Forgetting Girls Costs Coins

[Originally Published in Forge Press:Issue 3]

In the 90’s gaming was seen as something that only sweaty teenage boys did in darkened rooms in between watching Transformers and browsing Max Power for the, er, bodywork. Girls had to be content with playing Barbie Super Model on their little brother’s Mega Drive and the most prominent female character of the gaming world spent her time baking cakes for an overweight plumber, and occasionally being kidnapped.

Luckily, things have moved on since then as publishers have realised that ignoring girl gamers is costing them big in lost sales. It’s not surprising that the industry is changing their ways after girl-friendly titles such as Animal Crossing and The Sims series have pushed manly heavyweights like Gran Turismo 3 and GTA San Andreas down the chart of the best selling games ever.

The DS and Wii, specifically targeted at a wide audience, have sold more units than the PS3 and Xbox 360 combined according to Nintendo’s January sales figures. The 360 has responded by launching a TV ad campaign encouraging family gaming on its machine. It is surely only a matter of time before the PS3 does the same as it lags behind in sales.

Perhaps the answer to creating truly inclusive gaming is not to make games for every demographic, but to encourage all kinds of people to play existing games. The Guitar Hero and Pokémon series have made an effort to extend their appeal by giving players the choice between male and female characters. Even beat-em-ups, which have traditionally included women as scantily clad eye-candy, have begun to introduce more rounded (and clothed) female characters. Tekken 6’s ‘Leo’ is almost androgynous and the latest instalment of Mortal Kombat, the series in which one of the characters literally has more fabric in her mask than her bra, re-introduced the rough tough ‘Frost’.

In a way, the games industry has come full circle. Pac-Man, the infamous dot that chomped his way to becoming the first gaming icon in 1980, was as popular with girls as with boys. Just to make doubly sure the girls were catered for, the sequel Ms. Pac-Man was released a year later. Nintendo applied the same idea last year to Pokémon Diamond and Pearl – the latter including more cute pokémon and a pink colour scheme.

No matter how the games companies go about it, they must grab a slice of the growing girl gamer pie, or risk being left behind.