FUNDAMENTALS OF GAME DESIGN, SECOND EDITION
A Few Misconceptions
Because people see fewer girls than boys playing hardcore games, they tend to jump to conclusions about what girls want. This section corrects a few of these misconceptions.
■ Girls don't like computer games because computers are techie. This is patently false. Although most girls and women generally are less fascinated by the technical details of computers than are boys and men, that doesn't discourage them from playing computer games any more than automotive specifications discourage them from driving cars.
■ Girls don't like violence. No, what girls don't like is nonstop, meaningless violence. It's not so much that they're repulsed by it as that they're bored by it. It doesn't stimulate their imaginations. If you've seen one explosion, you've seen them all. Elling also points out that when violence is casual, sadistic, or excessively gory, it becomes brutality, and girls do not like brutality. When violence is defensive, provoked, or cartoony, it is more acceptable (Elling, 2006).
■ Girls want everything to be happy and sweet. Not true. If you read books written specifically for girls, you'll see that they're not just saccharine from one end to the other. Girls like stories filled with mystery, suspense, even danger—but again, it has to be meaningful, not just random or pointless.
■ Girls don't like to be scared. This is only partially true. Jesyca Durchin makes a useful distinction between spooky and scary. Girls like things that are spooky but not scary. The abandoned house or the carnival at night is spooky. Walking through dark streets with a murderer on the loose is scary. Spooky is about the possibility of being startled or frightened; scary is about the possibility of being hurt or killed.
Bear in mind that these are generalities. The characteristics described previously do not appeal to all girls, but they certainly appeal to many. You should take them into consideration if you're trying to make a game for girls.
Some developers, both male and female, find the idea of making games about hair, clothing, and makeup repulsive; they feel that this perpetuates a stereotype of femininity. Although there's some merit in that argument, a vastly larger number of games perpetuate a much more unfortunate stereotype of masculinity: They depict
men (and reward players) who are violent, greedy, wanton, and monomaniacal. To condemn games for girls on the basis that they're stereotypical is to establish an unfair double standard.
