Female gamers flood the industry and expect more
Patricia Moore
Although the video game industry still caters to a predominantly male player base, a growing number of female players are beginning to explore the pixilated landscape of electronic gaming.In fact, according to a recent study by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), forty percent of all players are female with adult women representing a larger portion of the gaming population than teenage boys.
Because the female fan base has largely been ignored by the gaming industry, female enthusiasts have started websites, blogs and podcasts that address gaming from a female perspective.
Grrlgamer.com and ladygamers.com offer game reviews, interviews with developers, investigative reporting and feature articles. Also, a website called Gamergirlradio.com is the first all-female hosted podcast related to electronic gaming.
Several of these websites also encourage the development of a female gaming community by offering information on all-female player associations, clans and guilds, as well as providing message boards and chat rooms where women can talk to other female gamers about their hobby.
While the existence and growth of a female gaming community may seem important to some women, others feel it is unnecessary and could even be counterproductive.
For example Stacy, a female gamer from Ohio, who spends anywhere from 10 to 30 hours a week playing video games said, “I don’t participate in any girl community stuff, like sites or whatever, simply because to me the game world is like the work world, I don’t want to be judged as a female, but as a person or player.”
Fellow gamer Dixie Williams of Florida said, “I probably wouldn’t consider joining an all female guild or clan because I wouldn’t want to limit myself.”
To game development companies, women represent an untapped source of revenue and many companies have begun to look for ways to attract women to their games. The release of the pink Nintendo DS and several other female oriented accessories are examples of this.
“I don’t think they need to do things like this. Just because it’s pink would lead me not to buy it,” said Kory Arbor of Ontario of the introduction of the pink Nintendo DS.
According to Abor female gamers are, for the most part, “content with being able to beat down a bunch of guys who did nothing but talk smack.”
Stacy explained that she is interested in a larger variety of games and would like to see more realistic character models, as opposed to large-breasted, scantily clad female characters like Lara Croft.
As the electronic gaming transforms into a mainstream media format, it’s likely, that developers will start to design more games that target a female audience.
