Gamertell

As one of the Gamertell writers recently pointed out in an email, “Is it just me, or does September seem like the month of feminine games?”

Indeed, it appears that way with a slew of demographically-targeted games being released throughout September 2008 (and these are just the DS games):

• Bratz Ponyz 2 (Game factory)
• My Secret World by Imagine (Ubisoft)
• Pony Friends: Mini Breeds Edition (Eidos)
• My Little Pony Pinkie Pie’s Party (THQ)
• Nancy Drew: Hidden Staircase (THQ)
• Barbie Fashion Show: Eye for Style (Activision)
• Princess Debut (DS, Crave)
• Pop Cutie: Street Fashion Simulation (Koei)

I’m sure I missed a few but it’s pretty clear that several companies sure are serious about targeting a younger, more feminine demographic. Don’t forget that Ubisoft, at its E3 2008 press conference, announced that it is targeting girls with sports games and a series of “Ener-G” tagged games based on some rather stereotypical interests

As if the hand of Dan DeCarlo was guiding me from the grave, I recently came across another potentially prophetic message coming from Archie Comics.

This instance is in an issue of Betty and Veronica Digest Magazine (no. 125,  Jan. 2002)* with a story titled “Game Gambit” featuring fictional game maker Zapco Games. The company has asked Betty, the blonde-next-door and sometimes gender-bending teenager, to help test a series of arcade games targeted towards girls. The story starts with Betty claiming most games and being too violent for girls and Zapco shows her a series of prototypes that Betty rejects as being too stereotypical, including:

• Smooch - (With hearts as the Os, of course). Score 100 points per boy kissed and triple points is a boy asks you to the prom. Players are also supposed to acquire a phone to call boys. Betty points out the game doesn’t have any “educational value” like a history game would. Zapco resolves that with, of course, “famous females lovers in history.”
• Shop Till You Drop - Move a credit card to buy stuff with double points for sale items. When Betty asks, “Where’s the challenge?” they respond with a parking minigame where the player must find parking spot in a crowded lot
• Bake That Cake - Bake the most cakes and earn the most points or, more importantly to Zapco, “become good cooks.” (Betty points out that “boys are also interested in cooking.”)

Zapco also suggests developing games about laundromats and beauty salons but, in the end, Betty is attracted to the game Automotivation, an auto mechanic game. If you’ve read Archie Comics more than a few times, It’s certainly not out of character since the obviously heterosexual Betty has fixed Archie’s jalopy more than once.

Take Betty’s advice, game companies: Do not pigeon-hole you target audience and generate overly stereotypical games otherwise even the best-made game might become be more offensive than fun.

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* NOTE: I could not confirm the original issue in which the story “Game Gambit” appears since the Digest books are compilations of stories from various Archie Comics publications. However, I found one online comic sales site site which lists “Game Gambit” as a story in the 1975 issue of Archie’s TV Laugh-Out no. 34.

Check out the gallery: Betty and Veronica no. 125 - Game Gambit