‘The street smarts of a cartoon princess’. New roles for women in games.

Esther MacCallum-Stewart

Abstract

The role of women in games is changing, although the media and sometimes games designers have
been slow to catch up with this. This paper that games are adopting a more gender-neutral approach,
and that in cases where this does not happen, players are taking matters into their own hands. Fan
texts reappropriate the female in games to present a more playful aspect, and the growing sociality of
games, especially online games, means that designers are taking note where players find difficulty
with gendered representations. At the same time the female gamer is becoming less of a trope as
players accept more freely that men and women play a diverse selection of games which cannot be
categorised by sex.

Keywords

Gender, online games, social communities, MMORPGs, game design.

Introduction

Nintendo's strategy is to accelerate current sales momentum by changing consumers'

attitudes from "must-have for every family" to "must-have for everyone" and to enrich
the owners' daily lives by providing information service at cultural facilities, commercial
establishments and so on.
(Nintendo Financial Statement, First Quarter, 2009)

In Ancient Egypt, the players have just held the fourth Demi-Pharaoh election in the MMORPG A
Tale in the Desert 4 (eGenesis: 2004-present). Demi-Pharaohs act as arbitrators for the rest of Egypt –
they have the power to ban other players and often mediate between warring factions. For the third
time, a woman has been elected to the position. A 1 is a popular player who has coordinated the
community through her Garden of Eden guild, enabling the discovery of several valuable
technologies. Thanks to her, the entire population have quadrupled their flax production (a vital part
of the game), and desert blooms, sea lilies and other plants are distributed by GoE players to the rest
of the community as well as advancing several technologies with these valuable plants.. Coming up
fast behind her is Isis, the number one geneticist in the game, P, whose extensive garden aims to
supply all of Egypt with the right foodstuffs for the Test of Festivals, and O, who runs roleplaying
events for the whole community. To date, the only player to complete every test in the game is O2,
another female player who now advises the GMs and helps design the flora and fauna around the
1
Names have been changed here, however this is somewhat obfuscated by eGenesis’ own policy of allowing
players to publish the chatlogs from major channels with names left unedited.
world. Although Atitd is a non-combat MMORPG with an emphasis on slow development and
building, it is a typical example of the growing number of female players who both participate in
games, and also take an active role in their communities and their development.

This paper challenges the frequent assertion that female play should be pigeonholed into a series of
gender delineated texts, and also that the female player is somehow seen as a person ‘apart’ from the
‘normal’ player. Instead, I argue that the female player (and to an extent, the female consumer), is an
audience that increasingly requires acceptance not as a singular group, but as part of a demographic
whole. It is no longer the case that the female player can be bracketed as an isolated entity, when
gaming, in particular online gaming, has now developed to a position where multi-stranded levels of
play are essential for the success of any mainstream MMORPG. It is also not the case that the female
player requires different game genres; so called ‘pink’ gaming, in order to be engage. Although it is
true that there are certain types of gaming which female players have preferred, their presence in the
mainstream of gaming means that these genres and play styles need to be accommodated more fully.

At the same time, representations of both the male and female form are also changing as a result of
this shift in the player base. Although women are just as susceptible to the gaze, very extreme images
of male and female stereotypes, particularly those derived from the fantasy genre, are starting to prove
unpopular. In most MMORPGs, player avatars of the same class or race do not have differentiated
statistics between each sex (so a female gnome has exactly the same attributes as a male gnome).
Players therefore must initially be judged on skill, ability and socialisation skills. The revelation of
‘real life’ gender often comes later, (although players may speculate on it beforehand) and is usually
done so after a pre-existing understanding of the self-as-player has taken place. Although the
perception remains that many men may play female avatars, this is not only now seen as a truism but
is regarded as less deviant than previously, simply because so many people do it.

In order to successfully target the female audience, and to represent players as a more homogenous
group who are not determined by sex but instead by their abilities within a game world, less
excessive tropes need to be successfully integrated into the whole in order to provide a more rounded,
gender neutral type of play. By gender neutral I do not mean that characters should be desexed, but
that the more aggressive types of sexual representation – those which disenfranchise both male and
female players – need to be (and are being) softened into more acceptable forms. As I argue below,
highly sexualised images, if they can be reinterpreted as playful, are often appropriated by the player.
Aggressive sexual images are however rejected, possibly by all genders, and this has heavy financial
repercussions.

In this paper, therefore, I argue for the normalisation of the female player within games as an entity
which is already more accepted than perhaps the media would have us believe. Research is taken from
a variety of disparate case studies with an emphasis on online games and the fan appropriation (such
as fan based art and machinima) that accompanies it. Players are visible within online games as social
determinants, and they act in dynamic ways which affect other players – for example, in their online
or forum post debates about the appearance of female avatars, or through their reproduction of fan
texts such as The Guild which normalise the female player. At the same time, this work is situated
firmly within a well established area of Games Studies which investigates the changing role of gender
within video gaming. Where possible I have tried to link specific writings, however this work also
draws from a rich pool of authors including but not limited to Diane Carr, Mia Consalvo, Helen
Kennedy, Aphra Kerr, Sheri Graner-Ray, TL Taylor, to name but a few.

Hay a GRL lets cybar!2

Gamer men should be completely insulted by their portrayal as mouth-breathing,

socially inept, porn-obsessives. While I am offended by how women are ignored and
misrepresented in gaming media, I would be fibbing if I didn’t admit that I am more
fatigued than offended at this point’

(Peterson: 2008).

It is relatively well established by Games Studies and by gaming communities themselves that the
assumption that players are more likely to be male, regardless of gender, is more symptomatic of
continuing media and marketing representations of the gamer, rather than representative of current
player trends. Joystiq blog gives a strong example of this. Whilst a previous article posits a rounded
view of female gamers with strong statistical evidence and reasserts Graner-Ray’s ‘There is no
definition of a female gamer, and trying to tack a label to them does a disservice. The female gamer is
simply a female who plays games. She's just a diverse as any other market out there.’ (Kelly: 2007),
this is followed by their exasperated report on the lilac PSP two years later ‘Sony continues to follow
the time-tested formula for reaching out to females: belittle their intelligence, turn them into
stereotypes, and color a product pink’ (Yoon: 2009). Similarly, Andrew Burn and Diane Carr discuss
how the segregation of the female player as different and either visible – i.e. ‘pink’, or invisible and
therefore probably Other, has a trickle-down effect into the preconceptions of young male players:

When asked what kind of avatar they would choose, they all said they would be male,
human, and as like themselves as possible. Yet at the same time, the boys were certain
that it would be necessary to ‘read past’ the appearance of other avatars because, they
explained, behind all female avatars are ‘fat American (male) teenagers’. They quickly
revised this to ‘fat middle-aged American men’. ... Their distrust of alluring female

2
VG Cats is an online comic that in #160 – Start the Reactor, satirises online socialisation. This particular quote,
along with the ridiculous question ‘How I mine for fish!?’ is regularly used to demonstrate ‘Online gaming
summed up entirely accurately in one single comic’ (http://www.lastcoolurl.com/?p=218)
 avatars was expressive of a discourse of ‘Internet suspicion’ ... towards online predatory
sexual duplicity. [however] also rest[s] on the ‘common-sense’ notion that ‘women don’t
play’...buttressed by commercial gaming at large.

(Burn and Carr in Buckingham et al., 2006: p.112-3)

Ironically, a developing awareness by players of diversity within virtual environments means that they
are now more cautious of these constructions. Because it is impossible to see behind the avatar to the
player, and because the demographics of play have broadened, the ‘fat middle-aged American men’
(read ‘paedophile’), has been replaced by a figure which cannot be discerned so easily (Yee: 2006).
Studies into this activity have also had to become increasingly more detailed, acknowledging the ludic
gain / visual gratification components (Hussain and Griffiths: 2008) which do not necessarily mean
that a cross gendering player is in some way also a sexual deviant. Players, existing within the
dynamic social sphere of the MMORPG, are keenly aware of this transition and thus tend to avoid the
‘what gender?’ minefield until significant socialising has taken place. As a good example of this more
mature attitude towards the other player, the author was particularly taken by players in A Tale in the
Desert who cautiously but politely asked about her sexual preference before they asked about gender,
demonstrating their keenness to be inclusive, as well as, interestingly, finding the former query more
socially appropriate.

Thus the perception of the male or female player as a distinct entity seems to be something that is
gradually diminishing. Players are aware that the people that they encounter may be cross-gendering,
but see it as more normative than media or early research might suggest. pPayers like to think that
they are accepting each other on ludic merit, and coverage on more focussed gaming websites such as
Kotaku, Joystiq, Wow.com and Gamasutra, which tend to now treat articles, press reports or
marketing campaigns which show the female gamer as ‘different’ with irritated ennui, suggest that
this attitude is becoming a default.

Age of Conan: Old School Values Discredited.

Given that I am arguing for a more gender neutral approach towards the representations and narratives
created within an MMORPG worldsphere in order to allow all players a more liberal positioning
within a game, it stands to reason that the gender of a player should not be something that is
contradicted or oppressed within this framework,. Doing so will become something that dissuades
customers as well as disenfranchises players. This first case study looks at an example where the
sexualisation of avatars, and the positioning of strongly polarised gender stereotypes was firmly
rejected by players.
Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures (Funcom: 2007-present, henceforth AoC) positioned female
players as a barely tolerated minority from the outset. The game endorses extremely aggressive, often
demeaning representations of women. This begins immediately from the character customisation
screen. The starting character is positioned as a slave who is shipwrecked and escapes in the brief
opening sequence. On the character generation screen, male avatars begin shackled to the rowing
team of the boat, but women avatars emerge from behind silken curtains on its bridge; a thinly veiled
(literally) comment as to their slave’s duties. This positioning of the woman as whore continues in the
subsequent tutorial stage. In this, the player is lead through a quest chain which revolves around
saving a blond woman called Casilda. Casilda is first encountered spread-eagled between shackles,
and wearing a chainmail bikini. She explains that she has been captured and raped by local bandits.

Fig 1. Age of Conan - Casilda. (Funcom: 2007)

As the tutorial ends, the player arrives in the first starting town; Tortuga. Casilda, now saved,
becomes an NPC in the tavern. A high proportion of available chat options allow the main character
to proposition, or be propositioned by her, to be directed to the local brothel, or to elucidate on her
current situation as one of several local prostitutes. Allowing this type of atmosphere so very early in
the game established social codes for the game – i.e. that prostitution is acceptable within this world
and that women are expected to be sexually available as well as promiscuous. The ‘hard, gritty’
atmosphere of the game was complimented by press releases such as this:

As some of you may have picked up during our development, we have chosen a
somewhat updated view on women compared to the works of Robert E. Howard. The
world circa-2007 is very different, in most places, than the 1930’s in which the original
 Conan stories came around. Early on in our development, we therefore made a very
clear and conscious choice: Namely that any female player in Hyboria should be just as
strong and able as any man! The strong, fierce and independent female is perfectly in
line with the lore of Howard, however, we have expanded it to include ALL the female
players. And seriously guys, you wouldn’t want anything else, now would you? (let the
discussions start!)

To this extent, we have put an amazing amount of work into the female characters in
the game, ranging from capturing some 2500 “female-only” animations to sets of special
emotes to an incredible array of female clothing and armor. We haven’t just re-skinned
male armor, but gone about to create something unique, something strong, something
sexy, but at the same time avoiding making it tacky. Should you wish, you can naturally
also wear nature’s own armor (but you cannot be completely naked inside the game).
And, to underline the point stated above again; our goal has been to make any female
player in Hyboria just as strong and able as any man!

(Gaming Today: 2007)

The emphasis on the idea that making female avatars equal is somehow a novelty, as well as the crude
reference to ‘nature’s own armor’ suggests that this press release is entirely aimed at a male player
base, and that women only allowed in by grudging, even contested consensus; ‘let the discussions
start!’.

Interestingly, AoC’s depiction of Ron E Howard’s Conan series was generally regarded as not in
keeping with the author’s vision (Funcom Forums 2008) 3. Fans pointed out that, amongst other things,
the game obviously didn’t encourage ‘barely concealed racism, sexism and latent homosexuality’
(Hologram: ibid.) as these depictions were unacceptable in modern society. At the same time, fans
argued that Conan stories were often ‘snapshots’ of his life; that many of the more extreme areas took
place (in the stories) closed or otherwise exclusive environments, and that the interracial mingling
within the game between Aquilonian, Cimmerian and Stygian races was the most unrealistic element.
Fan debate typically falls back on the argument that Funcom’s world does not abide to Conan ‘lore’
(‘Conanical’ lore?) enough, whilst acknowledging that many of the elements are socially
unacceptable. It allocates those who do not mind the ‘site of a booby’ (fant0m) as antithetical to those
who think that the game is tame in comparison to Howard’s world, but also points out that Funcom is
simply not in a position to be able to recreate the world ‘accurately’:

3
Although only one conversation thread is included here, it is the longest the author could find and typical of
many similar ones which exist on the forums.
Regardless of this fan debate, Age of Conan is problematic. It was deliberately released during a lull
in which industry leader World of Warcraft (WoW) was waiting for the game’s second expansion
(Wrath of the Lich King, released in November 2008), in order to entice players away. The harder,
meaner atmosphere was intended to offset the bright, cartoonish world of WoW. The sales of the game
show that they were not impressed – after the free month’s trial was over, many departed and did not
return, and in February 2009 it announced $23.3 million losses (Lee: 2009). Much of this was to do
with the worldsphere. Creating such an aggressive environment, although potentially in keeping with
the Conan mythos, also had knock-on effects. Firstly this endorsed aggressive behaviour within the
game, including letting players feel that they could make derogatory sexual comments based on
gender, even though this was strictly against the game’s griefing policies (Funcom: 2008) 4. Secondly,
the atmosphere of the game had a negative impact on social relations - in the author’s experience
players tended to be more hostile towards each other when meeting for the first time, more critical of
each other’s performance during instanced play, and so on. Thus the social atmosphere of the
worldsphere appeared to reflect directly on the ability of players to form social communities within it.
Tension between male and female players was also exacerbated. A clear example of this comes from
The Final Chapter guild. who temporarily migrated to AoC together
(http://www.finalchapterguild.com/index.php). During this period a violent row broke out about the
perceived sexism of the game, resulting in several people refusing to play AoC, and the guild’s swift
return (within the month preview period) to World of Warcraft, where the normative atmosphere of
cooperation and sociality was swiftly reformed. Although the game had extremely high early sales,
shifting a million units in three weeks, the reception from fans and reviewers was lukewarm after the
initial hype died down. By January 2009, subscriptions had diminished so far that Funcom had
reduced their 49 servers worldwide by nearly two thirds to 18 in total (Funcom: 2009), and in
February the lead designer resigned from the company, citing problems with the game as a primary
reason.

Age of Conan is an example of how player responses to the representation of women in games have
become more sophisticated. Although the sexism inherent in the world of Conan (and it seems, within
the development team) is not the only reason for the game’s tepid reception, the values that the game
represented were off-putting to many players. The fact that these values seemingly disenfranchised
players on a social level also seems to have hindered the development of long term communities, an
aspect that games designers now recognise as essential to the longevity of an MMORPG. (Bartle:
2004). Ultimately, players walked with their feet and left the game. It seems that the production of a
game that presented very forceful depictions of both sexes appears to have made its users less
comfortable with both themselves and with taking an active part in the game itself.
4
The use of excessive and /or extremely sexually explicit, abusive, defamatory or obscene language is not
allowed. Racially or ethnically offensive language is strictly prohibited. The game is M rated, not Adult Only
rated’ [accessed 24/06/09].
Whose Toon is it anyway? Playful images of the Avatar

It is often argued that it is the representation of the female avatar in-game that disenfranchises the
female player, and this is then given as the primary reason for why women then fail to engage with a
game (see Graner-Ray in iHobo:2009 for thoughtful example of how this debate has developed). In
the case of AoC, this was supported by a world narrative that suggested that women were also
disenfranchised. If the avatar is highly sexualised, this disenfranchises the female player as they are
associated with the negative characteristics of the worldsphere. I have already established in previous
work that this statement is slightly disingenuous in that that there is not always a direct link between
female player and female avatar (although it does exist). Players have grown up with these female
avatars and chose them for a variety of reasons, some of which are ludic, some of which are simply
part of cultural stereotyping (the ‘I like to see a nice behind’ argument) (Kennedy: 2002, Carr: 2002,
2005). Lara Croft, Princess Peach, Samus, Claire Redfern and Jill Valentine are well known
figureheads of females in game but are also all examples of characters who may be chosen because no
other option exists, because they express a ludic preference in the game (eliminating Peach’s better AI
in Mario Kart, choosing the avatar with the most pack space in the Resident Evil Games). In
MMORPGs, players choose characters they identify with, or freely admit that they find attractive, and
have a concordant relationship with them (Lim and Reeve: 2005). Sometimes this means that the
muscle bound heroes of fantasy games simply do not appeal and are seen as threatening, ugly or
simply too cumbersome to play with effectively (see for example the comments section from Joystiq
(2006) and previous research).

There is a growing postmodern relationship between avatar and player which uses playful versions of
gender to subvert the sexualisation of the female avatar. The first step towards this has been to
appropriate some of the more stereotypical images of females within games. In World of Warcraft,
for example, male and female avatars are highly sexualised in appearance, and players are very much
aware of this (see Newitz: 20075 and WoW Forums: 2006, 2009, for widely differing opinions of
this). The draenai, a race included later in the game, conform to this worldview and are often
criticised for their appearance – in particular for the ‘ugly’ male avatar and for the excessive curves of
the female. A brief Google for ‘male draenai ugly’ provides 12 900 hits and ‘female draenai sexy’
gives 24 500 (August 2009). However the female emotes for draenai show that designers have tried to
balance this sexualised appearance with a more playful attitude, expressed through the various emotes
which each character can speak, and through elements of anthropomorphism have been added to their
appearance which render them fantastical beings rather than exaggerated humans. ‘Yes, they are real,
and yes they can cut glass’ says the female draenai, acknowledging her strength as well as her

5
The initial article by Rubenstein is unavailable (as from August 2009), however it is worth examining the work
of the Iris Network and Cerise Magazine for their excellent work on female gaming and feminist perspectives.
http://cerise.theirisnetwork.org/.
appearance and ‘probably’ referring to her hooves. Similarly, the male draenai has a joke which
involves him clumsily knocking things over with his tail. The art style of the avatars; both male and
female, is also reminiscent of 1950s cheesecake poster art, thus adding a clearly playful element to
their appearance which is both endearing and sexy.

Fig. 2. Fan art of the female draenai by Neveah (used with permission)

Fig 3. Fan art of the female draenai by Isyw – clearly sexualised but also containing elements of
empowerment rather than submission. (permission applied for 12/08/09).

One can also see playful images of male/female WoW avatars satirised in the machinimas ‘I’m too
sexy’ (bionic: 2006) and the ‘The internet is for porn’, which sets the Avenue Q song by Lopez and
Marx (2003) to dancing WoW characters. The song posits the male avatar/player ‘Trekkie’ as
obsessed with downloading pornography and the female ‘Kate Monster’ as the practical (although
naive) internet user. If players appropriate texts and then subvert them to represent their own needs
like Jenkins’ textual poachers, in this case fan art and production reflect a more self aware relationship
with avatars that suggests players are more than aware of their overtly sexualised appearances.

The Guild: ‘Guild business always gets sidetracked by killing and looting!’

If players are aware of their appearance, they are also becoming more self aware of their own foibles
and social patterns. The Guild (Day: 2007) is a comedy webisode show depicting the players of a
fictitious MMORPG guild. The two series chart the interjection of real people into a previously virtual
sphere. The series functions to demonstrate how players are becoming more aware of their alterior
identities beyond the game, and how, although they recognise tropes within these people, they are not
necessarily linked to gender. As a fan text, it positions the player away from traditional male vs.
female portrayals and focuses instead on characters, play styles, and the interjection of real life into
the virtual sphere.

A brief synopsis is as follows: Codex, the central character and main healer in a guild of a generic
(unnamed) MMORPG called The Knights of Good, is shocked to find that fellow player Zaboo has
decided to take their online relationship further than she expected when he turns up and declares his
undying love on her doorstep. Codex enlists the support of the rest of the guild members to talk down
Zaboo, and they have various ‘adventures’ including a real life guild meet, an encounter with a Boss
(Zaboo’s mother), and a party at Codex’s house in the second series. The Guild is rather like the film
Galaxy Quest (Howard & Gordon: 1999) in that it is a fan text that exploits the foibles of the fans
themselves, often mocking their worst stereotypes in a playful manner designed to be light-hearted
rather than vindictive. What is interesting is what, and who these stereotypes represent. The main
character, Codex (or Cyd in real life) is neurotic, relatively obsessive and plays the sort of kooky
female heroine epitomised by Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Willow Rosenberg and Betty Saurez from
Ugly Betty. Although Codex classes herself as socially inept; ‘I’ve never felt comfortable at parties. I
just...don’t enjoy meeting people! Well; meeting strangers...Well I guess strangers are technically
people too...’ (2.10), she is the socialiser who organises the guild meet, she is the object of Zaboo’s
affection, and she is also frequently seen corralling the other characters and acting as social
determinant for the rest of the guild’s good or bad social activities. However, Codex’s role as player is
accepted in a non-gendered manner, as is her lead role within the series. There are no references, for
example, to female players being weaker; with all six main characters conforming more frequently
instead to more Bartle-like stereotypes of the player as gamer, griefer, backseat driver or obsessive
manager. Codex does have the more traditionalist female role (healer class), but like hockey-mom
Clara, this pokes fun at traditionalist representations of women in games (the healer girlfriend) rather
than actually endorsing it. Similarly, Zaboo’s misinterpretation of ‘a lot of winkies’ (1.2 and 1.3) as
evidence of a relationship, plays on the frequent moral panics that surround internet relationships and
the transition between real/virtual communication.

Clara is another interesting character in this respect. As Hagstrom and Enevold have discovered,
gaming mothers experience a high level of guilt associated with play (2009), and this is clearly
personified through Clara, whose bad parenting skills extend to referring to her children as ‘baby
DPS’ and keeping them penned behind their baby gate as they wail and cry, refusing to let them cross
from the kitchen to the computer room. ‘No wonder they smell of ham and crayons!’ she says,
suddenly realising they have been feeding themselves for three days (1.6). Although the hockey-mom
as gameplayer is here represented in a far more negative light (and there are also references to Clara’s
poor play skills on other occasions, suggesting she is inept in game as well as in real life), it is still a
clear archetype of obsessive play rather than specifically female play. The writer Felicia Day (who
also plays Codex and wrote the series as a response to her own online play between jobs), is however,
clearly satirising these perceptions rather than actually attacking female gamers. As Day says in
interview about the characters:

...so many interesting types of people were online gamers, and that most the world was
unaware of the whole sub-culture. So I decided to write something to show the world
that gamers weren't just guys in their 20's who lived in their mom's basement. That
cliché has become so annoying. I love doing comedy and I wanted to write something
that didn't make fun of gamers but was funny to gamers and non-gamers alike.

(Day in Holisky: 2007)

The joke with Clara, as with all of the characters, is that social ineptitude has many guises, and though
this can be traced through the figure of the gamer, it is certainly not restricted to a single trope. Most
interestingly, the characters, both male and female, are seen as equally comedic, represented through
archetypes which have some reference to gendered performance (the young, cocky ninja looter, the
hockey mom and the man made redundant who now micromanages the guild), but they are not
restrictive, and they certainly do not portray one gender in a more negative light than another.

New modes for Play.

If players are aware of themselves as gendered avatars and also aware of the separation between this
and the female/male player behind it, then there is a clear pattern emerging. The ability for players to
differentiate between sexual representation and the player is important because it also recognises the
autonomy of the player as an individual. As the market changes, so too do the desires of the player
become less obviously differentiated. And as the level of female players increases, this has lead to an
amalgamation of male and female desires into less segregated forms of play.

Games have changed significantly over the past few years in order to accommodate female players.
The growing awareness of the level of female engagement in A Tale in the Desert (Atitd) has lead to
several changes over each Telling. Atitd has a very dynamic relationship with its players and this trend
can be clearly demonstrated through the various Beta tests between Tellings, as well as frequent
developer chats by lead designer Andrew Tepper on chat channels within the game 6. As a result of
these consultations, same sex marriages are now allowed, largely because of the high percentage of
women wishing to play female avatars who complained that only allowing male / female marriages
was ludically restrictive as well as homophobic (married couples gain points in the game, and partners
can teleport freely to each other; thus marriage is ludically advantageous). Women can now run at the
same speed as men (previously, female avatars could weave more quickly, whilst men had a speed
advantage), allowing them to literally get out of the house more, and aspects of the game popular with
female players, most notably the gardening, herbology and wine making, have seen significant
improvements as the developers aim to retain their player base.

A Tale in the Desert is not alone in accommodating the growing role of women as a commercial force
in gaming. As consumers, women often buy for themselves as well as mediating the purchases of their
children, making them a formidable purchasing group. There has also been a vast increase in the type
of gaming that takes place amongst players over the last few years, a trend begun with the growth in
casual gaming, and continued through the success of the Nintendo DS as a tool which harnesses
casual game techniques and handheld play in new and innovative ways.

Both casual games and the mini-game intensive DS titles represent a new type of gaming targeted
specifically at those who have less time to play, and endorse a ‘short but often’ policy. The player can
pick up a game, complete a few sections and then leave the console without detriment to the game
itself. Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training, the Cooking Mama series and games such as Puzzle Quest,
Bejewelled and even narrative titles such as Hotel Dusk Room 213 are all representative of this
change. All of these games have been hugely successful, and in the case of the first two titles, have
helped to revolutionise the physical mechanics of gameplay. In 2009, the fiscal statement for
Nintendo consolidated this approach by recognising the move from ‘family’ gaming to a more
inclusive audience:

Nintendo continues to pursue "Gaming Population Expansion" based on the idea of

putting smiles on many people's faces by offering brand new entertainment that anyone
can enjoy, regardless of age, gender or gaming experience.

6
Atitd players log all chats on the player run wiki at http://services.atitd.org/log.php.(accessed 14/08/09)
 "Nintendo DS" is positioned as "a machine that enriches its owner's daily life".
Nintendo's strategy is to accelerate current sales momentum from "must-have for every
family" to "must-have for everyone".

(Nintendo: 2009)

The trickle through effect of this change is now becoming apparent in MMORPGs. The free-to-play
title Free Realms (2009-present) is the most prominent example of this. The game is primarily aimed
at a younger audience and has been described as an introduction to MMORPGs (Welsh: 2009).
However the ‘introductory’ members clearly come from two groups. The game has much more gender
friendly images of male and female players, whose demeanour is youthful and often criss-crosses
more traditional images of the avatar. Characters are pubescent rather than over-developed, and there
is crossover between the genders; for example all characters have large, appealing eyes, can mark
their faces with tattoos that include stars and butterflies, and less muscular bodies. The avatars, as well
as some elements of the game (for example the card trading system embedded in the game), clearly
appeal to younger players with strong experience of manga artwork (which can often be much more
gender ambiguous – sometimes deliberately) as well as the commercialism sometimes associated with
long running series such as Yu-Gi-Oh!

Fig. 4. Female human, male fairy and female goblin avatars from Free Realms. Characters are
tailored towards a younger player base, and sexual characteristics are mixed or less apparent.

The other element of the game is the high percentage of mini-games, many of which are clear copies
of existing titles. These include Bejewelled, Cooking Mama, Nintendogs and a Mario Kart style racing
game. These are derived more from casual gaming or DS titles, suggesting that a secondary audience
might comprise the (predominantly female) player base of the casual games market or those attracted
to gaming through the DS. Free Realms, then, is symptomatic of new patterns in commercial gaming
as it clearly appeals to a more developed user group, and certainly regards its players as comprising a
more inclusive demographic. When discussing the game’s audience, John Smedley (president of the
Sony Online unit) said in to the New York Times:

We want to get our average age lower, probably into the low 20s, and I’d really like to see
the gender breakdown go to 50-50 or even slightly more women than men, to reflect real
life.

(Scheisel: 2009)

It is attitudes like this that clearly demonstrate the proactive stance of commercial developers, and
their awareness that the audiences they seek should be balanced to ‘reflect real life’ and not to
disenfranchise potential buyers.

Conclusion: Post coitalled!

The Guild is a fannish text in every sense – it exploits the genre within and shows an advanced form
of textual poaching in the way that it appropriates the genre of the MMORPG, most notably the
associated language, in order to subvert it. It is this type of genre awareness that is helping to reshape
the way in which women are changing the way in which games are presented. Unlike most genres, the
text of the game, especially the online game, is in flux. Unlike the fan who takes their production
away from the text, in a game, the players are often discussing the mode of production as they play it,
interacting with each other as they interpret the text.

There is also an understanding (which may be disputed verbally but is still in place) that the game
experience varies from player to player, which is becoming less about gender and more about
generalised preference. Developer chats, commissioned beta testing by fans and patches which update
content are all indicative of this – changing the game sphere in order to accommodate newer or
improved versions of play which are done through an awareness of player as mobilised fan, rather
than simply pinning a series of tropes to gender or other expectations.

The cross pollination of genres is indicative of this – the introduction of casual game Peggle into
World of Warcraft (the same thing was done with the game Gems!, which was an Easter Egg in
Everquest) as both casual game and a way of splitting loot – feeds on the popularity of casual games.
Whilst this might be an indication of attracting female players, it is just as likely to be a method to
keep the existing player base from boredom. WoW contains a high degree of static moments (where
‘normal’ play may be exhausted or may need to cease for a while whilst players wait for each other).
This is not an attempt to gain more female players, more, it is a way to retain the existing player base
during these moments of stasis.
Online gaming in particular has become much more of a social activity, the result being that all
genders take part. Since this gender is ‘invisible’ on first meeting and may remain so throughout play,
new strategies are being developed, starting with a grassroots change in the way that players respond
to others. This is particularly apparent in MMORPGs, although more traditional forms of gaming such
as console, FPS or LAN gaming through systems such as Xbox Live still suffer from a decreased
visible female presence because they are less social in nature (Cox: email, 2009). Marketing novelties
such as Ubisoft’s Frag Dolls (http://www.fragdolls.com/) are now seen more as a historicised
curiosity than representative of the female gamer at play, with players taking a more socially
conscious approach to relations in-game, and designers responding to this activity more attentively.

An acknowledgement of how players play together, and of the different likes that they now bring to a
text, is essential to help the development of a more gender neutral environment. This does not
eradicate the potential for sexual representation or the diminishing of violent content. It does not,
crucially, make either gender ‘special’ or distinguished by sex. Instead it brings elements of ludic
play, socialisation and interaction which have proved successful elsewhere. It encourages play, as
Free Realms does, within a context that clearly acknowledges the new directions that gaming has
shown over the last few years, most notably from the Nintendo DS and from the increasing social
content engendered by players in MMORPGs. It is not an act of emancipation, because this is already
taking place through player action. Instead it is a releasing, and a commercial recognition of shared
elements into a medium which already boasts the potential for gender equality. The genre of games
as a whole is happy to embrace this because of the marketing acumen that it will bring. If indeed, a
player has ‘the street smarts of a cartoon princess’ (The Guild 2.3), it is a princess controlled by a
player who is both aware and happy to exploit these aspects.

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