Gender barriers in video games - A core issue

Image source: Author screen capture

More females are playing games than ever before, but they aren't necessarily playing the same games as males. Is this a problem?

More female video gamers means that more females are engaging with new media technology. In this sense, the gender split between casual and core games should not matter, so long as players feel comfortable playing the games that they want to play.

Whether your personal preference is for the social, easy to learn gameplay of Farmville or the complex strategy-based warfare of Starcraft, if you're female and you're engaging with the technology, then more power to you.

 In reality, the casual-core split does matter. Problems arise when females encounter barriers that stop them from playing certain video games.

At a workshop in 2005, game designer Sheri Graner Ray was shocked to discover that the group of female game developers she was speaking to had never played the five games that she had selected to discuss. All five games were critically acclaimed best sellers. All five featured male avatars and were played mostly by males.

Once the women played the games, they thoroughly enjoyed them. It wasn't the gameplay that had prevented them from enjoying Warcraft (a real-time strategy game) or Halo (a first-person shooter). There were other gender-related barriers that had prevented them from playing the games.

Female gamers may now be more common, but gender inequality prevents them from having equal access to core games. If players encounter a gender issue (hypersexualised characters, lack of female characters, hostile cross-gender play) that makes them uncomfortable playing a game, they may be prevented from experiencing gameplay that they would otherwise enjoy.

Moreover, if this inequality prevents females from gaining the skills required to use the digital technologies that are becoming increasingly important for work and play, the stakes are much higher.

Elena Bertozzi's recommendations make an excellent starting point for changing gender inequality (see the week 3 tutorial reading). Whether we see her suggestions incorporated into male dominated core titles is another matter entirely.

Boys, Babes and Button-Bashing.

In terms of where I sit in the gaming demographics, I'm about in the middle. Everything on Facebook can go and hang for all I care, but I'm not a noob-bashing gun-toting trolling WoW madman who can give you a run-down of the schematics of his Counter-Strike weapons while raiding with his level 15 Blood Elf Paladin.

I did my research, don't mock me. And take a look at this. Trolls are perhaps the worst of the gaming community. It is simply so easy to stereotype them.

I've played plenty of games in my time, mostly RPG's and platformers. It's not that I don't like mindless violence - the Oddworld series gave me plenty of that - but its not my first choice. Though in saying that I will proceed to tear you apart on any given Tekken using the time-tested method of button-mashing. First Person Shooters do take a certain kind of skill to become really good at them, hence why most gaming tournaments are either Strategy or FPS-based in terms of content and are mostly full of geeks. Just because I'm a guy doesn't mean I will immediately drool over something with a huge gun, buxom babes and things with impossible amounts of teeth.

Well I might but generally I restrain myself. I don't think gender really comes into it so much as lifestyle, social setting and grouping, interests and stuff like that. I go for RPG's because the writing is generally better. But RPG's do get flak for having scantily-armoured females running round with suspiciously large swords. Of course, some of these deadly destructive dames are actually girls! Good God! say the masses. Girls play games? Never! Well they do. But generally girls aren't well represented in the industry. And the ways that they do get represented aren't always favourable. Not always pornographic but definitely not always flattering. So some male gamers have "elevated expectations" about how their female counterparts should look.

In saying that girl gamers are still somewhat of a novelty. I've personally only ever met two. One was geeky and one was practically a man anyway but she still counts. We simply don't see as many of them here because we have a minute population. In no case should any male gamer expect their female counterparts to look like booth-babes or Lara Croft or their Night Elf... whatever. But it also isn't fair to assume all the guys care about is how hot the protagonist is. Give us some credit.

Booth-babes are paid to wear next to nothing and look good. No, they don't want to know about the time you single-handedly pwned the entire opposing team that time on Halo 2. Lara Croft is made of pixels and is back-breakingly buxom. Night Elves are so tall as to snap in half if they actually existed. They are the fantasy of the gamers, the male and lesbian ones at least. Though in saying that, I've never seen a pin-up of Master Chief for the ladies. Mmm, sexy armoured goodness.

Once again, relevant comic. At least we acknowledge that some of our favourite characters are totally ridiculous.

To defend video games as an industry, most female characters are highly stylised. They fit in with the visual style of their universe. The elves in WoW are very cartoony to put it bluntly. Croft doesn't make a lot of sense but they've made her more realistic lately, partly in response to criticism over her earlier incarnations. Try the 1998 Lara. Oh dear. But not all female characters are busty, blonde and brainless. Can't think of any that are. But I can't really say anything in favour of strong female characters either, because I can't think of many. Feel free to help out here. Some characters might be seen as shallow and brainless because of poor writing and lack of character development - that can kill just about any character, regardless of sex.

I'm not sure how to end this because I don't want to be late for class, so I take a small bow.

How girls get into gaming

Gaming is traditionally heavily associated with males, but a lot of girls nowadays get into gaming, perhaps not always at the same serious level as males, but it is becoming more widespread.

Girls probably don't actively seek out video games, but rather video games find them. I was responsible for getting my sister into games. At a young age, I got a Nintendo 64, Nintendo Gameboy and a Playstation. As my only sibling and my parents making me babysit her (I'm 10 years older than her), she was a perfect companion to play games with, although she was quite terrible at the game initially, she eventually got the gist of things and actually become a worth member of the team in the game.

I think that girls themselves won't invest in a gaming machine such as a Playstation on their own, but if a member of the family such as an older/younger brother or dad who buys such a device will eventually lead them to participate in games and in some cases, take them even further and play professionally in teams. But the main point here is that a 'push' of some sort is usually necessary to get the girl into gaming. It may not necessarily be from a male in the family, some might start gaming when they get a particularly good game as a present.

With the rise of the Internet also, gaming has also become a lot more accessible in the sense that a home PC (or Mac) and an Internet connection is all that is needed to get into gaming. And with so many people on social networking sites nowadays, it doesn't necessarily have to be just a male in the family who has influence, but male friends online. In this instance I'm not so much talking about the big name games that show up at E3 conventions, but rather browser based games such as the third party Facebook applications. Which have a social element to it which appeals to girls