Once seen as purely the preserve of adolescent boys, videogaming is now entering the 21st century with a new breadth and diversity. This is thanks to the increasing role of women as both consumers and developers, claims Chicks and Joysticks, a new white paper launched yesterday at the European Developer's Forum by the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (Elspa).
The paper, written by games journalist and Online contributor Aleks Krotoski, looks at the history of women in gaming and their place in its future.
Women were among the pioneers of computing technology: Ada Lovelace was credited as being the first computer programmer, while Grace Hopper made the first program compiler. Despite this - and the fact that some of the first computer games such as Pong were marketed as "family" entertainment - women have rarely featured in the minds of games developers and advertisers, apart from as virtual damsels in distress or voluptuous hyper-sexed totty.
But, as the paper explains, the games industry's concentration on the traditional 15 to 25-year-old male demographic is now outweighing demand from that sector and publishers are looking for ways to bolster their figures. That means looking towards a broader audience. So, with the word "mainstreaming" on the lips of practically every games publisher, the industry is setting forth with renewed vigour to capture the hearts, minds and purses of women.
In some ways the industry lags behind the reality, certainly in the UK where female gamers already make up 27.2% of players. Chicks and Joysticks goes on to reveal that our female gamers spend more than £250 per year on gaming appliances and software, plus they spend on average 7.2 hours per week playing games - mainly on the PlayStation, the PS2 and the PC.
Whereas UK men manage to clock up a leisurely 10.78 hours of gaming every week on a wide array of titles, women's gaming choices tend to reflect their time limitations and the need to balance this with socialising, personal care and the dreaded housework. Games of choice include those that are easy to pick up and play, such as Tetris, the Sims and Gran Turismo. Women tend to gravitate towards what Sims creator Will Wright describes as "interstitial" titles - where they can get a good gaming experience between other activities, regardless of the time they put in.
Online gaming is also an attractive area for female gamers, worth an estimated £230m last year. Popular female formats go all the way from basic card games up to adventure behemoths such as EverQuest.
However, although the UK has the highest number of game studios in Europe, women only make up 16% of the entire development workforce. The majority of those, according to UK games recruitment agency Aardvark Swift, are in PR and marketing. "Games are still perceived as a boys-run-for-boys business," explains Mary Margaret Walker of www.mary-margaret.com , a games industry recruiter in the US.
"It takes a brave woman to want to get into the games industry. Once in, we have found game developers to be incredibly tolerant and welcoming, not really caring about gender, sexual orientation, race, religion or any personality traits. It's getting through that initial wall that is hard."
The diminishing difference between titles that attract both men and women is encouraging, as is the fact that so many adult females are taking up interactive entertainment as a viable pastime. Although we are still a long way off seeing games reviews in Cosmopolitan, the paper concludes that "diversity in gaming can only be positive, for everyone". Ada and Grace would be very proud.
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