The audience of a game is always going to be the first thing a game designer has in mind because without the audience there is no one to buy the product. For video games, the male target audience is in the forefront, but as we can see, there is an existing female audience. It is not only an activity for men. Even with some acknowledgement of the audience, women are still placed into a stereotype. Chess explains that the market fails to realize them as an audience and decides to determine them as just a genre of games.This genre is pretty much what is known as female games, which was given a set of components that determined what made a game feminine. The list of characteristics, that Chess included from Sheri Graner Ray’s book, is as follows: less risk, cooperative play, avatar customization, forgiving game designs, indirect competition and less moving objects. So, this is why many mobile games are deemed convenient for women as they are less time consuming, less violent and more convenient. For example, Farmville incorporated a lot of these aspects. There was avatar customization through your farmer. You couldn’t die and the only real risk was your plants withering. Also, there weren’t any moving objects like a first person shooter. These types of games are widely popular and this is why the mobile game market is the size it is today.

With the realization of this new found game style, more games became appealing for women. However, mobile games were the female genre and the female audience couldn’t see the light of day. As women are stuck as a genre, they are never broken down into the many communities that actually exist. They are forever stuck as stereotypes like fashion, shopping and mobile games. On the other hand, we do see games try to appeal towards the female audience instead of just focusing on the game as a genre. One game, Life is Strange, is very ambiguous as there are plenty of female characters. The protagonist, Max, is not just your average feminine girl. She appeals to the tomboys, hipsters, and outsiders. She plays ice hockey and is very passionate about photography. Also, the game has very simple mechanics and time management, which would fit into the list of female game characteristics like non threatening and risk free. This game isn’t just for women though and seems to be playable by other audiences, due to the appeal of an intriguing narrative. Not to mention, it’s not a mobile game, which definitely helps it rise above being just a female game and helps justify itself within the male dominated communities.

As we look towards the future of games, we can only hope that the female audience is expanded upon and dropped as only a female game genre. It is clear that females are very avid gamers, regardless of the political connotation and fear of labeling themselves as one. They do exist even if nobody wants to admit it. Personally, i’d hope to see the female audience have more debuts within the hardcore communties because games are getting quite stale.

Work Cited

Chess, Shira. Ready Player Two: Women Gamers and Designed Identity. University of Minnesota Press, 2017.