Scholarly Critique #4 "Alien Games: Do Girls Prefer Games Designed by Girls?" or, "Wr

It’s my birthday! And, much more importantly, it is International Women’s Day. I am so pleased to share this day with women and men who want to empower and honor the amazing women in their lives.

In honor of IWD, I decided that I would spend my next Scholarly Critique examining some aspect of girl gaming. I came across “Alien Games: Do Girls Prefer Games Designed by Girls?” and it seemed to fit the bill. This topic is deeply interesting to me, and particularly as a self-defined girl/non-gamer.

In this article, the authors attempt to determine if female gamers (these being 5th and 8th graders) prefer playing games that were designed by other girls. And, conversely, if boys prefer games that were designed by boys.

The authors in this study invited all-girl and all-boy teams to design a game involving Space Travel, working with NASA to help engage “kids like them” in STEM careers. The author also make a point of informing the audience that fewer women than men enter STEM careers, some girls claiming that “they could do it, but don’t want to.” This ties back to the idea that games are often designed with the white, heterosexual male in mind. The girl and boy teams (4 of each) then worked with NASA scientists, art directors and game designers (of both sexes) to design a promo of what their game would look like, which would later be shown to other 5th-8th grade kids to determine desirability of play.

The results of the study were particularly interesting when one examined what the male and female teams found “important” to include, and more so in terms of language and game learning. The girl teams designed games that highlighted learning as a main course, and detailed a single-player character that interacted with NPCs in the World. The girl teams were also sensitive to the fact that they were building a game that “both boys and girls might play” and so included the opportunity to pick male or female characters, with the chance to include high levels of customization physically, and with skill/knowledge sets. Boy teams leaned strongly towards violent or “fighting” games that interrupted more intense gameplay with mini-games to enhance learning. The boy-designed games had only 5 characters to choose from, two of which that were female, and it was noted that these two females, (one robot and one alien character) were characterized as “bad-tempered” characters. None of the male characters were characterized in this way. Girl-designed games generally defined “winning” as gaining achievement in-game, while male-designed games focused on besting an opponent as “winning.”

After showing these promo games to other 5th-8th grade students, boys tended to lean towards the more violent, win-centric games as designed by the boys, which was consistently polarizing. Girls ranked violent video-games their least-preferred… “On average, girls preferred girl-designed games, but that preference was not particularly strong. On the other hand, there was something different enough about girl-designed games that both genders considered girl-designed games as being appropriate for both girls and boys equally, whereas boy designed games were clearly more for boys.” (Heeter, 95.) This shows that marketing games designed by girls for girls would be not only monetarily significant, but would result in what the author describes as a “virtuous cycle’’ If more women were involved in the game design process, then games designed by women would be more likely to attract girls than games designed by men. This would lead to an increase in the likelihood of women entering careers in the game industry, leading to more girl-friendly games and, thus, establishing a “virtuous cycle.” Knowing that girls have the propensity to design games for both girl and boy play indicates the necessity for their inclusion in game design. It also highlights the fact that men designers tend to design what they like, and this unwitting lends itself to developing specifically “boyish” games. Knowing this is the first step in understanding how girls will learn and react differently in games and their learning, and opens up discussion to make it more inclusive.

This type of study is important in our examination of games and learning because the element of game design is not merely limited by what the game looks like. Games that people choose to engage with are not restricted by what is “good” and what is “bad”, but also, (sadly) what is “male designed” and “female designed.” Being aware of these biases, especially as they exist among young learners, will help us engage with these tougher questions later on. Finding and perpetuating a “virtuous cycle” in video game design will help include girls in the “gaming clubhouse” and result in a more satisfying and equal playground for all.

#ILT5320 #girlgaming #InternationalWomensDay #gamedesign