Section 5: What Lies Ahead
Marketing Matters
Developing for female preferences is a first step. Marketing must also catch up.
"Marketing's so geared toward men," adds Goad, "but there are a couple games marketed correctly to females, including EverQuest (Sony) and Quake II (id Software)," which rolled out more options for female players after women complained. Asheron's Call (Turbine) also offers a range of female players, and, like EverQuest and Quake, has a large, loyal female following. Again, community is a draw.
Goad also recommends The Longest Journey which offers "an easy-to-identify-with female who's not so sexed up."
But it's not just industry efforts that count. Press coverage is slim for female gaming. Says Brazeau, "There's a ton of disproportionate press on the bad boys of the gaming industry, and there's not a lot of press on games that are great games that would appeal to women." Brazeau notes that Teen Magazine and Women's Day have only recently given female gamers any attention.