TED1998
Brenda Laurel: Why not make video games for girls?
Filmed:
Readability: 4
466,836 views
At TED in 1998, Brenda Laurel asks: Why are all the top-selling videogames aimed at little boys? She spent two years researching the world of girls (and shares amazing interviews and photos) to create a game that girls would love.
Brenda Laurel - Designer and theorist
Brenda Laurel has been part of several major revolutions in the way humans use computers: virtual reality, interactive narratives and some fresh approaches to gaming. Full bio
Brenda Laurel has been part of several major revolutions in the way humans use computers: virtual reality, interactive narratives and some fresh approaches to gaming. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:12
Back in 1992, I started working for a company
0
0
2000
00:14
called Interval Research,
1
2000
2000
00:16
which was just then being founded
2
4000
2000
00:18
by David Lidell and Paul Allen
3
6000
2000
00:20
as a for-profit research enterprise in Silicon Valley.
4
8000
4000
00:26
I met with David
5
14000
2000
00:28
to talk about what I might do in his company.
6
16000
3000
00:31
I was just coming out of a failed virtual reality business
7
19000
3000
00:34
and supporting myself by being on the speaking circuit
8
22000
2000
00:36
and writing books --
9
24000
2000
00:38
after twenty years or so in the computer game industry
10
26000
3000
00:41
having ideas that people didn't think they could sell.
11
29000
3000
00:45
And David and I discovered
12
33000
2000
00:47
that we had a question in common,
13
35000
2000
00:49
that we really wanted the answer to,
14
37000
2000
00:51
and that was,
15
39000
2000
00:53
"Why hasn't anybody built any computer games for little girls?"
16
41000
3000
00:56
Why is that?
17
44000
2000
00:58
It can't just be a giant sexist conspiracy.
18
46000
3000
01:01
These people aren't that smart.
19
49000
3000
01:04
There's six billion dollars on the table.
20
52000
3000
01:07
They would go for it if they could figure out how.
21
55000
3000
01:10
So, what is the deal here?
22
58000
2000
01:12
And as we thought about our goals --
23
60000
3000
01:15
I should say that Interval is really a humanistic institution,
24
63000
3000
01:18
in the classical sense
25
66000
3000
01:21
that humanism, at its best,
26
69000
3000
01:24
finds a way to combine clear-eyed empirical research
27
72000
3000
01:27
with a set of core values
28
75000
3000
01:30
that fundamentally love and respect people.
29
78000
3000
01:33
The basic idea of humanism
30
81000
3000
01:36
is the improvable quality of life;
31
84000
3000
01:39
that we can do good things,
32
87000
2000
01:41
that there are things worth doing
33
89000
2000
01:43
because they're good things to do,
34
91000
2000
01:45
and that clear-eyed empiricism
35
93000
2000
01:47
can help us figure out how to do them.
36
95000
3000
01:50
So, contrary to popular belief,
37
98000
2000
01:52
there is not a conflict of interest between empiricism and values.
38
100000
5000
01:57
And Interval Research is kind of the living example
39
105000
3000
02:00
of how that can be true.
40
108000
2000
02:02
So David and I decided to go find out,
41
110000
2000
02:04
through the best research we could muster,
42
112000
2000
02:06
what it would take to get a little girl
43
114000
3000
02:09
to put her hands on a computer,
44
117000
2000
02:11
to achieve the level of comfort and ease with the technology
45
119000
3000
02:14
that little boys have because they play video games.
46
122000
3000
02:17
We spent two and a half years conducting research;
47
125000
3000
02:20
we spent another year and a half in advance development.
48
128000
4000
02:24
Then we formed a spin-off company.
49
132000
3000
02:27
In the research phase of the project at Interval,
50
135000
4000
02:31
we partnered with a company called Cheskin Research,
51
139000
3000
02:34
and these people -- Davis Masten and Christopher Ireland --
52
142000
4000
02:38
changed my mind entirely about what market research was
53
146000
3000
02:41
and what it could be.
54
149000
1000
02:42
They taught me how to look and see,
55
150000
3000
02:45
and they did not do the incredibly stupid thing
56
153000
3000
02:48
of saying to a child,
57
156000
2000
02:50
"Of all these things we already make you,
58
158000
2000
02:52
which do you like best?" --
59
160000
1000
02:53
which gives you zero answers that are usable.
60
161000
2000
02:55
So, what we did for the first two and a half years
61
163000
3000
02:58
was four things:
62
166000
2000
03:00
We did an extensive review of the literature
63
168000
3000
03:03
in related fields, like cognitive psychology,
64
171000
2000
03:05
spatial cognition, gender studies,
65
173000
2000
03:07
play theory, sociology, primatology.
66
175000
3000
03:10
Thank you Frans de Waal, wherever you are,
67
178000
2000
03:12
I love you and I'd give anything to meet you.
68
180000
3000
03:15
After we had done that with a pretty large team of people
69
183000
3000
03:18
and discovered what we thought the salient issues were
70
186000
3000
03:21
with girls and boys and playing --
71
189000
3000
03:24
because, after all, that's really what this is about --
72
192000
3000
03:27
we moved to the second phase of our work,
73
195000
2000
03:29
where we interviewed adult experts
74
197000
3000
03:32
in academia, some of the people
75
200000
2000
03:34
who'd produced the literature that we found relevant.
76
202000
2000
03:36
Also, we did focus groups with people who were on the ground with kids every day,
77
204000
3000
03:39
like playground supervisors. We talked to them,
78
207000
2000
03:41
confirmed some hypotheses and identified some serious questions
79
209000
3000
03:44
about gender difference and play.
80
212000
2000
03:46
Then we did what I consider to be the heart of the work:
81
214000
4000
03:50
interviewed 1,100 children, boys and girls,
82
218000
3000
03:53
ages seven to 12, all over the United States --
83
221000
3000
03:56
except for Silicon Valley, Boston and Austin
84
224000
3000
03:59
because we knew that their little families would have millions of computers in them
85
227000
4000
04:03
and they wouldn't be a representative sample.
86
231000
2000
04:06
And at the end of those remarkable conversations
87
234000
3000
04:09
with kids and their best friends across the United States,
88
237000
3000
04:12
after two years, we pulled together some survey data from another 10,000 children,
89
240000
3000
04:15
drew up a set up of what we thought were the key findings of our research,
90
243000
9000
04:24
and spent another year transforming them into design heuristics,
91
252000
4000
04:28
for designing computer-based products --
92
256000
3000
04:31
and, in fact, any kind of products -- for little girls, ages eight to 12.
93
259000
4000
04:35
And we spent that time designing interactive prototypes for computer software
94
263000
5000
04:40
and testing them with little girls.
95
268000
2000
04:42
In 1996, in November, we formed the company Purple Moon
96
270000
5000
04:47
which was a spinoff of Interval Research,
97
275000
2000
04:49
and our chief investors were Interval Research, Vulcan Northwest,
98
277000
3000
04:52
Institutional Venture Partners and Allen and Company.
99
280000
3000
04:55
We launched a website on September 2nd
100
283000
4000
04:59
that has now served 25 million pages,
101
287000
2000
05:01
and has 42,000 registered young girl users.
102
289000
5000
05:06
They visit an average of one and a half times a day,
103
294000
4000
05:10
spend an average of 35 minutes a visit,
104
298000
3000
05:13
and look at 50 pages a visit.
105
301000
2000
05:15
So we feel that we've formed a successful online community with girls.
106
303000
5000
05:20
We launched two titles in October --
107
308000
2000
05:22
"Rockett's New School" -- the first of a series
108
310000
2000
05:24
of products -- is about a character called Rockett beginning her first day of school
109
312000
4000
05:28
in eighth grade at a brand new place, with a blank slate,
110
316000
3000
05:31
which allows girls to play with the question of, "What will I be like when I'm older?"
111
319000
6000
05:37
"What's it going to be like to be in high school or junior high school?
112
325000
3000
05:40
Who are my friends?";
113
328000
2000
05:42
to exercise the love of social complexity
114
330000
2000
05:44
and the narrative intelligence that drives most of their play behavior;
115
332000
4000
05:48
and which embeds in it values about noticing that we have lots of choices
116
336000
6000
05:54
in our lives and the ways that we conduct ourselves.
117
342000
3000
05:57
The other title that we launched is called "Secret Paths in the Forest,"
118
345000
3000
06:00
which addresses the more fantasy-oriented, inner lives of girls.
119
348000
3000
06:03
These two titles both showed up in the top 50 entertainment titles in PC Data --
120
351000
5000
06:08
entertainment titles in PC Data
121
356000
3000
06:11
in December, right up there with "John Madden Football,"
122
359000
4000
06:15
which thrills me to death.
123
363000
2000
06:17
So, we're real,
124
365000
2000
06:19
and we've touched several hundreds of thousands of little girls.
125
367000
4000
06:23
We've made half-a-billion impressions
126
371000
3000
06:26
with marketing and PR for this brand, Purple Moon.
127
374000
4000
06:30
Ninety-six percent of them, roughly, have been positive;
128
378000
3000
06:33
four percent of them have been "other."
129
381000
2000
06:35
I want to talk about the other,
130
383000
2000
06:37
because the politics of this enterprise, in a way,
131
385000
3000
06:40
have been the most fascinating part of it, for me.
132
388000
2000
06:42
There are really two kinds of negative reviews that we've received.
133
390000
4000
06:46
One kind of reviewer is a male gamer
134
394000
4000
06:50
who thinks he knows what games ought to be,
135
398000
2000
06:52
and won't show the product to little girls.
136
400000
2000
06:55
The other kind of reviewer is a certain flavor of feminist
137
403000
4000
06:59
who thinks they know what little girls ought to be.
138
407000
2000
07:02
And so it's funny to me that these interesting, odd bedfellows
139
410000
6000
07:08
have one thing in common:
140
416000
2000
07:10
they don't listen to little girls.
141
418000
2000
07:14
They haven't looked at children
142
422000
3000
07:17
and they're certainly not demonstrating any love for them.
143
425000
3000
07:21
I'd like to play you some voices of little girls
144
429000
3000
07:24
from the two-and-a-half years of research that we did --
145
432000
2000
07:26
actually, some of the voices are more recent.
146
434000
2000
07:28
And these voices will be accompanied by photographs
147
436000
3000
07:31
that they took for us of their lives,
148
439000
2000
07:33
of the things that they value and care about.
149
441000
2000
07:35
These are pictures the girls themselves never saw, but they gave to us
150
443000
3000
07:38
This is the stuff those reviewers don't know about and aren't listening to
151
446000
5000
07:43
and this is the kind of research I recommend to those
152
451000
2000
07:45
who want to do humanistic work.
153
453000
2000
07:47
Girl 1: Yeah, my character is usually a tomboy.
154
455000
2000
07:49
Hers is more into boys.
155
457000
2000
07:51
Girl 2: Uh, yeah.
156
459000
2000
07:53
Girl 1: We have -- in the very beginning of the whole game, always we do this:
157
461000
3000
07:56
we each have a piece of paper; we write down our name, our age --
158
464000
3000
07:59
are we rich, very rich, not rich, poor, medium, wealthy,
159
467000
6000
08:05
boyfriends, dogs, pets -- what else -- sisters, brothers, and all those.
160
473000
7000
08:12
Girl 2: Divorced -- parents divorced, maybe.
161
480000
4000
08:16
Girl 3: This is my pretend [unclear] one.
162
484000
3000
08:19
Girl 4: We make a school newspaper on the computer.
163
487000
2000
08:21
Girl 5: For a girl's game also usually they'll have really pretty scenery
164
489000
5000
08:26
with clouds and flowers.
165
494000
2000
08:28
Girl 6: Like, if you were a girl and you were really adventurous and a real big tomboy,
166
496000
4000
08:32
you would think that girls' games were kinda sissy.
167
500000
4000
08:36
Girl 7: I run track, I played soccer,
168
504000
4000
08:40
I play basketball, and I love a lot of things to do.
169
508000
3000
08:43
And sometimes I feel like I can't really enjoy myself unless it's like a vacation,
170
511000
8000
08:51
like when I get Mondays and all those days off.
171
519000
4000
08:55
Girl 8: Well, sometimes there is a lot of stuff going on
172
523000
3000
08:58
because I have music lessons and I'm on swim team --
173
526000
4000
09:02
all this different stuff that I have to do,
174
530000
3000
09:05
and sometimes it gets overwhelming.
175
533000
3000
09:08
Girl 9: My friend Justine
176
536000
4000
09:12
kinda took my friend Kelly, and now they're being mean to me.
177
540000
4000
09:16
Girl 10: Well, sometimes it gets annoying when your brothers and sisters,
178
544000
3000
09:19
or brother or sister, when they copy you and you get your idea first
179
547000
5000
09:24
and they take your idea and they do it themselves.
180
552000
6000
09:30
Girl 11: Because my older sister, she gets everything
181
558000
3000
09:33
and, like, when I ask my mom for something, she'll say, "No" -- all the time.
182
561000
4000
09:37
But she gives my sister everything.
183
565000
2000
09:39
Brenda Laurel: I want to show you, real quickly, just a minute
184
567000
2000
09:41
of "Rockett's Tricky Decision," which went gold two days ago.
185
569000
3000
09:44
Let's hope it's really stable.
186
572000
3000
09:47
This is the second day in Rockett's life.
187
575000
3000
09:50
The reason I'm showing you this
188
578000
2000
09:52
is I'm hoping that the scene that I'm going to show you will look familiar
189
580000
4000
09:56
and sound familiar, now that you've listened to some girls' voices.
190
584000
3000
09:59
And you can see how we've tried to incorporate the issues that matter to them
191
587000
5000
10:04
in the game that we've created.
192
592000
2000
10:09
Miko: Hey Rockett! C'mere!
193
597000
2000
10:11
Rockett: Hi Miko! What's going on?
194
599000
2000
10:13
Miko: Did you hear about Nakilia's big Halloween party this weekend?
195
601000
3000
10:16
She asked me to make sure you knew about it.
196
604000
2000
10:18
Nakilia invited Reuben too, but --
197
606000
3000
10:21
Rockett: But what? Isn't he coming?
198
609000
2000
10:23
Miko: I don't think so.
199
611000
2000
10:25
I mean, I heard his band is playing at another party the same night.
200
613000
3000
10:28
Rockett: Really? What other party?
201
616000
2000
10:32
Girl: Max's party is going to be so cool, Whitney.
202
620000
4000
10:36
He's invited all the best people.
203
624000
2000
10:38
BL: I'm going to fast-forward to the decision point
204
626000
3000
10:41
because I know I don't have a lot of time.
205
629000
2000
10:43
After this awful event occurs, Rocket gets to decide how she feels about it.
206
631000
4000
10:47
Rockett: Who'd want to show up at that party anyway?
207
635000
3000
10:50
I could get invited to that party any day if I wanted to.
208
638000
3000
10:54
Gee, I doubt I'll make Max's best people list.
209
642000
4000
10:58
BL: OK, so we're going to emotionally navigate.
210
646000
2000
11:00
If we were playing the game, that's what we'd do.
211
648000
2000
11:02
If at any time during the game we want to learn more about the characters,
212
650000
3000
11:05
we can go into this hidden hallway,
213
653000
2000
11:07
and I'll quickly just show you the interface.
214
655000
3000
11:10
We can, for example, go find Miko's locker
215
658000
5000
11:15
and get some more information about her.
216
663000
3000
11:18
Oops, I turned the wrong way.
217
666000
2000
11:20
But you get the general idea of the product.
218
668000
2000
11:22
I wanted to show you the ways, innocuous as they seem,
219
670000
3000
11:25
in which we're incorporating what we've learned about girls --
220
673000
3000
11:28
their desires to experience greater emotional flexibility,
221
676000
4000
11:32
and to play around with the social complexity of their lives.
222
680000
5000
11:38
I want to make the point that what we're giving girls, I think, through this effort,
223
686000
6000
11:44
is a kind of validation,
224
692000
3000
11:47
a sense of being seen.
225
695000
2000
11:49
And a sense of the choices that are available in their lives.
226
697000
3000
11:52
We love them.
227
700000
2000
11:54
We see them.
228
702000
2000
11:56
We're not trying to tell them who they ought to be.
229
704000
2000
11:58
But we're really, really happy about who they are.
230
706000
3000
12:01
It turns out they're really great.
231
709000
2000
12:03
I want to close by showing you a videotape
232
711000
4000
12:07
that's a version of a future game in the Rockett series
233
715000
4000
12:11
that our graphic artists and design people put together,
234
719000
4000
12:15
that we feel would please that four percent of reviewers.
235
723000
5000
12:50
"Rockett 28!"
236
758000
2000
12:57
Rockett: It's like I'm just waking up, you know?
237
765000
3000
13:01
BL: Thanks.
238
769000
2000
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Brenda Laurel - Designer and theoristBrenda Laurel has been part of several major revolutions in the way humans use computers: virtual reality, interactive narratives and some fresh approaches to gaming.
Why you should listen
With a PhD in theater and a focus on interactive narratives, Brenda Laurel landed in Silicon Valley at the perfect moment -- at a time when theorists and technologists were exploring new ways that our expanded computing power could link us and entertain us in ways we couldn't yet imagine. She worked as a software designer and researcher for Atari and Activision, and co-founded a telepresence company in 1990.
In 1994 she became a founding member of Paul Allen and David Liddle's Interval Research, a legendary Silicon Valley think tank studying the connection between tech and everyday life. Interval was meant to spin off profitable companies, and Laurel led one of the highest-profile spinoffs, Purple Moon, a software company devoted to making games and interactive communities for girls. In the end-of-the-'90s collapse of the CD-ROM market, Purple Moon was acquired by Mattel and killed. Laurel wrote about the experience in the monograph Utopian Entrepreneur, "a guide to doing socially positive work in the context of business."
Laurel is the chair of the Graduate Program in Design at California College of the Arts. Her paper "Designed Animism: Poetics for a New World" looks at the new field of distributed sensing and how it can help us discover patterns in nature.
Read the TED Blog's Q&A with Brenda Laurel >>
Brenda Laurel | Speaker | TED.com