Just when eighth-grader Rockett Movado was making friends at her new school, she faced a sticky situation. She was invited to two parties on the same day. What should she do? That's for you to decide--if you happen to be a girl.
Rockett is the star of CD-ROM games produced by Purple Moon, a company in California that wants to make computer games more fun for girls. For years, game software was primarily designed with boys in mind. Purple Moon is just one of several companies now targeting girls. It seems to be working. In the past year alone, sales of computer games for girls have grown from $26 million to $64 million.
In the new game Rockett's Tricky Decision, there's nothing to shoot and no piling up points to set a new record. The goal of this game is to make decisions that help Rockett deal with school, friends and her feelings.
"We do research with girls all over the country," says Nancy Deyo, president of Purple Moon. "We find out what they think about, what their bedrooms and their friends look like. That's how we create Rockett's world." Purple Moon did four years of research before producing its first game. The company found that girls are as eager as boys to play computer games, but girls seem to prefer games that have lifelike characters and stories.
Nicole Begley, 10, of Nanuet, New York, likes a character named Nicole in Rockett's games. "She's kind of snobby," says Nicole. "But I like her anyway."
Fans can play games and exchange postcards on the Purple Moon Website. Lately, a few boys have sent E-mail asking permission to be on the site. "Of course, we let them visit," says Deyo.
What do you think? Do girls need their own special computer games?