The Invisible Gamers
CoolAmongGeeks
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOUy1W_cJS4
As a female gamer it’s hard enough to get respect and acknowledgement from our male counterparts. Commercials like this from Sony reinforce the stereotype of girls being anti-videogame, and remind us that we are not welcome outside of our established gender roles. According to the media, girl gamers won’t tread outside of friendly party and fitness games. The only time girls appear in a commercial for a mature game is in this type of “high maintenance girlfriend” formula.
Working in a videogame store, I have to deal with this sort of mentality on a daily basis. I am actively dismissed by customers, who will seek out my male coworkers to ask for advice on a particular game. I am frequently asked, point-blank, if I play videogames. Our culture does not recognize gamer girls. Period. The videogame industry, which we support with our purchases, could work to change this perception, but the ones with the power to lead the way are only perpetuating the stereotype. I am a gamer. Market to me. Don’t give me games where I take care of a fake dog. Not all female gamers are twelve. We know what a controller is, and we know how to use it to kill aliens, fight in tournaments, and save the princess.
As a female gamer it’s hard enough to get respect and acknowledgement from our male counterparts. Commercials like this from Sony reinforce the stereotype of girls being anti-videogame, and remind us that we are not welcome outside of our established gender roles. According to the media, girl gamers won’t tread outside of friendly party and fitness games. The only time girls appear in a commercial for a mature game is in this type of “high maintenance girlfriend” formula.
Working in a videogame store, I have to deal with this sort of mentality on a daily basis. I am actively dismissed by customers, who will seek out my male coworkers to ask for advice on a particular game. I am frequently asked, point-blank, if I play videogames. Our culture does not recognize gamer girls. Period. The videogame industry, which we support with our purchases, could work to change this perception, but the ones with the power to lead the way are only perpetuating the stereotype. I am a gamer. Market to me. Don’t give me games where I take care of a fake dog. Not all female gamers are twelve. We know what a controller is, and we know how to use it to kill aliens, fight in tournaments, and save the princess.
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As this is this thread is more like a blog entry.
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It's not a phenomenon exclusive to gaming (although in gaming it is pointedly severe), and is easily observable in the marketing of film and television, too.
Companies know how to market to little girls. They do not know how to market to women, as a lot.
Part of that problem is due to marketing as an entire industry being male-dominated, and thereby in the estimation of those making the marketing decisions, male-driven.
These are all real problems, and are recognizable for anyone with at least ten bits of brain between the top of their head and the bottom of their ass who spends even thirty seconds thinking about it.
However, the solutions to these problems are not as tricky as just trying to shake the male-dominated marketing sphere and scream "I AM A WOMAN! I BUY GAMES! MARKET TO MEEEEE!"
Because they don't know how.
It doesn't make what they do defensible, it just means they don't really know how to fix the problem.
For the most part, they don't even recognize a problem exists!
Then again I'm a bad case for this - games get sold to me based on this forum and people freaking out over Steam sales. I have no idea how I decide to make purchases.
I've certainly had my share of people even just in WoW alone (nevermind my experiences with other MMO's and gaming in general) be surprised to find out I'm female.
Face Twit Rav Gram
You're a girl?!? On the internet? :P
It should be noted that mass media and advertising doesn't portray male gamers in the best light either. That ad for example: we're socially maladjusted assholes who can't take ourselves away from escapist, violent fantasies to spend time with our girlfriend.
I think this commercial was absolutely fantastic at making video games fun for everyone in their ad. There are all types of people in the shootout, and it feels natural and inclusive. It's awesome.
Haha. Shocking, isn't it?
You make a good point here, as did ELM. Women aren't the core demographic.
So is this thread more about gamers being surprised by girl gamers then?
Face Twit Rav Gram
That was a great ad. It's even targeted to the fact that anyone who plays shooters looks at ordinary places and says "having a simulated firefight here would be fun". It's why those roleplay maps in Half-Life 2 are so disappointing...really they just look like great places to have a gunfight.
Surprise seems only natural when met with something unexpected.
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Or what is marketing to them without being insulted.
Basically, it goes like this:
Make your female character too feminine, some women criticize you for sticking them into mainstream gender roles, reinforcing stereotypes, treating them as sex objects, etc.
Make your female character not feminine enough, some women criticize you for making "a man with breasts and a vagina" who in no way can be related to by real women.
It really is a no-win scenario, from a marketing perspective.
It doesn't surprise me that most marketing takes the coward's way out and tries to deal with it as little as possible.
I think that is a debate that can go in this thread, actually, because that is a part of the issue.
A huge part of the reaction towards female gamers, especially from companies, hinges on the fact that this sort of thing is an extremely divisive issue amongst women.
Get five women in the room and ask them what constitutes a "strong, relatable female protagonist in a video game" and you will receive about 7 different answers.
At least three of which will be completely incompatible with each other and can't really be in the same character.
This doesn't make it the fault of women that this divide exists. Women are diverse and opinionated, and what appeals to one woman doesn't necessarily work for the entirety of all womankind.
Yet, the reality still leaves marketing schmoes looking at the entire situation and scratching their heads.
She was just the first female protagonist to pop into my head.
Could have used Terra from FF6 or Joanna Dark from Perfect Dark.
Because this also isn't true about men
Naturally
I don't think that scenario is exclusive to just women.
Cate Archer from NOLF, the woman from Trespasser both stand out as strong women that didn't rely on stronger men around them at any point.
totally, I'm just about the tits and the big sports rally
Wasn't the health indicator in trespasser a tatoo on the main character's tit?
Brah.
Don't forget the brew.
Not on a comparable level. At all. Trying to obfuscate the issue as if it is equally applicable is disingenuous of you to the extreme.
Step back from your reflexive "equalist" arguments for a second there, champ. There are, in fact, issues that are a bigger deal for women and are far more divisive for women than men specifically because men account for the majority of who games are marketed towards and designed for.
So, while you might have the same opinion spread on a group of men you ask the same question of, it's less of an issue for those guys than it is for women, because men are not exactly under-represented in video games.
Broseph, I got the T-boner steaks ready to sizzle and some trim on the other line to pretty up the party
See you're still basing your entire argument on the premise of hard gender definitions. "Male", "Female", "Men", "Women".
What the hell is this post? Are you trolling?
Samus is the obvious choice, especially pre-Zero Suit.
The attentive reader may have noticed that this thread is about the underrepresentation of women in games. Discussing this in good faith requires us to assume that genders exist in some capacity!
If that freaks you out, perhaps this conversation is not for you!
He makes a valid point. It feels a lot like you're saying "Men are all just X or, sometimes, Y" while "Women are A, B, C, D, E,..."
Yes, in fact, women do react differently and more divisively to issues where women are being under-represented or outright excluded. They are in fact more strongly opinionated about these things than men, because men are for whom the market caters to, as a majority. Men don't think about these issues on the same level as women do, for the most part, because men aren't the ones being fucked over by it.
When it comes to things like gender representation in gaming, men are in a position of privilege and as a result have the luxury of being less offended and opinionated on it, and for the most part they are.
You can try to do this "I don't see race, I just see people! Men are no different than women!" bullshit all you want, but it's wrong, and just adds to the problem.
Except it isn't, and you have to try to read what I said to read it that way.
Try going back and rereading what he actually wrote.
You'd think. But, no. That said, there's a pretty massive genderskew in advertising exec world, last I heard.
So, this is super interesting - the results of a year long research project into female gaming demographics. It really underlines how badly the game industry is fucking itself over by ignoring this massive potential revenue source.
It also nicely quantifies how much the xbox is not enjoyed by the ladies
(a lot!)
Was what you were intending to say that game companies are too busy focusing on the many qualities various guys consider make-up a strong, relatable male protagonist, and do not invest equally in constructing a variety of strong, relatable female protagonists, and that as a result you get a slew of different male characters and only a few cookie cutter female ones?
Because I had to try and read it the above way, whereas my initial reading of your post was just me reading your post.
Is there compelling evidence to suggest that the core customer base for Call of Duty, Halo, God or Gears of War, or any other superviolent superpopular testosterone fuelled enthusiast franchises isn't, by vast majority, still young men?
How do you design and market God of War to women? From a business perspective, does it even make sense to try?
(see above)
See: Farmville, which has made millions with very low production costs.