Back in the late 2000s a lot of people were saying that casual gaming was, as an expansion outside of the male 20-something DOOM fan demographic, caused by wome

Back in the late 2000s a lot of people were saying that casual gaming was, as an expansion outside of the male 20-something DOOM fan demographic, caused by women entering the game industry and working on things that male 20-something software engineers wouldn't think was enjoyable. There's a lot of gender essentialism in that way of telling the story, but there's also a lot of gender essentialism in the standard marketing playbook on target demographics more generally, and it seems to be making money for them. There is some argument to be made that it is good to have someone that is at least remotely contained within the target demographic involved when creative decisions are being made, at the very least to avoid having to send every little thing out to a focus group. That is for example why metal bands are usually made up of people who like metal, and why session musicians who are jobbing it don't end up doing a lot of songwriting.