Trigger Happy
254
men. But Brenda Laurel of Purple Moon Software, an
American development studio that produces
videogames aimed at young females, does exactly this:
“Girls’ objection to computer games isn’t what you’d
expect. It’s not that they’re too violent, it’s that they’re
too boring. They’re extremely bored by them.” Are
they? Not according to Game Grrl Nikki Douglas, who
retorts: “What exactly is boring about creative strategy
and 3D virtual environments? . . . I’ll tell you what
boring is—it was waiting for those little cakes to come
out of the Easy-Bake oven.”
38
There is probably some kernel of truth in the claim
that, since until recently almost all videogame
designers have been men, the products will have
appealed more to men than to women; just as,
conversely, what is known in the publishing trade as
“women’s fiction,” written by women, sells more to
women than to men. Yet even here it is impossible to
factor out the undoubtedly huge effect of marketing—
“women’s fiction” is targeted at women; “men’s
videogames” are targeted at men (with often
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38 The traditional gender debate in videogames is fought out at great length
in the collection of articles edited by Justine Cassell and Henry Jenkins,
From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games
.
