Beyond Point and Click:

The Search for Gender Equity in Computer Games

Want to get girls interested in computers? Are "games for girls" the way to go? What does a good educational game look like? The article below and the material in the sidebar provide a few answers from an NSF-funded research project.

by Megan Murray and Marlene Kliman, Education Research Collaborative in Science and Mathematics

Throughout their brief history, computer games have been significantly more popular with boys than with girls. Since boys spend an enormous amount of time and money on computer games, the games have been designed to include characteristics boys like: high levels of competition, confrontation, and violence; fast, repetitive action; beating the clock; and racking up points to achieve a high score. Positive female portrayals are few (Provenzo, 1991; Chappel, 1996). Several years ago, designers and marketers of computer games began to see girls as an untapped and potentially lucrative market. The industry wasn't reaching half the population--and the $57 billion of their own money spent annually by girls 8 to 18 years old (Eisenberg, 1997).

Game designers began to consider what was keeping girls from engaging with their products. There seemed to be agreement from most quarters that it wasn't that girls disliked computers. They just didn't like the games boys liked. The game industry seemed mystified by the elusiveness of what girls want (Thomas, 1996). Comments such as the following reflected the sentiment of many game designers and marketers: "They don't like violence, twitch games, or boring repetitive action. But what do they like? Who knows? It's easy to pinpoint the kinds of software games girls don't like-but it's tough to figure out what they do like." ("Girls Just Wanna Have Fun...", 1996)

Why should educators care about the development of computer games? Because these games have the potential to significantly affect girls' experience with and attitudes toward technology. Girls remain at a serious disadvantage to boys in their relationship with technology. Although access to computers at home is becoming more equal (Vail, 1997), girls enter school with less technological experience, use computers less outside of school, and show consistently less confidence in their computer abilities than boys. When they take computer classes, girls are more likely to take clerical classes such as data entry and word processing, "the 1990s version of typing" (AAUW, 1998).

The Advent of "Girl Games"

In recent years, there has been a great deal of research on girls and computer games. As game developers suspected, studies have confirmed that many girls dislike features typically found in computer games, such as hand-eye coordination, repetitive action, racking up points, and time pressure. Instead, many girls prefer games with in-depth narratives and characters, the ability to design or create, the possibility for social interaction both on the screen and between players, and the ability to explore different activities within the same game (Inkpen et. al., 1993; Thomas, 1996; Eisenberg, 1997; Weil, 1997; Slaton, 1998).

In response to these findings, several companies, including Girl Games Inc., Her Interactive, and Purple Moon, formed with the goal of designing games for girls. Unfortunately, many of the games they have produced focus on stereotypically female interests--romantic relationships, shopping, and fashion. For example, in McKenzie & Co. published by Her Interactive, the player's goal is to choose a boy and get him to ask her to the prom. Along the way, the player can shop at the mall, model outfits, or try on make-up. The Let's Talk about Me! series treads similar ground with activities focusing on clothing and hairstyles, astrology, diaries, and a slew of teen magazine-type personality quizzes about fashion, families, boys, and friendships.

The game most commonly acknowledged as cracking open the girls' market is Barbie Fashion Designer, by Mattel. This game, which enables players to dress and accessorize Barbie and then watch her model the outfits created, sold half a million copies in its first few months, with $14.4 million in sales as of February 1998 (Berselli, 1998). Mattel has gone on to flood the market with 15 Barbie-related technology products, from those that focus on hair, jewelry, and clothing design, to writing products, to adventure games.

Sales of girls' games rose to almost $60 million in 1997 (up from $1.5 million in 1995), and four of the top five girls' titles were Barbie-related (Berselli, 1998). Following in Barbie's footsteps, many other girl games are based on a television program or book series already known to be popular with girls, such as Clueless, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, The Baby-Sitters Club, and Madeline. Even Segasoft, known for its stereotypical "boy games," has gotten into the mix with Cosmopolitan Virtual Make Over.

While many games for girls attempt some inclusion of educational topics (e.g., health and women's history quizzes in Let's Talk about Me), very few contain anything of substance. In fact, the real play of the game (for instance, finding a prom date in McKenzie & Co.) often overrides the value of any educational activities that are included. There are several exceptions. One is the American Girls Premiere, which enables children to explore dramatics, writing, and history. (See Criteria for Choosing Computer Games for Girls and Boys for advice and a list of recommended software.)

Although it is common to hear parents, teachers, and others complain about the stereotypical nature of such games, many feel torn. They wonder if the power of these games to engage girls with technology and to teach them basic computer skills, such as how to point and click, outweighs concerns about the content. As Patricia Flanagan of Her Interactive put it, "If the product's intended audience likes it, and if it introduces them to the world of technology, then why complain?" (Beatto, 1997).

Raising Expectations

Why complain indeed? While "pink software" may initially draw girls in, many of these games fail to interest them over time in challenging and educational activities. If we want girls to become truly engaged in technology and more proficient with its use, we need games that not only appeal to girls, but also call on their intellectual curiosities and capabilities.

In fact, there are educationally rich games that appeal to girls, but they're not "girl games" based on stereotypes. For example, Logical Journey of the Zoombinis is a game with appealing characters (small blue creatures called Zoombinis), an engaging story (shepherding the Zoombinis through a variety of puzzles to a new homeland where they will be safe and free), and a design area (where players create Zoombinis with particular hair, eyes, nose colors, and modes of transportation). Zoombinis is built around a varied set of 12 puzzles that draw from the mathematics of attributes, set theory, and logic. Playing these puzzles encourages children to develop and test hypotheses, acquire and use evidence, and refine and adapt hypotheses. The puzzles are challenging and complex. There is no time pressure and no need for speedy hand-eye coordination.

In the following dialog, C and E, two third grade girls, are playing a Zoombinis pizza puzzle that involves making conjectures, developing and testing hypotheses, and keeping track of information to solve a problem. Players have a limited number of chances to satisfy a very picky (and hungry) troll with "the perfect pizza," by making pizzas with different combinations of toppings. The troll's preferences remain constant through one playing of the puzzle, but change with each new round. The girls in this dialog are interested in the puzzle and intellectually engaged in solving it. They are motivated to make several attempts and ask for help, and they persevere in the face of frustration.

As they begin, the girls are eagerly anticipating the puzzle. E hopes for a puzzle that includes an item she enjoys in real life. C hopes the puzzle will be easy.

C: With ice cream?
E: (hands clasped as in prayer) Please be ice cream, please be ice cream...
C: No - please no be ice cream.
E: Please be ice cream. Ice cream's so much better than pizza.
C: No they're both too. . . . (You have to satisfy the troll with) Ice cream AND pizza. . . . Oh phew. There's no ice cream...

C begins with a common first strategy--try to remember the combination that worked last time. E tries the toppings C suggests, but discovers that the troll had changed his preferences.

C: ...Oh! Last time we did it, I think it was (pointing) this, this, and that.
E: (with mouse) This?
C: This . . . meatballs (E: This?) thing. Yeah. And that. (And that?) Yeah.
E: Oh he changes it. It could be anything.

E uses data to reason about and test different hypotheses. She tests C's theory--trying what worked last time and what worked in a neighbor's game. Since that doesn't work, she looks for more data. She carefully checks the rejected pizzas, thinking about and trying to keep track of which toppings (and combinations of toppings) were tried, accepted, and rejected, and what that means about what the troll wants. C continues to engage with the story and characters by imitating the troll.

E: It must. . . . It must be mushrooms. No, it's that! It's the underneath stuff (the cheese). So . . . it could be that, that. . .uh. . . (She tries mushrooms, sausage, and peppers.) Game: Ewww. Yuck! (The troll rejects the pizza.) E clicks on the troll, making him holler, "Make me a pizza!"
C: Look at his mouth. (pointing) Maaa-aahhh.
E: Here you do it. I can't do it.
C: You think I can?!
E: (laughing) Ah, you can try.
C clicks a lot of toppings.
E: What are you doing?! That's not gonna work.

C searches out help in the form of F, a known Zoombinis expert. E continues to analyze the data available to her, realizing she has already eliminated one of the toppings F suggests. Although F reinforces the idea that the troll wants something different every time, C still wants to try something that worked before.

C: F? . . . What did you do for beating the pizza? F: It's not the same every time though.
C: I know, but what did you do? It might work. What did you do? (Brings F over.) Listen to F. She beat it.
F: All four the last ones. (E: What?) The last four. E: This, that, that, and that? (F: The last four on the list.) This, that, that, and that?
C: F! F! (pointing) This, that and that and that? (F: Mm hmm.)
E: But he doesn't like these.
F: Well that's what it was on mine.

C and E are frustrated, but their engagement with the story, characters, and puzzle keeps them persisting.

While children playing Zoombinis focus on the mathematics of attributes and logic, there is much less of an educational emphasis in children's interactions with many games for girls. Rockett's New School is a fairly typical example. The educational content is mainly social (role-playing and decision making in the context of friendships and relationships). The game is fairly stereotypical in its attempts to appeal to girls--from the flowery T-shirt, doll, and tube of lipstick that comes with the package, to decisions such as which clique to join or which locker to snoop through.

The story involves the player in Rockett's first day of eighth grade at a new school. Periodically, the story is interrupted, and the player is asked to make a decision about how Rockett would respond to a particular problem or situation (such as where to sit in the lunchroom). Three bubbles appear, representing the choices available, each with a picture of Rockett feeling a different way (e.g., a happy-looking Rockett, a mad-looking Rockett). Generally, the choices include a brave/happy/confident choice, a nervous/shy choice, and an angry/depressed choice. Players click on the bubble they want, and the story continues based on that choice.

Making thoughtful decisions is the educational focus of Rockett's New School, but given the complicated nature of these kinds of social decisions, three possibilities can be rather limiting. In fact, children will sometimes play in a capricious way (for example, choosing only a particular kind of response), since players must sometimes choose an option that doesn't fit the way they would really respond. Here is a snippet of a conversation among three girls playing this game:

E: Are we gonna make all the bad decisions?
J: No, all the mad decisions--here I'll show you the face.
S: The flat-line mouth one.

The impact of one's choices on the story are artificial. For example, if you choose to be nice to Mavis (a girl who's not part of the "cool" crowd), you help her open her locker, and if you don't, you have an unpleasant interaction with her. But, either way, you end up at the same point--the door to your homeroom--with the same three choices.

The girls in the dialog above were initially turned off by the stereotypical nature of the packaging, reading the box sarcastically and making comments like "I'd rather barf," "It's stupid," and "I won't play it, because if there's a doll in the box I won't play it." Although they became engaged with this game for an hour or so, there was little left to explore by the end of that session. The first time through the story, they responded to the choices in the ways they would genuinely react--confident sometimes, shy at others. Then, they played by choosing the same type of response for each choice (all the happy/confident ones or all the angry/depressed ones). Unlike Zoombinis, which offers children new versions of puzzles each time they play and new opportunities to develop, refine, and apply strategies, this game is exactly the same each time and can quickly become tiresome.

Making Good Choices

When choosing computer games, teachers and parents need to remember the three criteria listed in the sidebar: the educational content of a game, the features that make it more (or less) equitable, and the factors that make it more (or less) fun and engaging to play.

While there is little of educational substance in the genre of games for girls--or, for that matter, in the games developed for boys--there are games that appeal to girls and boys that also offer significant opportunities to investigate real content in mathematics, science, and technology. The Through the Glass Wall project is attempting to identify and describe equitable and educationally rich games on its web site: http://www.terc.edu/mathequity/gw/html/gwhome.html.

By providing thoughtful, detailed, and accessible information, we in the educational community can hope to influence buying decisions, raise consumer standards, and make a difference in the lives of girls.

Bibliography

American Association of University Women Educational Foundation, (September 1998). Gender Gaps: Where Schools Still Fail Our Children. Washington, DC: Author.

Beatto, G., (April 1997). Girl Games: Computer Games for Girls is No Longer an Oxymoron. Wired Magazine, http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/5.04/es_girlgames.html

Berselli, Beth, (February 2, 1998). An Active Market for Girls' Games. Washington Post p. A1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/frompost/feb98/girlware2.htm

Chappel, Kelly, (1996). Mathematics Computer Software Characteristics with Possible Gender-Specific Impact: A Content Analysis. Journal of Educational Computing Research. 15(1): 25-35.

Eisenberg, Rebecca, (May 4, 1997). The Barbie Syndrome. The San Francisco Examiner, D5 & D12. http:// www.bossanova.com/rebeca/clips/ barbiesyndrome.html

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun... Or Do They? (November, 1996.) http://www.zdnet.com/zdtv/thesite/1196w4/work/work266_112096.htm

Inkpen, Kori; Upitis, Rena; Klawe, Maria; Lawry, Joan; Anderson, Ann; Nduna, Mutindi; Sedighian, Kamran; Leroux, Steve; and Hsu, David, (December 1993). "We Have Never-Forgetful Flowers in Our Garden'': Girls' Responses to Electronic Games. The University of British Columbia, Department of Computer Science: Technical Report 93-47. http://www.cs.ubc.ca/nest/egems/byName.html

Provenzo, Eugene F., (1991). Video Kids: Making Sense of Nintendo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Slaton, Joyce, (1998). The Games Girls Play: Who Says Girls Are Afraid of Mice? GameSpot, Inc. http://www.gamespot.com/features/girlgames/index.html

Thomas, Susan Gregory, (November 25, 1996). Great Games for Girls. U.S. News and World Report. http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/25girl.htm

Vail, Katherine, (June 1997). Girlware: Software companies are targeting girls, but is their marketing on the mark? Electronic School. http://www.electronic-school.com/0697f1.html

Weil, Elizabeth, (1997). The Girl-Game Jinx. Salon Magazine. http://www.salonmag.com/21st/feature/1997/12/cov_10feature.html