I think one of the most limiting things in modern game design is our radically oversimplified view of gender
And I'm not just talking about portrayals of female characters or objectification or gender stereotypes or any of that
We still have an abundance of problems in those areas of course, no question.
Our failings in those areas limit us and there's a lot of change and growth that we need to go through.
But today I want to talk about a specific aspect of gender stereotyping which we almost never discuss in these conversations:
mechanics stereotyping.
We regularly hear designers talk about mechanics as if certain mechanics were only viable for specific genders.
I hear things like "First-person shooters are for boys and match three games are for girls" with shocking regularity.
In fact it's become so ubiquitous that it's passed into the realm of unspoken rule.
It's just become a tacit collective assumption amongst our industry, but this commonly held belief isn't just limiting, it's flat-out wrong
Why? Because we see counter examples to it all the time. Industry wisdom says that action RPGs are boy games and yet
Kingdom Hearts has an enormous female following. They say first person shooters only appeal to men,
but as soon as you get one that's not about violent conflict like Portal,
suddenly you see massive appeal across gender lines.
And if match three mechanics are just for women, why did puzzle quest have a largely male audience?
I could go on for a long time listing off all the exceptions to these silly rules,
but you get the point
So where did these stereotypes come from?
Well they come from the theming these mechanics are traditionally associated with, and from the initial cultures that grow up around these mechanics when they
were first created. As much as I hate to say it, I do think there is such a thing as gender biased theming
It's unfortunate but from the day we are born
we're bombarded with a lot of societal ideas about what our genders should and shouldn't like, and many
Industries spend billions of dollars to steer our collective perception of gender identities in certain ways.
The specifics vary between cultures and it may not always be intentional or malicious
But everything from the design of Barbie toys to the presentation and recruitment messaging of our military
Influences how the average American believes gender should affect our identity and that's not to say that we never break from those
Stereotypes or even that you can't be comfortable living within those stereo and still enjoy things outside of them as well
I'm just saying that in aggregate when you take a sample of hundreds of millions of people cultural ideas of Gender do influence
How you sell products to a gender.
It's kind of a self-reinforcing circle
So yes in aggregate games about war
Ultra violence and being a hero based on ones strength and martial dominance will
Generally sell better to men than women. And since first person shooters, began
in that mold and generally stick to the formula even today, we've conflated first-person shooter mechanics with the theming that they're usually tied to and
Thus have decided as an industry that first person shooters aren't for women
But that conflation keeps us from experimenting
It locks us into these old and tired ideas of what a genre can or should be. Let me give you an example.
Recently James was asked to work on a [hidden-object] game now hidden-object is a type of game play that the industry has
Pigeon-Holed as female when [James] brings them up to industry folk the response is almost always something like those are just girl games
but that stereotype exists because the genre was first invented in the casual market when that side of the industry was
specifically looking to connect with a female audience
As such most of these games have theming which is heavily targeted at women
In fact if you go back to our episode about hidden object games we talked about how most of their
Protagonists are female and how the writers [of] those games don't seem to have trouble writing female characters
In quite the same way that triple a developers sometimes do but these don't have to be girl games again
It's just a matter of theme James was going to pitch this idea to the client
But it's just too perfect an example for the point
I'm trying to make so I'm going to use it here imagine a hidden-object game set in a post-apocalyptic zombie world
You're a scavenger
You live in a small community and every day you have to go out and search for the things your community needs to survive you
Have to acquire the food water and clothes that's your small band needs you have to outfit them with weapons and ammo to get through
The night you have to find the tools and supplies you require to upgrade your base each evening you talk to your people manage
What's being built at your hideout and you have to choose who you let into your camp and who you leave for the zombies outside?
During the day you scavenge, and it plays just like a hidden-object game
But there's a timer ticking down while you search
Signaling the approach of the zombie Hordes how much time you're given is dependent on your gear
Your party and how well you know the area you've got access to
one-time use items you've found or crafted to increase the time limit
But every second you stay past the end of the timer every second you spend finding that food you desperately need to keep everybody alive
Increases the Likelihood that the zombies burst in possibly wounding you or killing your crew
There's even more to do with base building and fending off attacks and talking to the people you've assembled around you and such
But you get the basic idea. It's not the mechanics that have a gender bias
It's the theming although I'd like to think that the zombie apocalypse is a bias free playground for us all
James has dozens of these design pitches for all kinds of genres this mentality that a set of mechanics
Exclusively appeals to the group that was the target audience for the few games that established their use is only holding us back
Developers think of the innovation opportunities, gaming fans think of the fascinating new varieties of awesome games
We might see industry people think of the broader audiences you could be reaching everyone wins seriously it's time
We stop thinking of mechanics in terms of Gender. See you next week