You rarely walk into a video game store and see many game titles that are aimed exclusively at the female audience. There is virtually no wide format support for such titles as they spend millions of dollars catering exclusively to male audiences. After all, conventional wisdom would suggest that since only games for men are being created, only men are interested in playing video games. This couldn’t be further from the truth, a fact often overlooked by big game publishers like EA, Activision or Take-Two. The statistics alone refute the idea that girls are not interested in spending time playing video games. The Sims is the best-selling game of all time, and much of its success can be attributed to its loyal female fan base. 40% of all girls in Australia who took part in a survey also admitted to spending time online playing video games. This is a global trend that as more gaming-enabled devices become available, so does the potential audience for your products. From personal experience, I can attest to the power of targeting the female gamer audience and the amount of success it can bring to your gaming portals. Hopefully this article can shed some light on what you can do to recognize your female audience and entice them to use your product.
Understand your audience
This would be common sense regardless of any type of video game or interactive content you develop, but given the lack of titles made exclusively for girls, how would you start? The answer is not necessarily to wait on a shelf in a game retail store, but rather online on a game website or portal.
Depending on the age range of the female audience, you will find some games more popular than others. These games generally have simple, easy-to-learn gameplay factors that most professional game developers would consider basic or even, in some cases, downright primitive. Do not be fooled by this or discount this fact. It’s a mistake that many game developers make and are opposed to working on games that would otherwise be something that the female audience would be interested in.
One of the most popular gaming websites among girls would be StarDoll.com, which is essentially an online paper doll website. Moving various items of clothing on a 2d doll is a very simple thing to do if you have professional gaming experience. It is this very simple game mechanics combined with the variety of various current celebrities and other incentives that encourage millions of users to return every day to that website.
Dress up games are some of the most popular games among girls with thousands of web game portals dedicated exclusively to this genre of games. Other game categories that are popular among female gamers include pet games, makeover games, cooking games, and room makeover games. Some of the most popular girly games may have elements from these game categories combined, making for an even more compelling gaming experience. Almost all the games popular among the female audience would be classified under Casual Games.
Doing your homework on what’s currently working on the internet will help you understand an audience that could be decades younger than you personally and completely different to your personal preferences for gaming. It’s a challenge where you need to start to fully capitalize on this market segment and achieve success.
The online factor
One of the game categories not mentioned above is fast becoming the most popular. Online worlds provide an experience where they can socialize and meet new friends. Important game elements of Worlds Online would include; the possibility of customizing the avatar, customizing the rooms of the users and the possibility of chatting and meeting new friends. Some examples would be Club Penguin, Habbo Hotel, There.com, and IMVU.
Major companies are realizing the immense popularity of online worlds among the female audience and now have many similar gameplay elements. The key for anyone looking to compete in this arena is to come up with compelling gameplay mechanics that appeal to this key demographic of female users.
This type of game may be out of reach for many small developers, but any game starts out modestly, so this could be a long-term goal to achieve. Never discard any game idea completely, especially since it can help you develop something unique. Sometimes combining existing game ideas in an online environment can help set it apart from what’s currently available.
making it unique
Regardless of the size or scope of your gaming websites, one important thing to keep in mind is that uniqueness will help you stand out from the competition in a crowded marketplace. My game portal, for example, specializes in browser-based online worlds that do not require registration. The benefit of this is that you can immediately introduce your user to your gaming product without them registering or downloading anything. Consider introducing a unique element like this to your game or website and you will have taken the first step in capturing some of the fastest growing player demographics out there.
Using the female player demographic
Accepting and embracing the fact that your gaming website caters to female gamers is a very important and strategic move to plan for on any gaming portal website. The market share is so large that the chance of you succeeding as an independent developer increases if you do. This is not the first choice for most professional game developers, but I am one hundred percent sure that this is the right direction for a small game website to take if you want to appeal to a larger audience. The games you make don’t always have to be made exclusively for a female audience, but I think they deserve some consideration.
Hopefully this has shed some interesting light on the often neglected demographic of female gamers, and provides you with some success in your endeavors.