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By Christopher Dickey
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The equations that drive the characters in your typical videogame are pretty simple: if punched, then fight. But the new generation of games driven by artificial intelligence use a higher math: if attacked, then fight or run, depending on an equation that balances temper, strength and other factors. The only game at this level so far is a free download called Facade, created by Andrew Stern and Michael Mateas. Its minimalist graphics are the antithesis of those in most modern electronic games. "We're trying to appeal to the non-computer geek," says Stern, "people who are turned off by games because they're not about people's lives."
Those alienated billions are often women. Stern says at least half the downloads of Facade (150,000 since July) are by women, perhaps more. This is the latest step toward feminizing the teen- and testosterone-fired world of gaming. Women and girls may account for as little as 10 percent of all games players, by some estimates. Dan Morris, editor in chief of PC Gamer magazine, says, "I can't think of another entertainment sector that's systematically freezing out half the potential market."
Now, the spread of broadband Internet access and the rise of artificial intelligence are raising the potential for more complex characters and plots. "We're talking about relationships illuminated through conflict," says legendary games designer Chris Crawford. The companies that can make "the philosophical leap" beyond combat for boys are "going to win out in the end," says Ankarino Lara, director of GameSpot.com, a gaming Web site. "Female gaming is the last frontier; 2006 is going to be a milestone year."
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Girl gamers were largely hidden from view until Electronic Arts released The Sims in the early 1990s. These games allow players to develop whole worlds, including characters and the environments that meet their needs for food, shelter, money, utilities--even love and what the designers call "woohoo." Women flocked to the game, surprising company executives, says Virginia McArthur, a Sims producer. "A lot of our women, we call 'dollhousers.' They like to build their dream house." A second surprise came with the advent of "massive multiplayer online" games, which allow real people to interact in cyberspace. Women took to fantasy landscapes of sword and sorcery like World of Warcraft, sometimes wielding weapons but also inhabiting characters who seemed nurturing or bewitching.
Facade takes character to a new depth. Stern says the experience is "like standing on a stage with two improvisational actors" in a drama. The actors play Trip and Grace, a couple whose marriage is coming apart. You hear them arguing through the door, but when you enter, they say everything is just fine. Then they try to get you to take sides. You can help, or provoke, or flirt. The inventors created a "drama manager" to guide the interaction between protagonists and player, while a "parser" is supposed to understand a wide range of conversational English.
In practice, there are glitches: during our test of Facade, we stood by silently for 10 minutes while Trip angrily asked if we were done flirting with Grace and bossing them both around. In any case, the drama is structured as "a tight one-act play," Stern says. Each session lasts about 15 minutes. There's no winner or loser. The point is to get involved intensely and briefly (or "casually," as they say in the gaming business). Future versions likely will last longer. And the designers hope they are on the verge of figuring out what women want--in a game.
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