Microsoft narrative designer: 'Women are the new core'
A narrative writer for Microsoft Studios has said that creating more diverse stories, including more female characters and different ethnicities, will make for better games.
A narrative writer for Microsoft Studios has said that creating more diverse stories, including more female characters and different ethnicities, will make for better games.
Speaking as part of a presentation at the Game Developers Conference 2013, as reported by GamesIndustry and Polygon, Tom Abernathy — who has worked on Halo: Reach, The Saboteur and Destroy All Humans — said thst the games industry hasn't kept up with today's social culture and that the market for video games is changing at a pace that developers and publishers aren't keeping up with.
"Our audience is leaving us behind," Abernathy said. "The world is changing, it has already changed, and we have not been doing a very good job of keeping up with it."
Abernathy pointed to various studies that show the diverse make-up of modern gamers, including research by the Entertainment Software Association and casual game developer PopCap, which states that adult women now make up 30 per cent of US gamers.
"Women are not a small, special market on the fringe of the core," Abernathy said. "Women are the new core."