Interactive equal opportunity

Purple Moon games recognize that girls are different

June 22, 1997
Web posted at: 12:08 a.m. EDT (0408 GMT)

From CNN Interactive Writer Andy Walton

ATLANTA (CNN) -- "Everybody knows that girls don't play games."

That has long been the conventional wisdom in the computer and video game industry, and it infuriated Brenda Laurel, a 20-year veteran of the industry. "I guess I had an ax to grind," Laurel says.

Her answer: Purple Moon, a company that focuses exclusively on what it calls "friendship adventures" for 8-to-12-year-old girls.

Purple Moon is an offshoot of Interval Research Corp., a Silicon Valley think tank co-founded by Microsoft founder Paul Allen and Silicon Valley veteran David Liddle.

Five years of research preceeded the launch of Purple Moon in November 1996 and the official debut of its product line at the E3 trade show that ended Saturday.

"I signed on with the company [Interval] with the goal of doing research on gender and technology issues," Laurel says. "I'd come to the conclusion that if this was an easy problem, somebody would have solved it."

Boys and girls have different styles

In addition to reviewing existing research, Interval interviewed over 1,000 girls and boys around the country in "friendship pairs," as well as interviewing coaches, scout leaders, camp counselors and experts in the ways children play.

"Boys are much more direct, straightforward and simple in the way they compete, and they use really explicit measures to establish their social position," Laurel says.

"Girls tend to be more subtle, more complex, and the entire way that they organize themselves socially is markedly different from the way boys do."

Purple Moon's products, unlike the action games popular with boys the same age, are not set in fantastical worlds. Instead, they are based on the real experiences of preteen girls, and the challenge is navigating the maze of interpersonal relationships, not mazes of oozing monsters who explode when hit.

Games feature social dilemmas

"Secret Paths in the Forest" is set in a "girls only" treehouse. The player invites characters over, and helps them find "secret stones" with a particular message for the character. When all the stones are collected, they form a story to help the character with her problem.

"Rockett's New School" presents perhaps as much of a nightmare scenario as "Doom" -- it's Rockett's first day at a new school, and the player navigates her through the unfamiliar faces she encounters her first day. In the sequel, "Rockett's Tricky Decision," Rockett is invited to two parties on the same night.

The characters in the "Rockett" series come with a "back story" that the player can find by looking at the character's locker (the characters show the player around the contents). Every character has a journal, and all are far more complex than the usual video game hero or villain.

Purple Moon's products are available on hybrid PC/Macintosh CDs, and on a soon-to-be-launched Web site, but not for console systems like those produced by Sega and Nintendo.

"Girls see video game machines as 'boy technology,' and they see computers as neutral technology," Laurel says. "No point in taking on that other argument until you've got something to show that's worked somewhere else."

Beyond equal entertainment opportunity, Laurel sees real-world benefits from computer games that appeal to girls.

"One of the reasons that boys are so comfortable having their hands on these things," Laurel says, pointing to a desktop computer, "is because they've got video games to motivate them, so they just move through the problem of touching the technology. We felt that if we could do something similar for girls, it might help keep them involved in computing."

 

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• Whiz bang boom -- the latest in Internet games - June 20, 1997
• CNN's Computer Connection - The Electronic Entertainment Expo.

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• A ROM of their own -- from Time Magazine
• SuperKids Software Review - Index - Software for Girls

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