She’s Just Not That Into You
On a recent trip up to Chicago, I attended an event called “A Girlfriend’s Guide to Gaming” — a sweet little cocktail soirée aimed at twentysomething women and introducing them to the Nintendo brand.
Champagne + snacks + Wii + DS sounds like a fabulous time for me, but many of the other ladies in attendance (1) weren’t familiar with the Nintendo brand and (2) weren’t interested in gaming. And some of them still weren’t at the end of the night.
Obviously, the disconnect between girls and gaming is something that marketing people have been studying for quite some time, but I wonder what’s so different between gamer girls and our non-gaming peers?
Let’s break things down into the fundamental reasons women might say they’re “just not that into” games. I snagged these basic categories from the marketing types at that event, although this list is by no means a complete profile of non-gamer girls. I’ll throw my initial responses in, but I’d love to see where this goes in the comments.
Don’t have time.
Gaming can be time-consuming. It’s extraordinarily easy to lose track of five or six hours while you level grind/build a franchise/work your way through a story. And who are we to tell anyone how to spend their time?
Okay, so maybe some of us spend more hours every week playing games than we do sleeping, but shopaholics spend tons of time in their favorite stores, and foodies devote many hours to tasty treats — people make time for things that are important to them.
It’s a given that gaming isn’t going to be a priority activity for everyone. But what about those minutes and hours when there’s nothing to do? Like train commutes, bus rides, long lines, waiting rooms? Perfect gaming opportunities. Handheld and mobile games are still real games, after all. Bonus: you can play video games on the train or in waiting rooms; you can’t shop or eat.
Aren’t familiar with gaming systems/games.
Shocking as it may be to those of us who grew up with a controller fused to our hands, there are plenty of women who do not have a clue what FPS and RPG stand for. They can’t tell the difference between a PSP and a DS (is that a portable DVD player?), and Halo is an accessory for angels.
Something drew us into gaming. I’m sure it was something different for all of us — maybe we grew up alongside the industry and had consoles during every generation, maybe we played pen and paper games and video games were a natural next step, maybe we had boyfriends who were really into World of Warcraft — but there was some thing that brought us into gaming culture, and there was a reason we stayed.
Guitar Hero, Wii Fit, and the like are definitely a great step towards bringing more women into the market. They truly invite participation in a way that many other console and PC games aren’t able to do. Casual games like Bejeweled and TextTwist are doing a great job of capturing women’s attention, even if they’re not as “hardcore” as most retail games. There’s still room for growth, but I think it’s key that women can find at least one game that resonates with them. After all, the girl who tries out Mario Kart might decide to check out Wii Sports. And after that? Maybe she’ll be picking up a copy of Madden.
Don’t think it’s fun.
Shooters, sports, and sci-fi/fantasy (and action/adventure, strategy, sim, etc.) really deliver on fun for hardcore gamers, but they’re not necessarily interesting or fun to girls who aren’t already into gaming. And besides that, there’s still a very present “nerd culture” that surrounds games.
Breaking the “fun” barrier is tough, because you really just can’t educate someone in regards to what they will or will not enjoy. It’s doubly difficult if they have preconceived ideas that something will not be fun. I think the solution here is similar to what I said above regarding casual games and music games. In order to dispel the “games are for nerds” idea, girls have to encounter a game that they enjoy. Maybe they have to play a game without realizing – per se – that they’re gaming, to break that stigma.
So, gamer girls: what are your thoughts on the disconnect? Non-gamer girls: is there something I’m missing, or do you have a different take on why you’re just not that into games?
Wow! I’m shocked and yet not shocked to hear about the “Girlfriend’s Guide to Gaming” social event. I’m sad they seemed to make it so superficial though, but I suppose we can at least give the girls some credit for trying to get to know the other side?
lol
I feel like the divide between gamer girls and non gamer girls is closing, and mostly relegated to older generations. Young teens these days seem to be picking up on a wider variety of non-gender specific hobbies that, back when I was growing up, were much more clearly divided. I grew up interested in video games and ice hockey, and I was looked on as an odd-ball quite a bit. Now it’s a bit more natural, though the divide is still there.
I think it will keep closing though, or at least we can hope!
Great article!
It was a little bit superficial, but I think that’s more of a marketing/branding thing than a gamer thing. Despite this, I thought it was really great that a game company was putting on an event for 20something women — it’s about time gaming got exposure as something that’s chic and exciting.
I also agree with you on that second point – I think younger girls are getting into games without the same stigma that existed in the 80s and 90s.
Comming from myself, i’ve been a gamer girl since i was practically born and i have come to realize i feel alot of girls are willing to give gaming a chance – but some use it as a tool to make men think their attractive. Which is horrible, i was just having this discussion earlier that gamer girls are gamer girls and don’t care about what others are doing.
And i totally agree with Dope Kitten’s comment, back then you were looked at odd, i grew up being called a lesbian because i did what they catagorized as “male” and people always used the gender role against me – extremely funny because now i’m a girly girl who owns a makeup site and who still does guy like things, i still game and i’m still willing to get dirty and now men find it sexy, go figure!
btw doll of war, excellent excellent site. i commend you for you work!
I’m also not a fan of girls getting into gaming solely as a flirting tactic. Why not just play games because they’re fun?
Isn’t it so funny how boys’ opinions change as they grow up? I got made fun of, too, but now my friends think it’s cool that I play video games.
I hate how some girls play games just because they think that guys will be like “oh, you play games? that’s soooo hot.” I think that a lot of the discrimination that girls get on gaming forums is because most guys have encountered the girl who pretends to like games just so they can be the sole female in a male-dominated group (and inevitably get a lot of attention).
I think that as more women actually start working behind the scenes- that is, making games- it will open up the whole thing more then marketing ever could. Its just a different perspective from the get-go that we have that I think would make games better, just as when women started writing, making films, etc.
The other side is what Sylvie mentioned. I have to add, too, that girls play with boys and the guys “take it easy” on her ’cause she’s a girl. I got it even with my guy friends back in high school, and I played games with them all the time!
I don’t know many non-gamers, guys or gals, since its just a big hobby of mine so my close friends are even casual gamers.
I grew up with it. My parents played Coleco when my mom was pregnant with me, so I never had my parents telling me I couldn’t play because I wasn’t a boy. (I think that could also be a reason too, why lots of girls stray away from it.)
Good article by the way, its interesting to see how gaming companies are dealing with getting more girls into gaming.
One mistake I think people make when trying to market games to women is trying to gloss over the concept of gaming with a layer of pink, girley “Barbie-ness.” As if they think they can sell us anything as long as its packaged in a non-gender role threatening, acceptably feminine way. It makes me think that instead of looking at how gaming “caught” the girls it has, they are just trying to set out bait for those they don’t have. Look at the sucesses, and try to recreate those conditions!
Of the girls I know who routinely put money into the gaming industry, I cannot think of ever hearing one say she liked a game because it was aimed at girls, or because it had X thing which could be considered stereotypically feminine.
We like games that are good! What good is varies from girl to girl the same way it would from dude gamer to dude gamer. Some of us like storylines, some of us like neat ways to smash zombie skulls, some of us like shooting things with better graphics than the last things we shot. And so on and so forth. If anything, games seem to fare better with girls not when they try to include us, but when they don’t try to exclude us. As in, don’t give us female characters who are basically one dimensional idiots! Don’t treat us as if we are only interested in shopping and and lipstick, and don’t treat us as if we’re all the same, either in game or in marketing.
And then there’s the other thing.. some people (some females and some males) just aren’t video game personalities. My sister, who is also my life-long partner in crime, is just not. She listens to my babble about it but only holds fondness for Space Quest IV and Mario. And its not because she’s uncomfortable bending gender roles… she hates talking about feelings and loves drinking hot straight Jose Cuervo. She just doesn’t have the personality type to really enjoy or spend money on games.
There are just some people who will never be gamers because gaming doesn’t appeal to them. Why aim marketing at the small percent who are very far from being gamers and try to convince them gaming is something different than it used to be? Don’t put out “girly bait” to try to hook the girl who stereotypical girliness apeals to.. instead lure in women who already have interests that are gateways to gaming… there are actually a ton of them out there.
That said, its nice when the gaming industry aknowledges women. It just seems sometimes thier attempts at it reinforce or are based on outdated gender stereotypes and expectations.
[...] about gender in gaming. I did a quick search for articles about girls in gaming, and found this article. The author, a girl, drops a few reasons that girls aren’t as into gaming as guys, suggested by [...]