Dear Game Developers, It’s Me, Adult Girl Gamer

The RPG elements that grown-up women really want

Let’s talk stats for a minute, before we talk about hopes and dreams.

• As of August 2020, about 40% of the world’s population is consuming video games. That’s an estimated 3.1 billion
• Role-Playing Games represent about 11.3% of this gigantic pie
• Contrary to popular belief, women over 18 account for 33% of U.S. gamers. Boys under 18 come in at a paltry 17%, according to the Entertainment Software Association’s 2018 report
• The average age of the female video gamer is 36

In short: there are many grown-up women out there gaming. And yet, a surprisingly small percentage of these women play Western RPGs. A notable exception is Dragon Age: Inquisition, which clocks in much higher than the group average (48% vs. 26%).

Analyzing the numbers by genre and gender, a research team from Quantic Foundry emphasizes:

The Opportunity Space is Larger Than It Appears

In other words, there is money to be made. There are stories to be told. We need better RPGs geared towards the specific needs and desires of women gamers.

I could never speak for all 36-year-old women gamers, even if I started narrowing it down with disclaimers. For starters, I’m 40. But here are some core ideas for the RPG I think many women still only dream about.

Disclaimer: some of these suggestions will border on heresy for the hairier sex.

1. Epic and Exciting doesn’t have to mean a 100+ hour grind

We have lives full of friends and careers. We probably have partners and pets. 80% of us have kids. We have to cook and grocery shop, even if we don’t like to. We have many hobbies and interests by 36. Our lives are pretty full, most of the time.

But we still want to game. Perhaps some of us are relatively new and simply RPG-curious. I started playing Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past in 1992, when my sister and I saved up to buy a Super NES. Not once have I stopped gaming in the interim.

But there is almost no way I complete a playthrough of one of the AAA titles these days. I want to play, but I also want to do something other than play one game for the next 1001 nights.

Many of the suggestions below will help streamline games so they still feel epic without becoming endless.

Epic game successes: Uncharted 4 & Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which incidentally still holds the title Best Game Ever Made, according to Metacritic (scored at 99/100)

Epic game fails: Final Fantasy XV (wait, now we’re switching gameplay after 60 hours??)

2. Simple crafting, please

I get that it’s exciting, coming up with new and very fancy ways of making imaginary things. But elaborate crafting systems that require —

• random guessing
• hunting down the wiki
• finding the recipe then finding each of 5 components which each have their own recipe down an infinite regress

— are all a surefire way to lose us forever after a couple of hours. Or prevent us from picking up the game in the first place, if we’re forewarned. We already have to figure out what to make for supper every day. We don’t want to puzzle out how to make a healing potion, too.

We also don’t have time to stand at an imaginary crafting station and actually hammer a sword together (I’m looking at you, Skyrim). It’s (kinda?) fun when you’re 20 and high.

It’s not fun when you’ve already had to do something monotonous all day like reply to 1,000 nearly identical complaint emails at work or pick up your toddler’s socks for the zillionth time.

Crafting simplicity successes: Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Resident Evil 4

Crafting simplicity fails: The Witcher 3, Stardew Valley

3. Simple fight mechanics

There are few things more disappointing than life interrupting a wonderful game 20 hours in, only to find when you return a few weeks or months later that the only choices are:

• start the whole game over because you can’t retrain your muscle memory for all the fancy buttons (not going to happen)
• muddle through for an hour and die 10x before throwing in the towel in disgust

Mechanics can be simple, accessible, and still interesting. Remember how Link’s master sword charged up into special attacks when his health bar was full? And as his sword gained improvements, it genuinely changed how the game played.

Let’s make a deal: save the elaborate and interesting parts of the game for your storylines and your NPCs.

Simple fight successes: Dragon Age (pick one), Horizon Zero Dawn

Simple fight failures: Assassin’s Creed (pick one), Shadow of Mordor

4. On that note: memorable storylines & NPCs

At its core, a good RPG is a well-told story. It doesn’t have to be intricate, though a few surprising twists and turns are much appreciated. If we’re only talking about a 20–30 hour game, at least 1/2 of the total time — even for a completionist like me — should feel like it directly contributes to moving the story forward.

Completion, Quantic Foundry identified, is one of two major reasons women play games. The other is Fantasy: i.e. escape from our ordinary lives and routines. (Ergo skipping all that is repetitive and grinding.)

Ideally, these stories are also inclusive. They might focus on strong female, queer, or trans characters. If you need ideas for building more inclusive worlds with more inclusive narratives, here are few amazing fantasy and sci-fi novels that already do so.

Better still, become more inclusive in your hiring practices.

Memorable storylines: The Secret of Monkey Island (1990)

Storylines that got lost in the details: Divinity (both, sad face)

5. Cleverly used side quests

The best “side” quests also open up or close down the path towards the primary goal and tell a captivating story.

Personally, I quite enjoyed the part of The Witcher 3 when you recruited various allies to fight the Wild Hunt at Kaer Morhen. And then they were actually there, fighting.

The Dragon Age ally side quests also stand out as being particularly well put together. They usually added vital information about the ally in question and built story interests. They also allowed players to recruit and work with them, sideline them, or even estrange them. Well-written NPCs can be life-changing.

One of the worst games for grinding side quests is inFamous. I think there were like 5 that played on repeat in a slightly different location.

I’m not a huge fan of absolutely no side quests, like in Silent Hill, but if that’s what it takes to streamline a game, then so be it.

6. Skill trees / character specialization

Ever get like 10 hours into a game and realize that you’ve improperly distributed your skill points? A fairly common work-around these days is eventually offering a chance to redistribute them, which is a ho-hum solution.

I’m a fan of limited class options from the get-go. Maybe this is because one of my first true-game-loves is Quest For Glory: So You Want to Be a Hero. You picked your class and that’s who you were. You could tweak from there if you wanted, but your class also determined more or less how you solved the game’s problems.

What’s great about this option is it makes for better re-playability. Did it as a rogue, last time? Ok, now try it the hard way (i.e. as the squishy mage).

Skill tree success: Borderlands

Skill tree fails: Skyrim (I suspect this will be one of my most controversial points, but why do I want to make 90 daggers??)

7. Item collection

Creating and displaying the 1,000,000 beautiful assets you built for the game is completely understandable. It also makes for some down-right confusion about what has importance and value in the world and what does not.

I don’t actually want to spend umpteen hours wrangling with a shopkeep over the price of the old boot I found. Or trying to figure out if it is secretly a magic boot that I will need in order to outwit a genie at hour 63.

Only interesting and important items, please. Becoming a bag-lady is not the secret fantasy I want to play out.

Item collection successes: Resident Evil (pick one)

Item collection fails: Fallout 4 and Divinity (you really want me to look through every book on every shelf??)

8. Ways to solve problems and conflicts other than/in addition to fighting

Going back to the genius of Quest for Glory 1 & 4, many of the “problems” had multiple solutions. Let’s say you needed an item. You could:

• sneak in and take it through an upstairs window or the backdoor
• recruit someone sneaky or disgruntled to get it for you
• negotiate with the owner to give it to you
• use a magic workaround like Mage Hand
• create a diversion

If you snuck in and failed, it may start a fight. Or you might simply wind up in jail because let’s face it, you did break into someone’s house. Now you have another interesting problem to solve: how to get out of jail?

Multiple solutions success: The Witcher (especially in its main quests)

Fights and more fights: Borderlands

9. No unexpected fights

Wait, aren’t the surprises part of the fun? They are, sometimes. But if I am 5 minutes from putting the game (and myself) to bed for the night, I don’t want to fall into a 30-minute didn’t-see-it-coming throw down. I’m 40. Sleep is no longer optional.

Also: many women have experienced physical or emotional trauma. We already walk around at night cautiously. We want our homes to feel like places where we are safe and in control.

This doesn’t have to make for dull gaming by any stretch. A few ways games work around surprises:

• designated area(s) for fights
• Witcher senses that tingle as a monster approaches or a little warning exclamation point
• a separate fight screen, in the classic Final Fantasy style

Extra clear signs that a boss battle is about to begin are especially welcome. Ask if we’re sure we want to enter the room. Place a save point immediately preceding it.

10. Leveling not implicitly tied to fighting

If I don’t always want to solve problems by fighting, I don’t only want to be rewarded for fighting. It was fun, back in the day, to wander through the Borderlands universe for 5 straight hours only to realize I was level 37.

That kind of gameplay is not on the table right now. But there are other great ways to do this.

One way to upgrade at key story markers. Or take a cue from the success of the Zelda canon: leveling through powerful item collection (which also help satisfy points #2, 3, 6, & 7).

Interesting leveling: Tomb Raider (2013)

Grind leveling: pick your standard fight-oriented RPG (i.e. way too many of them)

11. A genuine feeling that the world responds to choices

There are so many different ways to do this in interesting and innovative ways. One game that is supposed to be choice-based but disappointed on this front was Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Other than whether each scene was filled with evil mages or evil templars, so much of the game felt like it chugged on just the same, whether that was entirely accurate or not.

A few of the ways that other games did it cleverly:

• inFamous’ use of graphics to determine whether you were good or evil, combined with citizenry response to hinder or help you. If you want to run around and be a murder-hobo fine, but then the people in the world should respond to you as such.
• Heavy Rain’s use of multiple narratives that each unlocked limited and specific clues and lead to very different endings. I started a new game the same day I finished my first playthrough, I was so curious about how it could pan out differently.
• Anything by Telltale, for its judicious use of “time-sensitive” choices. These are a far better way to define a pivotal moment in a game than your typical quick-time event — which pretty much always sucks.

Worlds that feel unresponsive: Far Cry 4

According to The Guardian review:

Far Cry 4 truly shines in the almost bacchanalian sense of freedom it bestows on the player as they traverse through its environment. In Kyrat you have the ability to go anywhere and do pretty much anything — much as Pagan Min would advocate. Here, the only pact you need to keep is that with your conscience. God help you.

Translation: this world is unrealistic in any way that is interesting.

12. A few other small but essential ingredients

These should be self-explanatory, but bear mentioning.

• Autosaves in short increments. I’m almost certain to quit forever if I lose an hour’s worth of play
• Safeguards against death. In Zelda it was fairies. In Resident Evil, a companion might stab you with a syringe
• A simple and accessible journal for the important story points and key characters. Even if it’s been a while, it’s still easy to jump back in
• A genuine couch co-op would be brilliant! I suspect the reason so many MMORPGs score well for girl gamers is our partners are almost certain to be gamers too. It’s nice to kill two birds with one well-aimed arrow

Key takeaways:

• Build a game that is short but deep and people will play and replay it
• Eliminate pseudo choices: your game doesn’t have to be a mall
• Focus on and enrich the real feeling of decision making in a complex world
• Create a compelling story full of intriguing characters

Dear Game Developers,

Please make me an epic and accessible RPG.

I recognize that many of my examples are now becoming dated. Others are intentionally “retro” because before we had enormous games we had very smartly crafted ones.

The simple fact is I don’t have the time to play the big games that otherwise might suit my fancy. I promise, if you make the game of my dreams, I will be your faithful fan until the end of my much longer lifespan.

Many thanks,

Grown-up Girl Gamer