Sexism in Gaming Industry article

What female game characters are good role models? What are the stereotypes of female gamers?

Just want to share a link to article discussing "Sexism in the Gaming Industry" posted on Adventure Classic Gaming. Interestingly, the article was written by a teenage male (not female) gamer looking at this issue from a female gamer's imagined prespective.

http://www.adventureclassicgaming.com/index.php/site/features/260/

Enjoy.

neat article. Great that he brought up Dreamfall as an example of what is good!!

WW

I don't have the problem the author describes with going into a store and finding games that only have scantily-clad women in minor roles. Perhaps this is because I buy PC mostly games, not console games?

These are the current bestselling PC games, copied from the first page of PC Bestsellers on Amazon:

Lord of the Rings: Shadows of Angmar
Command & Conquor 3: Tiberium Wars
Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles
World of Warcraft Expansion: Burning Crusade
The Sims 2
The Sims 2 Expansion Pack
World of Warcraft
The Sims 2 Celebration Stuff
STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl
Silent Hunter: Wolves of the Pacific
Baldur's Gate 2: The Ultimate Collection
Sim City IV: Deluxe Edition
Microsoft Age of Empires 3
Crazy Machines: The Wacky Contraptions Game

There aren't any adventures on this list, but I could definitely while away some happy hours playing the Sims or Sim City IV or Age of Empires 3 or Crazy Machines. I would be surprised to find only scantily clad minor female characters tagging along behind fully developed (and fully clothed) male heroes in any of these games I've just mentioned.

My own personal "take" on why young adult women don't play games (older woman clearly ARE playing games -- I'm not sure about young girls) is that they don't have time to learn the intricacies of "hard core" games.

There's a learning curve to a lot of these games, and if you are working and/or or taking care of young children plus keeping house -- you just don't have time to learn how to manage empires or large cities or complicated machines or go on months-long RPG quests. You're more apt to go online for an hour every once in awhile and play bridge or a puzzle game -- something where the interface is easy and you probably already know the rules.

Providing young adult women with a house that cleans itself would make gamers out of them faster than eliminating Grand Theft Auto would.

Interesting. But not an unknown phenomena. Can't get much more stereotypical than Everquest, for example.

Thanks for the link DavidT, it was an interesting article - there is also another article, on the link, on the same subject actually written by a woman! I couldn't comment on the majority of games as I haven't played them - but I have played most of the Tomb Raider games & apart from Lara Croft's physique which is obviously to appeal to a male market haven't thought the content was particularly sexist & have found them to be very good games. I don't know how you could feel inadequate because you haven't got a body like Lara's - she's not real!!!

It's obvious that most big budget games are made to cater for the male market as they are the ones that have immediate big sales - you've only got to look at a weekly top selling games chart, but I think it should be recognised that a lot of these action/shooter games also appeal to women. (Not me!) I couldn't help wondering though when the male author of the article was talking about taking his sister into a games store, that she left empty handed, not because the games were obviously sexist, but because they were action games (which is normally all you can find in a games store) & they just didn't appeal to her!!

Personally I find the promotion of games in gaming magazines to be the predominantly sexist side of the industry & some of the attitudes portrayed are downright offensive!

I'd have loved playing as Lara Croft back when I was a kid. She's strong and athletic and independent and can handle herself in any situation. Whether she was "topheavy" or not would be the least of my worries. And it's not like I never ran around in shorts in the winter when I was a kid.

My daughters (10 & 13) both love playing computer games of all sorts, though my youngest is showing some decidedly violent tendencies with her gleeful enjoyment of crashing vehicles of all sorts in Motorstorm and pounding everyone in Virtua Fighter 3 (both on a borrowed PS3).

Gremlin

He is a young male teen who writes like a young male teen practicing the art of writing and he is very good at it. He should get better as he gets older, but for now he only rehashed what has already been said, right or wrong depending on personal viewpoint. His opinions are valid but they are not new or original, however, they are in keeping with his age and experience to date. I think he has talent that will grow in time. Maybe he might some day make the perfect adventure game if he gets tired of writing!