioners with promises of new DLC for the original game, as well as the release of more tools to further strengthen the Mod-making community. True to their word, "Crash Course," a new, two-level campaign for L4D was announced this summer and went live a couple weeks ago for both platforms.

Interestingly enough, the new content was free for all players running Steam -- but cost $7 for Xbox 360 users (who already pay at least $10 more for the original game copy than the less expensive PC version).

The question now becomes: will "Crash Course" pull its weight? It seems like a smart move. Ideally it will 1) alleviate some of the concerns of the Steam community by following a business model with which they are more familiar, 2) generate excitement for the upcoming sequel, and 3) build Valve's brand reputation as a fair and customer-focused game publisher. In the gaming industry the very best advertising is structured around creating a loyal fanbase.

Successful franchises are those that deliver quality in each of their sequels: big hit series like Grand Theft Auto, Legend of Zelda, Halo, Call of Duty, and so on are all clear examples of this phenomenon. Quality DLC such as "Crash Course" for L4D may well kick up the buzz for the sequel.