Levit0
Contrary to popular belief, women do in fact play video games. It’s something that shockingly a lot of people seem to not be aware of, or are automatically dismissive of for whatever reason. What’s particularly distressing is the fact that marketing and PR firms seem to be under this impression as well, as Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckman explained they had to specifically request for female focus testers for their upcoming project The Last Of Us.
“Another aspect that influences how a game is promoted is focus-testing. Players are rounded up and are asked to view materials and answer some quantitative and qualitative questions about it,”
“My big surprise during this process is that the research group wasn’t planning on focus-testing female gamers – it’s something we had to specifically request. I hope this is a relic of the past that will soon go away.”
While it’s debatable that any sort of focus testing is required at all, it’s particularly distressing that Naughty Dog even had to fight for something as simple as female focus testers. Roughly 50% of potential consumers are female, so why not include said potential consumers in the focus testing? Gaming is an industry that should be just as universal in it’s appeal as any other medium. Everyone be it gamers, publishers, developers, and PR firms need to realize gaming is not just a boys club and never has been.
[Source]
