With a ready-made concept - and their gaming pedigree - it is certainly surprising that Mattel has not taken their successful acquisition and expanded it into the video game medium with a true interactive experience. It seems like a missed opportunity - American Girl is about celebrating femininity. Turning it into a video game would allow girls to experience a medium normally dominated by boys, but not sacrifice any of their girlish characteristics or ideals.
But that is exactly the problem - the thing that makes the brand a perfect choice for a video game is also the perfect argument against it. American Girl is about celebrating ideals, old-fashioned concepts of what it means to be a child, specifically a little girl. Each doll will set back a family about $100 - and that's not counting the myriad of accessories. Yet many parents gladly spend this money, as the dolls represent a childhood their little girls are still interested in. People often remark that kids grow up too quickly these days, and part of that is because many kids would rather have personal electronics than a simple teddy bear or a toy car. Electronics and designer clothing are already pretty high priced items. So it's not much of a leap to spend the money on a doll instead, and people will jump on the opportunity precisely because it's not an iPod, a cell phone or a video game. It's something they can identify with, something they understand.
Some may say making an American Girl video game goes in a different direction than Ms. Rowland was trying to achieve when she created the brand (educational software is held to a different societal standard). This however, does not make the concept of a video game a bad one, or an impossible idea. A lot will depend on what the American Girl Company and Mattel decide the future of the franchise should be. Is it just a way to educate children about history? A tool for empowering little girls? Or is it a way to prolong the ideal of childhood for just a few more years? Given how ideals change, and how our own industry is catering more and more toward the young adult male gamer, perhaps it would be in their best interest to embrace the video game medium while there's still a place for younger children in the industry - as well as in our best interest, to capture a larger female audience before they leave both their childhood and gaming behind them, heading into adult mainstream pastures.
Kris Naudus has written articles for Anime Insider and Anime News Network, and currently provides editorial at The-Brand-Management-Firm-That-Must-Not-Be-Named. She also keeps a video game blog which can be named over at 1Up.com.
