Sega Girls Task Force
From Sega Retro
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| Sega Girls Task Force Division of Sega of America | ||
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| Founded: 1993 | ||
| Defunct: 1995 | ||
Headquarters:
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The Sega Girls Task Force was an internal Sega of America video game production team established to both address the issue of then-limited female participation in video gaming, and research the viability of games developed with a female audience in mind. The team was directly involved with the production of three Western-developed Mega Drive games, and advised a number of third-party studios on issues of inclusion and accessibility.
Contents
History
Inception
In 1993, Sega of America licensing executive Michealene Cristini Risley found herself as the head of the company's new Entertainment & Consumer Products division. As a former Marvel producer, she experienced first-hand the lacking female representation in children's and young people's media, and saw her position within Sega as a way to make meaningful change on this front. Shortly after being hired, Risley asked to attend a two-week program at Stanford on women and gender studies, something she describes as "a life-changing experience."[1]
Soon after returning to Sega of America, she began to assemble a group of like-minded executives which GROUP FOUNDING HERE. ... In spite of the pushback encountered by the Task Force, Risley states that both Tom Kalinske and Joe Miller were very supportive.
| “ | The only way I was going to get them to pay attention was to turn it into money, and so I presented it as like, ‘We’re leaving this huge market on the table. And if we don’t start creating content for girls, somebody else is going to. | „ |
One of the group's largest challenges was simply establishing how to proceed. Very little research had then-been conducted concerning female inclusion in video games, and the Task Force found themselves with little prior knowledge to work from. Additionally, they found themselves creating guidelines on how to research, implement, and market female-inclusive games virtually from-scratch, as these projects had generally never been attempted on any serious scale. Thankfully, the group's members were all well-versed in female marketing and had considerable experience in their respective fields. Pamela Kelly, formerly a Mattel executive, recalls that she had previously been exposed to relevant ethnography research, but found the results to be worrying, stating that "even if a girl did start to play, when a boy walked in the room she’d have to give it up to the boy."[1]
After convincing her fellow management of the benefits of inclusive games, Sega of America set aside a small part of its software publishing budget for the development of three upcoming Mega Drive titles produced by the Sega Girls Task Force: Crystal's Pony Tale, Baby Boom, and Berenstain Bears' Camping Adventure.
Operation
In addition to directly producing three Mega Drive games, the Sega Girls Task Force also participated in the production of a number of other contemporary titles, both first and third-party. However, many development partners resisted efforts to make games appeal more to girls. Kelly recalls that many developers opted to increase a game's playability through difficulty, and she hoped to convince these developers that lowering a game's difficulty levels could make them more inclusive.[1] While the Task Force's suggestions were largely unimplemented by participating developers, a small number of studios did make the suggested changes.
In one instance, Pamela Kelly eventually got through to David Perry of Virgin Games USA, with the end result being both a slight reduction in the final version of Aladdin's difficulty and a greater emphasis on more "accessible" lighthearted elements and humor. In spite of Perry's positive reception, Disney's producers were much colder, again providing resistance and attitude to the Task Force's efforts.[1]
At some point during its operation, Sega of Japan were introduced to the concept of the Sega Girls Task Force. Per Tom Kalinske, "they didn’t understand it at all. They didn’t buy into the idea. This was another crazy American deal, and ‘go ahead and do it, but we don’t really expect you to be successful with it." However, Sonic Team proved to be far more open to the idea, as Pamela Kelly remembers they were "receptive to ideas which might make games more accessible to non-traditional audiences."[1]
Produced games
List of staff
External links
- What happened when Sega courted female players in the mid-’90s article by Richard Moss at Polygon
References
| Timeline of Sega of America research and development divisions |
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