Two weekends ago several of us went to the Women In Gaming International conference in San Francisco to participate and mingle with other game industry women.  We love going to these kinds of events because of the inherent opportunities to discuss the gender in gaming topic with some of the best and brightest of our gaming world.  As Frag Dolls, most of our events bring us face to face with other gamers.  At the women’s games conferences we get to talk to designers, producers, and marketers, all of whom are trying to negotiate this exciting and growing relationship between women and games.

It’s always fascinating to me how different people discuss topics like “what games do girls like?” and “how do girls play?” Casual game makers, for example, have a particular exposure to women who lead busy lives but squeeze their obsessive gaming moments into all the nooks and crannies of their schedules.  The makers of these games have observed a few things about this group of casual gaming women:  they like games that are easy to learn but difficult to master; they like games that can be played in small chunks of time; they like games that are easily accessible (home computer, IM clients, major sites like yahoo.com, etc). 

On the flip side, representatives of the hardcore female gamer demographic (like us) often say that we’re plenty willing to like the games that guys like as long as they’re good games.  Duh.  And yes, the implication is that we girls usually aren’t as easy to fool into thinking a game is good when it’s really not.  (OH SNAP!) In seriousness, of the girls we know who play games all the time, violence isn’t usually a turn-off as much as it is simply uninteresting.  Where we recognize that girl gamers are as diverse in their tastes as guy gamers (if not more so), we have also recognized a couple common traits that girl gamers usually ARE interested in: online/socializing features, personalization elements, and a rockin’ storyline. 

I’m bringing all of this up to point out that there are great discussions going on about gender in gaming and plenty of smart people are applying their minds to find answers that can translate into successful industry strategies.  I laud their efforts, look forward to their progress, and generally get warm fuzzy feelings about the direction the game industry is headed… until reality throws a game my way that makes giant ‘?!?’ sprout from my forehead.

Super Princess Peach for the Nintendo DS is a freaking doozy after being immersed in a brainy, gender-sensitive games conference for a whole day.  The game is set in the family Mario world that we all know and love, and stars our favorite video game princess.  At first I was so happy to be reunited with her that I paid no heed to how mind-numbingly easy the game was.  After all, I assumed it was made with young girls in mind and making games overly easy is a common (if not unnecessary) industry tactic when developing for this demographic. 

What caught my attention and caused some alarm was the unique skill set that Peach employed throughout this otherwise simplistic platform action.  Where most game characters use magic swords, ninja skills, or their brains to solve puzzles and achieve their goals, our iconic game princess manipulates the world around her with her emotions.  The player engages her powers (‘vibes’) on the lower screen by choosing one of four states:  angry, happy, sad/scared, or calm.  After years of imagining that Princess Peach, one of my favorite female game characters ever, has some crazy secret magical powers lying in wait, I learned that she actually just overcomes obstacles in her life by having temper tantrums, panic attacks, and manic highs on demand. 

My first reaction was exasperation.  I wondered how anyone could think it a good idea to make a blatantly insulting stereotype about females such an integral part of a game ostensibly targeting females.  After putting down my pink DS and reassuring myself that weird things come out of Japan all the time, I was able to accept that even though my girl Peach is the star, the game probably wasn’t developed with girls in mind as a target at all.  It seems more likely that the typical male gamer was expected to find her outbursts amusing. 

But even through my feminist trip I recognize that the game is cute and accessible and has a female main character so maybe girls might like the game anyway.  If this is the case then I should be glad that it might lead to more girls trying out games, right?  Or should I should worry about simultaneously teaching our young girls that they can get what they want by being unpredictably emotional?  My confusion and inner conflict about the gender-in-games questions raised by Super Princess Peach were only compounded when I finally decided the game was fun enough to finish despite it all. 

I’m not sure if the game was a miserably misguided attempt to make a game for girls or if it was an easier-than-average game for boys that happened to paint Peach in an unfairly shallow light.  All I know is that I did have fun playing it, which is a redeeming merit even if it results in spasms of cognitive dissonance.  Maybe by the next time we go to a WIGI conference I’ll know what to think about Peach and her super powers, and if I don’t then I hope one of the smart women there can help me.