Chinese women change the 'game'

I'm not a games person－I hardly play digital games on electronic devices like mobile phones and PCs. To me, "game" is, rather was, synonymous with a console-generated content bristling with weaponry, dripping machismo.

But, because I needed to research and write a package of stories on the multibillion dollar business, I downloaded Love and the Producer. And I got hooked immediately.

It started with a haunting memory of a car accident. At the age of 5, the female protagonist (me, the gamer or the player) is saved by a mysterious passerby. I later became a TV producer who strives to bring alive a dying TV show, a family legacy.

Intertwined into this business line is a love story. At different times, I enter romantic relationships with as many as four possible male suitors. They use their respective superpowers to bombard me with surprise gifts, send festival greetings, and reply to my messages in seconds.

While playing the game, I can chat with the hot bods. I even produce a variety show for these virtual "sweethearts".

Slick lines are uttered as part of flirting rituals. This aspect of the game has taken women players by storm. Many shared their "hot-chest" dating plots on Weibo, China's dominant microblogging service.

It soon became evident to me why some fellow female gamers have joked: "What's better than having a boyfriend? Having four virtual ones."

Now I know why women players get easily drawn to certain games. As long as a game incorporates certain elements that appeal to their inner needs, and is easy to play, fast-paced, has a compelling plot and includes engaging characters, it would likely be a commercial success and winner of popularity contests.

The fact that the most popular gaming device today is the smartphone underpins the huge potential of the long-underestimated female gaming market.

Stereotypes that gamers are young, nerdy males have never been farther from the truth. Consultancy Newzoo said that in China, nearly half of the mobile gamers are women.

Yet female gamers still play in a harsh frontier. Roughly 70 percent of female gamers chose to play as male characters in the games rather than contend with sexual harassment, according to Danielle Keats Citron, law professor at the University of Maryland who researched cyberspace crimes.

"Of the women who played as men, they wanted to be treated equally on the virtual battlefield," said Peter Warman, the chief executive of Newzoo.

Paper Studio, the company behind the smash hit game Love and the Producer, has reaped early gains from mostly women gamers. Its immense triumph in generating profits from Miracle Nikki, a mobile title about changing outfits, has proved that women could be a legitimate market for lucrative games.

Of course, some have cast doubt on whether the game's popularity is reflective of a flawed attitude toward real-life dating. They believe that women players dating virtual men in a simulated environment smacks of consumerism and hypocrisy.

Some feel games appear to reinforce a view that only those women who are "cute" as defined by the society or the games industry deserve a "happy ending" to their dating phase, a euphemism for a wealthy and powerful spouse.

Yet, there isn't much gender bias at play unless you interpret it that way. After all, in a typical male-oriented game, you wouldn't worry too much about being a warrior who has to slaughter enemies all the time, would you?