I believe the majority of the problem traces back to the actual number of females who play video games compared to the number of gamers who are male. When you're a large company like Nintendo or Squaresoft, you have a certain demographic that they must appease lest they go out of business from lack of sales. As of right now, we're in a transitional period where the number of females and the number of males playing games is beginning to equalize, but until then, the demographic will be more focused towards what male gamers will want to play. Unfortunately this means that until more females begin to show their interest in video games those females are going to be stuck with what is being mentioned above. And it's not to say that companies aren't trying. There are several games that have created an equality-based way of game play. The Sims is an example. Give it a few years. I'm sure that once more females join gaming companies; more games will begin to take on a female shape. It's hard enough trying to understand females sometimes.. And I'm sure it's harder for a male game producer to try to get inside the head of a female protagonist character in order to get a feel of her actions to determine her next move in the storyline. Until females start bursting into the game creation scene, males are going to have a slight domination on what games will be like. The future will bring an explosion of equality.

I agree in many ways with all of this. As an artist, concept developer, and character developer, it is very important to develop uniqueness while not going overboard or delving into too many stereotypes. Having a player or reader develop a connection with a character has a lot do to with so many other aspects of the character besides looks. Beauty can be portrayed in a number of ways besides breast size, and often these characters are the ones that make you say, "wow, she's rad."
As far as Baldur's Gate: DA, I saw nothing but schlock in the game overall. Technically it had a lot going for it, but the elf girl's design made her look like someone who should be sitting on a Harley Davidson. That's just not elven. That's B movie actress and her fake tits with some rubber ears put on. I didn't identify a single bit with anything they tried to do with that game, so when the bust-tacular bartender showed up, I wasn't surprised in the least. The entire game, design especialy, when compared to the previous BG's was trite.

As brilliant as ever Jane. I need to email you a ROM hacked version of Super Mario Bros called Super Peach Sisters. It is Mario is kidnaped and Princess has to go rescue him. It is fun and subversive.

Excellent article!

I also found the Baldur's Gate tavernkeeper to be totally ridiculous and detracting from an otherwise outstanding game.

Bernard Cesarone wrote an article in which he talks about, among other things, gender roles. Most games in and around 1995 show women as the initiators of action or the victims of the games. A study in 1992 showed that only nine female characters where depicted on popular Nintendo video games covers, while 115 males were shown. Some studies have shown that males play video games more frequently than females, so manufactures of video games may create their video games aimed at males.

Sex Sells. You know how many male friends of mine have bought that DoA:Beach Volleyball game and have no interest in volleyball? If that game was mixed with guys and girls, would as many guys still buy it? There's something to think about.

--
Cesarone, Bernard. “Video Games and Children.” Emergency Librarian 22.3 (1995): 31-32

I'd like to know what you think of a game like Xenosaga. If you've never played it, it's an RPG in which fully half of your party is female (and two of the three male characters are skinny/prepubescent-types). The main character (or at least the one who gets the largest chunk of attention) is a young female engineer with glasses, who has a very shy would-be boyfriend following her around, trying his hardest to get her attention.

I'm kind of assuming you haven't played it yet, since it seems to me to be an ideal counterpoint to crap like tomb raider, but if you have, or if you do in the future, I'd be very interested in hearing what you thought about it.

Very good article. I agree with AnotherMike, however. Video gaming, despite being a relatively artistic, independent, "hippie" industry, is a business all the same. As wonderful as it is that video gaming is beginning to be taken seriously, even becoming "mainstream," it also means that market share and bottom line are ever more important. Women need to start playing a more active role in the creative process of game development if we're going to create the best possible games, for both boys and girls. The first step in that process is for women to start playing more games, and to actively make their opinions known to both the developers and the reviewers. The end result will be games with more realistic depictions of both male and female characters, and that benefits us all as gamers.

I agree that gaming and video-gaming are so far a much more male domimated industry and also with the assessment that change is in the air. I mean look at the television media it hasn't been all that long since women became "Empowered" there. Shows with female 'action heros' like 'la fem nikita' (which might not be the best or even the best example, but it gets my point across). I have recently started playing "Darkened Skyes" on the 'cube. Which probably should have been titled "An adventure of skittles".. Anyway it's somewhat refreshing in that while the main character is obviously female she doesn't appear to be excessively endowed. Baiscally I guess I'm just saying that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I'm just hoping it's not attached to a train.

This is a pretty good article, but I see one real problem with it: you're missing the big picture. The games that you criticize are Tomb Raider, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, and DOAXBV. There's a pattern there besides huge breasts, and it's called "suckage". DOAXBV sort of gets an exemption from this category for being pretty unique as far as games that get a US release go, but BG:DA and Tomb Raider are just more products of the "when you don't have anything else, use sex" business model that so frequently appears on TV and in movies. The tactics that they use are a way to make a quick buck, but the majority of them don't sell well and the companies that produce them just barely make a profit. Criticizing them as if they're evidence of some pervasive air of exploitation in gaming is like holding up some schlocky teen comedy movie as an example of why American movies are immature. It's taking the rare (and rarely popular) exception and calling it a rule. They're fun to mock, but they're not really evidence of a serious problem.

Another problem that's not mentioned is that plenty of games that are made almost solely for women in Japan aren't given European or North American releases. So even though there are games out there specifically targeted at women, such as "guy-get" dating sims with female or gay male main characters, tons of bemani games, and generally a lot more games that don't conform to the "male badass struts in and busts shit up" gaming convention, very few of us get to see them. They're never released over here and they don't even make good imports because many of them rely on a ton of Japanese text to play the game. So the really unfortunate situation as far as gender roles and gender marketing goes in video games is that there are hardly any companies that are willing to translate and release video games here that don't appeal to a thirteen year old male audience.

I was glad to find a link to an article about women in video games that isn't just ignorant vitriol, though. It's been awhile since I've seen an article like this that doesn't make outrageous complaints, like complaining about a scantily clad girl in a video game when one of the other playable characters is an impossibly muscular young man with an intense hatred of upper body clothing or complaining about the utterly massive number of current games with a "male hero must save the dainty princess" plot, such as Super Mario Bros. for the NES, the Castlevania arcade game from the mid1980s, Double Dragon for the NES, Final Fight, and other such "recent hits". It's also nice to hear that pinup games like DOAXVB aren't a sexist male conspiracy that will send planet Earth into a vicious spiral of rape, murder, and, somehow, also racism. The world, and especially this discussion, could use more people with an "it's not my bag, but it's okay if it's yours" attitude.

I agree fully with this article. It is well written and even though I'm a guy, and I love to see hot women, enough is enough as far as games go. I want an immersive, fun game - not something that is touted to sell b/c it features a scantily clad woman somwhere in the game or pointless, mindless violence (which wasn't touched on too much). Great article though! :)

First, I would like to say that I too felt that the mentioned aspects of the visual presentation of Baldur's Gate: DA completely dissociated me with the dark and moody gameplay experience I was looking for. The look of the characters, particularly the female characters, just didn't seem to fit the game.

Secondly, Xenosaga was brought up and I would also be very interested in your thoughts on Metroid Prime. You play as a female character who's strong, silent and deadly and the most you ever actually see of the character is her face. The game, to me, is a perfect counter-example to Tomb Raider in both quality and image of the female character you're playing as.

Metroid Prime is a good example of how a great game developer can incorporate a strong lead female character into a game without reducing her to mere eye candy with guns.

I'm somewhat tired of people complaining about Phalic objects. Yes a joystick looks like a penis, but would you rather have a controller shaped like a vagina?

go play with your dolls. and make me a sandwich!

While there's something to be said for gender equality in gaming (or any form of media) I really don't see a whole lot of developers saying to themselves, "I think my game should alienate women." You really can't take things too personally. If a company is marketing a game towards males it's sheerly to boost sales (because currently more males play video games), not because they dislike women.

Gender equality would be nice in many cases, though. I thoroughly enjoyed Xenosaga which I would consider to be an extremely gender-neutral game. It's honestly the best game I've played in years and I have little doubt that it is because its maturity in all departments (including gender) is far superior to other games on the market.

At the same time, you really can't let it be that important to you. Yes, gender-neutral games are more enjoyable to me, but that's not to say I can't enjoy a gender-biased game. Tomb Raider sucks because it has terrible gameplay, not because of the gender bias. Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance has a thoroughly ridiculous plot all around, so why not just ignore the plot and enjoy the wonderful, extensive hack & slash gameplay?

Perhaps it's different for the opposite sex, but as a male I enjoy a game regardless of any gender-bias in either direction. I enjoy playing females just as much as males. I've enjoyed playing females at every opportunity (Dark Age of Camelot, Fallout 2, and I might have to give Arcanum a try!), but some games are just going to be better than others and gender maturity is a part of that. Just enjoy what's enjoyable in a game and ignore the rest.

The Soul Edge/Caliber series was very good for having strong female characters that weren't passive, shallow girls, but rather strong women. Sophitia is a great example - she's an easy to use character with potent moves, and her storyline accents both her strength and her femininity. Seung Mina was a rebellious daughter who'd grown up playing/fighting with the boys and thought she was just as good as anyone. Taki was also independent. I haven't played SC or SC2 yet, but they seem to continue the tradition.

Squaresoft's Parasite Eve series also gives us another heroine in the form of Aya Brea. While attractive, she's not unrealistic in overall design. (The anime-style eyes are another matter) The game allows her personality to show through every now and then with some humor. (in Parasite Eve 2, you walk through a trashed convenience store. One of the aisle's has junk food in it. She comments on it, then adds, "Nothing I'd ever eat, though..." as sort of a joke.) Yes, there is a shower scene in PE2, but it is tastefully done overall, and it doesn't just happen, the character has walked through a sewer and been walking around a desert town by the time this happens. A hot shower would not be an unreasonable want.

For the most part, games are steered towards guys. But there is hope. Even without being playable character, women along the lines of several of Metal Gear Solid's female characters make a game more interesting without going right for the sex factor. Hopefully more games will start including similarly strong women (who are still women, not "men" with boobs)

Just my two cents.

Overall, I have to say that, as someone who's read plenty of "All Video Games Are Sexist Because The Women In Them Are Attractive!" articles, this stood out as actually appreciating some games involving attractive women for their other values, instead of merely focusing on how women were portrayed. Many people like to complain about how women in video games are always busty, but they rarely compare the number of less-endowed women to the number of skinny nerdish guys, another commonly ignored stereotype for a hero.

I think, though, that the current tendency towards strong male characters and depthless female characters in video games has a strong root in the history of how these games came about. The fact is, boys have always been encouraged to focus more on math and science, and girls on literature and social studies. This is changing now, but during the 50's and 60's, this was still the case. The result here is that when computers started to become popular, and later arcade games, the people most interested in them ended up being the people most interested in technology, i.e. the boys raised on science. Take a look at Pong. The fact is, it wasn't all that fun of a game, when you think about it. Board games at the time were much more interesting, and yet, it was immensely popular. Why? Because people liked the technology. So boys really started the video game revolution not because video games were actually fun, but because it was so novel to be able to press a button, and have the screen respond.

Here's where the problem comes in. You have the boys, who were raised on science, playing pong non-stop, while the girls, who were raised on literature and social studies, have no idea why you'd want to play this game. So, as children naturally do, the girls ridiculed the boys. Of course, these same boys who were ridiculed by girls in their childhood for playing video games grow up to be the men that make the video games 20 years later, and what do they do? They make the video games for guys. They make the male characters complex and interesting, because that's how they remember their friends from the arcades, and they make the female characters 2-dimensional and pointless, because that's what they seemed like to them when they were young.

And the fact is, this problem is still going on today, only in a slightly different sense. Video games are not only pointless technology demos any more; they're incredibly complex ssytems that involve human interaction and years of training to master. And yet guys who play video games are often treated by girls as if they were heroin addicts, spending all their time and money on something completely worthless and even harmful to themselves. Nowadays, this is more often justified by claiming that the video games that guys play are too violent, or don't give them any social interaction. I have actually had girls tell me that games like Battlefield 1942 close people off from society, while at the same time expounding the virtues of Solitaire, which is possibly one of the most addictive and non-social games ever made.

So what would happen if I became a video game designer later in life, and used my experiences to decide on how females were portrayed in my games? I think that instead of complaining about game developers making games that portray women badly (by the way, saying that the player leads or guides a character in an RPG or adventure game is common terminology applied to both male and female characters in game reviews), we should work harder on (A) helping girls realize that video games aren't the root of all society's ills, and (B) encouraging them to make their own games.

Your opening comment about identifying too strongly with GTA3 hits close to home in Oakland. Those kids called themselves the Nut Cases.

This article is on top of things. I would really like to see more games that are not gender biased. Not only would this open the market more for females, but it would add greater gameplay dynamics. Even games in which you choose the attributes of the main character, you choose how NPC's respond to you. This is the way gameplay should be headed, it adds for a more personal and unique game.

Somewhere along the lines consumers seem to forget that markets are driven towards capital gain. Orienting video games more towards females (which is probably unfair to say, rather I should word it as changing the current orientation of the demographic AT ALL) would more than likely result in some loss of revenue. In any business market I can tell you that is simply unacceptable. As a 21 year-old male gamer, I recognize the facets of the industry same as you. Your article was well-written, but I think you fail to touch on the fact that developers do what makes money. If a large female target audience suddenly started buying videogames and became a voice to listen to the industry, you could expect change. However, as it stands, I wouldn't hold your breath.

It's a nice article, though I did see a bit of a problem with it... Here, you're treating videogames like books, or film-festival projects. As long as I've been playing videogames, the only times I've tried relating to the characters or identifying with them is when venturing into the world of fanfic. Yes, there are a few exceptions--and yes, I'm not the best judge of quality on this issue--but for the most part, I play videogames for the issue of fun. Yes, I can see your target audience point, but the average female isn't interested in videogames anyway, be they aimed at them or not. I may be a tomboy, but I'm still female; but I still think that if there were more games made and marketed for females, they probably would be marketed toward the stereotypical bimbo female, and would be mindless and boring.

As for game suggestions, maybe you should try something like Drakan(PS2 - it had a subtitle, but I forget what it was). I played it a while back, and didn't get far enough along to recognize a lot of character developement, but it was alot like Tomb Raider--only the main character didn't have basketballs for breasts. It was a medieval setting in which the main character, Rynn, is a sort of mercenary whose homeland was destroyed in a war, and...alright, so I can't remember what the story was, but I remember that you were supposed to go around and run errands for the townspeople and that sort of thing... (sorry if that wasn't very helpful)

I do agree with several of your points; certainly those about the whole Lara Croft fiasco. However, there are characters that break the mould - look at Ayane from Tenchu, or several characters from Final Fantasy games. It is my hope, as well as many other peoples, that female characters in videogames can grow to become more involved, and not merely ninjas and useless NPC's. That being said, I personally don't thin it will be long before this is the case.

i play the game that unites all types of gamers, Dance Dance Revolution!!!

Very nice, I don't think i've read anything this good about games in my entire time as a gamer, thanks :)

One great game for gender equality and realistic physical features was Tony Hawk 3. I have a friend who is, basically, short and round, but she could play with the player edit settings and make a character that looked pretty much just like her, and she was thrilled. Unfortunately, TH4 has lost the "extremes" of height and weight, and characters must be mostly middle of the road, ideal shapes. Pity.

An excellent article - as a male gamer I suppose I tend to be oblivious to the differences. Occasionally though, they do come out (for example playing Diablo II or PSO as a female).

One thing though - Joysticks. Laughably phallic? I admit they are phallic, but in this case you must examine intent - the stick was invented along with the first aircraft 100 years ago. Admittedly those designers were male, but they weren't video game designers, not to mention I doubt they intended it as a symbol of male superiority where aircraft are concerned. I mean, can you picture an effective way to control a biplane that's shaped like a breast or vagina? This one case is surely a coincidence.

i think many games are for women. for instance, extreme beach volleyball has naked guys in it. so there.

A very-well written article! As a girl gamer, I agree with you a lot.

However, I wished you had mentioned dating sims. As an experiment, I tried two different ones (the names will go unmentioned).

How were they?

Pure sexism. On BOTH sides.

You could only play as a male character. The final goal was to HAVE SEX WITH THE GIRL WITHIN 100 DAYS.

Ridiculous! Not all guys are itching to jump into bed with a girl, and not all girls will call you "creep" when you approach them! We're ALL victims here!

...not to mention that the stereotypical looks were applied as well. Tall, tanned, leggy blonde girls with wide-chested, well-endowed males.

Something needs to be done, and fast... ...because if this keeps up, what a sad society it will be.

YOU WILL ALL BURN IN HELL FOR PLAYING VIDEO GAMES. ALL OF YOU. DO SOMETHING WITH YOUR PATHETIC LITTLE LIVES!!

good point, xocet... i meant the "laughably phallic" to be more of a joke than a serious criticism. i think though that other people have written about certain alienating aspects of the interfaces in videogames (Poole mentions it briefly in Trigger Happy).

i think many games are for women. for instance, extreme beach volleyball has naked guys in it. so there.

Posted by: adam on April 17, 2003 02:25 PM

*I, as a woman, am straight, but I'm not interested in polygonal maked men. "Equal opportunity nudity" does NOT justify your statement.

So, whoopee, there's a naked guy in my video game. Is there any degrading talk about seeing penises bouncing as you "guide" the character to victory?

I don't think so.

Next time, think about what you're saying. I don't mind hearing other opinions, as long as they can back it up.

Score one point for equality. Adieu.

Let's say you have two choices...

Female choice: Average breasts, decent face, not skinny, not fat, completely normal. Very little make-up.

Male choice: Neck that can bend steel, huge biceps, thick brow, huge bulging crotch that bounces slightly while walking.

I'm assuming that's what alienation feels like.

I'm curious to know what your reaction to the Elder Scrolls game series is. Morrowind is a beautiful game, totally open-ended, and you have the choice of both the race and sex of your character. I've only played it as a male character, but have run into female wizards, fighters, thieves, priestesses, leaders, and gods. They run the gamut of personalities, and I was curious (if you've played) what you think.

This is a very interesting article. As a psychology and communication double major, and a girl gamer, i found it very accurate. I have been playing videogames for a long time, and there is a lot of alienation, genderbias and sexism. I dont understand y so many males are writing in and disagreeing... are you female? Well then...

stereotyping in games is harsh now a days. i just finished unlocking EVERYTHING in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Aliance, and much to my chargin i found that one of my favorite video game women had been digraded by a scantely clad swimsuit poster unlocked in the crypt. Sonya always seemed like the strong type to me but now i find that she is a lifegaurd when she is not on duty for the government. how convinient is that?

my favorite characters always tend to be the women. this is odd since i am a guy. it's not because of the pixilated breasts or unbelievably tiny outfits. it's the fact that in some story lines, the women have the best triumphic plot twists.

i remember playing Phantasy Star Online a few years ago. my first and most beloved character was a female warrior. i decided in creating her that i would test out a theory. i made her look as attractive as possible and decided that i would play her as a helpless damsel in distress type. sure, i got hit on alot. more often than not i would walk away from a night of gaming with about twenty phone numbers from all across the country. but the real gem is this. i would go into a game and say something like, "Some mean man just PK'd me and took my only weapon! i don't have any money! can someone help me out?" this would be followed by just about every male avatar rush to me with gifts of Lavis Cannons and God Arms. needless to say i soon had a 52 level hunter who hit with the power and ferocity of a 100 level. i kid you not, my bank was full of ultra rare weapons to the point that i was dealing the ones i couldn't use out for money which i would never EVER need. it was just the fact that i had become a sort of black market, in game, on the sole fact that i could pull off acting like a damsel in distress.

and you really shouldn't blame the people who make the games. it's mostly the fault of two groups. 1: the marketing geniouses who try and sell the games to as many people as possible, and 2: the sex deprived hardcore gamers that only know how to look at a strong female character as the best piece of ass they will ever get. and since they rule the majority of consumers in this market, supply and demand says, "Give them what they want."

hence DOA: Extreme Beach Volleyball. Hence BMX XXX. Hence the pinup girls of Def Jam Vendetta. need i go on?

personally my choice goes like this... Men? Women? give me a collosal death robot any day! Go Robotech Battlecry! WOOHOO!

-th3k0w-

gods gift to gaming.

too long article, make it shorter then ill think about reading it...

Yes, it was a well written and thoughtful article. I appreciate the balanced views toward this subject and none of the "Raging Feminist" nonsense that usually seems to accompany articles of this type. All of the points were well thought through... except one.

"The attitude seems to be, 'Maybe some women play our games, but we don't really know, and frankly, we don't care.'"

That's exactly what their attitude is. The simple fact of the matter is that, for the most part, men ARE the only people who play video games. Obviously there are exceptions to this, as this article was written by a member of our fairer sex. But we of the male persuasion are game companies' key demographic. And as their key demographic, it is their obligation to pander to us. Let's face it people, sex sells. And no article, Internet or no, blaming these companies for their male-oriented sexist attitude is going to change that... ever.

I have to agree with some ofthe comments here, especially thie first comment, it really is all up to demographics. But again, that will change over time, and again it is right now. I haven't asked many female players, since it is hard to find very many..., but i find that some of the new games coming out have kind of a bi-gender feel to them, allowing both to play the game. One of these is Morrowind, although it doesnt really affect the game that much, or at least I have seen, it also doesnt have the bouncing breasts in it either. I find that there has been a great improvement over the earlier games, which were completely made for males. And I am waiting for more women to get into games as it would be great for thm to finally understand why we like playing them so much.

And with the opposite sex thing going on in the MMORPGs, I'm with Justin. It's fun playing as the ladies in the game (I know my name sounds like a 'chick' name, but get over it). Actually for one reason why is because I seem to get really madat everyone and impatient when i am male, but my female characters always remain calm. I kno, i take roleplaying maybe a lil too far. But, yes, I hold the same hopes as many of you dohere.

Two things that caught my attention:

1) The whole Lara Croft business. Yes, Eidos' marketing scheme was less than brilliant on that one. More to the point though, they didn't really HAVE a scheme. If one takes a look at the whole range of the appearances of Croft, one sees a preponderance of "Look, boobs!", but there are also many other instances of grimaces and firing .45's. Perhaps they are more exapected, and thus overlooked in comparison to the sexual nature. It is important to note though, that this was an important step in the concept of characters your could recognize (subconsciously) as a being capable of sexuality. It is no surprise they had no problem going with that. I think however that if you had played the game a bit (I never finished it, but played a good chunk of the way through) you would say that there was very little of a sexual content in the game (other than the rather large *ahem* polygons.)

Secondly, the bit about
"You don't see female dwarves or trolls in Tolkien," he says. "All the trolls are genderless, which is to say, they are male."
is just appalling in an article of otherwise intelligent and objective discourse. The context of Tolkein's works do not contain female dwarves, mostly due to the fact that all the dwarves encountered ever were warriors/kings(unless Tolkein was a giant misogynist and no one happened to mention it.) It is important to remember that when Tolkein came up with the idea for the LotR Trilogy, he was in the frame of mind of creating a mythology for anchient (pre Roman conquest if I recall) Celtic cultures. Feminism and fantasy RPGs aside (considering they all took everything from Tolkein in the first place)women were not warriors or monarchs. It just wasn't done then, with very rare exception. Sure, some people can name 2 or 3 cultures that had women leaders, or women soldiers, but the Amazons were mythic, and I can name perhaps a hundred cultures that were paternaly led.
As to the orcs etc., Tolkein hardly bothered to describe them at all, much less go into details about gender. Further, what would it matter if that 4th orc from the left Legolas cut down was a female? Saying Genderless = Male is just a terrible contradiction, and no rational person should make that statement.

In conclusion, if you are looking for games that are more gender pleasant, I would suggest "Tenchu," "Oni" (rent it though, it has no replay value), and the Dynasty Warriors Series. All feature strong women in charge, and many dead mean are the result.

actually, Negative, i disagree; one of the reasons gender in games is a hot topic now is that there are a lot more women who are interested in games than there were twenty years ago. and i've had a fair number of inquiries from game designers very interested in making games for women, girls, and other traditionally non-gaming demographics. it's pretty clear that if the industry is to continue to grow, it will have to appeal to a broader audience, and half of them are female.

i think a lot of game designers, male *and* female, are very excited to attract a greater market. the bulk of them realize that pandering is a pretty limited and short-term solution. all the bouncing breasts in the world - while very pretty - will become boring if the gameplay sucks.

Ok, very good article. One thing it didn't touch on however was that video games are entertainment. They are an escape from reality. They are supposed to be fun, exotic, engaging, and mesmerizing. If the makers of a game need to put big hooters on their game to sell it, that’s their prerogative. BG is a RPG, which is to say a certain type of game; DOAABVX (or whatever their calling it) is a hooters game. This kind of game is not new or terribly engaging, but it could be fun to the right group of people. Do you remember Lesuire suit Larry? Dear God. When that game came out it had some of the worst graphics, a worse plot, and a hooters game, but it was interesting. Back to the point > if you don't like the game, don't buy it, and please don't bitch, because someone else probably likes it.

For example: I personally don't care to much for Sports genre games, but that doesn't mean I'm going to start whining about how many dam NBA2XXX's there are. I just don't purchase or play them.

And to touch on the gender thing, our generation (I'm 23) is going to see some very hard but interesting times. As our society progress's gender differences will deteriorate and die off with all the old men in positions of power from 2 generations ago. You can see it in today’s courts. Women battling over maternity leave and such. As our generation grows up and starts holding offices of power, in which the stereotypes are lessened, things will get better for everyone. But, I think we have a long way to go.

(jane posted while i was typing this and pretty much took the words out of my mouth) If we keep talking about the market, the issue is that the female market hasnt had a chance to grow yet - the research hasnt been conducted to get the numbers regarding girl gamers - has it?
It's unfair to talk about demographics when they're assumed, i think. It's an untapped, unexamined market. To assume it's not there is a big mistake. You are now dealing with the generation who got their nintendo at age 8 and are now 23, who want good games, many have been turned off beacause of the violence, time consumed by games and price. (i did a little of my on fast survey of my friends). An interesting point from a girl i know was that more females probably enjoy the creative and less restrictive aspects of tycoon/sim games. "If there is a problem you can solve it, and it doesnt involve a structured storyline in which you either have to fight to the death or shoot a pron film (vice city).

I do like fighting to the death in certain cases, the Night Elves in Warcraft 3 were what sold me on the game. I loved Starcraft, and was really into the asthetic presented by Blizzard.

As well, perhaps the naked men in the volleyball game werent put there for women... ;)

You hit the nail on the head with your comments on Tomb Raider. I played the game, (main reason one, it reminded me of Indiana Jones), and played thru it as rapidly as I could as I whole-heartedly enjoyed it. I do however, wish that they would have marketed this game in a gender neutral way. I believe you were correct in saying that this game could have revolutionized the marketplace in terms of girl-gaming.

Unfortunately, the majority of gamers are boy/young men/men and for companies to make the money justifying there cost, they will market the games to the majority demographic. (I am a 35 y/o addicted gamer who has had the bug since Pong, and I also happen to be male.) The other unfortunate happenstance is the absolute insult to gaming that most supposed girl games manufacturers produce in order to entice girls to play. Barbie this, Nancy Drew that. These games are, sexist in and of themselves. They stick to the generic sex roles that society almost always wants to pin on young girls/women. These games (if you can call them such), in a word, suck. They are boring, non-challenging, pieces of programming fluff that these companies can point to and then complain that girl-games don't sell. These games insult the intelligence of their own demographic; thus justifying the need to make games in which they can sell using Sex/Sex Appeal.

Is there a simple fix? No. What can be done? Creating games that are just fun to play regardless of societal norms and/or expectations as it relates to the game avatar.

Thank you for your article, very well written and well thought out.

yay jane!

thanks for writing such a practical article! there are already so many righteous and indignant demands for particular treatments of women in games, and also so many righteous declarations that it is women's own fault that games are no fun for women to play since women don't buy games (uh, see this comment thread).

very nice to see a straight-forward explanation of which features totally waste potential female markets and which features could attract new buyers. hooray!

I think we're failing to remember one of the first and foremost female heroines in video gaming.

Samus Aran.

Samus Aran, first introduced in 1986 in the hit game "Metroid", became an icon to women who could kick butt and take names (in my opinion, and in the minds of all my friends). We could think of not a single male hero (again, at the time) who could compete with Samus.

Granted, at the onset of Metroid, it was thought that Samus was merely a robot, but with the introduction of the "Just in Bailey" code (A Bailey was a swimsuit, IIRC), we learned that Samus was realy a human, and a FEMALE at that!

Outside of that one point, this was an excellent article.

I'm just sort of curious on where Kate Archer of No One Lives Forever fits in with all this. To me, at least, she seems like a strong female lead. Any thoughts from you?

I am indeed pleased to read this article. I do believe that such a change is needed, and also that the actual tendency of creating a more cinematic ambient will help since the plot is more and more important these days. That might help by creating very interesting ambients that would only be more appropiate with a well thought female lead character.

On the other hand, you mention a point that I would love to see done: less goal oriented games. Both types of game could co-exist to give players the option of a well constructed, engaging and plot oriented game to a "just for fun" game that I can take for just some minutes, and I would love to see a ore varied scope of possibilities in the gender field.. without noticing it.

First I'll put my "Wow, what a great article" on top of the pile with everyone else's, then I'll say this:

I, personaly, think a juvenile attitude was to be expected in video game development simply because of it's relative youth. Compared to books, radio, board games, and even T.V., video games are a brand-new form of entertainment. More importantly, marketable entertainment. As so many have pointed out: Sex sells. And it sells primarily to men.

But here's the catch that some developers are realizing (and that some have known all along): Video games are not just for kids and adolecents.
At first, the marketing for video games was aimed almost exclusively at pre-teen to teenage boys. Maybe that was the only market at the time, I'm not old enough to know, but I know that those boys (theoreticly) grew up and if those designers wanted to keep their revenues flowing, their games had to grow up as well.

And that's where I think we are now. Software companies are coming to realize that there is a very large group of gamers out there who demand a mature product. And a hefty aspect of that mature product must be an elemination of the broad gender generalizations and stereotypes. DAOC is a perfect example in that regard. The only gender sterotypes that exist there are the ones that we bring with us. I'm optimistic that video games are now coming out of their juvenile growing pains and so will their content.

Companies put an enormous amount of money and effort into acquiring new customers. If you owned a company, which of the following would you like to hear from the head of your marketing department?

"Yeah, half of the potential customers don't buy our products. But we don't care, we don't need any more customers."

"OMG, half of the potential customers don't buy our products? We have to do something about that so we can make money from them too!"
Doubling your market is rarely a bad business decision.

Very good article. (Found it from Penny Arcade's link.) I'd like to add a good female to the list: American McGee's Alice .. I'll skip all the artistic value and authenticity-or-not to the books (which I do love) and just say the heroine, Alice, is a strong-willed, feminine, British 17-year-old girl with a revolutionary trait: she looks like a Victorian England 17-year-old girl! She's actually quite attractive but because the designers didn't try to force it -- pretty face (with anime eyes), slender figure (withOUT anime breasts), fully clothed (you read that right). The camera is even designed so you have to go to great lengths to close-up "examine her polygons." It's not just aesthetics (looks, voice, etc.), though; the ways she reacts to the NPCs in cutscenes of the game -- her friends, her enemies -- is utterly believable.

I don't just guide Alice, I am Alice.

...and now a response to Josh, who I believe is missing the whole point of these discussions:

"It's a nice article, though I did see a bit of a problem with it... Here, you're treating videogames like books, or film-festival projects. As long as I've been playing videogames, the only times I've tried relating to the characters or identifying with them is when venturing into the world of fanfic. Yes, there are a few exceptions--and yes, I'm not the best judge of quality on this issue--but for the most part, I play videogames for the issue of fun."

The primary reason for playing a videogame is the fun factor. It just so happens that what's "fun" is different for everybody. Some people could care less whether it has a quality plot like a good book or film, just as long as the button-mashing never wears thin. Some people are bored with button-mashing from the get-go, but fall immensely in love with the development of a game's story and characters, even if they the players have to flesh them out themselves. It all seems to depend on how one uses one's imagination. Note: maybe you wouldn't have to rely on fanfics for character development if the games themselves did it better.

"Yes, I can see your target audience point, but the average female isn't interested in videogames anyway, be they aimed at them or not."

Maybe the average female isn't all that interested in them because they're not aimed at them. My ex-girlfriend loves the Mario Kart series, Conker's Bad Fur Day, and a few others. Most (average) games seem to bore her, but if it's mindless fun with a good social element (Kart, Super Smash Bros.) or intriguing in character (BFD, Hangaroo), she loves it -- she also likes Tetris and SimCity3000 if that means anything. As long as it's not too difficult, she's willing to enjoy.

"I may be a tomboy, but I'm still female; but I still think that if there were more games made and marketed for females, they probably would be marketed toward the stereotypical bimbo female, and would be mindless and boring."

That's the whole point. If they're truly marketed for females (or even better, both genders,) they wouldn't be stereotypical unless the game called for it. BFD is full of stereotypes, but it's an M-rated British comedy, so it's inappropriateness is totally appropriate in context.

Alice, however, is a psychological thriller of sorts set in the time of Victorian England but the place of a young girl's own truamatized mind, so if anybody comes out in the game in a bikini, the entire game's value would be greatly deprecated. (I haven't finished the game yet, but I highly doubt any bimbos shall surface before it's finished.)

On that note, there's one obscure part in E-rated Banjo-Kazooie where a blonde in a red two-piece walks by on a beach. Well, it's on a beach, so it's kind of appropriate, but why? It has nothing else to do with the game! Every time I play to that point, I just shake my head and wonder how many middle-aged men with no signficant others work(ed) at Rareware, Ltd.

Think Cruis'n USA. It's a great concept -- take real roads from the US and turn them into a cross-country racetrack. So why the fully clothed men and bikini-clad women? And why so fake, too? (Play or watch it if you haven't already. The woman with plastic ..smiles.. popping out from under your hood and gyrating around when you finish the race is flabbergasting.)

It's a vicious cycle. Girls don't like games 'cause games don't cater to girls. Games don't cater to girls 'cause girls don't like games. If girls made games, girls might like games more; but more girls might make more games if more girls liked games more in the first place. Slowly but surely, these barriers are being broken down, but it'll take more articles like this (and their writers and like-minded gamers) to break down these barriers.

Wow, that was long. Sorry I wrote so much!

ParodyKnaveBob of the new upstart NOVA
New Order of Videogame Addicts/Advocates/longstory

While you present an interesting article, and I agree with most of the points. I have serious problems with the Lara Croft sidebar (and I am not even a big fan of the game)... In that little pink box you went from intelligent argument to winey militant feminest complainer. First you claim they are 4 seperate articles. This is clearly not the case as you cite the same quote "the chance to play a Lolita version of Lara, budding breasts and all." in 2 of them. You also say "you are always leading her, guiding her, while studying her form " You are putting words into thier mouth when you say 'while studying her form.' Second, as far as always alienating the player, and leading her.. 2 of the highlighted text items refer to putting you in her shorts, and having you play as her. And don't tell me that 'in her shorts', 'daisy dukes,' or whatever is sexist. It may be in presentation by the artists, but as far as a review stand point, that *is* what she is wearing. It is no different then a review of Splinter Cell 'putting you in the wet suit of Sam Fisher.' I could take those same quotes, highlite different parts and change the whole spin. I challange you to find ANY word to use in place of 'control' that would be appropriate description. Keep in mind these reviewers have to use a few different words. You can't even keep saying 'drive' in a racing game review. You have to mix it up a bit.
As for the Xbox controler, that isn't sexist design.. no one has hands big enough to hold that monster! ;)

[Quote]...to the peripherals (the laughably phallic joystick, the original Xbox controllers which are too big for my hands, the color scheme of the Xbox) are male-friendly[/Quote]

The controllers for Xbox originally were too big for a pro basketball player. I know you said you didn't expect to see pink boxes, but how could you judge what colors are male friendly opposed to say, feminine ones? That's like saying Pink is for girls, and blue is for boys in all aspects of life. I got told off at my work for making a comment to a customer about his/her choice in colors for a birthday party, and well I realize that favorable colors depend on the individual, not necessarily a depicted "norm" for men and women.

[tsn]Green

I tend to agree with Josh about the stance of corporations when it comes to developing and producing games geared towards women. Simply put, the overwhelming majority of gamers consists of males like myself. However, I have found that most of the girls I know love video games as well. Animal Crossing comes to mind immediately because it was geared towards a compromise bewtween the sexes. It's clearly not geared towards any gender specifically. I can honestly say its a fun game to play, and quite varied. I think if the video game industry began a gradual shift away from male-oriented games and towards games that appeal to all, they could incoprorate a new demographic into their sales. Hell, look at how well The Sims did. That game is ridiculously addictive to everyone. Also I pose this question: would the creation of female-oriented games be an exercise in futility or is there a possibility that creating the genre would draw out female gamers who feel like they are not represented in the video games of today?

2 things. I agree with your article, but about a phallus joy stick- do you have a more fitting shape? I don't think a crevice of some design would work better.... Heheh...

Also, I *am* a guy, and maybe that's why I can't tell, but most of the games I play aren't too sexually stereotypical. In any online RPG I've played I had at least 1 female character. (Diablo's sorceress and Amazon, and Several in Phantasy Star Online are a few).

Yea, I can see it in other games, though. Sophitia has one move that is quite interesting. It's called "Heaven to hell" where she jumps on top of the person's head, (their head now immersed in her crotch) and then she twists their neck and flips them down.

Maybe I just don't play enough "mature" games that have much sex... If I need porn there's an internet full of it. When I need a game I like surreal fantasy, and it doesn't need sex. (Hell, one of my favorite games is Super Monkey Ball...)

Bah, you're using PSO as an example? If I were a male character and asked for duped weapons, I wouldn't have been any more or less accepted than you were. If I played a Rogue in Diablo and asked for items, and I get them, it's simply because I'm playing a female character? Could you people be a little bit less shallow?

Not to mention the arcade stick remark. I'm sure everything looks like a penis to you people. I generally works better than a D-pad, especially being usable while gripping only the stick (arcade cabinets don't have pads). Could you think of some 'genderless' stick?

Plus, I cannot believe that you would actually not play games simply because some girls have breasts. The webmistress decided to show her underwear on this website, while she was masturbating (or faking it, whatever). You obviously seem to understand your gender. Yet breasts offend you? I suppose you're nothing more than the sensitive male "OMG OMG PENIS PENIS PENIS!!1!" type, yet female. I guess I don't understand females enough to know why it hurts their confidence to see someone with bigger breasts than them, but that's another discussion.

Also, I don't believe that insulting men is really going to get your point across. What's the point of making enemies out of people, especially those with similar interests? Why you so interested in 'genderless' gaming? Hell, I don't even know what you mean by that. Plus, it doesn't even seem to make sense, since you seem to like having the ability to be a female character that sleeps with male characters, which isn't exactly the most 'genderless' goal I can think up.

Also, it does not upset me to play as a female character in EQ, or Perfect Dark, or Sakura Kasugano from Rival Schools. If your ego is so bruised by playing as male characters (or female, for that matter), then so be it. But you haven't sold me at all. I am certainly not Duke Nukem, but I am not offended by him or his goals.

Good work, that was a very interesting and insightful article. I especially enjoyed your comments on MMORPGs and MUDs. I used to be horribly addicted to Phantasy Star Online (probably still am, I'm just on hiatus), and I noticed the same thing. One person I met online was an actual girl (differentiating her from the men who pretend to be females), and I noticed that she always got a ton of handouts from people without even asking. Its bizarre to see a pseudo-sexual relationship like that take place, and somewhat disheartening in a sense. I like to think of things like games that take place in an online space as free of gender roles since theres no visual reference to base your expectations on. However, both on IRC (Internet Relay Chat, for the uninformed) and in games, I see women constantly getting hit on in a fashion that wouldn't even come close to being socially acceptable in person. A great, and disturbing, example of this is The Sims Online. Since it opened, I've heard a number of reports of prostitution in the game world, and of men randomly kissing female characters. In a world where women are already overly objectified, the anonymity of the internet seems to make things worse, rather than better as I would've hoped.

Why do you people insist on writing responses longer then the article? It's ridiculous.

I thought it was a great article, maybe I'm a one off - a male gamer who notices things - but I was well aware of the stereotyping.

However, male stereotyping DOES take place, even in roleplay games that should allow a user to have full customisation.

Neverwinter nights being one good example of this, the girls in Neverwinter do get a wide range of customisation, but the phenotype option allows them to choose between "anorexic model" and "somewhat chubby" - but notice how all the male characters have wide chest/shoulders, fair muscles and are built like a tree trunk. The phenotypes allow for either "heavy built male", or "totally grossly overweight male". This limits male roleplay to warriors and other toughy-types, at least visually (It doesn't make much sense a scholarly mage with arms like Arnold Swartznegger).

Neverwinter makes a good step in the right direction though, if it allowed for greater physical customisation I think it'd just about break the mould and give male and female gamers an equal platform to work from - and maybe give a brighter future for the gaming world.

I'm only a minimal gamer, but this article really made me think about things that I hadn't considered before. I've played games like Drakkan, liked some of it, but never gave it a second thought in terms of gender roles. I was mostly interested in how far away I could be with a bow and pick off baddies without engaging in the kinds of hand-to-hand combat scenes that have been added to other games to promote "strong female characters".

However, I remember downloading demos of games sold as having "strong" female characters, and in my mind only mocking the definition of "strength" that was applied. So she can carry a rediculously large weapon with her Kate Moss arms, so what! So she can run, jump, and fight "like a man" without falling out of her costume, so what! If you look at real women in real combat, they wear just as much armor as the men do, and not just kevlar bikinis. But I'm a 23-year-old degreed mechanical engineer, so I'm thinking in terms of real-world physical constraints all the time.

I agree that there is an imbalance, but I think it is hard change only one part of the entertainment industry. As someone pointed out earlier, video games are made for entertainment and as such represent a growing part of the entertainment industry. I would like to add that pornography is an increasingly large portion of the entertainment industry. To change one mis-guided or exploitive aspect of the industry is to necessitate changing that aspect industry-wide if it is hoped that society might take gender roles seriously as a factor in determining how it is to be entertained.

Well, that was a really great article. I enjoyed it, and it brought up many wonderful points.

Now, I know some people are saying, "Well, what about Samus Aran?" Samus is a female. No big spoiler there. Not to mention, she kicks ass, and we never have any interactions with men to criticize.

What I think would be interesting to look at is the way Metroid Prime is structured, as a game. Unlike the other Metroid games, we're inside her visor. It really is the first game where you are Samus Aran. I think that this is great, especially since I, playing it, really felt like Samus (although it's so much fun to roll around... and around... and around... in third person view morph ball).

Now, I know people might point out Final Fantasies as a nice counterpoint. But really, most of those women, especially once we get onto the PlayStation platforms, aren't really good at being identified with. Rikku is very sexualized - remember her exit from her wetsuit? Lulu's practically falling out of her dress. Yuna's the only one with some kind of semblance to reality, and that'll disappear in X-2. We all remember the way Tifa was animated in FF7. Look to the Super Nintendo for strong women, specifically FF5 and FF6.

Outside of those choice examples, though, most games are, admittedly, pretty bad. I've ruminated on this many times. Especially outside of the RPG genre, where less and less attention is paid to plot.

th3k0w: you are gay.

Girls: go play with your barbies if you don't like soft pr0n in games :/

Am I the only one who thought that The Wind Waker was a breakthrough game in terms of female character development? We all know how much Zelda was a complete idiot in just about every other Zelda game.

****SPOILER****

Tetra was a breath of fresh air to me. It was great to see a Princess Zelda who actually had something to say about the story, who was engaged in the story to a higher level than just being kidnapped. I want to see more of this.

I think the people that keep harping on demographics are missing something fairly important. Gaming in North America has grown large enough to support experimentation and niche markets. There was no real market in North America for Ka (Mr. Mosquito), Disgaea, Zettai Zetsumei Toshi (Disaster Report), or Guilty Gear XX, but they were or will be released in the United States anyway. They do not have female characters with big breasts, they do not pander to a young male audience, and they do not come on the heels of a wildly successful game in the same genre. The market has grown large enough for companies to experiment like this, but no one has really bothered to experiment with games, Japanese or American, that are aimed toward women. There's no real reason for that when North American game companies are experimenting with even smaller markets and accepting the small returns that come with those markets. They've realized that you don't need to have the best-selling game in the entire country to make a very respectable profit anymore, but they haven't really exploited that beyond releasing a handful of quirky Japanese games.

Business isn't a simple matter of entering the market and doing the thing that has worked for the guys at the top. A lot of game companies in North America have recently realized that by doing something different than what Sony, Rockstar, and Sega are doing, they can carve out their own little niche in the market and make a modest amount of money. Unfortunately, it seems like almost all of them have decided to go for the exact same niche market and release quirky Japanese games that have gotten a lot of press in gaming magazines and on import sites. Eventually someone will realize that there's enough space for more than one niche market in North America and decide to do something else, like possibly appealing more to female gamers.

I am a male gammer, and I find this article to one of if not the best essay written on the subject of feminism in games. I think that is is important to note to all the post about games just being about money that this is also not universaly true. It seems to me games are gradualy becoming a true art form, or at least a form of media like movies and television. Game developers such as Myamoto are able to design games with the same freedom many well respected holywood directors have. This freedom allows these developers to create games that have more than economic value.

I think that there might also be another aspect of identification/alienation to consider, the nature of modern feminism. I think that it is easy to say that big-brested female charcters are uniformly intinded to be eye candy for male gammers. After all, I think most women and teenage girls would not play some similar game to tomb raider with a male protagonist sex-symbol. However, several girls I am friends with have a VERY high oppinion of Sepheroth from Final Fantasy VII. I think it speaks to a deeper poin about how girls relate to caracters of both sexes. The truth is most guys, if not all to at least some extent, are delusional about themselfs. I belive that all men and teen-age boys belive that they are, at least to some extent, the swave, atheletic, clever, or ortherwise gifted protagonist they play. Obviously the feminist ideal of the equality of women no matter their physical appearance does not carry over to the other side. In other words: while women want characters like how they ARE, men like caracters that are like what they WANT TO BE. th3c0w mentioned his preferance for the mech protagonist of Robotech: Battlecry; this is the same priciple, you don't identify with a giant warmachine, you want to be/pilot it. The conflict comes about because while society allegly has ideals that all women are supposed to stive to be, most women nowadays reject these notions. Thus, there are no general characteristics for a female character that most women can readly identify with.

So as I see it there is a different question to ask, not "What is wrong with female charcters in videogames?" but "What qualities should a good female character have?". I do think there are begining to be enough women in the game development and consumption community to answer this question. I am of course not qualifyed to star ansewring this question, due to my singular X chromosone. But I do know some of the questions that might help find the answer such as, "What female role models are there that many women DO wish to be or identify with?".

I do think there are some important female characters that have been overlooked in this, for example Cortana and the Pilot of the Dropship Fullhammer in Halo, your breifer in Mechassault, and the commander in Robotech: Battlecry. The similarity between these characters is fairly obvious, they tell you what you have to do, THEY ORDER YOU AROUND. In the context of feminism, this hardly seems like a minor point to me. If we operate under the assumption that the target audience for these games are male, then it would seem that for some reason the developers belive that being told what to do by a female character has some appeal to men. The motivation is not sexual because in all four instances I listed, the character is rarely seen. Admittedly the characters of Cortona and the Mechassalt breifer are very well proportioned when they are shown, however the pilot of the Fullhammer is never seen, and the face of the commander in Robotech is all that is seen. How do female gammers feel about these kind of charcters? I would like to hear their thoughts on this area.

You claim Eidos blew it with Lara Croft - from Eidos' standpoint, that simply isn't true. The Tomb Raider series has produced a ton of games, most of which have sold very well. You suggest they should have marketed it as "Hey, girls, an empowered woman to play in a game!" - yet you don't consider this sexist? Promoting a game as designed solely so girls can play as an empowered woman? From Eidos' stance, it's foolish. You could market the game on sex appeal, and sell to males, or market on empowerment of women, and sell to females. (Realistically, you'd have a tough time trying to get males to buy a game sold on the concept that they could play as an empowered woman.) Yet we already know the male gamer market is bigger than the female gamer market - so how did they blow it by choosing to sell to the larger audience?

You critise a selection of games on their female characters having exaggeratted breasts and attractiveness as their main character features. I don't disagree with this. In many games, the women are portrayed as overly attractive and ridiculously built. However, in the vast majority of these games, any men in them share the same characteristics. For the rippling 6 pack of abs, to being tall, dark, and handsome, to the blond haired and blue eyed all american male that appears in so many fighting games, DOA included, men are equally portrayed in a "perfect" body, making them as much sex objects as the women. Your article fails to cover this at all.

It is uneccessary for the women to appear as overly volumptous. It is equally unessecary for the men to appear as bronzed gods, with rippling muscles.

While your article is correct in many aspects, it falls into the same trap as so many other writings on gender - it is simply too one-sided. It speaks on how poorly women are portrayed in video games... yet it barely touches the surface of the same thing happening to men.

The color scheme of the X-Box is male-friendly? Wah? It's black and green. How's that appeal to men more than women? The only men I see 'black and green' appealing to are, I donno, members of the Green Lantern Corps? But there are female Green Lanterns, Writer! THERE ARE FEMALE GREEN LANTERNS AND THEY LOVE THE X-BOX FOR ITS GAMES, NOT ITS MALE-FRIENDLY COLORS!

A good read. I particularly got the 'archers and thieves' quip - so very very true, and so oddly wrong. There are few more 'strength' based weapons than the longbow, and yet it's perfectly acceptable to have a tiny waif of an elf shoot a 3 foot arrow from a bow as tall as she is. Meanwhile, even the biggest, broadest female fighters seem to be restricted to shield and (short) sword. For whatever reason, females with big bows are somehow more believable to game designers than cute axes*. And I guess, conversely, while it's quite believeable for male characters to wield swords and axes that at first glance seem to weigh as much as they do, it's just WRONG putting all that muscle behind a wussy, cowardly weapon like a bow.

I blame Blizzard. And Gary Gygax, for giving piercing weapons such low damage, thus colouring the thoughts of generations of game designers to come. Ah well.

As for Tomb Raider - I really enjoyed the first one, and as a game, too:D. Lara's form was an amusing sideline, but I wouldn't have spent nearly 5 days of holidays playing through from start to finish if that was all there was. The last level, which just seemed to go up and up and up forever, was a blast and one of my favourite bits of any game. It DID end up being sold more as softcore than feminism, for sure, but then like all modern foul ups, you can blame marketing for that:D. Tomb raider was, for it's time, a really fun, interesting 3D platformer, and the best of its type since Prince of Persia.

Meanwhile, DoA volleyball hasn't had a single good review because the volleyball game itself is pretty poor.

I suspect there's a notion in some circles that you can put a pair of big, well formed breasts on anything and it will sell. This might work for Maxim, but for a $50 game there had better be something else to justify the cost.

I guess in short, while I agree with the gist of the article, I take issue with the actual games involved. The original Tomb Raider was great, even if the marketing was a little tragic. And DoA Volleyball isn't acceptable at all - it's just another example of good graphics, bad game. Ala, guys don't stop being gamers just because there are breasts involved.

As a sideline, it would be interesting to compare female depictions in games with those in magazines, movies, and in general. If it's difficult to get Blizzard to admit that a woman can use a sword, imagine trying to convince Cosmopolitan that a woman should even have muscles. Overall, while you can say that the game industry is perhaps guilty of not taking a leadership role in the promotion of female toughness, it is FAR from being the only offender. Perhaps game designers are only victims of 'monkey see - monkey do' instead of any active, intentional discrimination.

* I didn't mean this sentence to sound that funny. On rereading, it just gets better and better though:D.

I find your opinion of Baulders Gate to be heavily exhagerated concerning the importance you gave to the barmaid's clevage. Espeically considering you neglected to mention the central antaganist of the game was a tragic hero turned villin who happened to be a woman. It's somewhat one sided to devote an entire paragraph to how BA objectifys woman with fake titties then turn around and ignore when they give females depth and quality beyond whats in their bra. Not to mention after about 30 min into the game you hardly visit the pub which she tends anyway.

Argh...Girls gotta stop being so sensitive. Sure. Lara Croft has huge breasts. Deal with it. This isn't a blow to your ego. This is just people making games. As a game developer, I can tell you that most people begin with a story and end with a game.

We're not thinking 'Hey ! I got this idea. If I make a game with a girl heroine and I give her ridiculously huge knockers, everyone will buy it and I'll be rich!'

They're most likely thinking something along the lines of 'a girl who can take care of herself - goes on adventures to recover treasures, but the story develops into something even more as the player progresses ! This game can really turn into something!'

You need to stop being so sensitive. When Ryu takes his shirt off, I don't see you complaining, and I don't see any males complaining about being depicted as sex objects.

You totally fail to keep things together in this article. To me, all I see is another 'angry oversensitive girl' article. Sorry.

Argh...Girls gotta stop being so sensitive. Sure. Lara Croft has huge breasts. Deal with it. This isn't a blow to your ego. This is just people making games. As a game developer, I can tell you that most people begin with a story and end with a game.

We're not thinking 'Hey ! I got this idea. If I make a game with a girl heroine and I give her ridiculously huge knockers, everyone will buy it and I'll be rich!'

They're most likely thinking something along the lines of 'a girl who can take care of herself - goes on adventures to recover treasures, but the story develops into something even more as the player progresses ! This game can really turn into something!'

You need to stop being so sensitive. When Ryu takes his shirt off, I don't see you complaining, and I don't see any males complaining about being depicted as sex objects.

You totally fail to keep things together in this article. To me, all I see is another 'angry oversensitive girl' article. Sorry.

Joe -
i am "dealing with it", and i have been dealing with it for twenty years. my article is meant to highlight some features of gendering in games i've noticed, as a female gamer, which might be of interest to character designers, depending on what effects they want to achieve, and what market they want to attract.

i believe i said i have nothing against bouncing boobs. i *like* them. they're fun, they're pretty. they should be in proper context. i *want* to play extreme beach volleyball. it looks fun. it's a new-ish style of game (social interaction, collecting presents, etc). it intrigues me. i *like* Lara Croft, i just don't like the way she was initially treated in reviews and previews.

not enough people think about the importance of good character design in games. gender theory is one way to approach it. there are many others.

i don't get those of you who thought i was a man-hater??? where do get that? what i hate is laziness in game design, short-sightedness in game marketing.

i should make a rule to have everyone read the whole article before feeling compelling to post a comment!

Oh my god. If Joe is indicative of the typical game developer, then god help us.

I think one of the major issues you need to deal with in discussing the "fluidity" of gender possible in the virtual world is this: people have a hard time wrapping their mind around the difference between a person's sex and their gender. Male and female are sex. Gender does not biologically exist. Gender is a word used in linguistics to talk about types of words. It has been appropriated by cultural discourse to indicate the sociological implications of various attitudes about what males and female should or should not do.

Gender is totally and completely constructed. This would lead one to think, rashly, that gender should always be fluid then. The problem is that the psychology of humans makes us very good at learning certain basic "facts" about the world from our parents. (Read Alice Miller's _Drama of the Gifted Child_ for a full description of how humans pass neuroses from one generation to the next.) We grow up in an environment designed to ingrain certain ideas about what boys and girls are supposed to do.

Videogames, as cultural phenomena, like you say, are, therefore, likely to be a part of this paradigm. Altering the attitudes prevalent about women and their roles, and about the taboo nature of gender-bending, will require as much effort as adjusting our culture to move away from the inherent violence against those who do not fit into what some sociologists call the "homosocial order".

I appreciate that a frank discussion about the "genderedness" of videogames is written during Sexual Assault Awareness Month. All manner of examples of the pervading patriachal attitudes about proper behavior and the implied violence against those who resist said behaviors need to be addressed and discussed.

I have just read your article and i really couldn't agree more with your statements. I am not generally outspoken in my opinions on gender issues in gaming (usually because it is to a room full of guys with BIIIG fists. That is not a stereotype, its a fact). I do question your statement that the X-Box colours are designed to be male friendly. I personally think it was designed to look sleek and futuristic, and that the black and green motif was quite suitable. But that's just my opinion. I also have a theory as to why most games are aimed at a male market. It was really a progressive thing:
Back in the 1950s when computers were being built and designed and most importantly; programmed, it was all done by men. This was because in the 1950s women were generally housewives (please don't kill me, its a fact, not an opinion). Women of the 50's were there to bring up children. Anyway, as we move on, and as the computer industry moves on, it was started by men, and was continued mostly by men. Male engineers and so on. So naturally, during the 70's when games started to hit the arcades, they were all built by men, and their target audience was obviously for men, because that was all they knew how to program for (granted, they were more unisex, but that was because of the technical abilities at the time. Just look at pong). It started aimed at men, and since it was successful, they continued to concentrate on that market. If they HAD chosen to make female orientated games, how would they do it? All the engineers were men, and lets face it, geeky men (not a stereotype, i use the term "geek" as a descriptive word, because it sums it up the best) with very little experience with women (you know its true). So they continued with this trend into the eighties and ninties. By then, making games for men was mainstream, and many women who would like to have played computer games couldn't because there was nothing for them, or they had to put up with what was there for the guys.

Lets shift a bit into the late ninties when character designs started to become important. It was still all done by men, for men. Thus Lara Croft's ludicrously large breasts. Even now you won't see many women in a game development building (at least women working on the game itself. Let's not forget the managers, businesspeople, the finance department etc etc which is more gender neutral)

I personally have grown tired of staring at (impossibly sized) pixellated bosoms. I have never bought a Tomb Raider game, and never will. This is not just because i think it is brutally sexist, but as a game; it s