How GW could tap into the female market

[eldargal]

I've mentioned a lot about how I think GW (and other tabletop wargaming companies) are missing out on the largely ignored female geek demographic, but it occurs to me I've never spelled out exactly how they might go about doing so. So now I will. This is by no means an exhausting list and I'm not a marketer, so please add your own suggestions and feedback:

Lore Changes:
None. 40k/WFB are pretty good when it comes to women and actual changes aren't necessary. 40k is brilliant, you just need to get that message out to the female geeks. Ditto for WFB.

Approach to Lore:
GW already do pretty well for female characters in some ways.

Model range:
GW can sculpt women now, they are also very good at not sexualising female sculpts. Revamping Sisters of Battle, some plastic female Imperial Guard, some more female Eldar and some more female sculpts like commissars, Inquisitors and so forth would be a big step forward.

Advertising:
I'm not a marketer, and GW don't advertise much, but things like making sure when stores are photographed for White Dwarf or whatever there are some girls playing a game in the background to give the impression the stores are female friendly and not completely dominated by males would be a start. WD has improved by having a token female on staff (no offense to her intended, she's lovely) and showing off her painting projects with the rest of the staff. I hope she gets to play in a battle report eventually (assuming she wants to). GW have a few female writers on staff, it would be great to see one of them writer an codex or army book, but again they have to want to do so. Given the amount of **** thrown at the dev team I wouldn't blame them for determining never to do so.

Meh this format isn't working, so I'll cut to the chase and say what I'd do:

-Identify some of the larger female geek websites and geek websites with high profile female contributors. For example The Mary Sue, Geeky Girls Love scifi and some of the more popular geek girl blogs. Invite them to some demo games and painting tutorials, give them each a free copy of Dark Vengeance or Island of Blood or whatever and ask for their feedback on how to attract more women to the game. Then listen.

-Give those same websites and blogs something exclusive that will boost their traffic, be it an interview, excerpt from a BL book or even a free battleforce or something to give away as a prize in a competition. Send some of the more literature-minded blogs/websites advance copies of some Black Library books (preferably those with some strong female characters, of which there are more than you might expect) to review.

-Invite some to Games Day, give them free tickets. Have official cosplay competitions (open to both genders of course) at Games Day.

-Write more books with female leads, keep the female characters in the books strong. Don't ****ing [URL="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WomenInRefrigerators"]Fridge them[/URL]. BL aren't actually doing too badly on this front, many of their books have some female supporting characters, most of them are quite strong. Some, like Amberley Vail, are just fantastic. BL have gone from having virtually no female lead books a few years ago to having Path of the Seer, Shadowsun, Valkia, Neferata and two SoB books out, that's not bad at all. Keep it up.

-Don't fall into the trap of 'armies for girls'. There aren't any. Revamping SoB won't make every geek girl take up SoB, but it will help the 40k setting appear less like a boys-only club hopefully resulting in more women getting into it. They may take up tyranids or Orks, it doesn't matter. The problem is making the hobby seem to welcome women, not drive them away.

Thought, suggestions, opinions?

[daboarder]

MOAR BOOBS!!

But seriously all well thought out points, I think GW doesn't need to change much other than some of the 40k representations, interestingly 40k has a background more suited to gender equality but fantasy tends to have a better representation of female models. And YES please someone release female guard....

As to generating a female market? I think that will happen in time, as the "gaming" audience becomes more mainstream and diversifies we are seeing a rise in the number of "female gamers" the logical extension is that such gamers will seek out different games and experiences and as such get into 40k in the same way that many males get into, through the books, computer games, RPG's and so on.

One caveat I would say would be about a SOB revamp, I wouldn't change their style much or at all, their armour is as much ceremonial as functional. Its a sci-fi female gothic plate type thing, and sure it can be thought of as sexualised and over the top, but hell this is 40k where everything is ramped up to 11 and entire planets are nuked for rounding errors on tax returns.

one another note: I cannot WAIT to see what FW does with the sisters of silence

[Wolfshade]

I think it would interesting and perhaps beneficial to understand how those rare gaming ladies do get into the game in the first place. If there is a common theme then that could beused and exploited.

I think part of it is that a lot of gamers get into it in their teens and it is more socially acceptable for a guy to be a geek then a girl. This seems to be changing, but I think that there is a signifcant difference between the "fashion" geek girl and the actual geek girl, hmm that sounds more offensive then I would like. What I mean is that it seems that fashion has honed in on an untapped market and has made it popular so you have some people that follow the trend who are not of the mindset. In the same way you get people who dress and associated with other groups but do so only because it is fashionable to do so. Urgh, still not greatly worded.

So the geeky guys are quite happy to share their hobbys with each other, whereas the girls aren't because they are not "supposed to be geeky" because "society says so". Then of course you have the lack of social skills of these younger male gamers so even if they wanted to tell their female counter parts they are unable to speak to them.

It seems that it is all about tearing down the veil of social normals and pre-conceived perceptions. If you like war gaming you shuold be able to do it readless of sex, if you like football or handegg you should be able to do (though in physical contact sports I can see why there is gender seperation).

GW would need to descriminate the females in photographs more, give them a higher representation, so that those who are curious are able to see, yes she does it so can I. I would also say that it needs to educate it's male gamer base that wargamers are wargamers regardless of sex.

I think like EG says the trap of armies for girls is a bad mistake. They should not feel pigeon holed to play a certain race, for example it would never be suggested that men can't or shouldn't play SoB.

[eldargal]

Good point Wolfy, my only concern with that is that because there are so few of us (relatively) that any common themes might not be particularly representative or helpful but still worth investigating.

Right, which is why I think targeting an existing geek demographic would be better. It's going to be really hard to encourage teenage girls to get into it, but getting them when they are older and more comfortable with their geekiness shouldn't be too hard. I'm not sure the geek chic crowd is worth worrying about, not sure it is as prevalent as people think.

As being a female geek becomes more acceptable some of these problems will reduce, but in the meantime I think targeting existing 'out' geek girls is more sensible than trying to indoctinate them at a young age.

Basically I think GWs thrust (hur) should be two-fold:
a) Make the hobby as female-friendly as possible, most of the building blocks are there it is just a matter of developing them.
b) Target the existing & growing online female geek community and try and get them interested. There aren't many companies that actively go after them in this way and it could earn a lot of good will for a negligible investment from GW.

[Wolfshade]

I certainly don't think that it is an either/or solution, but the one might help inform the other. I know the dangers of small number statistics.

Sounds a simple solution, so we now need to send you up as a blogging tsarina to promote fem40k, you can use pink and gliterry things...

[Psychosplodge]

So you're suggesting we dissect one of these rare and elusive creatures to see what makes it tick? Might be a step too far, can we afford to lose one like that?


It would certainly make sense to attract this group.

pink and glittery like this?

[DrLove42]

I think you need to dispel the "teenage boy virgin" image that surrounds the hobby

[Kirsten]

because there are so few of us (relatively)

there are so few of us because we are like concentrated awesome and the men couldn't handle more of us

[Psychosplodge]

Maybe we should have a sticky thread with a list of female gaming blogs to help encourage it? I mean how much easier would it be if you could say to someone that shows an interest, here go check out these links?

[Wolfshade]

there are so few of us because we are like concentrated awesome and the men couldn't handle more of us

I thought it was we shouldn't handle you because of a) lack of interest, b) fear of phsycial violence