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PlayFirst's Mari Baker

The CEO on iPhone potholes, Facebook vs Google and making games for women

Founded in 2004 and scoring an early hit amongst non-traditional gamers with Diner Dash, PlayFirst is a relative veteran of casual games scene - having released enough new versions of Dash on enough platforms to score some 500 million players., Like so many of its contemporaries, PlayFirst finds itself now having to fight for attention on Facebook and iPhone, experimenting with microtransactions and the App Store chart

GamesIndustry.biz met with CEO and president Mari Baker to discuss how to make games appeal to a female audience, Facebook vs Google hard lessons learned from iPhone development and whether, given her venture capitalist background, she think there's a future in the rush of social dev acquisitions.

GamesIndustry.bizI read that something like 38 per cent of PlayFirst execs are women; how does that effect the nature of the company compared to the other places you've worked.
Mari Baker

Sure. Well, let me trying to back up a bit to a higher level. PlayFirst first launched to capitalise on the launch of casual games as a market opportunity, which clearly is largely female-orientated. At least PlayFirst's audience in the casual space is largely 70 per cent female. And of course as new opportunities such as the iPhone have grown, and things like the Wii and now Facebook.

The typical FarmVille user is a 43 year-old woman… A lot of the growth that has been going on in gaming in general has been this whole new audience who is starting to play. In the PlayFirst space we have always been a company that is fortunate to have a number of our game designers and producers who are women, who bring another perspective to the table. As far as having women on the executive team I guess that when I think about forming a team… I always use this analogy a lot – in may not work as well in Europe as in the US – of making a basketball team. Which, if everybody was a six-foot guard, you would lose your games. If everyone was a seven-foot centre, you would lose your games. And then it's all about creating the right mixture of talent, which is different perspectives, different skills and can sometimes also be served by having different genders or different ethnicities on the team.

I think that robust discussion and innovation comes from that mixture of ideas and skillsets. So I don't when I build a team consciously try to say "I am going to get more women on board", but I think having that attitude valuing different views and mindsets helps to create an environment where you can build a more diverse team. And I think certainly for PlayFirst it helps us to be really true and honest about serving the female market as well.

GamesIndustry.bizDo you think other companies are perhaps more resistant or don't even think about that diversity? That the default attitude is just white guys in suits and most places don't think that's any kind of problem?
Mari Baker

I think a lot of people when they're building companies think "I'm pretty good, I'll hire a bunch of people like me." And when you're a white guy in a suit, that's your thought, and you end up getting companies like that. I think there are lots of different approaches to success, but the diversity of ideas is what leads you to breakthroughs. I think a lot of people don't necessarily think about it.

GamesIndustry.bizIn terms of the perception of the company and the games, how careful are you in stating that a lot of the games may be made with women in mind? Is there a danger of them looking too prescribed? I notice when the company talks about itself the line is "games for everyone."
Mari Baker

I think that there is two pieces to it. One is that the goal is to make games that are approachable and easy to use – sort of the definition of casual games. Fairly easy to start using and to learn, not complex rules. A lot of women are then attracted to those games and I think one of the reasons the Facebook gameplay ends up going so much towards is it's five or ten minutes of gameplay at a time. Which means by definition they have to be easy to get in and out of. And so we think about making casual games more than about making games specifically for women. And I think the other piece from a marketing perspective is I don't think that women when it comes to a game specifically want to feel like it is made for women.

There's a degree to which I just wanna play a good game, and I'm not trying to identify myself as a woman in choosing that game. I'm identifying myself as someone who wants to play a good and interesting game. Thus if the content is appealing towards women then that's the piece that's more relevant than going out and… So a game like Wedding Dash – our audience there is 90 per cent female, because women fantasise a lot about planning a wedding. Guys are certainly reluctant even when you're getting married to get involved in planning it. So it's less about saying Wedding Dash is for women than to be in itself something that appeals to that audience.

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Alec Meer

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A 10-year veteran of scribbling about video games, Alec primarily writes for Rock, Paper, Shotgun, but given any opportunity he will escape his keyboard and mouse ghetto to write about any and all formats.

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