Back in the 80s, someone tried to make a game for women and came out with Pac-Man. Today, someone tries to make a game for women and comes out with... Imagine: Babyz. One is inclusive, approachable and timeless, and the other is the video-game equivalent of spit in the face.

That basically sums up the current game industry's attitude and approach towards expansion in my eyes. I would have loved to be in that boardroom... "We've already burned through cooking and fashion... what else are women good for..." "Having babies, sir?" "Of course! What self-respecting women wouldn't trip over their heels for a chance at simulating motherhood! Fantastic job, everyone, bonuses all round!" The whole situation just gives me the willies.

It seems to me that the industry sees the success of The Sims among the fairer sex as being tied to its dealing with domestic life and "woman stuff" rather than its habit-forming gameplay and ability to accessibly convey a sense of omnipotence and voyeurism. Also, it's hard not to get the sense that since women do not traditionally play as many video games that they must have lower standards (perhaps that's just the women in their lives).

Anyway, I just thought I'd share that fascinating historical tidbit concerning Pac-Man and perhaps spark some discussion concerning the apparent myopy and misogyny of our beloved industry, and how it might be able go about expansion with a greater degree of success and tact. It may just be me, but I would see Pac-Man as an ideal initiation into gaming for either sex, whereas the Imagine line seems to follow a slash-and-burn approach to extracting video-game dollars from the female wallet. What do you guys think? Agree? Disagree? Pointless discussion?

Imagine: Babyz is not a game targeted towards women. It's meant for little girls, come on.

Little girls are arguably sexier than women. Wait what?

Kingdom Hearts
a game made for girls but made guys go homo.

Err, wait-what...? :-S

I find most female gamers I know actually like a wider variety of games than just The Sims or Cooking Mama. Wii games (Mario Kart, Wii Fit, Galaxy) and MMOs are also popular games among my female gaming friends. I don't think this is the case for all female gamers (I have one friend who is SICK at Dota) but girls play games more than ever these days (some 40% of gamers are female? Something like that?).

The female demographic is growing, and developers/publishers want to cash in, so of course these kinds of games (Imagine: Babyz) will surface, but I don't feel they represent the industries view of women as a whole.

Take a look at Bioware, some their games are controversially known for the 'sexual path' (so to speak) a character can take. Last I checked, most straight males, while playing a female character, aren't too keen on hooking up their character up with a guy. It can get kind of awkward (I feel bad for the achievement junkies out there in this case haha), especially if you are really absorbed in the game, and you feel some kind of connection with your main character. Having a guy hit on you must be awkward in that situation.

So it would seem to me that developers are really starting to recognize that female gamers play all kinds of games, like male gamers do, and they are taking steps (albeit some small ones in some cases, and some BAD steps in other cases) to acknowledge that.

Oops, didn't mean to insinuate that you thought female gamers are only into The Sims or Cooking Mama.

I feel bad for female gamers who play Halo/COD. And I quote:
Some girl - "Hi guys what's up?"
Some 14 year old - "OMG, are you a girl? are you hot?"
The girl - *turns mic off*

I think the biggest problem is how male gamers, the ones who still view the gaming industry as a dominantly male-oriented industry, think of and treat female gamers.

Pac man was an early "blue ocean" title -- that is true.
But as has been said, the counter-example you site is a series of games for "tween" girls -- not all females.

Of course, this points to a problem within the industry -- people don't understand that everyone is a potential gamer. It makes the "core" gamer upset because they see others on their "turf." It makes the developers upset because these new gamers don't behave in the same way as "core" gamers (they don't want/need the new monthly title in a genre) -- which make them far more difficult consumers.

Mike from Morgantown

Just 2 points on the bolded:

1. Wouldn't the main female character be the one hitting on NPC rather than the other way round? The choices are there for them to completely snub that character.

2. OMG?! WTF?! That's really terrible!

OT:

From my experience, most of the girl gamers I know tend to play games where reactions aren't essential, but prefer games with a more cerebral experience. Basically, strategy and adventure games. The market is wide open for them really, and actually there are quite a few games that are on the PC (and some on Wii now) that appeal to female gamers that don't fit the stupid sterotypes that the games mentioned in the OP do. The gamers and the market are there (and probably a lot larger than we know), its just not widely known in the core gaming circles.

Haha, in regards to 1, in Dragon Age: Origins, you have an approval rating with different characters. As that rating gets higher, you get party wide buffs, so I would boost the rating through saying nice-ish things (not necessarily flirty) and giving gifts they like. After a while, the characters would all start hitting on you. 2 of the female characters starting 'fighting' over me at one point.

Character A - "You know I don't share well

Character B - "Whatever do you mean?"

A - "You know what I mean, back away"

Haha it was pretty funny (one of the reasons I love that game is the character interactions).

As for 2, yeahhh it's happened plenty of times on Halo (no one really talks in CoD).

Oh, I would have to agree. More and more female gamers are getting into the fold and it would be ridiculous to insinuate that the possession of ovaries precludes enjoyment from more complex titles, and inclusive titles like Mario Kart or Wii Sports (or Pac-Man) are the way to go in terms of expansion as I see it. The problem is, the game industry at large equates female gamers with their vision of the "casual gamer": uneducated zombies whose lower standards allow them to consume vast quantities of sub-standard degradation.

Publishers look at the success of Wii Sports among women and wonder to themselves how they can jump on that wagon, so off to the blackboard they go. "Wii Sports Knock-Off + X = Lady Dollars... how can we makes the womenfolk go crazy..." "Celebrity gossip, sir?" "B-b-bonuses for everyone!" And lo and behold, out comes Celebrity Sports Showdown.

The genuine female gamer is also an anomoly in their eyes. They fail to recognize that women could be hungry for the same complexity and quality that titles such as Call of Duty or Assassin's Creed afford, but are often repelled from such titles due to their exclusion and ignorance of a possible female audience.

And I realize that Imagine: Babyz isn't being targeted at adult women, but it is nonetheless being targeted squarely at a female audience, and I would argue that the fact that they're perpetuating and peddling those tired notions of gender role to that young an audience goes beyond the realm of poor business decision to moral reprehensibility.

It just kills me that nearly 30 years ago the concept of intentionally female-friendly gaming that was neither shallow nor demeaning could have been absolutely nailed, and that in 2009 as people keep spouting off about how gaming is coming of age with all our techonological advancements we can see such marked regression.

I'd also have to agree with your comment concerning the vocality of male gamers, but I would argue that it is those same gamers who have become the developers of what we now consider to be traditional "AAA" fare, and that they're unwilling to compromise their vision of perpetuating that same male-dominated experience. Furthermore, while the heads of these publishers may not agree with that mentality, if they tune into a match of Halo or Call of Duty, who do they hear but these same male gamers? Why waste money targeting another audience when they have such a reliable male fanbase waiting for the next testosterone-fueled Baysplosion?