Video Game class project

[GameSlaveGaz]

For my final project in my Women and Power in History class, I decided to do the topic of Gender in Video Games. Not only will it be cool to talk about video games and get a grade on it, but there is a lot to talk about regarding the topic of gender and video games. I mean, first of all, there's still more male than female employees in the video game industry (I need to research an exact ratio) although nowadays there are a lot more women involved in the industry. But the majority of spokespeople, CEOs, and video game developers that are in the public eye are male. Then I can also talk about the fact that video games are still stereotyped. A lot of people still say that girls don't play video games, and if they do all they play is puzzle games or Super Mario. Which is obviously not 100%. Then there's the fact that most female video game characters are still sexually objectified. Look at Lara Croft. She's strong, smart, and can take care of herself, but she still has on an extremely tight outfit and humongous tits. Also look at BloodRayne and nearly every female fighting game character. Look at DOA Extreme Beach Volleyball. Most of the advertisements for games are geared to the male gamer and the female gamer is almost ignored. The staffs of some of the video game magazines like Game Informer only have 1 or 2 female staff members. Then I was discussing this with a friend of mine and I was saying "Well, nowadays you do have girls who will play Halo" and he brought up the point that some of the girls that do play Halo only play it cuz they're playing with their boyfriend, so that's something else I can discuss- are female gamers only gaming cuz of their boyfriends? Maybe do a survey. Which is why I'm posting about this...

How would you fellow DPers like to help me out with this project?
If anyone would like to PM or email me with their insights, thoughts, personal experiences with female gamers, personal experiences as a female gamer, the use of sex in games and game advertisement, etc, please do so and I will credit you in my project either by first name or user name.
I wanna give thanks in advance to anyone who gives any input, and I will post the finished project and the resulting grade when it gets to that point

BTW - when I pitched this idea, my professor LOVED it, and so did nearly my whole class.
Other cool topics - someone else in my class is talking about gender stereotypes in stand-up comedy. A very liberal course
Also, this isn't my first video-game related project. First semester College Writing, I wrote a descriptive essay on the NES. For an Ear Training 4 transcribing project, I transcribed the Legend of Zelda theme (that was the midterm, for the final I did the solo to You Shook Me All Night Long by AC/DC) and for a violin improvisation lab I did a swing version of the GameBoy Tetris music (Music "A" the "famous" one) Turns out there are a TON of video-game obsessed students at Berklee College of Music .
(to quote the movie PCU, "This is college, you can major in GameBoy if you wanted to")

[Haoie]

That reminds me of when I wrote a paper on the great mistakes in VG history. Of course Space War got a mention, ET, and good old Nolan.

Anyway, back to gender. It's still very clear that certain genres and series are largely male oriented and thus developed with their tastes in mind. This too reflects on the advertising. Here in NZ there was a recent PS2 ad campaign that was totally gender divided.

1 ad for was males [presumedly around the 14-25 mark or so], featuring titles that you'd presume boys to like, ala God of War, Tekken 5, etc. The end line was "Playstation, you're a real mate".

The other opposing ad done in the same style was for girl's games, or so you'd like, like Singstar and various Eyetoy things. The end line was the horrifying "Thanks Playstation, you're my real boyfriend".

[GameSlaveGaz]

1 ad for was males [presumedly around the 14-25 mark or so], featuring titles that you'd presume boys to like, ala God of War, Tekken 5, etc. The end line was "Playstation, you're a real mate".

The other opposing ad done in the same style was for girl's games, or so you'd like, like Singstar and various Eyetoy things. The end line was the horrifying "Thanks Playstation, you're my real boyfriend".

OMG that's great! I am sooo using that. LMAO. I wonder if I can find the video for it online too

[Jumpman Jr.]

I think the whole Samus thing needs to be brought up. Don't you play the whole origional NES game thinking that you are controlling a man and then later find out it is a woman.
I think that would be a great way of showing something significant. The fact that she seemed to be a stereotypical male video game character but then turned out to be a woman.
pure gold.

[Haoie]

You might be able to find more traces of that campaign at NZ's PS website, which I believe was www.playstation2.co.nz

It's ended on TV now, thankfully.

Crap, I don't get kids thesedays, how gimmicky can their ads be?

[SoulBlazer]

I'm seeing a lot more female characters now as being the 'player controled person' or a main person in the game then I used to. Trace Memory for the DS, as well as the two Longest Journey games for the PC, you play a girl. Almost every RPG has a woman in either a lead or supporting lead role.

One of my best female friends from college LOVES fighting games. She's damn good at them, also. Kicked my ass more then once.

But it sounds like a fascinating report. Keep us posted.

[Julio III]

This thread got brought to my attention in the "do you play as peach in smb2" thread so i thought I'd revive it as its quite an interesting topic to discuss. While it is true that a lot of the more popular games are focused towards males (i'm thinking FPS, war games, sports, fighting) females tend to find other genres just as enjoyable as most guys when they play. The big selling genres may be focused towards males because the majority of game developers are male as you point out or simply because thats what sold the most and publishers want to capitalise on that. However it is then worth noting that some of the biggest selling (and most interesting) are those that captured the female market also - games like The Sims and Nintendogs. The link with technology may also lead to a gender divide as there tends to be more gadget/techno men than women. Also the predominance towards violence or sports games, there isn't much awareness of other types of game.

As for female protagonists in games, i dont think it bothers me, if there is a choice, i'll choose on gameplay elements , it just so happens that there tends to be more male characters to choose from, and in other games its still just a character - it shouldn't be an issue, people watch films and tv shows and read books about female characters so to me it feels no different.

Anyway, i would be interested in reading your report and good luck with it!

[jcheatle]

(to quote the movie PCU, "This is college, you can major in GameBoy if you wanted to")

Amen. I'm in my first semester of grad school and I'm taking a course in Postmodern Film and Lit. So I'm working on my final essay, 12-15 pages on the Transformers, how each main character fits a certain historical or fictional archetype (Optimus = John Wayne, Megatron = Hitler, Hot Rod = JFK, etc.), and how they essentially rewrite history in the context of Reagan's 1980s America. Yeah, a little convoluted, but still, if you put the ideas together with some solid background sources, you're money.

Sorry to digress, I like the idea of your paper and like the rest, I'd like to read it. I think you're onto something working against the stereotypes. I mean, yes, I know plenty of girls who DO love Super Mario or Tetris / Bust A Move / random puzzle game or The Sims. But at the same time, while my sisters (ages 17 and 20) will spend hours bossing around Sims, they're also all about shooting people up in San Andreas.

I think that you still do see the objectifying of women along with a lack of strong female characters (save for fighting games, which often have a nice balance). RPGs also have female characters but there's often little difference between characters unless you choose to level up in a certain way. To me, this is simply the result of being in a male-dominated industry, which it's been since its inception.

Is it getting better in the video game industry? Sure it is, little by little. Sony, Microsoft, etc. are realizing that girls are gamers too and spending their money. I agree though with Julio, as that's all it's about, the money. What games sell? Sports games, FPS, fighting games, etc. Plus, I agree with men in general being more "gadget-interested", at least from what I've seen. That's why it's male dominated, not because they're gender discriminatory, but because they're greedy. I know I'm rambling, but to wrap it up, think about this. Makeup companies promote heavily to women. Why? Because I'd say probably 95-99% of their sales go to women. If we had a paradigm shift tomorrow where suddenly it was fashionable and encouraged for men to wear makeup while discouraging women, you know they'd change advertising instantly.

Basically, all I'm saying is to keep that in mind. It might be interesting to not only look at their role in the system, not only how gender roles have changed and adapted, but... how do we change the system? How do we encourage change? Is it related to society's reluctance to promote science and math to young girls? Is this related to our emphasis on beauty and fashion for teenage girls? Can the system be changed? I realize these are REALLY broad sweeping questions that may not fit into your context at all, but they might be food for thought to trigger something.

I don't know how much I've helped (probably not at all) but really, I hope you have some ideas fairly together already. It's getting late in the semester, and it sucks to write papers at the last minute. I should know, I'm planning on doing a few in that manner very soon. Best of luck.

[GameSlaveGaz]

Wow, I'm glad my topic got revived and I appreciate all the enthusiasm in it. The people here at DP rock hardcore!!

Since the presentation is only 10 minutes, the main theme of the project is stereotypes (made and broken) in characters and in gamers. I'm also mentioning that males are stereotyped in games too - the majority of male leads (with notable exceptions) are big, buff macho men. I ws gonna go into how the industry is still unbalanced between men and women but there's just not enough time, so the underrepresentation of women in the industry and the way games are advertised are going to be brought up, but not detailed.

I think I can do the topic justice in the short time I got. There are so many articles and opinions and surveys on the internet at my disposal too. I'll find some way to post it so that everyone at DP can read it when it's done. The summary and outline are due Monday, but the presentation isn't until after Thanksgiving, so it's gonna be a few weeks before everything is done.

Dude, I would really like to read that Transformers paper. I'd love to show it to my friend Chris too, he's OBSESSED w/Transformers. He'd probably really appreciate that topic too. Good luck on it!

[Jorpho]

To me, such notions along the lines of Chun Li being an empowering figure and Perfect Dark Zero's sales figures increasing because of its use of a female hero are really even more ridiculous than the links between video game violence and violent crime. I'm not sure just why or why not women may or may not play video games in larger or smaller numbers than they already are, but I doubt it has much to do with the presence of female characters or lack thereof.

If anything, it might be said that so many games depend on old rescue-the-female storylines because it is a particularly simple archetype that lends itself well to creating the sort of emotional investment that some people regard as essential to a good game. But being archetypical, such stories have been used in narrative already for thousands of years, and it has little to do with a male-dominated industry seeking to marginalize women.

One could also feasibly point to Japan's seminal influence on the video game industry and the role they play in that society, and also make some convoluted argument. Likewise, the comics industry with all its muscle and spandex has also likewise had an impact.

I'm sure there are many more industries that are primarily male-dominated in which it is far less easy to find such creative linkages.