Back in 1992, I started working for a company called Interval Research, which was just then being founded by David Lidell and Paul Allen as a for-profit research enterprise in Silicon Valley.
Još 1992. počela sam raditi za tvrtku Interval Research koju su tada upravo osnovali David Lidell i Paul Allen kao profitirajuće istraživačko poduzeće u Silikonskoj Dolini.
I met with David to talk about what I might do in his company. I was just coming out of a failed virtual reality business and supporting myself by being on the speaking circuit and writing books -- after twenty years or so in the computer game industry having ideas that people didn't think they could sell.
Našla sam se s Davidom kako bismo razgovarali o tome što bih ja mogla raditi u njegovoj tvrtki. Upravo sam izlazila iz neuspjelog posla s virtualnom stvarnosti i uzdržavala sam se javnim govorenjem i pisanjem knjiga, nakon dvadesetak godina u industriji računalnih igara imajući ideje za koje su ljudi mislili da ih ne mogu prodati.
And David and I discovered that we had a question in common, that we really wanted the answer to, and that was, "Why hasn't anybody built any computer games for little girls?" Why is that? It can't just be a giant sexist conspiracy. These people aren't that smart. There's six billion dollars on the table. They would go for it if they could figure out how.
David i ja smo otkrili da imamo zajedničko pitanje na koje smo zaista željeli odgovor, a ono je bilo: „Zašto nitko nije osnovao tvrtku za računalne igre za djevojčice?“ Zašto je to tako? To ne može biti neka velika seksistička urota. Ti ljudi nisu toliko pametni. Šest je milijardi dolara na stolu. Krenuli bi na njih kad bi znali kako.
So, what is the deal here? And as we thought about our goals -- I should say that Interval is really a humanistic institution, in the classical sense that humanism, at its best, finds a way to combine clear-eyed empirical research with a set of core values that fundamentally love and respect people. The basic idea of humanism is the improvable quality of life; that we can do good things, that there are things worth doing because they're good things to do, and that clear-eyed empiricism can help us figure out how to do them.
Dakle, u čemu je ovdje stvar? I kako smo razmišljali o svojim ciljevima – moram reći da je Intervals jedna stvarno humanistička institucija, u klasičnom smislu da humanizam, u svom najboljem, pronalazi način kako kombinirati jasno empirijsko istraživanje s temeljnim vrijednostima kojima je u korijenu ljubav i poštivanje ljudi. Temeljna ideja humanizma je rast kvalitete života; da možemo raditi dobre stvari, da postoje stvari koje vrijedi raditi jer su dobre i da nam bistro empirijsko gledanje može pomoći otkriti način kako ih raditi.
So, contrary to popular belief, there is not a conflict of interest between empiricism and values. And Interval Research is kind of the living example of how that can be true. So David and I decided to go find out, through the best research we could muster, what it would take to get a little girl to put her hands on a computer, to achieve the level of comfort and ease with the technology that little boys have because they play video games.
Dakle, suprotno uvriježenom mišljenju, ne postoji sukob interesa između empirizma i vrijednosti. Interval Research je na neki način živi primjer kako to može biti istina. Tako smo David i ja odlučili otkriti, kroz najbolja istraživanja koja smo mogli prikupiti, što bi moglo navesti djevojčicu da stavi svoje ruke na računalo, da dođe do razine ugodnosti i lakoće s tehnologijom koju dječaci imaju jer igraju video igrice.
We spent two and a half years conducting research; we spent another year and a half in advance development. Then we formed a spin-off company. In the research phase of the project at Interval, we partnered with a company called Cheskin Research, and these people -- Davis Masten and Christopher Ireland -- changed my mind entirely about what market research was and what it could be. They taught me how to look and see, and they did not do the incredibly stupid thing of saying to a child, "Of all these things we already make you, which do you like best?" -- which gives you zero answers that are usable.
Proveli smo dvije i pol godine vodeći istraživanje; proveli smo još jednu godinu i pol u unaprjeđivanju razvoja. Zatim smo formirali novu tvrtku u već postojećoj franšizi. U istraživačkoj fazi projekta u Intervalu, bili smo partneri s tvrtkom Cheskin Research, a ti ljudi – David Masten i Christopher Ireland – promijenili su potpuno moj način razmišljanja o tome što je tržišno istraživanje i što bi ono moglo biti. Naučili su me gledati i vidjeti i nikada nisu radili nevjerojatno glupe stvari kao što je govorenje djetetu: „Od ovih stvari koje smo već napravili za tebe, koja ti se najviše sviđa?“ – što daje nula iskoristivih odgovora.
So, what we did for the first two and a half years was four things: We did an extensive review of the literature in related fields, like cognitive psychology, spatial cognition, gender studies, play theory, sociology, primatology. Thank you Frans de Waal, wherever you are, I love you and I'd give anything to meet you.
Ono što smo napravili u prve dvije i pol godine četiri su stvari: napravili smo opsežan pregled literature iz srodnih područja kao što je kognitivna psihologija, prostorna spoznaja, studije o spolovima, teorija igranja, sociologija, primatologija. Hvala vama, Frans de Waal, gdje god da jeste, volim vas i dat ću sve da vas upoznam.
After we had done that with a pretty large team of people and discovered what we thought the salient issues were with girls and boys and playing -- because, after all, that's really what this is about -- we moved to the second phase of our work, where we interviewed adult experts in academia, some of the people who'd produced the literature that we found relevant. Also, we did focus groups with people who were on the ground with kids every day, like playground supervisors. We talked to them, confirmed some hypotheses and identified some serious questions about gender difference and play.
Nakon što smo to napravili s prilično velikim timom ljudi i otkrili ono što smo smatrali da su glavna pitanja/ problemi u vezi s djevojčicama, dječacima i igranjem – jer, na kraju krajeva, o tome se ovdje i radi – prešli smo na drugu fazu našega rada gdje smo intervjuirali odrasle akademske stručnjake, neke ljude koji su napisali literaturu koju smo smatrali važnom. Također, napravili smo fokusne skupine s ljudima koji su na terenu s djecom svaki dan kao igrališni nadglednici. Razgovarali smo s njima, potvrdili neke hipoteze i identificirali neka ozbiljna pitanja o razlici među spolovima i igranju.
Then we did what I consider to be the heart of the work: interviewed 1,100 children, boys and girls, ages seven to 12, all over the United States -- except for Silicon Valley, Boston and Austin because we knew that their little families would have millions of computers in them and they wouldn't be a representative sample.
Zatim smo učinili ono što sam smatrala samom srži projekta: intervjuirali smo 1100 djece, dječaka i djevojčica između 7 i 12 godina iz cijelog SAD-a, osim iz Silicijske Doline, Bostona i Austina jer smo znali da njihove male obitelji imaju milijune računala pa ne bi bili reprezentativan uzorak.
And at the end of those remarkable conversations with kids and their best friends across the United States, after two years, we pulled together some survey data from another 10,000 children, drew up a set up of what we thought were the key findings of our research, and spent another year transforming them into design heuristics, for designing computer-based products -- and, in fact, any kind of products -- for little girls, ages eight to 12. And we spent that time designing interactive prototypes for computer software and testing them with little girls. In 1996, in November, we formed the company Purple Moon which was a spinoff of Interval Research, and our chief investors were Interval Research, Vulcan Northwest, Institutional Venture Partners and Allen and Company.
Na kraju ovih izvanrednih razgovora s djecom i njihovim najboljim prijateljima, nakon dvije godine, izvojili smo neke podatke istraživanja na još 1 000 djece, podvukli ono što smo smatrali da su ključna otkrića našeg istraživanja i proveli još jednu godinu transformirajući ih u pravila i savjete za dizajniranje proizvoda baziranih na računalima i, zapravo, bilo kojeg proizvoda za djevojčice od 8 do 12 godina. Proveli smo to vrijeme dizajnirajući interaktivne prototipove za računalni software i testirajući ga s djevojčicama. U studenom 1996. formirali smo tvrtku Purple Moon koja je bila suproizvod Interval Researcha, a naši glavni investitori bili su Interval Research, Vulcan Northwest, Institutional Venture Partners te Allen i Company.
We launched a website on September 2nd that has now served 25 million pages, and has 42,000 registered young girl users. They visit an average of one and a half times a day, spend an average of 35 minutes a visit, and look at 50 pages a visit. So we feel that we've formed a successful online community with girls.
Otvorili smo web-stranicu 2. rujna koja ima 25 milijuna podstranica i 42 000 registriranih korisnica djevojčica. Posjećuju je u prosjeku 1.5 puta na dan, provedu na njoj prosječno 35 minuta po posjetu i pogledaju 50 stranica po posjetu. Zato smatramo da smo osmislili uspješnu online zajednicu djevojčica.
We launched two titles in October -- "Rockett's New School" -- the first of a series of products -- is about a character called Rockett beginning her first day of school in eighth grade at a brand new place, with a blank slate, which allows girls to play with the question of, "What will I be like when I'm older?" "What's it going to be like to be in high school or junior high school? Who are my friends?"; to exercise the love of social complexity and the narrative intelligence that drives most of their play behavior; and which embeds in it values about noticing that we have lots of choices in our lives and the ways that we conduct ourselves.
Lansirali smo u listopadu dva naslova: „Rockettina nova škola“ – prvi u toj seriji proizvoda; radi se o liku koji se zove Rockett koja je na početku prvoga dana osmoga razreda u novome mjestu, s praznom tablicom koja omogućava djevojčicama igrati se pitanjima kao što su: „Što ću biti kad odrastem?“ , „Kako će mi biti u srednjoj školi?“ , „Tko su moji prijatelji?“ ; sve to da bi vježbale ljubav prema socijalnoj složenosti i narativnu inteligenciju koja vodi njihovo ponašanje u igri i koja ugrađuje u njih vrijednost shvaćanja, da imamo puno izbora u životu i u odabiru putova kojima ćemo ići.
The other title that we launched is called "Secret Paths in the Forest," which addresses the more fantasy-oriented, inner lives of girls. These two titles both showed up in the top 50 entertainment titles in PC Data -- entertainment titles in PC Data in December, right up there with "John Madden Football," which thrills me to death. So, we're real, and we've touched several hundreds of thousands of little girls. We've made half-a-billion impressions with marketing and PR for this brand, Purple Moon. Ninety-six percent of them, roughly, have been positive; four percent of them have been "other." I want to talk about the other, because the politics of this enterprise, in a way, have been the most fascinating part of it, for me.
Drugi naslov je bio „Sveti putovi u šumi“ koji je više fantastičan, okrenut unutarnjem životu djevojčica. Oba su se ova naslova našla među najboljih 50 zabavnih naslova u PC sadržajima – zabavni naslovi u PC sadržajima u prosincu, odmah pored „John Madden nogometa“ koji me oduševljava. Dakle, mi smo stvarni i dotaknuli smo nekoliko stotina tisuća djevojčica. Napravili smo pola milijarde dojmova s marketingom i PR-om za ovaj brend, Purple Moon. 96 posto njih, ugrubo su pozitivni, a ostalih 4% su „ostalo“. Želim govoriti i o „ostalom“ jer je politika ovoga poduzeća na neki način bila za mene najfascinantniji dio.
There are really two kinds of negative reviews that we've received. One kind of reviewer is a male gamer who thinks he knows what games ought to be, and won't show the product to little girls. The other kind of reviewer is a certain flavor of feminist who thinks they know what little girls ought to be. And so it's funny to me that these interesting, odd bedfellows have one thing in common: they don't listen to little girls. They haven't looked at children and they're certainly not demonstrating any love for them. I'd like to play you some voices of little girls from the two-and-a-half years of research that we did -- actually, some of the voices are more recent. And these voices will be accompanied by photographs that they took for us of their lives, of the things that they value and care about. These are pictures the girls themselves never saw, but they gave to us This is the stuff those reviewers don't know about and aren't listening to and this is the kind of research I recommend to those who want to do humanistic work.
Postoje zapravo dvije vrste negativnih kritika koje smo primili. Prva je kritika muškog igrača koji smatra da zna kakve bi igre trebale biti i neće pokazati proizvod djevojčicama. Druga je kritika feministica koje smatraju da znaju kakve bi djevojčice trebale biti. I zato mi je smiješno kako ove dvije zanimljive i inače suprotstavljene strane imaju nešto zajedničko: ni jedni ni drugi ne slušaju djevojčice. Nisu gledali na djecu i zasigurno ne pokazuju ljubav prema njima. Pustila bih vam audio zapise glasova djevojčica iz dvije i pol godine istraživanja. Zapravo, neki su glasovi i novijeg datuma. Snimke će biti popraćene fotografijama koje su snimile za nas o svojim životima te o stvarima do kojih im je stalo i koje cijene. To su fotografije koje djevojčice same nisu nikada vidjele, nego su ih dale nama. To su stvari za koje ti kritičari ne znaju i nisu čuli. To je način istraživanja koji preporučujem onima koji žele odraditi human posao.
Girl 1: Yeah, my character is usually a tomboy. Hers is more into boys.
Da, moj lik je obično muškobanjast. Njezin je više zainteresiran za dečke.
Girl 2: Uh, yeah.
O, da.
Girl 1: We have -- in the very beginning of the whole game, always we do this: we each have a piece of paper; we write down our name, our age -- are we rich, very rich, not rich, poor, medium, wealthy, boyfriends, dogs, pets -- what else -- sisters, brothers, and all those.
Djevojka 1: Moramo na samom početku igre učiniti ovo: svaka imamo komad papira; trebamo napisati svoje ime, godine, jesmo li bogate, jako bogate, siromašne, srednje bogate, imamo li dečka, psa, kućnog ljubimca, što još, sestre, braću i to.
Girl 2: Divorced -- parents divorced, maybe.
Djevojka 2: Razvedeni, roditelji razvedeni možda.
Girl 3: This is my pretend [unclear] one.
Djevojka 3: Ovo je moj zamišljeni (nejasno).
Girl 4: We make a school newspaper on the computer.
Djevojka 4: Radimo školske novine na računalu.
Girl 5: For a girl's game also usually they'll have really pretty scenery with clouds and flowers. Girl 6: Like, if you were a girl and you were really adventurous and a real big tomboy, you would think that girls' games were kinda sissy.
Djevojka 5: U igrama za djevojčice obično imaju lijep krajolik s oblacima i cvijećem. Djevojka 6: Naprimjer, ako si djevojčica i jako si pustolovna i muškobanjasta, mislila bi da je takva igra za „curice“.
Girl 7: I run track, I played soccer, I play basketball, and I love a lot of things to do. And sometimes I feel like I can't really enjoy myself unless it's like a vacation, like when I get Mondays and all those days off.
Djevojka 7: Ja se utrkujem, igram nogomet, košarku, volim raditi mnoge stvari. Ponekad mi se čini da zapravo ne mogu uživati osim ako mi je kao na praznicima, kao kad dobijem slobodan ponedjeljak.
Girl 8: Well, sometimes there is a lot of stuff going on because I have music lessons and I'm on swim team -- all this different stuff that I have to do, and sometimes it gets overwhelming. Girl 9: My friend Justine kinda took my friend Kelly, and now they're being mean to me.
Djevojka 8: Pa, ponekad se mnogo stvari događa jer imam sate sviranja i u plivačkom sam timu, sve te različite stvari koje moram obavljati i ponekad me to preplavi. Djevojka 9: Moja pijateljica Justine mi je nekako preotela prijateljicu Kelly i sad su zle prema meni.
Girl 10: Well, sometimes it gets annoying when your brothers and sisters, or brother or sister, when they copy you and you get your idea first and they take your idea and they do it themselves.
Djevojka 10: Pa, ponekad ide na živce kad tvoja braća i sestre, ili brat, ili sestra, kad te kopiraju. Ti prvi imaš ideju, a onda ti je oni otmu i naprave sami.
Girl 11: Because my older sister, she gets everything and, like, when I ask my mom for something, she'll say, "No" -- all the time. But she gives my sister everything.
Djevojka 11: Jer moja starija sestra, ona dobije sve. Naprimjer, kad tražim od mame nešto i ona kaže „Ne“ – cijelo vrijeme, ali mojoj sestri daje sve.
Brenda Laurel: I want to show you, real quickly, just a minute of "Rockett's Tricky Decision," which went gold two days ago. Let's hope it's really stable. This is the second day in Rockett's life. The reason I'm showing you this is I'm hoping that the scene that I'm going to show you will look familiar and sound familiar, now that you've listened to some girls' voices. And you can see how we've tried to incorporate the issues that matter to them in the game that we've created.
Brenda Laurel: Želim vam na brzinu pokazati, samo minutu „Rockettine nezgodne odluke“ koja je postala zlatna prije dva dana. Nadajmo se da je stvarno stabilna. Ovo je drugi dan u Rockettinu životu. Razlog što vam puštam to je taj što se nadam da će vam se scena koju ću vam pokazati činiti i zvučati poznato sad kada ste odslušali glasove djevojčica. Moći ćete vidjeti kako smo u igru koju smo stvorili uklopili probleme koji su njima važni.
Miko: Hey Rockett! C'mere!
Miko: Hej, Rockett! Dođi ovamo!
Rockett: Hi Miko! What's going on?
Rockett: Hej, Miko. Što ima?
Miko: Did you hear about Nakilia's big Halloween party this weekend? She asked me to make sure you knew about it. Nakilia invited Reuben too, but --
Miko: Jesi li čula za Nakilijin veliki tulum za Noć vještica ovaj vikend? Zamolila me da provjerim znaš li ti. Pozvala je također i Reubena, ali...
Rockett: But what? Isn't he coming?
Rockett: Ali što? Zar on ne dolazi?
Miko: I don't think so. I mean, I heard his band is playing at another party the same night.
Miko: Mislim da ne. Mislim, čula sam da njegov bend svira na nekom drugom tulumu iste večeri.
Rockett: Really? What other party?
Rockett: Stvarno? Koji drugi tulum?
Girl: Max's party is going to be so cool, Whitney. He's invited all the best people.
Djevojka: Maxov će tulum biti tako super, Whitney. Pozvao je sve najbolje ljude.
BL: I'm going to fast-forward to the decision point because I know I don't have a lot of time. After this awful event occurs, Rocket gets to decide how she feels about it.
BL: Ubrzat ću do odluke jer znam da nemam još puno vremena. Nakon što se taj grozni događaj dogodi, Rockett mora odlučiti kako se osjeća u vezi toga.
Rockett: Who'd want to show up at that party anyway? I could get invited to that party any day if I wanted to. Gee, I doubt I'll make Max's best people list.
Rockett: Ma tko bi uopće htio ići na taj tulum? Mogla sam biti pozvana na njega da sam samo htjela. Sumnjam da ću biti na Maxovom popisu naboljih ljudi.
BL: OK, so we're going to emotionally navigate. If we were playing the game, that's what we'd do. If at any time during the game we want to learn more about the characters, we can go into this hidden hallway, and I'll quickly just show you the interface. We can, for example, go find Miko's locker and get some more information about her. Oops, I turned the wrong way. But you get the general idea of the product.
BL: U redu, a sad idemo na emocionalno putovanje. Da igramo igru, to bismo sad radili. Ako u bilo koje vrijeme dok igramo igru poželimo više saznati o likovima, možemo otići u ovaj skriveni hodnik. Pokazat ću vam nakratko sučelje. Možemo, naprimjer, pronaći Mikin ormarić i dobiti neke informacije o njoj. Ups, skrenula sam na krivu stranu. Ali shvaćate glavnu ideju proizvoda.
I wanted to show you the ways, innocuous as they seem, in which we're incorporating what we've learned about girls -- their desires to experience greater emotional flexibility, and to play around with the social complexity of their lives. I want to make the point that what we're giving girls, I think, through this effort, is a kind of validation, a sense of being seen. And a sense of the choices that are available in their lives. We love them. We see them. We're not trying to tell them who they ought to be. But we're really, really happy about who they are. It turns out they're really great.
Htjela sam vam pokazati načine, neprimjetno kako se čini, na koje smo uklopili ono što smo naučili o djevojčicama – njihovu želju da iskuse veličinu emocionalne fleksibilnosti i igranje sa socijalnom kompleksnošću njihovih života. Želim istaknuti da je ono što mi dajemo djevojčicama kroz ovaj trud jesu valjanost i svijest da su primijećene. I svijest o izborima koje imamo u životu. Mi ih volimo. Mi ih vidimo. Ne pokušavamo im reći tko bi trebale biti. I veoma smo sretni zbog njih. Čini se da su zaista sjajne.
I want to close by showing you a videotape that's a version of a future game in the Rockett series that our graphic artists and design people put together, that we feel would please that four percent of reviewers. "Rockett 28!"
Želim zaključiti pokazivanjem video snimke verzije buduće igre u seriji Rockett koju su naši grafički umjetnici i dizajneri sastavili, a mi se nadamo da će zadovoljiti onih 4 posto kritičara. „Rockett 28!“
Rockett: It's like I'm just waking up, you know?
Rockett: Kao da se tek budim, znate?
BL: Thanks.
BL: Hvala.