Growing up I often experienced how being "the girl" made it a little more difficult for me getting access to parties, computer games, etc. than my brothers. I had to earn the privilege of playing computer games by doing my chores and homework first - And I often had to hand over my turn while playing to my younger brother, as I was expected to be the mature sensible older sister - Truth is I was not. When not supervised our own system of taking turns playing went smoother, than using the one forced upon us by the adults. By age we were only separated by a few years, he was always my equal and we were very likeminded. We never distinguished between boys' and girls' games as we never saw any of the marketing campaigns and we preferred the same games; Zelda for SEGA and Bubble Bobble for PC were the absolute favorites. We never knew that there were boys and girls games - we only distinguished between platform, combat and strategy games.
Design and marketing of computer games targeting adolescents have two target groups: The child and the adult who purchases the game. In "Pink Games" we refer to games that are directly designed for younger girls - these games are interpretations of the stereotypical girly world in which these girls are grown up. The critique of these games are that they are designed the way we expect little girls to prefer them, maybe not the way girls actually would want. A critique not only limited to little girls video games but to products for women all ages.
Currently trending in Scandinavia women age in their twenties and thirties are becoming frequent consumers of male targeted brands. They choose these masculine brands over the intended similar feminine product lines from the same supplier; Like Cola Zero (instead of Cola Light) and Gillette Mac III (instead of the Gillette Venus). Private research suggests that it is due to the same devaluation in design and branding for females that Pink Games presents to costumers. When asked women answer that these masculine brands "seem more honest" and "represents higher quality" oppose to the female targeted brands that are described as "offensive to women's intelligence" in marketing and communication. I wonder if these women rather would purchase age appropriate games that are marketed "gender neutral" for their own daughters in the future to come...
Readings:
Yee, "Maps of Digital Desires"
Lin, "Body, Space and Gendered Gaming Experiences"
Jenkins, "Complete Freedom of Movement"
