Not So Different Games: An exploration of five years of student game designers

摘要

Sixty percent of Americans play video games daily, with 45% of U.S. gamers identifying as female. Based on a 2017 survey by the International Game Developers Association, only 22% of the game industry is composed of women, while 81% of all respondents rated diversity in the workplace as important. This begs the question, how can we promote a more gender diverse gaming industry?Academic settings, such as courses focused on game design, offer the opportunity for women and men to experiment, learn and play, while earning self-confidence and a sense that they equally belong to the field. Diversity of content in gaming is in demand and both genders’ perspectives are needed. Understanding how game design approaches may or may not differ across genders can help inform pedagogical and curricular choices within academia. In this study, we observe students’ design preferences in the making of video games over a five year period, and analyze how student game designers’ choices with regard to elements such as setting and game-play fit into the conversation of promoting inclusive game design.We examine whether different groups of student game designers create different games. In particular, our study focuses on teams that are composed of at least half female designers and those with less than half female team members. The results from two analyses that examined genre, setting, mood, aesthetic and others, showed no statistically significant difference among the two groups, with the exception of one criterion related to the presence of identifiable enemies. This study points to the fact that shared foci across genders are prevalent, indicating fruitful avenues for future game development that may be broadly appealing and inclusive.