It Really Is In the Details

When game makers are creating a game the designers want the game to have a certain feel, the artists give it a certain look, and the writers think about the story. What most of these people are looking at is the big picture. They are thinking about things like, how can the player navigate through the game and have fun. They think about the overall feel and tone they give the game. Sometimes the details are ignored.

This is often where the trouble starts. The producer doesn’t have the time to look at all the little nit-picky bits of the game, the designer is thinking about how to translate their idea to reality and then we end up with something weird, like the morphing of Judy Nails into a bar brawling slut with a boob job. Or sometimes we end up with things so small, so minute that to the eye of many gamers they would wonder what I was on about.

I was at a game showcase where games in development were shown so that the developers could get feedback. I went over to play a game that looked like fun, if not similar to older games like Army Men. It was where the player is a toy navigating a teenager’s room. There were lots of objects strewn around the room to give the player the feeling that they were immersed in a true teenage space, things like dirty socks and pizza slices. I was happily navigating the world and playing the game when my character walked past an adult magazine lying on the floor. This sent an immediate signal to me that this game was not intended for me. I had lots of things on the floor of my room as a teenager, but a magazine with a topless woman on the cover was not one of them. It brought me out of the world enough that I paused from play.

Since the creator of the game was sitting next to me I was excited to have the opportunity to ask why he had placed the magazine there. He told me that he wanted to make the game edgy. I asked him if he realized instead of edgy he was signaling that this game was created for boys and men with this one detail. He was truly surprised that such a simple thing would have a big impact.

The thing is, it really does. It is the subtle cues that we read when we walk into a restaurant or store to decide if that is a place we are supposed to be. A strip club may be open to women as customers, but there is a pretty high barrier to entry for a woman to go in. This can be the same for games. The game designer could have put a gun magazine or a skater magazine in, which would also be edgy, but not send a gendered signal. The odds are good that a woman or girl who would want to play that type of game would also be the type of person who plays FPS games or skates.

Gamers are always looking for cues from a game. That is the only way to find the hidden ammo or the good gear. It also keeps us from getting killed. Because a gamer has to pay so much attention to the world, the small subtle cues that women and girls don’t belong are felt even more than in some other context. Skateboarding magazines are full of cues that the readership is male, but those can be skipped past for the cool articles. When I am immersed in a world, the subtle messages are inescapable.

Yet again, it’s one of the many things I like about Rock Band. When playing a solo quick play I don’t know who my band mates will be and I am usually supplied with an equal slit between men and women. I particularly like one of the characters who shows up to play the drums in a hot pink skull and cross bones mini with a big bouffant.

The game industry needs to do a better job of looking at the details of a game. I really dislike being immersed in game play only to run across a cue that I don’t belong. Those cues are often subtle but they can have a huge impact.