Cover Girls: Game Covers Women Want To See

There is an interesting exchange of ideas floating around the gaming blogosphere related to the primary artwork associated with game marketing - box art covers - and how these images might appeal to women gamers.  This discussion originated in a post on the Yudhishthira'€™s Dice blog, where Brand asks this question:

"Ladies, what RPG covers (or interiors) have you seen that involve a woman in the art that make you say, "I want to play that"€ or, just as good "€œI want to play her."€ Or that make you feel like it is a game you could like, or be included in by a group of guys you'€™d never met and whose maturity you didn't neccisarily know?"

Tekanji over at the Official Shrub.Com Blog (with her usual skill of knowing a good idea when she sees one) has turned this into a meme and has received a number of good responses.  Here at Guilded Lilies (with MY usual skill of not catching onto a good thing until everyone else has moved on to something else) I have decided to add my perspective to the dialogue.

I would like to discuss two covers from RPGs for the PC that have good inclusive box art.  Below are images from Dungeon Siege and the DS Legends of Aranna expansion pack.  Both covers are pretty much the same, but it was the first Dungeon Siege box that got me interested in playing the game and had me looking forward to the later expansion of the game.

Click on images for a larger version.

This cover art works for me primarily because it shows a female character that isn't objectified, but instead looks capable and ready to get things accomplished in the game world.  The expression on her face is confident and self-assured, with a dash of sass in her wry smile.  At the time I played the original Dungeon Siege I wasn't familiar with the kind of female characters being designed to appeal exclusively to the hard core male gamer demographic, so my original reaction on seeing this cover art wasn't in relation to what it wasn't showing me - overly sexualized female game characters.  I didn't read it as necessarily inclusive to me as a woman gamer, because I didn't realize at that time just how non-inclusive most game art could be toward women gamers. Call me naive, but my interest in this game was based purely on it making me feel that it was a perfectly normal thing for me to want to play a fantasy RPG on my computer - and that is precisely why I think it is successful.  That feeling was reinforced by gameplay that lived up the inclusive artwork on the cover, and I was able to enjoy playing an equally strong female character with none of the starting stat differences between genders present in other fantasy RPGs.

The one important thing I would like to point out about my experience with the Dungeon Siege cover artwork is that this box art didn't just sell me on this particular game and the expansion pack, but it also turned me into a gamer.  Dungeon Siege was the first real PC game that I played with anything like dedication, even though I played other computer games before that (the Myst games, and some other casual games).  Until I played Dungeon Siege I would have never considered myself a gamer, and it opened up my interest in finding more games like it to play.  The inclusive quality of that artwork is what led me into the whole genre of fantasy RPGs on the computer, and led to me playing a load of other kinds of games that followed.  As many of you know, I came to playing games later in life, and rather than having access to being introduced to games through a sibling's console I had to cross the line of perception - that games are for immature boys - on my own.  I'm not sure I would have done that without the help of a game like Dungeon Siege, which thankfully had a marketing department with enough sense to sell their game in a way that didn't automatically exclude someone like myself from buying it.

This is an open ended meme, in that I am not going to tag anyone in particular.  If you are interested in throwing your point of view into the pot, have at it - also, this meme is not limited to just video games.  Here are the details of the original meme as posted on the Official Shrub.Com Blog:

Meme Rules:

1. Copy the text of the original challenge from Yudhishthira'€™s Dice and give a proper link attribution.
2. Copy these rules exactly (including any links).
3. Find images of game covers (interiors are okay, too) that make you want to play the game. Any kind of game - video game, card game, tabletop RPG, etc -€” is fine. Post them and include a short (or long) explanation on why the image makes/made you want to play the game.
4. The original challenge is about finding out what women think about how game art is marketed and therefore it is targeted at women. I'€™d like to keep it that way, please.
5. You can tag as many or as few people as you want. You do not need to be tagged to participate in the meme.
6. When you make your post, please post the link on this thread so we can all see what others have said.

All I would add is that I would like it if you would also leave a track-back link to my post if you are writing yours after reading about it on Guilded Lilies.  Thanks!

UPDATE 3/3/07:  I only just now noticed that 100LittleDolls tagged me earlier, so HERE is a link of thanks to her response to this meme.  Sorry I missed it earlier, thanks!

Comments

[tekanji]

Awesome post, GL. I actually somewhat regret never picking up DS. My cousin loved it, but I never got around to getting it.

And for anyone considering doing the meme, please do! There's no expiry date on things, so even if it takes you a month, two months, a year... I'll continue to post links as long as they continue to roll in.

[Guilded Lily]

Thanks Tekanji -

I'm sure Dungeon Siege would seem pretty dated by now, but it was a gateway into gaming for me and so will always have a warm spot in my heart.

Thanks for organizing such a fun and interesting spark for discussion among us women game bloggers! - GL

[Revena]

Wow, that's almost exactly what my experience with Dungeon Siege was, too. I wish there was more cover art out there like that!

[Guilded Lily]

Thanks Revena - It was fun to write this post, and game me a chance to reminisce about playing a great game. It's nice to hear that you had a very similar experience with DS as well. - GL

[totoro]

Many women gamers play Tomb Raider games despite the fact that the games' covers were often obviously designed to appeal to men.

The latest game in the series, however, is the first to NOT feature Lara Croft's giant breasts on the game cover. Is this a sign of the industry maturing?

[Guilded Lily]

Totoro - I have played Tomb Raider: Legend, and I know many women have enjoyed the entire series. I have written about Lara's largess before HERE and HERE if you are interested. I do think that the redesign of her proportions was a conscious marketing decision done in order to reach a wider audience, but likely due to the success of the movies based on the game franchise than anything else. Thanks - GL