How can we attract the female audience?!

Sure, we have attracted some females into the gaming world by introducing the 'Wii', but is that enough for gaming culture to become more equal with the idea of gender in mind?

How else can we begin the new identity of who a gamer is?

Many 'girl gamers' like myself were introduced to the world of gaming at a young age by male relatives, so the idea of what a gamer 'should' be isn't a barrier to why they are playing these games as the media and society's opinion hasn't become a certain aspect of one's identity at that age.

For example I was introduced to games such as:


Spyro The Dragon
- A platform game where you are a purple dragon who travels across the Dragon Realms saving trapped dragons and battling bosses



Jak And Daxter
- You are Jak, as he tries to help his friend, Daxter, after Daxter is transformed into a strange animal and also must save their world from the 'baddies' Gol and Mia who plan to flood it with 'Dark Eco'.

Crash Bandicoot
- You play as Crash Bandicoot, a  mutated marsupial who has to save his girlfriend Tawna who is kidnapped by a mad scientist and is threatening to experiment on her.

Soul Calibur II
- You play as a number of different characters, fighting opponents to reach the sword "Soul Calibur"



With games like these I grew accustomed to the game playing scene, so when games like The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, Dragon Age: Origins and Fable were introduced I was less concerned about how I would look if I played the game and how it appealed to a person of my age, gender and culture, but more concerned about the plot, graphics and the actual gameplay.

So one way to bring more gender equality is to introduce girls to the gaming world at a younger age like we do with boys.

Another way is to produce true to life female characters that are what a woman is and can be rather than the stereotypes (1:37-2:10) and involve a plot that a woman can relate to also (2:20-3:15).

And also changing the way that games are marketed and shown to the female audience (6:07-6:20)

Online Riot Grrrl Gamers

Although the gaming world is dominated by males, by looking deeper into the gaming 'society' you can find female gamers of many ages that can, well, 'kick some ass' and better than many male gamers themselves.

There was a show running from 1999 to 2001 called 'Bits' which was a computer games show that reviewed computer games, which sounds pretty obvious and conventional, but the hosts an reviewers of the show where three women (Aleks Krotoski, Emily Booth and Emily Newton Dunn), and what was even more 'surprising' is that they knew their stuff about the games, strange right?



Channel 4 show 'Bits' (1999-2001)



This show encouraged the idea that women can be interested in gaming and know the facts about what they were reviewing, this showing women that they can also be involved in these games and not to feel like they are in a 'man's world'.

This made an opening in the gaming culture and showed everyone that female players can exist, but it seems that this has been forgotten. Why? Because we do not have any shows like this on currently or throughout any media, all media in our pop culture era shows us now is that women should keep to a certain identity of which gaming is not involved.

To be totally honest, I'd rather be having fun with friends playing video games than focusing on how I appear to look and how others think I look.

I'd rather be happy looking like this:

Than being miserable and blending into the common stereotype of what a woman should be from my area:



The Gaming Statistics of Britain

The IAB Games Steering Group released a study of gamers in the UK named Gaming Britain [http://www.iabuk.net/en/1/hugeopportunityingamesmedia230911.mxs].

It showed us that as many as 32.9 million people aged 8-65 years old played video games.

Although it didn't just focus on the gaming console gamers of which I am focusing, their statistics proved to be very surprising.

Due to the increase of casual, online games such as Bejeweled, Farmville and Club Penguin there is an increase of the demographic that the gaming industry is focused on; More females, children and people aged over 45 are getting involved with the more user-friendly and action-safe games.

The study says that the players are not the "outdated image of the male teenager – transfixed alone for hours – as the typical player. Instead, it identifies seven distinct ‘types’ of player encompassing all ages from sixth formers through to pensioners.

Class, gender and age were all looked at within the study and results showed that the majority of players were:

• Male
• Aged 25-45
• Belonged to class groups A, B and C1

Although the statistics show us that the majority of players are what we expected, the introductions of technology such as tablets, smartphones, social networking sites and consoles like the Nintendo Wii, more females and those of other ages are becoming introduced to the gaming community.

Which is looked at by many people including Charlie Brooker :

This technology boom could help us make the gaming console world more equal.

With the introduction of the Nintendo Wii's to women we should hopefully soon be seeing them move onto the other games consoles and kicking ass.

The 'Girl Gamer' stereotypes

The stereotypes that occur when talking about 'Girl Gamers' are always the same, they are portrayed throughout the internet, films and even well known television series' such as 'The Big Bang Theory' where the 'pretty, blonde actress who can date anyone she wants' is introduced to online gaming and therefore becomes a lazy, unwashed slob who's friends have to sign her up to a dating site.

'Penny' From 'The Big Bang Theory'

'Penny' after being introduced to an online role-playing game

 











There are many videos and sites made by female gamers themselves who wish to dissolve the many stereotypes of the female gaming community.

Stereotypes such as -
     
"All 'Girl Gamers' are...":

• "Ugly"
• "Fat"
• "Gay"
• "Weird Fangirls"
• "Only playing these games to attract men"
• "Only Asian"
• "Non-existant"

Which are not only sexist but homophobic, racist and discriminative.



These portrayals are seen everywhere when you suggest the name 'girl gamers', but who would actually think that these are true?

 

Others exploring the girl video gamer world

Many others are delving into the gaming world and the small female portion within and all show different ways of thinking about females in and playing the games yet all come to the same conclusion of why there is less females in the gaming community.

Sexism.

Yes, it seems that although we'd like to think that our society has moved on past sexism and the naturalisation of sexist identities, video games are close to only being aimed at males as it involves the action, adventure and the 'hunter-gatherer' ideas behind it which are obviously only male interests (Note the sarcasm).

Sexism such as:

The 'Damsel in distress' plotline -

Explored on sites such as

• http://www.lovelyish.com/772348697/tropes-vs-women-in-video-games-series-critiques-sexism-in-video-games/
• http://www.feministfrequency.com/

(1:00-2:16)

And are focused around this video which looks into the sexism throughout video gaming where females are made to be the objects of desire and damsels in distress rather than the protagonist.



The Sexualization of Women -

• http://n4g.com/news/1188699/sexism-in-video-games-psu
• http://www.businessinsider.com/story-of-gaming-industry-sexism-2013-3
• http://www.computerandvideogames.com/318418/features/sexism-is-a-major-problem-in-video-games-discuss/#

Which look at the sexism and the over sexualisation of women in video games.



And also the stereotyping of the 'Girl Gamer'-

• http://www.gamesradar.com/the-top-7-girl-gamer-stereotypes/
• http://www.destructoid.com/love-hate-being-a-girl-gamer--158953.phtml

That look into the stereotyping of female gamers and reasons behind why women don't want to get involved with the gaming scene due to the stereotypes and abuse from the stereotypes which they are given.

"Why isn't there as many females here?"

With the question "Why isn't there as many female gamers as there is male gamers?" in mind, I decided to visit video games and role-playing games stores to interview shop workers on why they think the population of gamers is dominated by males:

I met a 31-year-old male Games Workshop clerk who is also a video and roleplay game player, that thought that the reason behind this could be the social acceptability of women and men in society.

https://soundcloud.com/jcbish/games-workshop-a-31-year-old

After the interview he also mentioned that maybe the stereotyping of the males who do play video games could be the main problem which stops females from becoming gamers as they do not want to feel like they will be placed in that stereotype too. 





I also met a male manager of the popular video game store 'Game' who agreed that the games produced are more focused onto the male customers but also said that it shouldn't matter about who the character you are playing is but it should only matter about the plot-line of the game.

https://soundcloud.com/jcbish/the-game-store-40-year-old




Both interviewees mentioned the focus of games being made towards male interests. Maybe, whilst keeping these interests involved we can incorporate 'female' interests also, so the female players and those interested in playing do not feel cut out of these 'plots' and feel out of place within the gaming society.

Also, when searching for workers in the gaming shops I also found that there were no female workers to interview, this could be another reason why the idea of gaming at first look is only seen as a male activity.

The Sexism within games

Although new games have now given the option of the players’ character being female, which attracts and encourages female game players to play, the games still seem quite sexist.

  


The choice of gender at the beginning of 'Fable 3'


One of the first big-selling games with a female protagonist was ‘Lara Croft: Tomb Raider’ which in hindsight seems quite revolutionary. Yet, while looking into it a bit more you can still see the sexism behind it and Lara Croft just being a “teenage boys’ dream”, still making the game and idea male-dominated. Feminists would agree that this portrayal of Lara Croft  as extremely sexist with her skimpy outfit and impossibly ‘perfect’ boys’ dream idea of what a woman ‘should’ look like.

The Sexist form of Lara Croft and her image in 'Tomb Raider: Legend'

In other games you can also see the sexism through the clothing, which although sometimes the main female character is exempt, the NPC (Non-Player Character) females are dressed in skimpy and ‘female’ outfits which only appeal to only a portion of some players. Some say that the sexism shown in some games, for example The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim and Fable 1/2/3, are just referring to the sexism within the 'medieval' times that the games are based on. This is obviously not true, in medieval Britain we did not see such women with barely any clothing, which is passed off as 'armor' in the games, but covered up from neck to ankle.

  

No wonder there are more male players of these games when there is this much flesh being shown!