VIDEO GAMES Industry's blind spot: females

Pure market realities are often cited for the oversight.
By DAWN C. CHMIELEWSKI
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Mari Guiliana has four daughters and one large dilemma.
Guiliana can't seem to find games for her daughters' new Sony PlayStation2 console. It's not as if the girls have obscure interests. Like many elementary school girls, they're into big-eyed "Hello Kitty" characters, American Girl collectible dolls and soccer.
It's just that the $9.4 billion video game industry is largely ignoring them. Despite the industry's assertions that it is a leading form of mass-market entertainment that surpasses the Hollywood box office in revenue -- the industry has a pronounced blind spot.
Women and girls.
While million-selling games like "The Sims" and "Roller Coaster Tycoon" have attracted female players to the PC, the larger console market, which accounts for 73 percent of sales, remains the digital equivalent of the Augusta Country Club.
Standing out
Only two best-selling games -- Nintendo's "Super Mario Advance 2" and "Super Mario Sunshine" -- seem to acknowledge a two-gender world.
"This is an industry that's built itself and has grown making particular kinds of products that appeal to particular kinds of audiences," said Doug Lowenstein, president of the Interactive Digital Software Association. "Those that have sought to come up with really specialized products targeted at girls have proven unsuccessful, like Purple Moon. People don't forget those things."
Purple Moon was founded by Brenda Laurel, who spent four years studying gender differences in computer gaming before bringing that research to market. The Rockett series she created focused on a group of junior high school girls who peeked into one another's diaries, swapped secrets and vied for social status. The company shut down in February 2000.
The video game industry took the wrong message from the super-nova that was Purple Moon: that games designed to appeal to girls are a flop. Ignoring (or perhaps, conveniently forgetting) successes like "Barbie's Fashion Designer" and "Cosmopolitan Virtual Makeover."
"Girls are there ready and willing to play games," said Laura Groppe, head of Girls Intelligence Agency in Los Angeles, a research firm that studies girls buying habits and trends. "However, give 100 bucks to a little girl and a little boy, your chances are greater that he's going to spend that $100 on a game and she's going to spend that $100 on an article of clothing or a gift for a friend. You can't really argue with those economics."
Groppe said Konami's arcade-tested console game, "Dance Dance Revolution," was a smash hit with girl gamers, who enjoyed taking turns holding dance competitions in their bedrooms. So are racing games that get the adrenaline pumping, or character-driven games like Nintendo's timeless plumber, Mario.