I am supposed to write another article for IGB this week. My last one, published in their October issue (if I remember it correctly, it was published in the October issue), discussed what had helped MariaBingo get the message across to women, this one is supposed to be the second step in the discussion..Digging further into the topic..
My topic of discussion was marketing to women, and the three main topics were a) pink - marketing to women does not just mean slapping lots of pink on your site or adding some gossip to it...b) beyond bingo - its not about just one product, its about giving women what they want, entertainment online and wide selections...and c) age.. it really is all about the age.. women who play games online nowadays are not teenagers, they are on average 38 years old.
Following the approximately 800 words discussing how to market to women, I was somewhat disappointed to see that they had done the typical error with regards to marketing to women.. slapped my article on a pink background with a random female face in the top right hand corner.. Hmm.. I guess this just summarizes the problem with most marketing directed towards women.. Its just difficult to get away from the pink and the "women like educational games" aspect.
My next article is supposed to discuss gaming from an experience point of view and the changing social demographics of gaming. In general, nowadays its not a social taboo anymore for women to turn to games to find relaxation, its something totally supported, especially by all gaming companies around. The selection of games targeting the casual gamer is increasing all the time, along with the marketing to push the products out to the masses. Women are the new hot target group, and even if its a hard to please target group for games marketing, its also a target group that happily accepts the attention.
Women are definitely looking for a platform online where to express themselves. Forums, Facebook and magazines or fashion platforms online only serve women to a certain extent. The games portals then again have found a loyal and trustworthy companion in the female demographics group. They provide women with the perfect channel of escapism that other channels cannot do. Where else can you just switch off and burst bubbles, sort cards in certain orders or complete various levels of random useless task in order to achieve the final goal? As a gamer (not even a female gamer) I dont really care! As long as it has no function in real life and no connection to the usual day to day work I an happy..
But how do you communicate this to women? Women are online in search of online entertainment and escapism.. The best channels to look at therefore are exactly these. Where would you go in search of entertainment? Bingo! Thats where most female gamers would go as well. Most likely.. A gamer is a gamer, and there is no difference what gender that gamer is of. The difference lies in what type of game you are promoting.
Female gamers tend to show up on gaming and entertainment sites that have some level of intellectual challenge, or are fairly entertainming from an animation point of view, rather than a "shoot and kill" point of view. What I have seen while working with Maria is that any channel that promotes entertainment, usually has a higher successrate for Maria than any other channel. What I cannot argue with is if it makes a difference to capturing women or men.
In today's world, I think what we are seeing is women moving more and more online and into the world of gaming. Its not about women and men anymore, its about what type of game you like and what type of experience you are looking for. Women tend to aim more for games with a social context while men can be more blood thirsty and adventure seeking. But in the end, all gamers can be found on sites promoting any form of entertainment and escapsim that can be found online. The question is, can you and your product be found there as well?
Like I said in my first IGB article, "More on that in my next article"...
Saturday, 31 October 2009
Its Indie Rock 'n Roll, I mean Games for me...
Yesterday I went to the Eurogamer Expo at the Old Billingsgate. Interesting format for the teenage gamer, unfortunately, not a great format for anyone working in the industry. I was very excited and looking forwards to hearing more from the people behind the games, but what I was faced with in the end was just lots of "man versus machine" set ups featuring games consoles, TV screens and solo seats for the solo gamer..
But being a girl at the Old Billingsgate yesterday was fairly interesting. I was within the 10% who was actually supposed to have boobs, within the 30% who had long hair and within the 5% who were interested in the Indie Games Archade. And this is actually what I want to talk about. How cool was the Indie Games Archade!? According to my humble opinion - Absolutely fantastic!!
The Indie Games Archade offered the chance to try out some of the latest alternative, highly challenging games developed by smaller, independent studios, made to stand out from the usual killer/zombie/sci-fi games offered across the gaming floor. Needless to mention, I was thrilled!
I played Tumbledrop, which was absolutely fantastic! But soooo frustrating as well! Honestly, this game will keep me entertained for ages! How the hell do you keep the pink star safe??? Click on this cross and it falls that way, click on that cross and it falls the other way.. ARGH! Not to mention the heartwrenching look of the star as it plummets into the depts of the sea...
I also played Time KFUC, which was also an incredibly fabulous game that managed to really suck me into the depressingly wonderful world of the adorable, yet so unhappy main character of the game. Everything from the beginning with semi Soviet style graphics to the enchanting background music is made to pull you into the game, and the success if imminent.. You just cant pull yourself away from trying to accomplish each task set up as a "one level in every screen" .. Addictive, but yet so fabulously fun! (in a depressing way of course..)
And I played Fig. 8. another fabulously intriguing yet different racing game where you are supposed to "control your bike through a suburban landscape constructed of technical diagrams while using your wheels to paint lines on the canvas to gain extra points." At least according to the website. According to me, its an aesthetically-pleasing-and-highly-addictive-game-to-keep-you-challenged-while-you-should-really-be-doing-your-spreadsheets.
In general, the day was fabulous, the games were fantastic, although the crowd could have been a bit more communicative.. But I do wish most of my Fridays could be spend playing random games at gaming expos...
But being a girl at the Old Billingsgate yesterday was fairly interesting. I was within the 10% who was actually supposed to have boobs, within the 30% who had long hair and within the 5% who were interested in the Indie Games Archade. And this is actually what I want to talk about. How cool was the Indie Games Archade!? According to my humble opinion - Absolutely fantastic!!
The Indie Games Archade offered the chance to try out some of the latest alternative, highly challenging games developed by smaller, independent studios, made to stand out from the usual killer/zombie/sci-fi games offered across the gaming floor. Needless to mention, I was thrilled!
I played Tumbledrop, which was absolutely fantastic! But soooo frustrating as well! Honestly, this game will keep me entertained for ages! How the hell do you keep the pink star safe??? Click on this cross and it falls that way, click on that cross and it falls the other way.. ARGH! Not to mention the heartwrenching look of the star as it plummets into the depts of the sea...
I also played Time KFUC, which was also an incredibly fabulous game that managed to really suck me into the depressingly wonderful world of the adorable, yet so unhappy main character of the game. Everything from the beginning with semi Soviet style graphics to the enchanting background music is made to pull you into the game, and the success if imminent.. You just cant pull yourself away from trying to accomplish each task set up as a "one level in every screen" .. Addictive, but yet so fabulously fun! (in a depressing way of course..)
And I played Fig. 8. another fabulously intriguing yet different racing game where you are supposed to "control your bike through a suburban landscape constructed of technical diagrams while using your wheels to paint lines on the canvas to gain extra points." At least according to the website. According to me, its an aesthetically-pleasing-and-highly-addictive-game-to-keep-you-challenged-while-you-should-really-be-doing-your-spreadsheets.
In general, the day was fabulous, the games were fantastic, although the crowd could have been a bit more communicative.. But I do wish most of my Fridays could be spend playing random games at gaming expos...
Sunday, 25 October 2009
Games Women Play...
No, not those kinds of games! I am talking about computer games, video games, soft games, cash games, skill games... And any other form of entertainment online that you can get from the world of games; including console games, downloadable games or in browser games.
Within gaming and especially the marketing of games and gambling products, there has been a pink elephant in the room for over a decade. For the first few years noone really realised it was there, then people started noticing it little by little but most of the time it was ignored, but over the last few years more and more people in the industry have started to take notice and actually give it attention and visibility. I am of course refering to women who play games.
Women are moving online en masse, and in today's world over 65% of online casual gamers are women. What is even more of a change to the typical view of the gaming demographics is that this woman is on average about 38 years of age, married with children and basically just looking for some "me time" and some entertainment online to fill that short moment with. Games have turned into an early evening escape from reality and are giving women the chance to add some excitement to a normal evening.
This massive and growing group of women gamers have been ignored for a long time. I dont mean from a product point of view as women do not need specially designed, different games than men do, they have simply not been acknowledged as being a large target group for the games industry. So in what way have women been over looked then? If we look at the top 10 most popular games of the times, women and men show surprisingly similar patterns in which games prove popular. What women have missed out on (or maybe been spared from) is the advertising. This demographic target group has largely been left out from main stream advertising and been left to their own devises to find the suitable channels for this type of escapism.
And this is exactly the aim of this blog; to follow the trends in marketing games and gambling to women; to follow the trends of the players to see where they are and what they are doing; and to show appreciation to the games, companies and brands that are providing women with the best platform where to find all of this.
And on that note I will round up for now as I have to head to work. But I would like to leave you with the wonderful quote by Robert A. Heinlein in which he managed to capture the essence of the world of games:
"Of course the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you - if you don't play, you can't win."
Within gaming and especially the marketing of games and gambling products, there has been a pink elephant in the room for over a decade. For the first few years noone really realised it was there, then people started noticing it little by little but most of the time it was ignored, but over the last few years more and more people in the industry have started to take notice and actually give it attention and visibility. I am of course refering to women who play games.
Women are moving online en masse, and in today's world over 65% of online casual gamers are women. What is even more of a change to the typical view of the gaming demographics is that this woman is on average about 38 years of age, married with children and basically just looking for some "me time" and some entertainment online to fill that short moment with. Games have turned into an early evening escape from reality and are giving women the chance to add some excitement to a normal evening.
This massive and growing group of women gamers have been ignored for a long time. I dont mean from a product point of view as women do not need specially designed, different games than men do, they have simply not been acknowledged as being a large target group for the games industry. So in what way have women been over looked then? If we look at the top 10 most popular games of the times, women and men show surprisingly similar patterns in which games prove popular. What women have missed out on (or maybe been spared from) is the advertising. This demographic target group has largely been left out from main stream advertising and been left to their own devises to find the suitable channels for this type of escapism.
And this is exactly the aim of this blog; to follow the trends in marketing games and gambling to women; to follow the trends of the players to see where they are and what they are doing; and to show appreciation to the games, companies and brands that are providing women with the best platform where to find all of this.
And on that note I will round up for now as I have to head to work. But I would like to leave you with the wonderful quote by Robert A. Heinlein in which he managed to capture the essence of the world of games:
"Of course the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you - if you don't play, you can't win."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)