The Gary Gygax Debate Part Two: Games for "Girls"

"Gaming in general is a male thing. It isn't that gaming is designed to exclude women. Everybody who's tried to design a game to interest a large female audience has failed. And I think that has to do with the different thinking processes of men and women." Gary Gygax

So I thought I'd return today to talk again about this quote from Gary Gygax about us wimmin gamers.  I want to focus specifically on the idea that games designed for a female audience have failed. 

Take the worst stereotypes about women that exist in Western culture. For adult women, these are probably best encapsulated by Sex and the City - we love shoes, fashion, shopping, and worry primarily about our relationships with men. Unfortunately, when someone puts a game with these stereotypes front and centre, this is what people call a game designed for women. Most of the women I know are a lot more nuanced than this. 


The other commonality in games supposedly designed for women is they usually do not involve violence or adventure. This is, I suppose, because women are more nuturing and caring than men and more focused on relationships. Now, i have seen some women and feminists buy into this idea that women are somehow a gentler, peace-loving sex. I won't say there is nothing at all to this, but the idea that the only women in the world love rom-coms and Harlequin really isn't representative. Most women I know enjoy action movies. And most gamer womyn I know like to shoot things up. 


So I would postulate that the reason why games designed for women have failed is that they haven't really targeted women - they've targeted some imaginary woman made up of stereotypes about women. If game companies become serious about making games for women, they should look instead to the books that women read, esp. us geeky wimmin.


Real games for women would, in my opinion, involve:
(1) female characters that are protagonists (preferably as a first choice)
(2) women in the game should be strong without being emotionless, not have crazy comic-book artist proportions and have distinct goals, motivations and complexity
(3) the game camera should not regularly focus on breasts and asses - this dehumanizes women
(4) women in the game should be recognized for their skills and choices, not for how they look


I have yet to see a game company using that manifesto to develop a game for women.


When I think about games that have come close to being truly for women, I think of the Mass Effect series, The Sims. What do you think of?

Sexist or Simple Facts: Deconstructing a quote by Gary Gygax

"Gaming in general is a male thing. It isn't that gaming is designed to exclude women. Everybody who's tried to design a game to interest a large female audience has failed. And I think that has to do with the different thinking processes of men and women." Gary Gygax

I have a penchant for kick-starting any sort of analysis with a quote and as I wrote my welcome for the blog, I went looking for one that was appropriate about feminist gamers. Instead, I found this.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Gary Gygax, he is known as the "father" of role-playing games. Leaving aside the fact that calling a founding innovator a "father" has interesting connotations, he has been widely recognized for his contributions to gaming. He was a co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons. I've played several versions of D&D: tabletop, pc (Baldur's Gate) and several of the newer versions on Xbox 360 and PS3. In case there is a gamer out there who doesn't immediately jump to one of these for reference, D&D is basically Lord of the Rings where you pick your character type and then try to level yourself up to Godhood, fighting progressively harder monsters as you go. RPGs are, by far, my favorite genre. I would argue that RPGs are often the most female-friendly games as they allow you to build a complex person (with preferences, relationships and goals) rather than being simple fantasy-fulfillment. So if Gary Gygax actually said this (I couldn't find a primary source), then I think he fails to see the true potential of his creation.

But all of that is beside the point of this post. The questions I want to tackle are: Do men and wommin have different thinking processes? What are games for women and why have they failed? Is gaming designed to exclude women? So let's start today with the idea of gendered "thinking processes".

It might be strange for someone who is specifically gearing her blog towards feminists to question whether men and wommin have different thinking processes. My personal take is that you don't have to be a woman to be a feminist and, in fact, the majority of women are not actually feminists. Many will disagree with me, and I love a good debate, but the definition of feminist I adhere to is someone who thinks critically about gender in society and history, who believes the majority of the societies that exist on earth today have a lot of work to do to  represent women and men more equitably in politics, workplaces, families, etc. Basically, a feminist would worry about raising her son to be someone who sees womyn as friends, colleagues and lovers rather than toys or chattel. So, as a feminist, I certainly don't automatically agree with the idea that men and women have different thinking processes.

There's been a ton of pseudo and actual science about men's thinking processes versus women's. I'm not sure which side hard science is on lately. Like the nature vs. nurture debate, there seems to be evidence of both. I would argue that most studies that found women and men think differently are inherently flawed as they are studying men and women who have grown up in a gendered society and who have thus internalized a lot of biases about what is for "girls" and what is for "boys". To look at North American society, my home base, gender-normative behaviour starts at a very young age: telling children what colours they can like, what clothes to wear, which toys to play with, how to socialize with each other, which behaviour is acceptable and so on. Men and women are told to think differently from each other - and often do. But do they actually have different thinking processes? Do our brains actually function differently? I'm not a neuroscientist but I don't think so. And women who are gamers are likely a unique sample themselves. As a woman gamer, I refuse to accept that I have inherently different thinking processes from my male counterparts that somehow exclude me (and justly so) from gaming culture.

And if I do somehow have a "different thinking process", how would that exclude me from enjoying games. What "thinking process" affects whether you can enjoy games? Our games are not something truly new, they are simply an extension of technology into games all children have played. They are pretending. They are play-fighting and play-acting. Especially role-playing games. Women have been considered capable of being actors since the 1700s - surely we have not somehow lost that capability? And the math involved in RPGs, assuming you - unlike me - ascribe to the fallacy that women are somehow less mathematically inclined, is pretty basic. Yes, womyn too can roll a few dice and add up the result.

Of course, perhaps what he is really speaking to are the minimal options for engaging our male gamer colleagues as equals. Particularly for tabletop games like traditional D&D, you have to not loathe the people you play with. If they are constantly insulting and stupid, it is hard to enjoy the game. I have found over the years that a lot of male LARP and tabletop players seem to enjoy being misogynist. Usually in character, but sometimes spiced up with an inability to do anything except stare at my breasts. But that behaviour isn't inherent in the game, and, frankly, shouldn't be allowed by any DM (or game master, if you aren't playing D&D). It is the same problem I have run into many times in MMORPGs. I log onto a server and am suddenly surrounded by people acting like misogynist jerks. So I don't play those anymore. But that is not MY problem, nor is my rejection of those games a result of a "different thinking process". Unless you consider standing up for your right not to be abused and insulted on the basis of gender a "different thinking process." If so, it is one I wish more people shared.

Welcome Gamer Wimmin!

I am a proud gamer. And a proud feminist. And I know that there are others out there like me.

I'll be using this space to discuss feminist issues in gaming, such as sexist archetypes, body diversity, female vs. male character development and aesthetics. I am hoping to start a discussion about the depiction of women (or womyn or wimmin or people) in games. I encourage all the other feminists out there to join me in critiquing and celebrating games you love (or hate).

I will only be talking about games I've played and often will be focusing on only one aspect or character of those games. I take a very inclusive definition of gaming: from LARP to tabletop to console to PC.

I hope that other womyn join me, and that you enjoy thinking critically with me about this amazing media and life experience.