Not sure what it is about tonight, but so far I've run across two articles on Kotaku about women in gaming. Figured I'd weigh in, though I obviously lack the equipment to talk about it firsthand.
Growing up, gaming wasn't something a whole lot of girls talked about, or talked about doing - it was mostly guys doing it, and there was very much a slant towards the male audience. Is it strange? Not to me...I've known plenty of female gamers in my time, and while they didn't play everything I played, they had their own library of games that had plenty of overlap with mine. It's been interesting to see the evolution of things, especially when I think back to what was the beginning for most of us: Super Mario Bros. or Donkey Kong. In both games, the woman was the goal, and boy was that common. Double Dragon, Final Fight, Rolling Thunder, Rough Ranger, Ghosts N Goblins, Ghouls N Ghosts, Legend Of Zelda...you get the idea.
Now, maybe I'm just not that guy that thinks a woman is a prize to be earned. Or maybe I just bore easy. But this formula really got played out, and it stopped making sense to merely equate women in games to a goal. I always point to Marian from Double Dragon and Princess Peach/Toadstool from Super Mario Bros. as a way to get across my point: Both of them were pretty awesome when they got involved in the game, be it chucking veggies at Shyguys or doing something other than being kidnapped or destroyed by gunfire (Ed. Note: Not cool, Willy.) I feel the same way with female gamers, though I certainly don't want them to feel like they're on a pedestal. I just never saw any reason why they should exempt themselves from the game - if anything, I wish they would've been more into the stuff I liked rather than some of the more girl oriented titles. Heck, maybe they were, and I just wasn't there for it.
So we go from there to now, and I think we've thus far seen women in all sorts of roles. And granted, there is some over-sexualization of the female form in video games, and there always will be. Just like there is in magazines, television, movies, songs, poetry and every other form of expression under the sun. Sorry girls, but part of our wiring - in some cases, a dominant form of our wiring - is wanting to have sex with you. That's kind of how we make kids, and it's primal. Unfortunately, it also works for marketing, especially when your audience is composed of adolescents and you're trying to get them to put Modern Warfare down for a minute to take a look at your product.
(By the way, you'll notice I've left Japan out. That's because I really don't have an explanation for that stuff. I'm not offended by it, but damn...they love them some fanservice.)
Now, do feminist gamers have a point that they are being given unrealistic representation in the medium? Sure! Here's the thing: So are men. Trust me, not all of us want to be grim, gristled space-marines or grim, gristled modern marines. Shit, some of us would be okay with being a character that didn't pack heat once in a while. I personally have had more fun being a high-tech ninja or a clumsy galaxy-saving janitor. But the bottom line for me is, this stuff is fantasy. I don't want to be represented in a video game. I have to deal with being Jonas all day, every day. I am not a murderous, testosterone cocktail of a Spartan who cuts through Gods like butter, but it sure is fun to pick up God of War and control one for a while.
And again! Not a woman here. But I do remember how women used to be represented in games, and I can compare them to now and see a world of difference. Sure, Cammy's ass gets a little too much attention, but she can also throttle you (Ed. Note: Send all your mail about tiers to whocares@gmail.com). Fighting games used to be limited to one girl, now there's several, and they aren't all trying to seduce you.
Finally, here's a little secret from the guys, and I'm sure you girls know this already: A game can be dripping with sexpots like Ivy in Soul Calibur, or Cammy in Street Fighter. It can be full of naughty co-eds, like Night Trap. And you know something? Most of us won't give 1/10th of a shit if there's no game there. There are games out there that are fanservice galore, games where Mai Shiranui would look Amish, and nobody buys them because they suck. It's what I call the TimeKillers/Bloodstorm rule: I don't care how many people's heads I can cut off, or how realistic you can draw the entrails of the person I just de-legged, or how much jiggle the girls have or how many suggestive poses or sayings they can rifle off: if your game sucks ass, you can keep it. It's the same reason you don't see any forums talking about Harvester as a masterpiece or lines out the door in Akihabara for GalGun.
And that's part of the reason I loved reading Leigh Alexander's article. I'm glad that she just wants to be a gamer and wants people to be polite. See, girls, the same asshole who's typing "TITS OR GTFO" was just moments ago calling me a multiple racial slur because I sniped him. Welcome to online gaming, AKA "Hmm....Maybe a single-player RPG would be better." The crime here isn't one exclusively of being sexist, the crime is being a colossal loudmouth douche hiding behind anonymity. If any other disease spread as fast as that social one, we'd all be dead by now.
So that's where I stand: I'm glad you game, and I hope you enjoy doing so. Don't really care that you're a woman, though - I thought the whole point was that such a thing was inconsequential.
