Girls and gaming

June 27, 2006 10:56 AM

What video games do girls (8-14 years old) like to play?

Do they like games designed for girls or do they prefer games that are ostensibly created for boys? Would the average elementary school-aged girl prefer to play a "Lizzie McGuire" (for example) game or "Grand Theft Auto"? Or both? What is their gaming system of choice?

Additionally, to all you parents out there, do you find you have a significant influence on the games your daughters are playing?

(Sorry, I know there are a lot of separate questions in here)

posted by johnsmith415 to sports, hobbies, & recreation (34 comments total)

I only know one young teenage girl who plays game and she is a Sims 2 fan.

When I was a young teenager (and I am a girl), our game system was a Super Ninento and I don't recall that many girly-girl games available, but I liked to play things that involved more thinking as opposed to quick reflexes, like RPG type games and adventure games.

One of my girlfriends and I used to play Kings Quest & Space Quest at our sleepovers. Those were such fun times!
posted by tastybrains at 11:05 AM on June 27, 2006

Ugh, I only know one young teenage girl who plays game

s

and she is a Sims 2 fan.
posted by tastybrains at 11:05 AM on June 27, 2006

I give up. You know what I meant.
posted by tastybrains at 11:06 AM on June 27, 2006

My niece (12) is a big fan of Dance Dance Revolution and now she's getting into Guitar Hero, too. I think those are pretty much sure hits in that age group regardless of gender.
posted by stefanie at 11:06 AM on June 27, 2006

I'm not sure there are any good generalizations to be reached.

Me, 8-14: Tetris, a handful of platformers and car-racing games including Road Rash, then Final Fantasy VII and Phantasy Star IV.

My younger sisters, 8-14: snowboarding, Harry Potter.

Most of the TV-franchise video games are just plain awful, and I think most girls catch onto that eventually. But they won't necessarily play better video games; they may stop buying them.
posted by Jeanne at 11:09 AM on June 27, 2006

When I was 12-14, I liked to play Final Fantasy RPGs and Pokemon -- nothing particularly girly. I still enjoy Final Fantasy now, at 19.

My female friends who play video games at that age also enjoyed Final Fantasy and Pokemon. The Sims, Smash Bros., Heroes of Might and Magic and Kingdom Hearts (this possibly came out after we were 14, but I can imagine playing it as an 8-14-year-old) were favorites as well. While no one was into anything really gorey, "Lizzie McGuire" type stuff was definitely not what appealed to us.
posted by puffin at 11:11 AM on June 27, 2006

Animal Crossing.
posted by visual mechanic at 11:12 AM on June 27, 2006

My 14yo plays puzzle games (tetris, magicmatch, etc), and the HarryPotter games. Not so much into the TV tie-ins, and detests DDR and the like (her friends like to play them, and she comes home grumbling about the games). The Scooby-Doo mystery games are surprisingly decent, though.
posted by jlkr at 11:15 AM on June 27, 2006

Katamari Damacy/We Love Katamari?
posted by Lucinda at 11:15 AM on June 27, 2006

In my (second-hand, through lots of posters on a gaming forum I frequent being dads) experience, there's been nothing like the Nintendo DS for getting young girls enjoying videogames. I think it's the more-direct touchscreen controls to some extent, but that it's mostly the games library - Animal Crossing and Nintendogs are the names you'll likely hear over and over again.

Neither game is specifically targetted at girls - they're both determinedly gender-neutral in their presentation - but I honestly think it's one of the first times a company has made a concerted effort to put out well-designed, satisfying, rich games that don't involve competition or combat in any way, and it's telling that such an effort has led to a massive rise in young girls playing videogames. The Barbie Horse Adventures and Lizzie Maguires - the pink-and-sparkles school of games-for-girls design, in other words - haven't failed because girls aren't interested in playing videogames, but because they've tended to be hastily-produced junk.
posted by terpsichoria at 11:18 AM on June 27, 2006

the 11 yr old in our house likes to play that online game (world of warcraft, i think?) with her Dad. she likes all the mario games, ketamari, DDR, the other whole body kinetic game with the skate/hoverboard. she likes to watch me play Civ IV and offer her suggestions, but doesn't play on her own. same thing with her Dad and one of those dungeon games for the PC.

we do, i think, have something of an influence because we monitor her choices pretty hard (nothing too scary or too scantily clad, nothing that's a crap design, almost nothing we would really mind playing with her for a while) and because we play our own games (i'm fond of half-life, eternal darkness and the aforementioned Civ IV; he's fond of the FPShooters and that online game and dungeonkeeper).

when i was a girl aged 8-14, i had temple of apshai and loved the hell out of missle command and seamus (i think that's what that one was called). later, i developed a fondness for a much wider range of games.
posted by crush-onastick at 11:22 AM on June 27, 2006

I loved the super mario games, any rpg - final fantasy, zelda, etc. My neighbor has a 7 year old daughter who also prefers rpgs and puzzle type games. My 3 sons - 8, 11 and 12 yrs old, all prefer action games but have been known to play a few rpgs.

To state the obvious, though, I'm not sure you can generalize game preference based on gender alone.

Kingdom Hearts satisifies both the action and thinking, so that sort of thing might be a good bet.
posted by routergirl at 11:27 AM on June 27, 2006

I used to be an 8-14 year old girl, and I liked Populous, Tetris, and Mario Bros 1 and 3 (not 2!). When I was older I played Sim City, Sims, and Sims2.
I've always liked simulation games best. Teris and Mario were just annoyingly addicting. I felt like I HAD to play. We didn't even have a Nintendo, I was playing at someone else's house and played all through Mario 1.
I've also played Lemmings back then, but remember finding it sad that sometimes you had to sacrifice one lemming to save 99 others.
posted by easternblot at 11:28 AM on June 27, 2006

My brother's step daughter plays Bratz. She had Sims 2 but they felt that it was too adult for her 11 year old self (with the climbing into bed with the boyfriend and all). She loves Bratz and as a bonus since it has a lot of reading, her reading comprehension scores are going up at school (previously an issue for her).

I liked puzzle games and platformers (NES/SNES).

Also, for the love of god and video game developers, don't let 9-14 year olds of either gender play GTA. It only makes it harder for us actual adults to get good adult games.
posted by nadawi at 11:29 AM on June 27, 2006

Oh I loved the super marios! Esp. 3.
posted by routergirl at 11:42 AM on June 27, 2006

Mom of 12 y.o. here. She LOVES her Nintendo DS and plays Animal Crossing and Pokemon Trozei. She also has Nintendogs but doesn't like it for some reason. Online, she is a big fan of dress-up doll sites (which I AskMe'd about a year or so ago and was assured that they are not skeevy).
posted by Sweetie Darling at 11:50 AM on June 27, 2006

My co-worker tells me that his little sister enjoys the Harvest Moon series.
posted by utsutsu at 11:52 AM on June 27, 2006

Sims and various games on Neopets.
posted by Neiltupper at 11:56 AM on June 27, 2006

Thanks for all the answers so far! Keep 'em coming...!

And in response to some of the comments that you can't generalize game preferences based on gender, yeah, I know...I'm just trying to get a feel for the general trends out there. It is certainly a valid point, though...
posted by johnsmith415 at 12:01 PM on June 27, 2006

My daughter is in the lower section of this age range, and a game enthusiast growing up in a game enthusiast's household, with a somewhat gamer-biased circle of both peer and adult friends. Here's what she's playing or asking for chances to play:

Some kind of branded Texas Hold'em simulator on Yahoo Games. She's no good, but she enjoys it.
Guitar Hero - After largely ignoring it for a few months, there's heavy enthusiasm for this one lately.
Animal Crossing - She'll go a few months without playing, and then go nuts with it for a while.
The taiko drumming game - I never hear the end of how much fun this was when she played it at a friend's.
Sims / Sims 2 - Building a house is too hard but it's fun if you can skip that part.
Warcraft 2, 3; StarCraft - We're kind of a big Blizzard household to begin with, so some of this enthusiasm may be inherited.
Pretty much every Sonic title regardless of ancientness or originality. The Dreamcast and Gamecube titles seem to be popular with her lately but dragging out the Genesis classics happens reasonably often.
Various GBA quasi-RPG platformers (mostly movie or toy license titles stamped from more or less the same mold)
Oregon Trail - She prefers the ancientish MacOS version or playing on an Apple II emulator.
MAME, MAME, MAME - Arcade games for no quarters. Who wouldn't love it?
Puzzle Bobble - Of course!
SMB 1 and 3 - Of course!

Games she's shown an interest in but I haven't been able to sit her in front of yet:
LucasArts adventure titles (Sam & Max, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango)
Ultima III & IV - (U5 and above are banned in this household due to crappiness)
WoW - At her present age, I'm not interested in letting her play in groups with strangers (especially now that it's summer and the player population is even more obnoxious than ever) so it's not availble to her now.
Dune II - The Amiga is in storage right now (and the Amiga version is by far the best) but it's a great introduction to the C&C engine RTS games. She'll have to nag me more to get this out.
Myth II - Not a great first-timer's RTS, difficulty-wise, so it might be a year or two before I put it in front of her.
Kingdom of Loathing - I keep forgetting to create an account and put the site on her whitelist.

Games that she liked but were "too hard" and she didn't come back to:
SimCity 2000 GBA - Lack of mouse sucks.
Lemmings GBA - Ditto.
Jet Grind Radio - difficult controls, very console-y timed gameplay
State of Emergency - Controls again. Slightly more favorable on Windows than a console.
Destroy all Humans - I liked it too but the controls do indeed suck.

Games that weren't really hits with her:
Kingdom Hearts - Liked it in concept, shared some enthusiasm with a friend, but got bored with it after a couple of nights' play.
Most puzzle games (although she loves to backseat drive them)

Games that absolutely must be avoided at all costs:
"Girl games" - Barbie, Brats, anything that comes in a pink box will elicit dry heaving, rashes, and screaming in her. Unless a kid is very girly-girl, these go over like a cinderblock in your oatmeal.

She's also interested in Neopet, but I'm disliking how advertising-driven it is.

As far as game platform of choice, my daughter at least doesn't care. We have so many that she can choose what game she likes rather than what platform.

I don't really dig on the Japanese-type SquareSoft RPG genre (I've been pretty vocal about how the Real RPG died with Fallout 1) so the selection of those here in the house is pretty thin apart from whatever's in my ROM collections. As a result, her exposure to them has been somewhat minimal. She's clearly shown more interest in games I like although she's found a few of my favorites to be pretty boring. Her tastes are clearly derived from, though not driven by, mine, and the selection of games available to her is heavily influenced by my likes and dislikes.
posted by majick at 12:35 PM on June 27, 2006

I'd suggest Final Fantasy (though the series is not what it once was in terms of quality -- FF9 was by far the best of the Playstation-era games), DDR, Katamari Damacy, Disgaea, and Rez. All are available for the Playstation 2. Lego Star Wars is a surprisingly fun and whimsical game, if they like or don't mind Star Wars, and there are lots of female characters to unlock, which is a nice touch.

MMORPGs (World of Warcraft, EVE Online, etc) tend to be pretty popular with all genders, but I think I'd reserve these for teens and above, unless the kids would be playing together with a parent or older sibling. Some of the people on these games can be really unpleasant.
posted by vorfeed at 12:42 PM on June 27, 2006

When I was a pre-teen I used to spend hours playing MarioKart 64 with the kids I babysat.

Are you trying to buy a console/games for a girl this age?
FWIW, you can get older Nintendo systems and games on the cheap these days.
posted by radioamy at 12:44 PM on June 27, 2006

my daughter (13.5) likes World of Warcraft, Sims (and expansion packs - but not the orig Simcity) Neopets (not so much anymore) Pokemon (still - i don't get it) dress up doll sites occassionally, Isketch (drawing game online), Habo hotel.

Retails computer shops are so male-oriented here that the waves of testosterone drive us both out after a short period of time - there's a sliver of pink that 'sposed to apply to her and it's wanky shit to a faux-punk pomo feminist-child.
posted by b33j at 2:05 PM on June 27, 2006

Check out GirlGamer.com for some ideas too.
posted by slavlin at 2:18 PM on June 27, 2006

First off, kudos to you for recognizing that even girls like to videogame, too.

Here's my input: when I was a 14 year old girl (4 years ago) I practically lived off my N64, on which my favourite games were StarFox, Gauntlet Legends, Zelda (in all its incarnations), and Super Smash Bros. Now I'm a big fan of Kingdom Hearts and God of War (the latter of which may be too violent for your tastes) for the PS2 and Halo on the X-Box.

Really, though, you'd have to have a good look at the girls in question and decide how typically "girly" they are. I know when I was 14, if someone had tried to pawn one of the Lizzie MacQuire/Barbie games off on me, they would have won my undying hatred, but then again, I was also a hopeless tomboy.

Your best bet is to probably start with one of the more broad-interest games, like Kingdom Hearts or World of Warcraft, that appeal to a wide audience, and then go from there. Also, remember that Blockbuster video game rentals are your friend--you can try out new genres without putting a lot of money into it.

In the end, all I can do is ask you to please not just assume that because they are girls they don't want a little blood, gore, and violence. Good luck!
posted by internet!Hannah at 2:24 PM on June 27, 2006

mario kart.
posted by j-urb at 2:24 PM on June 27, 2006

Nintendo DS: Super Princess Peach and New Super Mario Brothers.
posted by blahtsk at 2:46 PM on June 27, 2006

This topic was recently discussed on the IGDA casual games SIG mailing list (what a mouthful!). You might find something interesting in their archives. You may also find issue 50 of The Escapist to have some insights.
posted by lowlife at 2:46 PM on June 27, 2006

I'm a teenage girl, and i absolutely LOVE starcraft AND sims... but the starcraft thing might be because i grew up with two older brothers...
anyways, i'd go with sims or something.
posted by alona at 2:49 PM on June 27, 2006

My personal experience...when I was a teenager I loved Super Smash Brothers. Girls (obviously) are different...some will like the Lizzie McGuire games, some will hate them. Another type of game that was popular with my female friends were sim games, like The Sims, SimCity...not too violent or too dorky, so no dungeons and dragons or hard core role playing games or anything.
posted by apple scruff at 3:44 PM on June 27, 2006

My 10yo daughter lives at runescape.com. I fully expect to someday see her jump into her monitor (ala Blues Clues) and never come back out.

And seconding Nintendogs and Harvest Moon for the DS. ALL of her friends play those as well.

In general, she likes games with tasks to perform, rather than ones involving competition or races against a clock.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 7:12 PM on June 27, 2006

My Sub-Cousin (Daughter of a cousin... I'm sure there's a more technical name, but this has stuck) loves pokemon, but plays every game that her (boy) buddies play...

She's just starting her tom-boy phase, it seems...
posted by hatsix at 7:57 PM on June 27, 2006

It's been 16 years since I was 14, but this thread is making my heart ache a little bit. I would have played Nintendo for 20 hours a day if left to my own devices.

I loved the original Zelda, Zelda 2 (Adventures of Link, the one everyone hates), all the Mario Brothers games, Bionic Commando, Contra, original Metroid.

Now I love the Ratchet & Clank series, Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy X, and Jak & Daxter - The Precursor Legacy (Jak 2 & 3 are pure crap). Oh, and my love for the GTA series knows no bounds, but I didn't play those until I was 27, and even now I'm a little appalled at myself. I think my 14 year old self would have loved the original Jak the most.
posted by peep at 8:04 PM on June 27, 2006

correction. that online game with her father i was referring to is "Neverwinter". obviously, i don't play it with them!
posted by crush-onastick at 6:32 AM on June 29, 2006