CCP's Petursson: "Women Don't Want to Be Spaceships"
EVE Online head honcho Hilmar Petursson wants to attract the ladies. Unfortunately for him, the ladies don't like it in space.
"One thing we found out is that women don't want to be spaceships," Petursson said in an interview with Eurogamer. The corporate chief of Icelandic developer CCP, Petursson has overseen development of EVE from its conception. "I've shown EVE Online videos to lots of girls, and their eyes just glaze over... but I show it to guys and they're like, 'Hell yeah!' Our research in to this, by hiring more girls into CCP and asking them what they want to do, shows that they want to be people. They don't want to be spaceships."
Petursson (pictured left) got his start with software developer OZ Studios, helping to design a 3D Van Gogh Exhibit before leaving to lead in the development of EVE Online. The single-server, space-based game is now entering its fifth year of operation, and has enjoyed steady growth despite strong competition in the genre. CCP recently merged with RPG designer White Wolf Publishing, and is planning on releasing an MMO based on White Wolf's World of Darkness franchise in "four to five" years. In the meantime, development of EVE continues, with major content expansions on the horizon.
While players can design character portraits in EVE, the whole of the game is currently played from the perspective of a spaceship. This differs from most MMOs, which often allow for a personalized avatar with which female gamers can more readily identify. To remedy this, CCP will eventually be allowing players to climb out of their spacesuits and stretch their legs in docking ports. These new congregational areas will become a way for players to network on a more social level when they are added sometime in 2008. "Customizable clothing should be quite unique. You also might want to have a corporation outfit. That might actually be really cool as well," Petursson added.
Gaming companies are increasingly targeting the female demographic with socially-focused games. Last year, a survey by Nielsen Entertainment found that almost two-thirds (62 percent) of all active online gamers are female, while women account for almost a third of all gamers (30 percent) overall. Despite the fact that the study was not limited to retail games, it still reveals a growing market that companies are keen to exploit.
Developer nDreams last week announced Venus Redemption, a Sims-like episodic series that will present "powerful storylines, deep characters, emotion-based interactive conversations and exciting adventure gameplay." The company pointed out the game's casual nature, noting that it will be "extremely easy to play, requiring only the ability to move and left-click a mouse" as well as "playable in short bursts."
nDreams is lead by former Eidos creative director Patrick O'Luanaigh. "After many months of development and exhaustive gameplay focus testing, we believe that it will prove a breath of fresh air for the casual game sector, and in particular for female casual gamers. With the technology behind Venus Redemption, we can now rapidly develop immersive and visually impressive story-based casual games that will run on almost any PC," O'Luanaigh said, emphasizing the need for an undaunting experience to keep the attention of female audiences who may have never played a video game.
While more and more women may be playing games, Petursson notes that, like most companies, CCP remains focused on providing new content without regard for a specific gender. "It's a side benefit," he said. "I mean, we did not sit down and say, 'How do we get women into EVE?' That's not how it happened."
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Zhaneel
replyTo: Hilmar Petursson
Re: Women don't want to be Spaceships
Go fuck yourself.
My favorite MMO to date is Jumpgate, though it died a horrible death. And guess what? I was a spaceship. I didn't play EVE because it looked boring, and that wasn't due to spaceships. It was due to lack of skill in flying the ships.
Sincerely,
Zhaneel-
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There's a pretty massive amount of research and evidence suggesting that, in general, females do very much on the whole prefer playing games that involve human avatars and deal with social situations. Similarly, in general, males tend to enjoy games centered around warfare and conflict. That's not to say there are any hard rules or mutual exclusivities or anything there, but when it comes down to it that's how it plays out over the larger scene of millions of gamers. I wish it weren't the case, but it seems to be.
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I'm pretty sure MMOs have a much higher concentration of female players than most "hardcore" game genres, I suspect in large part due to their heavy social aspect. I would also take a guess that that is more true in fantasy MMOs than in non-fantasy MMOs (not that there are too many of the latter).
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alright so maybe after they blow a ship up, they can gossip about it? that would be pretty much awesome.
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I know that I'm probably in the minority and that he does have ancedotal & study evidence to back up his claim. However, I find generalized sweeping statements of that kind to be annoying (Hilmer's, not Brandon's since it was a quote). I also believe that women might be more inclined to participate in a large variety of games, other than avatar based, if they were introduced and encouraged to play such at early ages just like boys.
It is akin to back in the 60s where it was said that women don't have a math or engineering bent, which isn't true. What was true is that boys were bought Legos and Science Kits and girls were bought Barbies.-
I don't think he's talking about potential or hypothetical situations, he's just speaking from practical real-world terms.
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Hence why I started with I know that he's going from current anecdotal & study evidence?
I get that it is the current state that the majority of women are not me. And that games are wanting to appeal to women. I just don't think sweeping statements about what any gender/race *wants* in a game is a good idea.-
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Fair enough
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guess what, you're an exception, not the general rule
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I'm a woman who plays hardcore shooters and RPG games, and I used to have the same "fuck you" reaction until I realized that it's true that I'm a minority within my own gender.
I think it's easy to have blinders when you're a woman into these games; you want to believe there are other women out there just like you who like to blow stuff up, but the vast array of anecdotal evidence suggests that, seriously, we really are a minority.
The problem is that the generalizations about what women like in games are true (and they do appear to be no matter how much we don't want them to be). The problem is that we don't know WHY they're true.
Are they true because women are hardwired for social, exploratory experiences and men are hardwired for visceral, violent images? Are they true because women aren't exposed to shooter games at the early age that boys typically are? Are they true because the fun gameplay within a hardcore title is often masked by art that's typically only appealing to men and thus creates an immediate barrier?
The problem is that it could be any of these things but I see few people actually researching what the root cause really is. My sneaky suspicion is that it's a bit of all three of them, but that the underlying generalization really does have a basis in reality: we just don't play a lot of these games. At least people are finally trying to figure out why and seeing if they can change it as opposed to the old philosophy, that women simply weren't worth catering to at all.-
Your point about art scaring away women from a possibly enjoyable gameplay is very true. All the chicks I (more or less) successfully converted to FPSes had the same reactions: "this looks gross, this look gore, but damn is it fun to play once you get into it." And also "Sorry but this is too gore/ugly so I won't play that thing long".
Unfortunately as it stands eventhough women are a sizeable market, it don't see anyone trying hard to seize that market for FPSes or RPGes. I think we will need a true cultural/industrial revolution or someone really balsy to have 'girly' FPSes or RPGes.
It's one of those things many people think it might work but no one will take the risk to actually try and make it work. I don't see anyone adapting the gameplay of Soldier of Fortune with the graphics of Viva Pinata.. And that's too bad cause that would be hella fun. :)
So, when is it that Raven does a girly FPS?-
So, when is it that Raven does a girly FPS?
Haha! I know you didn't mean this seriously, but it's a good springboard for another point:
In discussions like this, I often notice that the common reaction is to divide games into "girly" and "non-girly", with most people -- men and women -- taking an immediate negative reaction to the "girly" label.
The thing is, the type of games that women on the whole (again, women not like those of us posting in this thread) tend to enjoy don't have gameplay that is inherently inferior; it's merely different. On the whole, women tend to enjoy games that involve exploration, socialization, simulation, and evolution. This is a perfectly valid set of gameplay characteristics that have no inherent gender bias, we've simply associated games like The Sims that have some of these as being "girly."
But in reality, a FPS doesn't have to look like Viva Pinata to be appealing to women. It simply has to LACK some of the things that typically make it an immediate turn off to them -- i.e., over-the-top gore, excessive nudity, and graphic violence. You could therefore simply make a game like Soldier of Fortune more ABSTRACT -- not doll it up in pink and glitter and tutus, but make it abstract -- and I guarantee you it would attract a far more substantial female audience.
In the same way, we don't need to approach a game from the standpoint of GENDER and the inherent bias from that that ends up getting propagated through the art look of the game. If the industry wants more of the other 50% of that demographic pie to pony up some benjamins, they need to approach it from the gameplay perspective -- make a game without any preconceptions about what the art should look like that includes some of the gameplay women like -- socialization, evolution, simulation, and exploration. The rest will follow without it becoming a "girly" game.
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