Rant: Games for Young Girls- Get Over your Beef!

This week at GameX we demoed mostly our games marketed to young girls to the public, to some surprising reactions. These games included games from our Imagine, Fashion Lab, and Petz series such as: Fashion Designer, Jewelry Designer, Dolphin Encounter, Petz Nursery, etc. While I knew at this expo our market would be small I was still amazed to some extent at the reaction from consumers who WEREN’T this market. While the few young girls went into a flurry of excitement over them and I saw a couple fully fledged temper tantrums when parents tried to take them away, the reaction from the more “hardcore gamer was quite a different story.

Multiple times I heard older kids and young adults snickering, poking fun, and taking pictures as jokes with these games. I even had a few people make judgmental comments, including some press. It bothered me so much about it, I thought I would write a blog and tell people who can’t think beyond their first initial reaction what’s up. So, to all of you that have a problem with games designed for young girls let me tell you a thing or two. ..

Firstly, who cares if they make games for girls- they aren’t made for you anyway and I can tell you young girls DO go crazy for it, so why does it bother you? In our society men and women are programmed differently, and it starts in childhood. That’s why you see most girls playing with their barbies while the boys have their tonka trucks, so if you have a problem with the differences take it to society first.

Secondly, while some might have a problem in the fact that the games are marketed blatantly to a SPECIFIC market (I heard this as well), I got news for you. Everything is marketed to a specific market. From your IPhone, to cereal, to clothing brands, to your Segway’s- EVERYTHING has a target market. Not to mention, I can’t begin to list the games that are so obviously made to attract a male audience but, for the most part, you don’t here hardcore gaming females bitching about it- and they usually play it. The point is, even if something is marketed to a specific group anyone that likes it can play. It’s not like your blackballed!

Thirdly, and most importantly, these games can be a GATEWAY for young girls to at least find gaming fun and socially acceptable. Like I told many this last weekend, they start playing on a DS they have more likelihood to be exposed and interested in more hardcore games and platforms later down the road. And like anyone who gets pulled into something they love , some will have more interest in the industry and the communities. They start designing their signatures for forums, helping with websites they are involved in, and the next thing you know they could be going to school to make these games. All because their first step into gaming was fun, interesting, and made to attract them at an earlier age- before they start to get self conscious labels applied to gamers.

All in all, potentially these games will attract girls who have never gamed before, we might get to grow our market so developers get to get more money to make even better games, and a minority hopefully continues to grow if these young girls move to more serious titles down the road. Nobody loses and everyone has a chance to win. So, next time when you think about games made for girls hopefully you think MORE POWER TO THEM! And for those that still don’t agree- look to society as the problem, not the products made from it.