SBP: Games for Girls: Informing the Future

Illinois Institute Of Technology, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

The goal of this project is to document and assess the successes and failures of the Games for Girls movement, which reached prominence in the mid-1990s. The movement will be studied as an intervention into game development and as an effort to make computers and computer games more appealing to young girls. Lack of diversity in STEM fields hinders innovation, depletes the workforce, and undermines productivity. Efforts to improve this situation over recent decades have seen both successes and failures with employers, universities, and grant organizations investing heavily in various initiatives. Understanding the successes and limitations of a past intervention can usefully inform future efforts and help optimize them for success. The results of this research will be published and presented in scholarly venues, and they will also be the topic of public talks presented by the PI at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, the Immersive Learning Research Network, the Music and Games Festival, and other venues. This project will document a movement aimed at attracting girls to computing and video games. The PI will conduct oral history interviews with game developers who were active in the production of games for girls' titles during the 1990s, former players of these games, and current game developers. She will also audio record and photograph interviewees. Interviews will be conducted on-site with interview subjects when possible. The results of this project will provide insights into the successes and failures of this industry-driven intervention into digital culture that can be used to inform contemporary efforts to diversify STEM fields. The PI will process and analyze all archival materials and interviews to produce a monograph with a scholarly press and peer-reviewed journal articles. The PI also has plans to present her results at a minimum of two conferences such as the Digital Games Research Association, and Foundations of Digital Games), and several public talks. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.