Avatar selection and representations of female game characters

Ray argues persuasively that creating more female avatars and representing them in a more game-appropriate rather than hypersexualized manner are two relatively easy and effective ways of designing games to be more attractive for female players.

As Ray explains, currently, male avatars are in the majority in most popular games. Often players have only one female avatar from which to choose, referred to by Ray as the 'token' character, and this avatar is one with limited powers/skills and, therefore, is less desirable. Playing the game repeatedly with the same character quickly becomes boring, thus, the limited choices of avatars make it less likely that women will play the game many times. Based on market research from the gaming industry, Ray notes that many female players feel uncomfortable assuming a male character, while males do not mind playing with female characters, often noting that they are more attractive and pleasant to look at than male avatars. Ray explains that avatar selection is key to the experience of playing a game because players interact with the game through the avatar they select. As a result, providing women with an inadequate selection of female avatars can negatively affect the quality, depth, and comfort level of their gaming experiences.

Additionally, in many of games where female avatars are included or featured, such as the Tomb Raider series, they are hypersexualized, which serves again to make female players uncomfortable. In Chapter 2, "Evolution of Female Characters in Computer Games," Ray provides an interesting chronology of female game characters. From Ms. Pack-Man to Lara Croft, female characters have been sexualized and even hypersexualized, which includes having huge breasts, very round bottoms, waists smaller than their heads (see Lara Croft above), full lips, and erect nipples that in some cases show through their body armor (102). Hypersexual characters are more than attractive or sexy in appearance; they are presented as available for male sexual gratification and function as eye candy for male players, causing female players often to reject them as viable character options.

In contrast, male avatars are presented as virile and strong, but not hypersexualized. Their genitals are not exaggerated or erect, and they are not dressed in a way that indicates that they are sexually receptive. Ray observes that male players and game design teams would be appalled at being asked to play with or design hypersexualized male characters that parallel the current female options (104).

In Chapter 7, "Avatar Selection," in the Application of Concepts section, which appears at the end of most chapters in order to outline specific recommendations for game developers, Ray explains that designers can make simple changes such as increasing the range of female characters and making their representations and clothing parallel to those of the male avatars in the game to attact more female players by providing them with a more comfortable experience.

Structural and narrative barriers to female interest in gameplay

While the lack of female characters and their hypersexulized representations are faily easy to notice and highlight as factors that may discourage women from playing many computer games, as a game developer, Ray is able to go beyond those attributes of many games and explain in detail other common structural and narrative elements of console games that prove to be unappealing or repugnant to many female players.

For example, in Chapter 3, "Conflict and Conflict Resolution Styles in Game Design," Ray explains that many console games operate around a direct conflict model and a "zero sum" outcome, where there is only one winner and opponents must be destroyed. Ray notes that based on market research, many female players seem to prefer indirect conflict, like that present in Tetris and other puzzle games, and like to be able to win points without having to destroy the enemy or opponent. Designing games to include indirect conflict requires creativity and departing from typical formulae. In Role Playing Games (RPGs), the narrative elements of the game can be used to facilitate having multiple options for dealing with obstacles, such as fighting opponents until they are destroyed or alternately using skills such as distraction or trickery to move past obstacles without engaging in battle. Ray emphasizes that non-confrontational options must be presented as equal to the traditional options in order for them to be successful in attracting new audiences to the game.

Similarly in Chapter 4, "Stimulation and Entertainment," Ray explains that male gamers enjoy visual stimulation and enjoy targeting moving objects in a clear field, such as fighter jets in a clear sky common to First-Person Shooter (FPS) games. In contrast, female players seem to enjoy the emotional stimulation and connections provided by games with backstories, plots that underlie the gameplay narrative, that have depth and draw the player into the game. Ray encourages designers to spend more time developing backstories for their titles that provide the basis and motivations for actions taken during gameplay, such as having the character in a fight game doing battle to avenge historic wrongs against family or community. These sorts of backstories allow the player to develop an emotional attachment to the game and the characters and will expand the audience of games to female players who appear to relish this involvement.

Lastly, throughout Gender Inclusive Game Design, Ray highlights the idea that developers should work to keep players in the game and to play repeatedly. In Chapter 6, "Reward and Gameplay," she notes that in many games, the penalty for error is the death of the player's character, which results in the player being forced to restart play from the beginning. Market research reveals that female players respond quite negatively to this consequence and prefer instead minor setbacks in play or a choice of consequences based on the risk that players want to assume.

Additionally, in Chapter 5, "Learning and Communications Styles in Computer Game Development," according to Ray, female players are frustrated by having to guess about game features or tricks that are hidden in the game and can only be discovered in ways that are outside of gameplay. For example, in many games, such as fight games, hidden moves that a character can perform are accessed through a combination of keyboard strokes. These hidden moves are not outlined in the manual and cannot be discovered as a natural result of gameplay, but must be uncovered by randomly striking various combinations of keys. Female players express impatience with these hidden moves and would prefer to find such information during the course of play or in game manuals. Ray notes that both the sudden death aspects of games and the need to play with the keyboard to find hidden moves (or read online game FAQs that detail them) can require players to leave the game, violating the principle of good game design whereby players should be kept within the game (89). Therefore, Ray notes that changing these features of games to reach a broader audience would improve the design for all players, providing them with other options for gameplay and for learning information about techniques.

Throughout the text, Ray emphasizes that games should not be changed to eliminate traditional attributes such as sudden death or secret information hidden in the keyboard, but that the games should be expanded to reward the strengths of other types of players and provide them with options. She emphasizes that the increased availability of memory and faster processors makes games more able to accomodate expansions; therefore, technological limitations no longer exist to justify omitting such options that may expand the game market to include more female players.