作者：Ernest Adams

游戏产业中普遍认为女性不愿意在游戏中花大钱。她们总是会选择一些小游戏或免费游戏，并且根本不可能去购买任何AAA掌机游戏。虽然我从未就这个问题进行研究，但是我却非常了解这种情况，我想其他游戏开发者应该也是这么想的吧！（当然了，女性也会为游戏花钱，但是毕竟只是少数。）

但在2012年的游戏开发者大会上，Brandii Grace却告诉我她正在创建一家面向女性玩家制作AAA游戏的公司。

当我听到这个消息时我并不惊讶，毕竟说这话的是Brandii Grace。她已经进入游戏产业将近10年时间，最初她是作为IGDA（国际游戏开发者协会）的学生学者，随后的时间她扮演了设计师，作家，制作人，程序员以及老师等多种角色。

在IGDA中她拥有非常重要的地位，甚至在今年创建项目志愿者计划中该协会还为其颁发了MVP奖项。她的新公司是Transform Entertainment（可能只是暂时的名称），她在最近采访中谈论了创建这家公司的想法。

在游戏开发者大会上你说过自己正在创建一家新公司，用你的话来说也就是“制作面向女性玩家的AAA游戏。”难道你觉得当前的AAA游戏存在着什么问题吗？

我并不是说当今市场上的AAA游戏存在着什么问题。我只是认为这些游戏更加适合男性玩家，就像定制的西服只适合特定的对象那样，这些游戏并不适合绝大多数女性玩家。

这是个有趣的比喻，但是游戏却不能像衣服那样紧裹人的身体。你在此所说的不适合是什么意思呢？

这意味着大多数AAA游戏都不是根据女性玩家进行设计。不只是游戏的主题，甚至连游戏的执行也难以满足女性玩家的需要或态度。让我们用《暮光之城》和《黑夜传说》这两部同时采用吸血鬼对抗狼人主题的作品进行比较。

《黑夜传说》因为突出了枪击以及穿着紧身裤的性感辣妹而更加吸引男性观众的注意。而《暮光之城》则因为强调剧情以及爱情，家庭和友谊的情感冲突而更加深得女性观众的喜爱。然而游戏产业中很多人却认为要让《黑夜传说》吸引更多女性只需要让其中的吸血鬼变得更加耀眼即可。

所以你是否也会在电子游戏中融入更多有关爱，家庭和友谊的情感冲突？毕竟我们真正擅长的也只是模拟有关物理和经济的内容。

我并不同意这一观点。首先，骗术和结盟操作机制已经成功实践于许多游戏中，如以黑手党和狼人为主题的游戏。社交网站技术已经变得更加成熟，而结盟操作更是社交游戏领域所明确的探索对象。

此外，《模拟人生》这款AAA游戏更是通过创造出玩家与AI角色间的内在冲突成功吸引了无数女性玩家的注意。这款游戏正是成功实践了我所说的“移情玩法”。玩家总是希望能够窥探剧情的发展并影响着最终结果，但是与此同时他们也不希望成为这种情感冲突的直接或间接目标（就像观看尖叫比赛非常有趣，但是参与其中可能就不是如此了）。

说得对，虽然在《模拟人生》中我们并不能真正明确冲突的目标是什么。你在此提到了两个内容：社交网站和普遍的（非角色扮演，或者拥有较少的角色）窥探行为。能否跟我们说说你对于《Prom Week》这款受AI驱动的Facebook游戏的看法？

我认为《模拟人生》的情感反馈以及用于解释冲突的泡泡图标胜过《Prom Week》那不自然且没有多大帮助的对话。《Prom Week》的游戏交流主要发生在菜单上而不是对话中——就好象让玩家在此阅读书籍，从叙述者的阐述中了解整个故事。

更重要的是，你做出了一个有趣的假设，即我谈论到的普遍都是一些角色较少的游戏。在现实中我们也经常参与一些不是针对我们本身的冲突，就像离婚律师那样。但是通常情况下我们都不会让游戏去突出这些“离题的”互动，因为我们都认为乐趣是源自征服冲突的挑战。就像很多男性玩家会因为战胜游戏中的挑战而备受鼓励是一个道理。但是事实上却只有10%的女性会为了挑战而玩游戏。在很多案例中，挑战只会让女性玩家打消玩游戏的念头，因为她们大多不愿意面对失败的风险。

只有10%的女性会为了挑战而玩游戏？真是个让人惊讶的数据，如果这是事实，那我们是不是就应该重新思考“游戏”的定义？从中我也注意到了女性玩家与男生玩家具有更大的差别。

而这似乎听起来像你打算创造一款完全不同的游戏——或者是内容上的不同，或者是语调上和游戏中所呈现的活动的不同。如此背离主流游戏，并为你的产品打上“面向女性玩家的AAA游戏”标签，难道你就不怕再次创造出一个“pink ghetto”（游戏邦注：在公共关系行业中，女性工作中的比率远远超过男性工作者，而这种情况就被称为“pink ghetto”）现象？

“pink ghetto”便是我们正在尝试着摆脱的情况！虽然“非传统”游戏玩家也购买了上百万的Wii和Kinect，但是面向这些系统而发行的AAA游戏主要还是面向硬核玩家。同时，瞄准这一市场的游戏公司仍在发行一些低预算游戏，并且他们也不曾好好了解自己的玩家。这种趋势便引出了一个市场怪圈，即我们不断创造出一些针对于休闲和“非硬核”玩家的高质量AAA游戏。

所以你是对的，为了占领新市场，现在的我们便不得不重新思考游戏设计。但是我们却不需要重复所有的工作或丢弃任何已经掌握的内容——只要通过进一步理解观众而修正其中的一些内容便可。我们的策略其实非常简单，即结合深层次且内容丰富的游戏世界与充满乐趣且休闲的游戏机制，创造出能够迎合新玩家的游戏体验。

所以不只是AAA游戏，应该说是AAA掌机游戏。我想你内心肯定希望能对任何传统观点发起挑战吧？难道这不是自找麻烦吗？网络上有很多人在说掌机时代已经消失了，虽然我自己并不相信这一说法，但是不管怎样我们需要做的还是说服赞助人不要听信此言。大家普遍认为掌机（除了Wii，因为这也很适合儿童游玩）是属于硬核游戏玩家的平台。掌机游戏都较昂贵，且相关硬件也不便宜。女性可以拥有一台PC，但是她们为什么需要为自己再添一台掌机呢？

让我来算一下，好吧，Kinect的销量达到1800万而Wii更是破亿。所以女性玩家并不需要找理由去购买一台游戏系统，因为她们已经拥有了这些系统！她们只是缺少合适的好游戏罢了。此外，那些在家里安装了掌机系统的顾家男性更是持续主导着“硬核游戏”市场。加之，很多研究表明大多数女性会为了与好友和家人保持联系而玩游戏。快速浏览“妈咪博客”便可以看出女性玩家越来越渴望与自己的孩子一起玩游戏。

相关数据：

育碧的女性型Wii游戏《舞力全开2》获得了910万的销量。

育碧的畅销“硬核”游戏《刺客信条2》获得了960万的销量。

在Xbox 360平台上，面向于家庭的《Kinect大冒险》获得了1610万的销量。

在Xbox 360平台上，“硬核”游戏《现代战争3》获得了1388万的销量。

我认可《舞力全开2》的实力，但是《Kinect大冒险》因为是附带于Kinect中的游戏，所以不具备多少说服力。但是不管怎么样，你的确让我相信妈妈玩家也愿意接近掌机并在此玩游戏。那么年轻女性是否又愿意购买这些游戏呢？

从《Kinect大冒险》中我们可以看出微软希望Kinect成为真正具有家庭友好型游戏体验的平台，并超越他们的其它大型硬核游戏。

让我们以一些数据进行说明：根据去年的调查，18至34岁的群体在所有女性玩家中所占比例为33%。虽然我没看过关于关系状态的数据，但是每一年女性使用掌机的数量却真的在稳步增长着。我认为那些女性开发者主要来自那10%的“硬核”女性游戏玩家。我们需要记住的是，女性与男性一样具有多样化。没有哪一款游戏能够吸引所有的女性，就像没有哪一款游戏能够同时吸引所有男性那样。

所以你自己也应该知道不可能创造出一款能够吸引所有女性的游戏。我同意女性与男性在游戏品味上存在着巨大的差别。所以让我们就此切入正题，你即将发布哪款游戏，并且将面向哪些玩家？

尽管我们还不打算公开这个项目，但我可以告诉你，我们的第一款游戏将面向Kinect平台，为玩家创造犹如《摇滚乐团》般的幻想体验。虽然这款特别的游戏更多地是针对于年轻女性玩家，但是我们也将设计更多面向各年龄层女性玩家的游戏。

我们的另外一款Kinect游戏将吸引许多“妈咪博客”访问者的注意。它的设计目的是鼓励整个家庭进行沉浸式游戏体验。并且它也不强迫玩家持续粘在游戏中。这样易分散注意力的儿童们便可以在不影响其他玩家的前提下自如进退游戏。而如果每个玩家都必须拥有自己的控制器，键盘，鼠标或智能手机，那便很难实现这种家庭式的用户粘性。

的确很有趣。不得不承认的是，我从未听过任何本地（非在线）多人游戏允许玩家进进出出。一般是棋盘游戏或者要求亲力亲为的体育运动才会这么做吧。而如果你说你的游戏玩法非常吸引人，我想它应该也具有这种特质。

你似乎已经意识到我们游戏所存在的真正潜力了！我们游戏中所存在的潜在互动理念在于：想象饼干烘培。你可以让孩子去过筛面粉，滚面团或使用饼干模具按压形状；而如果他们不能完成你所分配的任务也不会影响游戏的进行，因为你仍可以接下去完成任务。过去的游戏产业总是将我们限制在玩家与输入设备间的一对一关系。而随着技术局限性的不断缩小，我们同时也需要缩小设计中的各种局限因素。

能否谈谈你的开发团队或者你自己在此所扮演的角色？

在Transform Entertainment中我身兼CEO和创意总监的角色。根据多年来的研究我已经设计了好几款游戏了。那些无视玩家而依赖于任何错误理念的研究终将会遭遇失败。我曾经听过一个很有趣的例子：“女性玩家总希望主角能够拥有三个字的名字。”而我并不认为在《美女餐厅》中将Flo名字改成Carla就会导致游戏失败。还有一个例子是“女性从来不玩任何不具现实益处的游戏。”我想说的是有上百万女性在玩《Windows Solitaire》之类的游戏，而这类型游戏的最大好处只是娱乐，这又作何解释？之所以会出现这种想法都是因为女性希望自己的行动更有意义，但是这种意义是相对于游戏环境而言而不是针对于现实世界。

听起来你好像真的很喜欢Kinect。我能否问问你的支持者是谁？仅凭一个人的力量应该很难完成一款AAA游戏的开发。

我们之所以如此喜欢Kinect是因为它拥有极大的潜力能够帮助我们更深入了了解目标用户并获得他们的关注。加之，我们认为用户购买这一系统的主要原因是希望在此看到游戏产业未曾带给他们的体验，所以我们就需要为他们创造出这种体验！

Whatnot?! Entertainment便是我们的一大战略伙伴。Mark Murphy及其动画团队多年来一直致力于创造电影，电视剧，游戏以及多媒体作品，我们也真的非常幸运能够与之合作。除此之外我们也一直努力地寻找着其它支持者，当然我们也欢迎任何新的机遇。到目前为止我们也真的收到了许多积极的回应。

不仅开发者对我们的设计感到满意，其他商业人士也非常看好我们的市场机遇。我们的潜在投资回报率（ROI）与创造一款新的掌机游戏几乎是一样的：我们面对的是一个巨大的现有市场，并且无需投入额外的费用去应对竞争（这里还不存在竞争）或面对不符合规格的游戏。并且幸运的是，已经出现了一些同类型游戏证明这种产品能够取得巨大的成功。

所以，Xbox + Kinect便是你们所选择的发行平台。女性很少会走进游戏商店卖游戏，但是她们却可以去各种零售店进行购买。AAA游戏是以实体拷贝的形式呈现在用户面前，至少在当下是这样的。而你是否只考虑采取零售或数据下载方式去发行游戏？

的确是这样的！大多数女性都不会到当地的游戏商店购买游戏。所以我们所采取的一大战略便是将游戏放置在非传统的零售店中，且以此推销我们的游戏。举个例子来说吧，如果我们正在制作一款烹饪游戏，你便会在烹饪书籍的周边找到我们游戏的副本，或者我们也会在一些零售店的厨具销售点中播放我们游戏的广告。

我喜欢这种创意，但是前提是你必须说服这些零售店允许你这么做。你认为你们所面临的最大障碍是什么？

好吧，我也从不相信这个世界上存在不需要赞助的初创企业。

在游戏发行前我们所面临的最大挑战是人才获取和留存。因为许多开发者都属于硬核游戏玩家，所以他们都希望能够创造硬核游戏。我们通过强调工作与生活的平衡而吸引更多想要与家人和其他重要人物分享游戏的开发者。

而在游戏发行后，我想我们的最大挑战应该就是品牌意识了。传统的游戏市场营销渠道并不能帮助我们获得更多的目标用户，所以我们便决定投入更多经历去寻找新的渠道而吸引更多目标用户。

我想知道，针对于女性的游戏是否就需要选择针对于女性的媒体做广告，如《Cosmopolitan》（游戏邦注：针对女性读者的全球知名时尚杂志），《Family Circle》（美国生活文化杂志）以及Lifetime频道等，还是仍然选择最传统的渠道？我发现大多数游戏宣传都是出现在报纸上的“男性”版块，总是与汽车和各种配件内容紧靠在一起。

没错！就像我们在儿童媒体上为儿童游戏做广告一样，我们当然也会选择针对于女性的媒体进行广告宣传。1993年，当Sears打算转向女士用品时他们便打出了“看看Sears温柔的一面”这一活动，旨在面向中等收入的25至54岁年龄层的女性。他们投入了上百万资金在女性家庭和时尚杂志上刊登广告，而且他们的广告首映是出现在艾美奖颁奖典礼上而非美国橄榄球超级杯大赛中。

再次以“烹饪游戏”为例子，如果我们不在烹饪杂志或食物网站上刊登这款游戏的广告，那还真的是浪费了这一题材。如果我真的在制作这类型的游戏，我一定会邀请Martha Stewart（游戏邦注：全球居家时尚女王）专门为游戏撰写博客并接受她的访问，同时我也会在Rachel Ray（美国电视烹饪女王）的节目上邀请观众实况尝试我们的游戏。

最后一个问题了，这也是个最老套的问题，即在今后五年里你有何打算？也就是在2013年的游戏开发者大会上，当我们在此相遇时你会跟我阐述何种创想？

我想我最先会告诉你，我一直在等着你参加我的婚礼的回复。

然后我会很兴奋地开始谈论我的产品的进展，并与你分享经营一家强大的公司的秘诀（即如何有效地维持员工的工作和生活平衡）。

更重要的是，我将为你呈现游戏产业未来的发展境况。我们将把游戏带向更多未挖掘的市场中去，并努力缩小祖母（只接触《FarmVille》这类游戏）与姐妹们（刚接触《使命召唤》的群体）之间的距离。这种动态市场的转变将吸引整个游戏产业更加关注于不断发展的女性玩家市场。所以让我们翘首期盼新游戏世界的到来吧！

总结

我们的讨论以一份呈现出更多热情而非死板数据的笔记结束了。最后，Brandii让我相信了她的理念并不是一种空想。我喜欢她的想法也理解她的想法。而Brandii在谈话中所提到的“女性希望主角能够拥有三个字的名字”这一理念是过去我们的产业进军女性市场所采纳的无知方式。

同时我也认为我们迫切需要创造出更多面向女性玩家的高质量游戏，不再强迫她们在游戏中扮演星际战士的角色或只是不断点击游戏，而是尊重她们的聪明才智。Brandii真的是一位难能可贵的人才，而如果她真的能够说服女性玩家为她的游戏掏钱，她必定能够取得巨大的成功。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

The Designer’s Notebook: Triple-A Games for Women? Seriously?

by Ernest Adams

There’s a longstanding piece of conventional wisdom in the game business that women won’t shell out big bucks for games. They might play small games or free games, but for most women, buying a triple-A console blockbuster for themselves is out of the question. I haven’t done any research on the issue, but I’m pretty up to speed on our shibboleths, and I know that’s what a lot of developers think. (Of course, women in the game industry spend money on games, but they’re atypical.)

Imagine my bogglement, then, when Brandii Grace informed me at the 2012 Game Developers’ Conference that she is founding a company to make triple-A games for women.

I suppose I shouldn’t have been so surprised; this is, after all, Brandii Grace we’re talking about. If you don’t know her, Brandii is about the size of a firecracker and possesses a similar energy

density. She has been in the game industry for close to 10 years, starting as an IGDA Student Scholar and working her way up as a designer, writer, producer, programmer and eventually teacher.

She’s still a big deal in the IGDA, too, having won their MVP award this year for setting up their events volunteers program. And if all that weren’t enough, Brandii also fought and won a National Labor Relations Board case against an employer who treated her and her co-workers unfairly, spending six hours on the witness stand and never losing her cool under relentless cross-examination.

Still, you can’t persuade women to buy triple-A games with composure alone. Her new company is called Transform Entertainment — at least for the moment — and I decided to play devil’s advocate and ask her what makes her think she can do it.

At the Game Developers’ Conference, you told me you were setting up a company to, in your words, “make triple-A games for women.” What’s wrong with the triple-A games we already have?

Brandii Grace: I wouldn’t say there’s something “wrong” with the triple-A games on the market today. Rather, I’d say they are like a man’s best, custom-tailored suit — a perfect fit for the intended audience and a poor fit for most women.

Interesting analogy, but games don’t wrap themselves around a human body. What does a poor fit mean in this context?

BG: It means that most triple-A games don’t properly target most women. I’m not just talking about the themes of these games; their execution doesn’t support the needs or attitudes of this audience. Compare how Twilight and Underworld both approach the theme of vampires versus werewolves.

Underworld attracts more men by focusing on the action of a gun-toting, catsuit-wearing hottie kicking ass. Twilight attracts more women by focusing on the drama of internal and interpersonal conflicts between desire and the emotional bonds of love, family, and friendship. Yet, too many people in our industry think they’d attract the Twilight audience simply by making the Underworld vampires sparkly!

Are you seriously going to put the conflict between desire and the emotional bonds of love, family, and friendship in a video game? The only things we’re really good at simulating are physics and economics.

BG: I disagree! For starters, deception and alliance manipulation are mechanics successfully implemented in plenty of games like Mafia and Werewolf. Social networking technology has matured considerably and alliance manipulation is an area social games are well-positioned to explore.

Moreover, The Sims — the triple-A franchise most successful at attracting large audiences of women — created interpersonal conflicts between its AI characters. They successfully implemented gameplay I refer to as “empathy play”. Players are given a voyeuristic view of all the drama and the ability to influence its outcome; but players never become a direct or indirect target of the emotional conflict. (Watching a screaming match may be fun; being in one is not.)

Prom Week

Fair enough, although in The Sims you can’t actually tell what the conflict is about. You’ve raised two issues: social networking and omnipresent (non-role-playing, avatar-less) voyeurism. What do you think about Prom Week, the AI-driven Facebook game?

BG: Actually, I’d say The Sims’ emotional reactions and icon thought bubbles explain conflicts far better than Prom Week’s unnatural and unhelpful dialogue. Prom Week’s gameplay communication is in its menus instead of its dialogue — which is like reading a book where the entire story is in the narrator’s exposition.

More importantly, you made an interesting assumption that I was talking about avatar-less omnipresence. There are plenty of real people involved in conflicts without being targeted by them — divorce lawyers, for example. But we don’t often make games featuring such “tangential” interactions. That’s because we assume fun emerges directly from the challenge of conquering a conflict. This makes sense, as most men are driven by overcoming challenges in games. However, only about 10 percent of women play games for the challenge. In many cases, challenge can actually deter women because they are so averse to the risk of failure.

Only 10 percent of women play games for the challenge? That’s an extraordinary statistic, and if true, one that requires that we re-think what “game” even means. It also suggests that the female player is far more different from the male one than I had thought.

It sounds as if you want to create dramatically different games — partially in content, partially in tone, and in the very activity that you offer. By setting yourself so far apart from the mainstream, and branding your product “triple-A games for women,” don’t you risk creating a pink ghetto?

BG: The “pink ghetto” is what we’re trying to stop! The “non-traditional” gaming audience bought millions of Wiis and Kinects; yet the triple-A games released for those systems still rely on mechanics targeting core gamers! Meanwhile, companies targeting this market continually release low-budget games designed with a shallow misunderstanding of their audience. These trends have left a hole in the market we’re filling with high-quality triple-A console games targeted to casual, “non-core” gamers.

Now, you’re right that we have to re-think our designs in order to win in this new market; but we don’t have to completely reinvent the wheel or toss everything we’ve learned — just subtly tweak things using a solid understanding of this audience. Our strategy is simple: combine deep, content-rich worlds with fun, casual-style mechanics and create a new kind of experience to serve a new kind of gamer.

So not only triple-A but console triple-A. There isn’t a piece of conventional wisdom you’re not prepared to challenge, is there? How do I think thou art asking for trouble? Let me count the ways.

There’s a lot of internet yak about how consoles are dead; I don’t believe it myself, but it’s something that you’ll have to convince your funders is not true. There’s also a general feeling that consoles (except the Wii, which is seen as for little kids) are a hardcore gamer’s platform. The games are expensive and the hardware is a luxury. Women can justify owning a PC for other reasons, but a console?

BG: I’ll count the ways: 18 million Kinects, 100 million Wiis. Women don’t need to “justify” buying a game system — they’ve already got them! They’re just lacking good games to play on them.

Besides, the “hardcore” market is increasingly dominated by family men whose console systems are set up in shared living spaces. Plus, studies show that most women play games to connect with their friends and families. A quick tour of the “mommy blogs” shows a rising demand for engaging games they can play with their kids.

Some figures:

Ubisoft’s female-friendly Wii game Just Dance 2 sold 9.1 million units.

Ubisoft’s highest-selling “core” game, Assassin’s Creed 2, sold 9.6 million units.

On the 360: family targeted Kinect Adventures sold 16.10 million units.

On the 360: “core” targeted Modern Warfare 3 sold 13.88 million units.

Just Dance 2

I’ll grant you Just Dance 2, but Kinect Adventures was a pack-in. You got it with the Kinect whether you wanted it or not. Anyway, you’ve convinced me that the mothers have access to consoles and want to use them. Are young single women buying them? (Your female friends in the game industry don’t count!)

BG: I’d say making Kinect Adventures a pack-in just shows that Microsoft is marketing the Kinect to be a family-friendly gaming experience and still outselling their biggest hardcore games.

As for stats: Last year, 18-34 year olds made up 33 percent of the female gaming audience. I’ve never seen stats on relationship status, but the overall percentage of women using consoles goes up

steadily each year. As for female devs — I suspect most women driven to create games come from that 10 percent of females who belong to the “core” gamer market. Remember, women are as diverse as men. No game will ever appeal to all women, just as no game appeals to all men.

Okay — so you yourself know you can’t appeal to all women, and I agree that women are at least as diverse as men in their gaming tastes, if not more so. So let’s cut to the chase. What’s your launch title, and who is it for?

BG: While we’re not ready to go public, I can tell you that our first title is a whole new experience for the Kinect that brings player’s fantasies to life in much the same way Rock Band let players feel like rock stars. This particular title is aimed more at young women, but we have designed games targeting a variety of demographics.

For example, another of our Kinect games should really excite those mommy bloggers I mentioned. It’s designed to encourage immersive whole-family play. It allows, but does not require, all players to maintain continued engagement. This is done intentionally so little kids (with their often sporadic attention-spans) can step in and out of the gameplay easily without adversely impacting other players. This kind of family engagement is difficult to achieve when each player has to have their own controllers, keyboards, mice, or smartphones.

Interesting. I have to admit I haven’t heard of a lot of multiplayer local (not online) games that permit players to come and go. Generally with a board game or even something physical it calls for a sustained degree of commitment. You may well have something there, if your gameplay is appealing enough.

BG: It seems you’re beginning to see the true potential in our games! If you want an idea of how latent interactions might work: imagine baking cookies. You can ask kids to sift flour, roll dough, and use cookie cutters; but it won’t destroy the recipe if they don’t finish because you can still do it. Our industry used to be restricted by the one-to-one relationships of players-to-input devices. As technology restrictions are continually removed; we, too, must remove unnecessary restrictions on our designs.

Can you talk about your dev team, and/or your own role?

BG: I’m the CEO and creative lead for Transform Entertainment. I’ve designed each of our games based on years of solid research. Companies that fail to seriously research their audience risk relying on misguided concepts. A funny example I’ve heard: “Women need main characters to have three-letter names.” I doubt sales of Diner Dash would suffer if Flo were named Carla. Another popular one is, “Women won’t play games without a real-world benefit.” Millions of women play Windows Solitaire and, like most games, its benefit is simply entertainment. This idea originates from the fact that women want their actions to be meaningful; but within the context of the game, not necessarily the real world.

It sounds as if you’re really excited by the Kinect. Can I ask who your backers are? One does not simply walk into triple-A game development. There is evil there that does not sleep.

BG: We are very interested in the Kinect because it has great potential to reach our target audience on a very deep level. Plus, I believe the audience bought the system on a promise of an experience our industry hasn’t fully delivered — yet. We will deliver that experience!

One of our strategic partners is Whatnot?! Entertainment. Mark Murphy and his team of animators have been working in movies, television, games, and multimedia for years and we’re insanely lucky to have them on board. We’re exploring various prospects with other backers and, of course, we welcome new opportunities. So far, we’ve had really excited responses.

Developers are excited by our designs, while business folks are excited by our market opportunity. Our potential ROI is as good as it gets for a new venture on consoles: We have a large, established market with virtually no competition that has been paying a lot, even for substandard games. Fortunately, a few games have proven that serving this audience with great products creates enormously successful franchises.

So the Xbox + Kinect is a certainty… Let’s talk about distribution. Women don’t go into game stores much, for good reason; but they do shop at less-threatening retail outlets. Triple-A still tends to imply physical copies, at least for the time being. Are you thinking retail, or digital download only?

BG: You are absolutely correct! Most women don’t run to their local game store. One of the strategies we are investigating is placement in non-traditional retail outlets that reflect the market for a game. For example, if we were to make a game about cooking (we aren’t), you might find a copy of the game available next to recipe books or we may set up an ad display for the game in the kitchenware section of major retailers.

I like that idea, if you can persuade them to do it. What do you think is your biggest hurdle? Apart from sarcastic remarks from old-timers like me?

BG: Well, I don’t think there exists in this world a startup that doesn’t need more funding!

Pre-launch, our biggest challenge will likely be talent acquisition and retention, because many developers are hardcore gamers who want to make hardcore games. We prioritize work-life balance to attract the growing number of developers who want to make games they can share with their families and significant others.

Post-launch, I expect our greatest challenge will be brand awareness. Traditional game marketing channels won’t reach most of our target audience, so we’ll be focusing our efforts into new channels that specifically attract our target market.

I have been wondering if games aimed at women would start advertising in media aimed at women — Cosmopolitan, Family Circle, the Lifetime channel — or are those all too conventional? I’ve noticed that games tend to be reviewed in the “guy” section of the newspaper, along with the cars and gadgets.

BG: Absolutely! We advertise kids games in kids’ media; of course we should advertise women-targeted games in women-targeted media. In 1993, Sears saw a complete turnaround with it successful “come see the softer side of Sears” campaign targeting middle-income women ages 25-54. They spent millions running ads in women’s home and fashion magazines and their commercials premiered during the Emmys, not the Super Bowl.

Going back to my earlier “cooking game” example — it’s a horrible waste of an opportunity if a game like that isn’t advertised in cooking magazines or on the Food Network. If I were doing such a game, I’d get Martha Stewart to blog about it and arrange to be a guest on her and Rachel Ray’s shows where I’d invite audience members to play quick on-air game sessions with the host.

And one last question. It’s a cliché that hiring managers ask you where you want to be in five years, but in the game industry that’s too long. When I see you again at GDC 2013, what will you have to tell me?

BG: Most likely, the first thing I’ll have to tell you is that I’ll be waiting for your RSVP to my wedding…

Next, I’ll excitedly launch into details on how well production is going and share with you some of our secrets for successfully building a strong company that maintains a solid work-life balance for its employees.

Most importantly, I’ll give you a sneak peek into the future of our industry! We’re introducing gaming to an enormous new market of untapped players, and bridging the gap between the grandmother who dabbles in FarmVille and the sister who p0wns noobs in Call of Duty. This creates a dynamic market shift which will compel our industry to focus greater attention on the growing market of female players across the entire gaming spectrum. Welcome to the new world of gaming!

Conclusion

Our discussion ended on a note offering more enthusiasm than hard data. But in the end Brandii convinced me that this isn’t just pie in the sky. I like her game design ideas, as much as I know of them. The numbers are there and the consoles are in place. The stupid theories that Brandii quoted — “women need main characters to have three-letter names” — seem typical of the ignorant, slapdash way the industry has approached the female market in the past. (Let’s not forget the short-lived “pink box” craze of the late ’90s.)

I think there is an unmet need for high-quality games that cater to women’s interests without requiring them either to be a space marine or a cow clicker, and that respect their intelligence.

Brandii is as qualified as anybody to meet it, if she can persuade women to spend the money. I hope she succeeds.(source:GAMASUTRA)