Too cool for school?

Coolest Girl in School


A new mobile game for girls, (who now account for around 60% of mobile game users) by Australian developers Champagne for the Ladies and Kukan Studio, invites players to fight their way, tooth and nail, to the top of the high school ladder. In Coolest Girl in School, players improve their social standing by lying, bitching, getting pregnant, doing drugs, you name the vice. Too cool for school? The Australian Family Association is not amused.

There's been a lot of press coverage about the apparently dangerous effects of violent video games, or games that seem to promote aggression. They've been blamed for antisocial behaviour, teen pregnancy, even murder. Other media explore violence and horror, yet computer games get most of the heat because of their interactive nature, which is thought to influence behaviour more.

Critics are particularly scathing when it comes to games that reward bad behaviour, saying this sends out the wrong signals to children and increases aggressive thinking and behaviour. They point to a body of research. A recent study by the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research likens exposure to violent games to a pubic health threat.

A counter argument is that indulging in fantasy or roleplay doesn't make kids monsters. Teens are natural thrill seekers and gaming allows them to experiment, explore and discover the consequences of their choices. Not only can gameplay help enhance their strategic decision-making ability, but it can be a safe outlet for their more brutish, or conflicted feelings.

Gameplay occurs in context - the social context and the player's preexisting tendencies, which may have a stronger behavioural influence. Gaming enthusiasts point to other studies, which indicate that short-term video game play has less of an impact on behaviour than existing personality traits.

There is no scientific consensus. If there is any common ground, it's a tentative acknowledgment that violent videogames may desensitise people to real-life violence. Cyber-bullying, such as happy slapping, has been cited as a possible consequence.

It remains unclear whether violent games cause violent behaviour, or whether they just tend to be favoured by more aggressive people.

Ultimately, kids may be attracted to violent games because they're more exciting and absorbing. Research indicates that video games can dull pain, and violent games are the most effective, according to scientists at Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia, US. Nilli Lavie, a psychologist at University College London, has speculated that fighting and sports games probably dull pain most because they occupy more of a player's attention.


High school - the horror!

Without getting too embroiled in the violence debate, lets look at some home truths about the school setting of Coolest Girl in School. Kids don't need video games to bring out a sadistic streak, if they're so inclined. Whether they're pulling the legs off spiders, or torturing younger siblings, or sending classmates to Coventry, baser instincts will find expression.

High school can be quite ruthless. (OK, I admit, my high school was a bitch fest. Alarmingly, encountering some of my year group later in life, I found the years had made them all the more bitter. It just goes to show, 'if you think bad, bad's what you get'.)

The primeval, Lord of the Flies brutality of high school has often been visited in media. Think Heathers, Clueless, Gossip Girl. And now there's the Australian school-themed mockumentary Summer Heights High (which rated amongst Google's top TV searches in 2007).

These films use satire, pastiche, and black humour to pull apart the social constructs in school, to reveal the power struggles, the cliques and the gender battles. We laugh, while wincing at how close they come to the ugly truth.

You could argue that a computer game, which tackles similar issues, is also making valid commentary. But, the point about a game, particularly a role-playing game, is that users can follow different paths, depending on their moral and strategic choices, therefore any point the developers may be making is less clear. A game is more open to interpretation (and misinterpretation).

While instincts may be to protect kids from various horrors, they're fielding them every day. That's not to say that computer games that appear to encourage bitching and violence should get an easy ride; we should always debate content, particularly when it's aimed at kids. I get the feeling that Coolest Girl in School, billed as 'Grand Theft Auto for girls', is banking on some debate. In games marketing, being infamous is as good as being famous - provided you're not banned.


Implications for branded entertainment

Companies looking into branded games need to be aware of the pitfalls. Clearly family brands don't want to attract the attention of watchdogs, but if they do use games in their marketing mix, marketers need to make sure they appeal to the target audience. Kids are exposed to edgy and risque games. Often, these are the most thrilling. A safe, daggy, branded game will attract nothing but derision and do the brand more harm than good.

But all is not lost. It's relatively easy to aim games at younger children, with innocent, playful, or educational content. Word games, e.g Scrabulous, or strategy games, can work well for older audiences. Brands can explore humour when targeting any audience, but bear in mind that a lot of modern comedy is edgy or dark.

There's no easy solution, but this is not a problem peculiar to branded games. Any ad, or branded entertainment property, needs to make its mark, finding a place on the spectrum between inchoate boredom on the left hand side and infamy on the other. I'd suggest right of centre, whatever your brand!