The playing of video games has often been seen as a male-dominated hobby. Women are often an overlooked demographic, and even when companies look to market towards that demographic, they do so with a specific stereotype of the demographic in mind. Along with this stereotype, comes with the idea of games that exhibit gameplay that are not typically seen in the gaming mainstream. These are games marketed towards the “Player Two,” as Chess describes it. Chess’s usage of the term Player Two describes female players as the second thought for many game developers. The games that often can be coined to be designed for the Player Two often exhibit lower stakes, lower time requirements, and places heavier focus on the player actions themselves rather than having the player actions be a means towards a win condition. 

Chess brings up one of the earliest examples of a game designed and marketed towards the Player Two, the Nintendo Knitting Machine. At the time, the Nintendo Knitting Machine was considered something different and maybe even revolutionary. A gaming product that was advertised to female players and lacked many features a mainstream game would have while also introducing new features not seen in games before. However, the fact that a product that intends for players to do knitting while marketed towards girls shows a pretty obvious act of stereotyping to their marketed demographic. There’s a message in there that tells the gaming world that girls are not interested in violent or competitive games, and that they would much better be suited with games that focus on housework, such as knitting. This in turn influences the thoughts of children who see these kinds of marketing and play these games.

In addition, I think this type of marketing is not only detrimental to girls, but also to boys as well. A game that introduces new and unique concepts and mechanics should not only be the interest of one demographic. Almost everyone I know loves the introduction of novel concepts in any medium of entertainment. As an extension, I feel that if it were not the fact that knitting is stereotyped as a girl’s activity, there would be a lot more boys that are more willing to do knitting and by extension be a marketable audience for the Nintendo Knitting Machine. 

I feel that it is important for marketing in games to broaden the demographics they appeal to. I feel that marketing towards specific social groups such as gender or sexuality is a handicap for gaming industries, especially games that are more marketed towards a younger demographic, where many are still trying to discover what they like and don’t like. If a child sees that a game is not marketed towards them, they will think that they are not supposed to like those types of games and may never try them out, not knowing if they may have enjoyed them if they did. Alternatively, they may try them out, but will fear being stigmatized for not “liking what they’re supposed to like” and may keep their enjoyment a secret.

Sources:

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