Women and Video Games - a Woman's Perspective

I started playing video games in the 1980s. Back then, games were just kid stuff without ratings and genres. There were no "boy" games or "girl" games. As gaming technology progressed, a change started to happen. Women gamers became forgotten or mocked. Our existence might be likened to Bigfoot. If one is sighted, jaws drop and people don't believe it. What causes this and will women gamers one day be thought of as just gamers?

Women, video games, the media, and marketing
It's been my experience that the most popular video games like Resident Evil, Halo, or The Legend of Zelda are not generally marketed towards one gender or the other. These days most video game advertisements are glossy screen shots in a magazine or a commercial showing the game play. The media does seem to put a spin on who will play and enjoy these games. It's disheartening to see an article about a game I'm looking forward to and instead of saying "fans are anticipating the release", it says "fanboys". It's not just video game magazines that create a gender bias. News shows since the time of the first Mortal Kombat release have been questioning if video games are harmful to our boys. Even the Rise of the VideoGame documentary on the Discovery channel, first aired in 2007, referred to gamers as "boys" and then "young men." While I know it shouldn't bother me, sometimes it does.

Perceptions of women and video games
The argument is "women are offended by the portrayal of female characters." Female characters have been criticized as being too sexualized or violent. I don't have problems with the portrayal of women characters in video games. Movies and television shows have the same type of content and rarely is an eyebrow raised, at least not on the level as a video game controversy. Just like any other entertainment medium, there is a wide variety of female characters in video games. To single them out more than movies or television as being detrimental to women and the image of women is unfair. There are many strong female leads like Lara Croft from Tomb Raider, Jill Valentine from Resident Evil, Jade from Beyond Good and Evil, and Samus from Metriod. Even the often ill-fated princesses of Mario and Zelda fame have proven they can hold their own. There are also plenty of games like Fallout 3, Mass Effect, and Knights of the OldRepublic that let the player create a character from either gender.

Another stereotype is "women just aren't into hardcore games." Every woman doesn't play violent rated M games, but we all don't shun them. It's upsetting to see articles and shopping guides about how much your girlfriend will love Cooking Mama or Sims. While there are plenty of women who like those games, it's rare to see titles like Bioshock or Call of Duty mentioned in articles about what women play. On many occasions, I have received looks and statements of shock and disbelief from both men and women when I mention most of my favorite games are the violent, shoot'em up types. Worse is trying to play on Xbox Live or the Playstation Network without getting mocked or hit on just because I'm a woman.

Will women gamers get respect?
Magazines like Gamepro have recently begun to feature an "Ask the Gamer Girl" segment. Gamepro also has gamegirl.com as part of their network of gaming websites. The G4 network has female TV show hosts. While it's a start in the right direction, I'm afraid pushing the "gamer girl" persona and label too strongly might turn it into a novelty. Then the fad will pass and women gamers are back in the dark. My plan is to try to not buy into the hype, just keep playing and let my skills speak for themselves. Hopefully, one day there will no labels other then "gamer."

Sources:

Personal Experience

GamePro magazine

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/video-game/about/about.html