Play Meter

UP FRONT Are we discounting half the population? I Bonnie Theard Managing Editor PLAY METER am starting to log the times I have heard similar comments about our industry missing the boat. Here is the gist of it: Why are so few games targeted to the female audience? Can we afford to overlook women as players? Is there any reason women cannot become avid video game enthusiasts, as they once were with Ms. Pac-Man? I am not raising this issue because I happen to be a woman. Men in the industry recognize the lack of games with feminine appeal, waxing nostalgic over games of the past that women played as much as men. Since I have a cocktail table Millipede in my den I can attest to its universal appeal. According to Dominick Barbera of Capitol Amusements in Phoenix, Ariz ., the industry appears to have "written off women." He cites The Addams Family pinball as a game that attracts women players. Notes Barbera, "The sound, the entire feel of the game , keeps women players interested. " John McEwan of Meltec, the redemption and novelty game manufacturer, says , "If you were doing a business plan, why would you exclude female customers? After all, women make up half the population. " Another industry member commented, "We are all crying for games that appeal to women. If we can make Tetris and Centip ede, why not more games based on mazes and puzzles? For the last 20 years we have been looking for games that interest women." A video game manufacturer's representative once told me that it was not worth the effort to put R&D into games for women. How farsighted! Put all your eggs into the 12 teenage male basket. Fly in the face of statistics that indicate it will be five more years before there is a hefty teen population. Wouldn't it be better to focus attention on the market we are dealing with today, not days gone by? I have often seen young ladie s in mainly-video arcades casting about for games to play. While t heir boyfriends gravitate to the shoot 'em ups , they try the crane and play something like Arkanoid or Capcom Bowling. They may join their beau for air hockey or a driving ga me , then they are ready to go. This is where redemption games come into play. And women do play them because they are non-int imidating. From the venerable SkeeBall to the many roll downs on the market, women are r e ady t o part with those quarters. Besides creating games that attract women, there is also a need for prize merchandise suitable for women, especially young w omen. Sure, mom can get a small a ppliance , but what is the incentive for teen and pre-t een girls to squirrel away their tickets? There are likely to be more remote-control trucks in the redemption case than neon-colored watches , hair orna ments , pierced earrings , bracele ts , and necklaces. Stuffed toys? The small pocketsize stuffed animals are favorites with young girls, but plush is not the answer to everything. Packages of makeup and other creative prize ideas are used by far too few. Consider offering cassette pla yers, tapes and T-shirts of popular rock groups, extra headphones, and similar small electronic items in the display case instead of making it a monument to plastic trinkets. So where does that leave our industry? With a niche marke t yet to be filled. While manufacturers talk of games designed with the American market in mind, let us remember that Americans come in two genders . OCTOBER 1994