Video games for chicks

Not all games are shooters, and not all players are geeks. Take Daisy Durham, a 40-year-old community college professor in Houston who likes to play online puzzle games when she's hit with a bout of insomnia.

The self-described snobby intellectual is part of the newly hot demographic target for game companies looking to expand their reach beyond the traditional 18-to-34-year-old male gamer. Reaching this audience, however, requires more than just repackaging superhero games and buying ads in "Cosmo."

One approach, taken by King.com and Electronic Arts' Pogo, is to offer free, snack-size games online and collect advertising revenue. King.com serves up puzzle games to portals such as Yahoo, AOL and MSN. About 65% of its 10 million unique monthly visitors are female, according to the company's estimates.

Microsoft used a different strategy: It hired Christa Phillips, aka TriXie, as a goodwill ambassador for women in the Xbox Live online game service.

Another tack is to sell games that women would want to buy. Game Factory, a privately owned subsidiary of a Danish toy distributor with offices in Santa Monica, is betting that it has the right formula: Take half a dozen addictive puzzle games, add one part ambient music, toss in some soothing graphics, and women will snap it up on their way to the spa. The game, called Zenses, is slated for release in the fall for Nintendo's DS Lite hand-held console.

Zenses has a big pool to draw from. About 28% of the 70 million DS owners worldwide are female, most of them adult women, according to Nintendo. That's close to 20 million potential customers. Will those women dig this style of game play? We'll go out on a limb and say that it will have better odds of appealing to women than, say, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. Just a hunch.

-- Alex Pham

Screen shot of Zenses Rainforest courtesy of Game Factory

Comments

[Andreas]

At Multigames.com we have seen the same statistics. You can also clearly see it when looking at what time different visitors play games during the day.

[Sheri Thibodeau]

King.com has good games, and my husband and I both play them. It's not just for "chicks," because I know a lot of men who play the games too. They are very enjoyable to both of us!!!

[Pia Prennan]

Alex, I think it is a shame that you felt it necessary to resort to generalisations and stereotypes for your article. As a King player, I can't see that you tried the site out for yourself, as your information seems flawed, there always seems to be pretty much a 50/50 ratio of male/female players.

[Britton]

You play it too. So that makes you a woman! Such a hypocrit you are. Write something else not about games and stereotyping king.com as a woman site.

[Karen Curran]

You seem to foget the many male competitors that we women play against on King.com Not all the music is soothign. Not all the colous are soothing. They are often loud and heart pounding of couse this depends on how loud you turn up the sub woofa.
The point is the gaming site is balanced in it's gender distribution. Your article forgot to mention the men playing...SAD. We women enjoy beating, chatting, flirting with them. But most of all beating them at what was tradionally a male dominion.

[Karen Curran]

Your article neglected the fact that men also play on these game sites. We women enjoy playing against, flirting with, but most of all beating our male counterparts in this traditional male dominion.
It's fun, can be free or not as your budget disposes one to be or not to be. Please don't forget the men...they do exist. One of the best players is dark dwaggie. Check him out. He's good!!!

[Marianne Christensen;Denmark]

I have been playing on King.com for about 2 years, an I know many men who also plays on king, and I have played against many different guys from all over the world.

Because it's great fun and there is not only puzzle games on king.com, and besides it's nice that there are so many differnet games which are a good mental challenge for your brain, and they all are without any violence and about killing "the enimy".

So to the journalist of this article I think, you should do some more research about the King.com players before coming with such generalizetioned allegations.

[Jacob]

Yes, a significant portion of gamers from these "skill game" sites are indeed women in the 18-35 age range, and they win it big. Heck, there was a young woman who won $1,000,000 in a SkillJam tournament a couple years back.

At Cashgamers.net you can see some of the earnings people are making off this "side hobby". There are quite a few people making 4 figure incomes a month, pretty impressive stuff.

[Thomas Berry]

CHICK GAMES???? How offensive, I play on King.com all the time and I am neither a CHICK nor FEMALE!!! You should think a little more carefull, before writing an article that could potentially make you look like a MALE Chauvinistic Individual. I play the games as a way to relax and just have FUN and NOT to attempt to be FEMININE! SINCERELY, MASCULINE KING.COM PLAYER, THOMAS BERRY

[Alex Pham]

You are all correct, of course. Men and women both play on King.com. My heartfelt apologies if I created an impression that only women play on this site. The statistic I offer, provided to us by the company itself, is that 65% of its players are female. It seems some of you may have preferred that I stated the inverse, that 35% are male.

This ratio doesn't make King.com a chick gamer site. But it does suggest that women play a pivotal role in the success of that service.

One question that I'd like to get all your feedback on is whether there is a gender-related difference in what King.com offers with that of Xbox Live, whose members are 85% male.

PS: I'm also flattered by some of our readers' assumptions that I am a guy, mostly because I've always strived to write in a gender neutral way. For the record, I am female.

[Ann Engman AKA "Tjuvfiskarn"]

I love to play the games at King.com. Both my husband and I have accounts there and challenge eachother... and others, all over the world ! It´s great fun, for free, relaxing and sometimes really difficult. Why don´t you create a character and challenge me in something???
Keyword for example =0)
Have a great summer!!! Ann in Sweden, age 43

[Jeremy Henderson]

Interesting Article.

Over at http://www.incompletegamer.com, it has got us thinking
(tongue firmly in cheek) about what women really want from video games.

"Truth is, women don't really want to play games at all. It's a 'Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus' kind of thing. You see, men are interested in the doing, the action..."

You can read the rest of the post at http://incompletegamer.com/what-women-want.html

Cheers,

Jeremy

[Elizabeth Karmolinski]

It is mind boggling how the choice of 4 simple words used as a tag line for a news article, can carry the possibility of inciting keyboard riots and internet lynch mobs as well as the guarantee of overtime for at least the next two weeks for bloggers and chatters worldwide!! Those four words accomplished exactly what they were ment to do, grab pull the reader immediately into the story!

I congratulate you, Alex, for creating a "top10 bestseller" - complete with movie rights, spinn-offs, and sequels - out of a short informational piece which simply states that the traditionally male-dominated gaming industry finally recognizes the fact that women gamers are a profitable demographic force. As women are usually choosier with our entertainment budgets, gaming companies will have to be slightly more creative with their inticements. Most women are not excited by the promise of bigger & better weapons, larger explosions, faster car chases, half naked women, unlimited amounts of all too real blood & guts, or the thrill of killing and destroying everything on the screen.

Personally, I've been an avid gamer for 30+ years playing on every system from Atari to XBox. (Experiencing several health issues during my 45 years with 23 total surgeries and an 8 year battle with cancer provided me with years of unwanted down time). I'm a member of King.com, Worldwinner, Club Pogo, etc., etc. Each has its quirks, perks and variety of games to experience and each, in my opinion, are geared toward one particular demographic....the human race!!

Final thought.... our lives are way too short - so many other things in the world to worry about or be upset over besides four little words used in a story tag line.

[Dave Wilson]

Alex isn't just a woman. She's a hot woman. Who plays video games. It's hard to believe some dork hasn't offered her an island by now...