Pink Poison: An Intriguing History Of Girl Games
Sheri Graner Ray has written a rather intriguing history of girls in gaming on her personal site. Now, before you scoff at the simple layout of the site, perhaps you should have a little background on Ms. Sheri: since she got involved with the gaming industry in the early 90s, she’s been pretty active on the scene, having produced McKenzie & Co., Vampire Diaries, helped design Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill, and is the author of Gender Inclusive Game Design: Expanding The Market, so it’s pretty safe to say that she knows what she’s talking about.
In early 1990’s American Laser Game’s VP of Marketing, Patricia Flanigan decided that there was a market for games for girls. So with the help of the Albuquerque Independent School District and over 3000 jr high and high school age girls, she designed a game. This was McKenzie & Co. which I was hired on mid-way through development to help bring out. We took our work, demographics, prototype and half finished game out to the publishers. Every one of ‘em responded with “girls don’t play games” and shut the door in our face.
So we self-published the title and sold 80,000 units.
The article is pretty good, especially with the explanation about how the Barbie series of games helped to simultaneously open up and limit the market of video games for women.
Pink Poison: Girl Games
Boy of Tomorrow
Posted to on 31 October 2006
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