In 2006 women accounted for a third of UK gamers and brought the fact that women in gaming was presented as an alien phenomena, in magazines in particular, to the forefront of debates. The number of women gaming continues to grow which in particular can be accredited to the extensive marketing of Nintendo products targeted at women while other major companies such as Sony and Microsoft fail to do so. Within Nintendo's marketing strategy however we see that women are singled out and still discussed as a seperate entity, this is particularly evident within magazines such as "Nintendo Official magazine" which follow the companies strategies. This has created a perception "that women who play male-dominated games are going to be ignored, shouted down or chatted up by men they will be playing against" (Kirsten Kearney) which has not yet been overcome through equal, un-separatist promotion, to allow more women to feel comfortable playing "male games".
Within media such as magazines there are many visual codes which emphasise this separation of female and male games and most do not clearly acknowledge the existence of female gamers at all as their pages are adorned with demeaning images of half naked women in adverts. Companies are prone to stereotyping women, for exapmle releases of pink consoles like the Ds Lite and earlier the Playstation 2. This is also evident within game releases, games targetted specifically at women include "Wii Fit" as women apparently have an obsession with losing weight and "Cooking Mama" for all those budding housewives out there. On top of this a perception that only younger girls will play games has appeared which has seen an increase in party and games like "Mario Party" and simple strategy games like the "Imagine" series forcing producers of games to feed the masses with lower quality material. Puzzle games for older audiences who wouldn't normally play games, specifically women, have also saturated the market not allowing the new audience to beome more involved in games and other genres which are of higher quality.
An attempt to crack the problem of a lack of women gamers by Nintendo came in the form of "Girl Gamer" magazine in 2008, a free magazine apperaing in issues of "Mizz" and "Bliss". What is fundamentally wrong with this is that "Bliss and "Mizz" will only attract an audience of teenage girls aged 12 - 15, not exactly universally solving the problem of the exclusion of women. The magazine, much like the adverts targeting females, was frilly, pink and fluffy promoting the low quality rubbish stated above with demeaning content in terms of an expected ignorance of games.
Women need a magazine, made by gaming women, to encourage them to play games which don't involve 1940's ideals of raising children, cooking and puzzles which would be significantly cheaper if played on a newspaper. The audience needs to be educated that women can enjoy any genre of game like they enjoy any genre of film and men who argue against the incorporation of women into "their" world need to know this and stop living in the past. The magazine needs to be opinionated, not pandering to the wishes of companies, allowing women to form their own educated opinions and feel confident in articulating them whilst enjoying a whole spectrum of games from "beat-em-ups" to "Role playing games", "First Person shooters" to "Strategy" games.
Sources used: BBC News "All women gamers, please stand up" http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/5407490.stm
Future Publishing:"Future and Panini link up for second issue of Girl Gamer"
Within media such as magazines there are many visual codes which emphasise this separation of female and male games and most do not clearly acknowledge the existence of female gamers at all as their pages are adorned with demeaning images of half naked women in adverts. Companies are prone to stereotyping women, for exapmle releases of pink consoles like the Ds Lite and earlier the Playstation 2. This is also evident within game releases, games targetted specifically at women include "Wii Fit" as women apparently have an obsession with losing weight and "Cooking Mama" for all those budding housewives out there. On top of this a perception that only younger girls will play games has appeared which has seen an increase in party and games like "Mario Party" and simple strategy games like the "Imagine" series forcing producers of games to feed the masses with lower quality material. Puzzle games for older audiences who wouldn't normally play games, specifically women, have also saturated the market not allowing the new audience to beome more involved in games and other genres which are of higher quality.
An attempt to crack the problem of a lack of women gamers by Nintendo came in the form of "Girl Gamer" magazine in 2008, a free magazine apperaing in issues of "Mizz" and "Bliss". What is fundamentally wrong with this is that "Bliss and "Mizz" will only attract an audience of teenage girls aged 12 - 15, not exactly universally solving the problem of the exclusion of women. The magazine, much like the adverts targeting females, was frilly, pink and fluffy promoting the low quality rubbish stated above with demeaning content in terms of an expected ignorance of games.
Women need a magazine, made by gaming women, to encourage them to play games which don't involve 1940's ideals of raising children, cooking and puzzles which would be significantly cheaper if played on a newspaper. The audience needs to be educated that women can enjoy any genre of game like they enjoy any genre of film and men who argue against the incorporation of women into "their" world need to know this and stop living in the past. The magazine needs to be opinionated, not pandering to the wishes of companies, allowing women to form their own educated opinions and feel confident in articulating them whilst enjoying a whole spectrum of games from "beat-em-ups" to "Role playing games", "First Person shooters" to "Strategy" games.
Sources used: BBC News "All women gamers, please stand up" http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/5407490.stm
Future Publishing:"Future and Panini link up for second issue of Girl Gamer"
WomenGamers.com "Gaming magazine ads: Failing the female market
No comments:
Post a Comment