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Gamasutra has posted a new interview with Her Interactive's CEO Megan Gaiser about the company's Nancy Drew series of games. In the interview Gaiser discussed the 80th anniversary of the Nancy Drew character, designing games around the role model, and how the character bridges the gap between parent and child.

Nancy Drew is 80 years old -- what does she mean to people today?
You probably know this, but Nancy Drew represents all of those characteristics that we aspire to: She's gutsy, she's smart, and she gets the job done. She wins in the end, so what's not to like? What happened was -- and you may or may not know this, too -- in terms of women (and I talk to a lot of women and girls and tell them about it), usually when I say the word -- Nancy Drew, -- they first kind of bow down out of respect.

Then, secondly, they'll go on to tell me how Nancy Drew has made them the success that they are. This year, the three Supreme Court Justice females, when asked who was their inspiration, didn't say their mothers; they said Nancy Drew.

You look at role models come and go -- the Britney Spears and all this kind of stuff -- this woman; and the other thing that resonates is because women couldn't do half the stuff that they're doing now back in the '30s, so it just is this -- you can be anything; you can do it. -- So it really resonates with the moms. So what happened is, when we created the first game, we created it for girls ten through fifteen. That was our target, but a lot of them didn't really know Nancy Drew.

We did focus groups and stuff, and some of them kind of knew but really didn't -- you know. But the moms knew Nancy Drew, and so what happened was the moms bought the games for their daughters to inspire them like their were inspired as little girls. Then the moms got hooked on the games, and then the moms gave the games to their moms. So it has become a cross-generational phenomenon: Aunts playing with nieces and grandmothers and granddaughters in different states and solving them on the phone and in e-mails -- this really kind of connecting experience.

Gamasutra: Nancy Drew Q&A

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