Gender and Games

In an article on Gamasutra, there was a discussion about triple-A games being designed  specifically for women. Ernest Adams suggests that while women may play small or free games, not many women will not pay out for triple-A console games for themselves.

He then goes on to question Brandii Grace about her founding a company to make triple-A games for women. during this interview many key points where maid about the main differences between female and male game ideals i have made a list of these points below:

Current triple-A games on the market are custom maid to suit men more than women. The themes and executions of these games don't support the needs or attitudes of female audiences, (Difference between Twilight and Underworld in films). male orientated games focus mainly on combat or realistic graphics/physics, where as female orientated games focus on character based relationships.

A successful game that did attract a lot of female players was 'The Sims' this was due to a focus on interpersonal conflicts between AI characters within the game. These types of mechanics in-game would include deception and manipulation.

Men derive fun from overcoming challenges within games, however in many cases women can be deterred by tough challenges as they are averse to the risk of failure. Only 10% of women play for the challenge.

Advertising and distribution show the key differences in how companies approach the issue of gender in video games. The examples given are to advertise women's games in women's magazines or cooking games in cooking magazines, and to distribute games including PoS (point of sale) in related areas such as cooking games being sold next to recipe books etc.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/171567/the_designers_notebook_triplea_.php?page=1