In the United States the video game business is starting to get wise to the fact that women actually make up fifty per cent of the population, and on economic grounds alone, need now to be a central part of its marketing plans. This push is fuelled by concern by a growing number within the industry about the adolescent male ghetto in which games seem imprisoned.
Precious few women have traditionally been involved in key positions in the largely male dominated video game industry. Sega of America has now established a unit staffed by women in to create games on its systems for girls. The games include "Crystal Pony" and "The Berenstain Bears". A persuasive article in "Digital Media" magazine called "Video Games for Females? Hidden Dollars in the Interactive Market", was published last year by one such Sega game designer and producer, Heidi Dangelmaier (Dec. 29, 1993 volume 3, number 7.)
28 year old New Zealand born Leila Chang is a games producer in New York for Hi Tech Entertainment, and is working to help actively change the industry from the inside. I spoke to her during a recent visit to Manhattan. "The attitude toward representing women in games is usually very adolescent and stereotypical. You know, the male protagonist has to rescue the princess - there are few role models for females in games. Most are created by boys for boys." says Chang.
When applying for her first job in the videogame industry, armed with a degree from New York University in telecommunications, she was asked by her future boss why he should hire her. She replied "There need to be more women in this business". Over the past year and a half she has helmed many games, most for the young children's market, including a string of "Barbie" titles for the 16 bit Sega and Nintendo systems. "Companies are waking up. There are real dollar incentives - girls represent 50% of the market. The industry needs now to break its own stereotypes.
"If you make a game for boys then girls won't touch it." says Chang. Many games which are popular with girls feature non gender-specific central characters. Console games include "Ecco the Dolphin", "Toe Jam 'n' Earl", "Cool Spot", "The Lion King", "Super Metroid", and "Samus". PC and mac games include those with active female central protagonists like "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?" and puzzle games which engage the intellect like "Tetris" and "Myst". Chang's recently released "point and click" CD-ROM title "Barbie and Her Magical House", involved extensive focus testing with the target age group of 4 to 7 year olds girls, who requested that Barbie be shown in a variety of settings.
The storage capacity of CD-ROM made possible this requested diversity and volume of content which earlier popular game formats, like video game cartridges simply could not store. According to Chang, earlier Barbie games were also often a 25 year old male's idea of what a little girl would like playing. "Barbie Super Model" is one such example. In this title Barbie tours the world, in a search of fame and fortune. The main market for Barbie tend not to think about such things. Chang based the CD-ROM title instead around social activities like horse riding, animals, going to the beach, and camping.
"To a lot of guys in the industry it never occurs to them why their wives never play video games." says Chang. "Women are not interested in activities which reinforce the notion that women are sitting around waiting for some guy to marry us and let us tend for them in their house and have their babies". She argues that the onus is on the industry to redefine its idea of "game-play" to include the criteria employed by female players. Chang now enjoys the freedom to create her vision in new licenses which come her way. "I know more about Barbie than I ever wanted to know!!!" she exclaims. Ultimately, she would like to find a way to give gamers "a more visceral experience, like theme park rides, where you are sitting in a space pod or something, and are being shaken around, and things are affecting you physically."
Chang believes there are now real opportunities for women in video games: "You can elbow your way into this industry, without pandering to the male ethos" And what about an emergent Antipodean games industry boom? "There are already a lot of talented people there, it would be great for them to work on stuff that isn't (always) some Hollywood licensed movie that an American company gets them to make" For those who would like to contact her, Leila's Chang's email address is kiwinyc@aol.com
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