I am a huge fan of TED. I watch their videos every week. One of our readers sent this in and I thought it was really interesting. Brenda Laurel did years of research to design a game for young girls. She discusses that two types of people were her opposition. Male gamers and feminists. And what we have in common is we don't listen to children. Well, I know she isn't talking about me, hehe, but it is really interesting. It is from 10 years ago and things have changed in terms of video games and young girls since then, so even more interesting.
How do you create video games for girls?
via TED
Thanks to Colleen for the link!
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I don't know, when I was active in gaming forums online, the one thing that was common among female gamers' complaints was that it's not the content of games that matters - it's the marketing. So it's not a matter of making a game that appeals to girls, it's a matter of advertising all games to all people (of the appropriate age group).
I completely agree!
As a female gamer, I don't want a different game. I want the same game, just without all the crap.
For example, I play World of Warcraft. The toon I am playing right now is in her mid-60s. As it is well known, the developers must have been horny when they created the Burning Crusade expansion (the content for levels 60-70) because it is very hard to find good gear that doesn't look like underwear on a female character. The same pants that look like pants on a man, look like panties and thigh-high boots on a woman.
I am currently wearing sub-par gear because I don't want to run around with my ass hanging out, and that pisses me off! I am not going to go into PvP (combat with other players) in my underwear, and I am not going to let my corpse lie around in panties while I run back to my body from the graveyard.
I spent a while looking to see if I could find some rare "shirt" item that covers up the legs as well as the chest. While I was looking for that, I discovered that women have been petitioning Blizzard to add a "pants" slot as well as a "shirt" slot since 2005.
However, women have been completely ignored and silenced on this issue. You're not even allowed to submit comics that make fun of the issue to the comic contest because Blizzard says they've gotten too many entries on that topic already.
They know, they just don't care. As a customer, that hurts. My money is clearly optional for them.
I could boycott the game. I could quit, but then what message am I sending? I am already trying to fight the assumption that women don't play games, that women are not competitive, and that women don't have the spatial reasoning skills or dedication to keep up with the men. If I go away, they can congratulate each other and laugh about how women don't play games. They can make jokes about how funny it is to watch your girlfriend try and play Halo. They can call each other "pussy" like it's a bad thing.
The standard response seems to be, "if you don't like it, create a male toon." However, I refuse to be invisible. I have tried pretending to be a male anyways and it doesn't work. I can't pass, especially if I'm going to be using VoIP applications where people can hear me talk. It doesn't cut down on harassment, and why should I hide anyways?
Anyways, that whole rant was just intended to illustrate what I mean by "the crap." I don't want them to change the content of game at all. I don't want it to be any easier. I don't want it to be less combat-oriented. I don't want them to add unicorns and the color pink. I just want to be able to play the game without feeling unwelcome and uncomfortable.
There's a pants slot. Are you talking about making one separate from leg armor the way shirt and chest armor are separate?
What class are you playing? It's easier to keep certain classes covered.
It's a priest, so I can go into shadow form, but I'm not in shadow form all the time. I am wearing a robe right now, but the robe is not nearly as good as several non-robes I could be wearing.
I mean a cosmetic pants slot, like the shirt slot. Not like the chest slot. A slot for items with no stats that is just to change the way the character looks.
I think i found the unfortunate pants of which you speak. http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29928#screenshots:id=64064 You could always wear a tabard, but that doesn't cover everything.
When i leveled my first caster through outland, I probably wore these, but didn't even realize it. I may have had a nice robe that took me through until level 65 when it is possible to get pants that actually cover your legs. So, I don't think I ever saw my character's wonderful legs.
Another way to look at it, is that you are some kind of wonderwoman wearing her skimpy outfit and kicking ass by blowing everying up with your shadow power. Its a roleplaying game, and sometimes, we dont get to play the role we would like. This is not to excuse Blizzard for making these clothes look this way on females, but it is a temporary situation.
Also, It does get better. Most of the pants I've worn since then (I'm level 80 now) have actually looked like pants, or my robes covered everything anyway.
Ha! Yeah, the pants I'm wearing are actually the Leggings of Concentrated Darkness, but I remember when I did the quest that gives you the wanderer's stitched trousers, and I remember thinking, "ah, well, lets try these on. Surely they wouldn't give a thong out as a quest reward." Ahh, no.
Thanks for the positive image! I'll try to imagine myself as a super hero and see if it feels better. And yeah, the level 80 gear is way better. More encouragement to hurry up and level, not that my friends aren't pestering enough as it is.
Next toon is going to be a Tauren, though. :-p STOMP.
Amazing that you've got to earn your clothes, isn't it.
I'd love to see sports games targeted at girls. Maybe a WNBA game? I feel like some boys would play that, too.
Particularly if the players were... equipped. *sigh*
I'd like to see that too :) But in a girl-positive way.
That game looks awesome. My sister (who's a preteen) would love it, and I would have too when I was younger. The real feminist is the one who has women and girls' best interests at mind, and it seems like this woman does. I loved Tomb Raider in HS. GUNS!
I never understood this. I agree it must be marketing. I played Sonic, Mario, Mortal Combat and Leisure Suit Larry in Elementary school. The parents drew the line at Commodore 128 strip poker :), although I'm not sure why my dad even had that game!
I think a lot of games require a single-minded dedication and maybe girls are told by society that they have "better things to do" like cook, clean, stay busy, etc. Gaming is a very idle pastime and girls are taught they have to be doing something, all the time.
The advertising doesn't turn me off personally, but I realize I'm not "average" in terms of societally ingrained girl-values.
I think one of the toughest issues with designing games for girls was the fact that male gamers evolved along with the increasingly complicated gaming systems. For example, the first time I played a first person shooter, I kept running into walls and getting stuck in a corner. Because I had not grown up playing video games, I didn't have the experience that allowed me to envision myself in the 3D environment. It took a long time for me to learn (actually, I wouldn't be a gamer now without a college summer job that had me working 80+ hour work weeks outside for 7 weeks followed by a need to sit inside and do NOTHING but learn how to play video games for a week or two... that and co-op mode). Video games simply became too hard to just pick and play for those who hadn't grown along with the evolving consoles. It has nothing to do with some innate technological skill men have and everything to do with the fact that growing up, video games were a "guy thing" so they were the ones who got the experience.
But I really think that, at least for console games, the Wii changed that on a large scale. The gameplay on most games is simple and intuitive so it doesn't require that same history of experience to pick up and play. That's not to say it's dumbed down, just that it's style is far more accessible. And in response to the success of the Wii, Xbox has put a much stronger emphasis on these types of games (The dashboard update in November REALLY demonstrated that). I've never used the DS, but I understand that's a predominately female market and probably for similar reasons.
I know a lot of girls who played games when they were young. I've been gaming since I got my Sega Genesis when I was six. There are a lot of women out there who play games but it feels like we're an invisible demographic. Maybe it's because the online community is ridiculously misogynistic that women are not often heard in online games and forums. I've often wondered how many of the players with their mics off are female.
Absolutely, there are a lot of girls who were gamers growing up, but I still think that beyond the first systems the boys dramatically outnumbered the girls. Once many video games become too complicated for a beginner to pick up, the players were predominantly male and it's like the demographic was just locked in. Then all of the content and marketing was directed solely at men and boys. I hope now that more women are getting into some forms of gaming, the studios that produce the more 'hardcore' type games (that's a lame way to describe them, but I don't really know what to call them) will cut the sexist bullshit to increase the pull of women to these games.
And you are absolutely right about visibility online. I almost never turn my mic on in game (every once in a while I do in Call of Duty because the average age seems to be a little bit older than say, the Halo crowd) because it's just not worth getting harassed. The majority of male players are fine, but the ones who want to be annoying sure know how to be extremely loud. Teenage boys + anonymity + captive audience = bad.
I think there's a big difference between navigating a 2D platform type game and navigating a 3D FPS type game. A lot of the games people (girls, boys, everybody) start on are going to be 2D-ish games where the mapping is a lot less complicated.
And yeah. I wasn't allowed to play video games as a kid because they were too violent (all the better, I read books and played outside instead) and it took me a while to get used to handling a controller. I definitely remember playing Red Faction II with my best friend and her brother, and having the hardest time just turning around in a corridor near the spawn point. I kept bumping into the wall and getting stuck, and every once in a while her brother would wander by and kill me.
*sigh* Part of the problem might have been that the controller was set on the inverted setting which might be harder to pick up. Of course now the inverted controls feel more intuitive, but that's because I learned on them.
Just learning how to walk around was the major roadblock for me, and it was the major source of anxiety for me in playing with other people. It's embarrassing to pick up a controller and be like bonk... bonk.. bonk... into the wall. You just have to remember that everybody starts that way and go easy on yourself.
I tried to do a study using video games for a psych class in college and ran into major problems because of how steep the learning curve for video games is. I wanted control groups based on experience level, but the novice gamers needed such a long time to adapt to the control system that we were running into a 45-60 minute training period at the least, and that was for basic navigational competency, not the kind that would allow you to focus on anything besides moving around without hitting things.
She does note in her speech that it's not all feminists who critique the game- just those of a certain outlook.
This speech was given in '98. Does anyone know how their girl games project has progressed (or not) since then?
From Wikipedia:
"Purple Moon was a software company based in Mountain View, California, targeted at young girls between the ages of 8 and 14. They debuted their first two games—Rockett's New School and Secret Paths in the Forest—in 1997. Both games were more or less visual novels and encouraged values like friendship and decision making. The company faced much criticism including charges of sexism (mostly due to their belief that girls would not enjoy the more popular action-oriented games often associated with boys and young men) and ethnic stereotyping. The company folded in 1999 and merged with Mattel, creators of Barbie, one of the most famous and well-known franchises aimed at young girls."
Isn't it kind of funny that they were shot down for being sexist for offering something "girly" and yet, the games that objectify women or feature violence against women or have no female characters at all haven't been shot down and instead seem to get more and more popular?
I'm a fan of the Mario games, such as Mario Party and Mario Kart (recently got the one for the Wii which I love) and so my best friend and I were discussing spin-off games for the supporting Mario characters. Luigi, Wario, Toad, DK and Yoshi already have their own games for various consoles.
I suggested they should make one using Daisy and Peach. My friend informed me that there already IS a game for Nintendo DS based around Peach, where her "power" is that she gets really emotional and that kills the enemies.
OMG SHE'S CRYING! They're killed with water
OMG SHE'S ANGRY! They're killed with fire.
I saw RED. I could not BELIEVE they would finally make a game based around the main female character of the Mario series and make the premise that she's really emotional.
Whenever someone talks about "games (or music, or movies, etc.) for girls" I blow a fuse. Just design good games without maddening misogynist bullshit. Why is that so hard? I mean, I know why. But still.
Exactly!
Thirded.
the way you make games for girls is by taking the SAME game you have for boys, include women in the characters and take out the parts that are crappy to girls... then you market it to girls.
I have a friend in marketing and he has told me how useless but rigid their marketing research is. it's only to cover their own asses. for example, they do "focus groups" where an idea is pitched to a small group of people and the results are used to ARGUE what the right way to go is.... usually the result is dumb, and can't be relied upon. but the marketing people can say "the focus group showed it would work" so they are let off the hook.
listening to female gamers here makes me believe this even more.
... and something else, Is this why we have come so far in making games that appeal to women (with sarcasm)?
The only game I play is World of Warcraft, and my guild leader is female. There are also several female players in my guild. I don't know why the game appeals to women versus other games, but I'm glad it does. They're excellent players. Although I have noticed a bit of sexism in the class roles, though I'd have to say that this is mitigated some be self-selection. Specifically, most of the women I know that play choose to play healing classes, whereas most men choose to play more action-oriented classes. It is perhaps ironic, however, that the healer is the core of the group and generally calls the shots for how things are going to be done.
Although I do have to say that Sabriel's comment is right: the armor models for female characters are... obviously inspired by male fantasies and not in any way useful as armor. Although I will say to take heart: the female armor set models for the current level-80 gear are much better in terms of coverage. And I fully support a "pants" slot in addition to the leg armor slot.
How do you make a game for girls? Make the games do all of the neat stuff "boys' games" do, but make the main character female. That was easy. Just make a game like Kingdom Hearts and have Sora be a girl. Make Kairi the main character, instead. I want to kill stuff, kick ass and save the world and I want to do it as a girl. (As heteronormative as it is, I want to do it in a frilly skirt. Is that so much to ask?)
My roommate ads that we should not start it with a concert or simplify the gameplay. The battle system should not be based on changing the character's clothes - we're looking at you, Squeenix.
This is why Pokémon Crystal was/is one of my favorite games ever. The gameplay is exactly the same except that I have long purple hair and all of the characters call me "CRYSTAL" and use female pronouns when they talk about me. Brilliant.
I like that Fable 2 has the option to create both male and female characters. I haven't played it yet...aparently it lets pregnant women continue to quest.
You basically have sex and then a baby appears. you don't actually walk around pregnant or anything.
Not quite.. when you have a baby in Fable 2, it just appears as a crib in your house. Shortest pregnancy ever, he he.
I do think it's funny that your kids will start imitating you. My character is a brawler, and they always ask "mum, did you kill a lot of monsters?"
Why Crystal? Every Pokemon game since has done that.
I don't know why it took Harvest Moon so long to do the same, since only one game before Island of Happiness/Tree of Tranquility had both genders in the same game...
I mentioned Crystal specifically because it was the first one that did that. I played Silver, then Yellow, and then all of a sudden I could be a girl. The other ones are cool, too, but I remember how excited I was at eleven or twelve to *finally* be a girl in-game.
(Also, I like Crystal's character design better than the other girls.)
I actually participated in a focus group for female gamers a few months ago. I think I was the only one in the group who would actually call herself a feminist. But it was interesting to me how split the group was on some issues. Some of the women said they wanted more games that had "girly" colors and designs. I was quite surprised. I made a big point about the marketing and the character designs.
Another World of Warcraft girl here! The infamous double standard for gear makes me want to scream sometimes. The Black Mageweave Pants (aka thong and thigh-high boots), the ironically-named Winter Clothes (aka Christmas-themed porn outfit)... arrrgh.
I'm all for a cosmetic pants slot! In the meantime, wearing a tabard helps a little if you find yourself torn between modesty and good stats. Doesn't help with the hips or legs, but it does cover the crotch and butt. As Citizen Lane noted, more of the Wrath gear provides decent coverage, which is refreshing.
My guild has a fairly significant female population, including the current guildmistress. In my experience, my fellow players don't treat me any differently for being a girl. About the only time the topic causes any waves is if/when you find out that a female character is actually played by a guy or vice versa, and then it's mostly "Say what? Wow... you're really good at roleplaying, I never guessed!".
This is slightly off-topic, but one thing I heartily wish Blizzard would do is allow players to turn off weapon light effects. Certain enchantments, Mongoose in particular, flash at exactly the right (wrong?) rate to make my epileptic brain flip out. I can turn away when somebody runs by with flashy weapons. My guildmates understand that this is a problem and either switch to different (usually less powerful) weapons or different characters if I'm in a group. But what about my own weapons? I already have to stay out of certain blinktastic areas in the game unless I'm feeling particularly brave. (Nexus, Tempest Keep, I'm looking at you.) Now I have to use sub-par equipment as well? If they can write code to let us decide whether to see our helms and cloaks, it can't be that different to let us decide whether to see our weapon enchants.
Sorry, I really needed to vent about that. Back to Feministing's regularly scheduled programming!
For a humorous take on some of these issues, Wowhead's female cartoonist has a few that have made me snicker:
http://www.wowhead.com/?blog&tag=comic#screenshots:59961:1
and
http://www.wowhead.com/?blog=58310#screenshots:58310:1
This might be an odd question on a feminist forum, but just so I'm clear, why do female gamers care if their female character is showing skin? The posts here talk as if it's YOU. I can understand not wanting to show skin in real life, but this is a fictional character, so why would modesty be a factor?
Is it just to cut down on male players harassing you? Or because it promotes objectification? Or why does it matter if the character is scantily clad? I just want to be clear.
Harassment from male players, check. Some of them can be incredibly obnoxious. Objectification, qualified check. If a female player wants to dress her avatar scantily, she should feel free! But she should also have the option of dressing her character modestly. It's all about having personal choice. When the best raiding gear available to you looks more like underwear than actual armor, there's a problem. And then there's the whole issue of "if this is armor and it's supposed to protect me, why doesn't it cover my midriff?". My sister and I have a running joke about fantasy women's armor. "Aim for the boobies, men! Aim for the boobies!"
Harassment is probably the biggest issue. Also.. the fact is I am playing the game for myself not for somebody else, and I am not paying Blizz to be a participant in somebody else's wet dream.
It seems like the argument "it's not YOU, why do you care?" is a common one. However, I have an active sense of imagination and the more immersion I can get out of a game the more fun I have with it. The fact is, my toon is me. It is a symbol of me running around in an awesometastic fantasy world doing heroic bad-ass things. I identify with my character. If I can't relate to my avatar in a game, the chances that I will get bored and quit are significantly higher.
That's part of why it is necessary to have the option of creating female characters if you want to market a game to women. I can't be the only person who feels this way.
you're right, it seems like being able to turn off weapon enchants should be easy. I wonder if somebody could make an addon for it?
Hey, i just checked and I found that if you go to the video settings and set your spell detail to the minimum it reduces the glowy effects on weapon enchants. It doesn't get rid of them entirely but it does make them less obnoxious. The only problem with this is that in some instances void hole effects on the ground won't show up for you, but you can tell by the rapid health drop that you're on one, or have group members look out for you.
Hope this helps
I play a ton of games, shooters, fighters, rpgs, you name it. A game marketed towards women would not be very different from games out there right now. I get all pissed of at the games that are marketed towards young girls that all have to do with dress-up, puppies, and all that boring stuff (all in pink boxes, of course). I would just like to see some female main characters who look like they can actually go out and kick some ass. Looking at most of the female main characters out there, they all are dressed in the most stupid ways for battle. What's with the armor that stops at the midriff? It leaves all the vital organs exposed. And tight leather makes for bad ventilation, a no no when you're moving around a lot. I like all the "guys'" games but I'd just like to see more bad ass female protagonists, or at least an option to play as a woman in multiplayer matches or something. I really like how games like Fable 2, Mass Effect, and Fallout 3 allow you to create a male or female character.
I wish they'd make a female character in Halo that you can play.
In Halo 3 you could choose a female voice for your character. But it kind of sucked because it was the same voice for both the spartan and elite classes.
I always thought it would be awesome to end the Master Chief story line by revealing that it was a woman under the spartan armor. Of course, Metroid already did that, so it's not going to happen.
I play video games quite often on the 360, most of which are action-oriented and shooters. Frankly, I don't think there should be a difference between boy's and girl's video games, my main problems being the marketing of 'boys' or 'girls' video games and the sexism within.
I have no problem playing a male character, like Master Chief in Halo, my problem is that most protagonists in the games that I prefer are male and I want the option of choosing my gender. Fallout 3 is a great example. You get to choose your character's gender, race and appearance and throughout the game you are referred to as 'the vault dweller' or 'that kid', both gender neutral terms. It's not that game designers are incapable of giving us the option of a female protagonist, so one has to assume that they just don't care as the 'majority' of gamers identify as male.
A while back, Paramount Interactive announced that there would be video games based on the movies Mean Girls, Clueless, and Pretty in Pink.
A few days ago, they were released. You can find them at http://www.omghighschool.com/ and you can download trial versions. (You have to pay for a full version.)
The gameplay of "Mean Girls" is based on the well-received game Puzzle Quest, which I enjoyed. "Pretty in Pink" is a hidden object game. (It follows the plot of the movie, but you get to change its ending, which fans will appreciate.) I have no idea how "Clueless" works, but it seems to involve trying to decide what clothes to wear.
I do not know what to think of these games.
There's also this game that I saw recently.
Correction: "Pretty in Pink" is not yet available, but the other two are.
When she said her company's name (Purple Moon), it rang a bell. Then she mentioned the first game they made: Rockett's New School.
I had that game as a kid, and I loved it! Aside from my Dear America computer game and Catz/Dogz, it was the only thing I played, and I remember playing it for at least a couple of hours a day at some point in time. (This was after I'd gotten too old for PuttPutt, Zoombinis, and Reader Rabbit.) Oh, and those Barbie mystery games... Oh, the nostalgia!
Looking back now, it seems like all the games I played had to do with either a) making a story (like for Rockett or the characters of Dear America), or b) creating/caring for animals/people (Catz/Dogz, obviously, but you could create characters for Rockett). Even PuttPutt and Zoombinis had a story-like quality to them, and you could make your own Zoombinis. (Can't really remember Reader Rabbit that much...)
My mom didn't want us to watch or play violent movies or games. I'm glad that she could find these alternative games for me; I'm glad they were out there. Like I was glad when Guitar Hero/Rock Band came out and were such big hits. It's nice not to have to battle everything to the death, in my opinion. But as a friend of a rather serious (girl) gamer, I can understand the appeal a bit. But I don't think violence is a necessity for video games. And being non-violent doesn't/shouldn't make a video game a "girl" game. There really should be a happy medium that can appeal to either gender without discriminating (kind of why I like the Sims, other than the story-making and creating/caring for elements).
The other problem with female characters in games:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ThirdPersonSeductress
The speaker's goal was (ostensibly) "how do we get girls involved in gaming at an early age so they are comfortable with COMPUTERS at an early age?" I think the Facebook/MySpace revolution has rendered this question moot. Social networking has a TON of other problems associated with it, but the basic concept is incredibly appealing to girls and, therefore, a great way to entice them to technical literacy.
On topic, my sisters and I have always been into computer games, starting way back with a crappy Texas Instrument "computer" that plugged into the television set and took 8-track style cartridges. I don't think my dad had any "gender equality" agenda when introduced us to one game after another; he was just a geek who wanted to share his new toy with someone, and his 3 daughters were a captive audience. I think the most important issue in getting "little girls" involved with computers is whether or not there is someone in the home to introduce them. If both parents view the computer as something they just use for work, or one parent only plays super violent games, then of course computers will remain foreign objects.
On a side note, while I understand the objections to "sex kitten"-armor and Lara Croft type avatars, I personally don't mind either. Playing WoW is an opportunity for escape and fantasy for ME, a woman with a 'normal' body who wears 'normal' clothes, and I like pretending I have taut muscles and a tight ass for a few hours a week. Admittedly, sexual harassment is far too common within gaming and there SHOULD be options for more modest armor and realistic body types. However, if I had a choice, I would stick with my over-sexed, under-dressed rogue.
I have to take strong objection to this. The TI 99/4a was awesome. Remember that the comparable technology from other companies at the time was stuff like the Commodore 64, at the high end. The TI could do 3 tones at once! It could talk! (And if you had the right module and wanted to learn enough programming, you could feed the speech module raw phonemes - nothing like getting a computer to say "fuck you asshole" as incentive for learning to program...)
A-Maze-ing is still, I think, one of the best 2-D navigate-a-maze games ever made.
And yeah, okay, some of the cartridges were lame (Facemaker, despite the hours of fun I had with it). But they had some amazing games, even when they were tie-ins with larger franchises: e.g. the game "M*A*S*H", which was a game about an actual shooting war, with a large move-the-joystick-quickly action component, that still managed to not promote violence. (Your character can't shoot, only get shot; you've got to rescue people and get them out of the way while getting shot at)
I should troll eBay for a new one someday when I feel like putting up with eBay again.
You're right, the TI was good for the time. It just seems laughable now, in the same way that the "tiny" cell phones of the mid-90's seem like jokes now. I DID like the M*A*S*H game, though I never mastered the surgery portion.
You're right, the TI was good for the time. It just seems laughable now, in the same way that the "tiny" cell phones of the mid-90's seem like jokes now. I DID like the M*A*S*H game, though I never mastered the surgery portion.
I just wanted to comment that I DO enjoy playing games that are different from traditional video games. I really don't like playing games with guns, ammo, and all of the extra violence. I'm not going to be buying an Bond games, or Halo, or whatever cold war shoot the other guy before he shoots you game.
That being said, I've always liked the Mario games, I liked Kingdom Hearts, I really really like the Sims (2, and soon hopefully 3 but for PC not for Playstation or my cell phone), I liked the game Black and White where I got to be a God, and I won't play WOW or Everquest because I think I would get too addicted and never see my friends or daylight, but I can see myself liking those games (plus, I don't want to do online gaming, I like my gaming solo). So I guess that what I want to see out in the market as a female gamer are more games that are engrossing to play, well-funded with good graphics, and with different themes than shoot-em up. I like to be challenged, and I like to play games, and I like make-believe worlds. That's what I want to see, and I'd like to be able to be a female character without gigantic breasts and skimpy clothes.
Sometimes I feel as though the "creative" minds behind video games have lost some steam, nothing seems new - it's all based on some other game that already exists. I'd like an actual new and different game that isn't based on some pre-set genre.
Have you seen Little Big Planet? It's beautiful, challenging, and doesn't involve any violence. I am assuming that you know about Katamari Damacy. I've had Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney suggested to me as well. And Myst, but that's old-school by now. There's also a ball rolling game out for the Wii now that's pretty good and non-violent.
Oh, I have to add: The Neverhood Chronicals is a fun game! Not as well known, but very interesting. It's kind of like myst in that you start out in this world and you don't really know anything about it, but it's got a sense of humor. It's based on claymation, so the graphics are interesting. The music and sound effects are good. The puzzles are interesting.
Oh, and PORTAL!
Don't play portal if you get motion-sickness from games, but Portal is pretty much the most awesome video game to come out this century.
Portal is the most subversive game ever. @ Gamesradar.com
Portal: The latest, greatest women’s game? @ Feministgamers.com
I don't really *get* the problem. I grew up in the 90's. Sonic the Hedgehog was my absolute favorite game--then it was pokemon, and Neverwinter Nights... I don't see much of a problem with video games, as much as I see a problem with parents raising girls to feel like video games are a *boys* thing. Sure, I would have liked to play Julie-Su (a heroine from the Sonic comic books), but Sonic was fun as it was! And the petz games back in the day were really cool too.
So, to me, nothing wrong with the games. Just the parents and society in general.