Hey ladies! Where do women fit in the man's world of video games?

As the great James Brown once said, “This is a Man’s World… But it Wouldn’t Be Nothing Without A Woman or Girl.”

Who knew the words of the late James Brown would be applicable to the virtual world of video gaming. With female influence in industry dynamic growing larger than ever before it makes sense that the roles of female characters in games have paralleled the change in this once solely male dominant cultural blueprint.

First represented as the victims of arcade villains in games like Mario, then as overly stated sex objects in games like Command Conquer and Tomb Raider, woman have had long-running controversial roles in gaming. Can they help it? Men are fascinated with lady lumps regardless of the amount of clothing covered. While super models like Brooklyn Decker pics and videos continue to stand-out as the spokeswoman of the ideal female character, it’s hard to think the female gender role will ever be completely desexualized in the gaming industry. Although woman characters haven’t always held an equal role to their male counterparts- what would video games be without women? Changes continue to revolutionize women from support characters to heroines arguably mirroring the social changes in equality real women have been fighting for.

Woman roles in video games have slowly changed since their early inception. The evolution of role-playing games (RPG’s) like Skyrim, Fallout and Dragon’s Dogma allow players to create their own character, giving the player the choice of how they want to be represented–female or male, heavily or limited clothed. Metroid and Heavenly Sword extend the gender role change, casting leading heroines as the protagonist, straying from the “support role” typically associated with female characters.

“Girlfriend Mode”

Despite its advancements, a new feature nicknamed “Girlfriend Mode” has caused a stir and has some questioning the video game industry’s movement towards gender equality. The “Best-Friends-Forever” skill tree-set for the fifth-class Mechromancer DLC character in Gearbox’s Borderlands 2 is an ‘easy-mode’ for more non-skilled players. Lead designer on the game John Hemingway explains in an OXM article the thought process behind the tree skill-set, saying they wanted to male it possible for people who ‘love’ Borderlands to be able to share it with people who ‘suck.’ That the skill tree allows an otherwise uneducated person on the game to learn through first-hand experience.

This all sounds fair so what’s the controversy, right? Despite being referred to as ‘Girlfriend Mode,’ the role is given to a female character and is described as “the cutest we’ve ever had” by Hemingway in the same OXM article. Although Gearbox says the mode is made to help integrate any ‘noob’ into the game it’s hard to believe that any guy will take a ‘cutesy’ player seriously.

Hope for Women in Video Games

All isn’t lost for women in games, sports video games are integrating female roles for the first time, according to The Huffington Post, Canadian women’s hockey player Hayley Wickenheiser and veteran American defense Angela Ruggiero become playable characters in EA Sports NHL 13. While according to Yahoo! Sports an online petition has been in the works for women’s soccer players to be represented in EA Sports soccer video games.

Women aren’t backing down, the controversial Tropes vs. Women in Video Games is a video series project that sheds light on sexism in the gaming industry launched on Kickstarter that already boasts 6, 968 supporters as shown on its Kickstarter page.

As the gaming industry continues to morph into new changes it’s interesting to attempt to predict what the future holds for the gaming industry. In a world where women dominate the male-female ratio in public universities 43.6–56.4 percent, according to a February article on Forbes.com, it’s reasonable to question that in the future we may not live in a man’s world at all. But quite possibly, Princess- Peaches everywhere will be teaming-up and rescuing their Mario and Luigi from life-perils as ladies go out and take on once all-male adventure for themselves.

Guest post by Darcy Leutkemeyer

Darcy has a degree in journalism with an emphasis on digital technology. She also is an avid gamer, much to the dismay of her mother, who was hoping for a pageant queen.

John “Spartan” Nguyen

John “Spartan” Nguyen is the editor-in-chief at Nerd Reactor and is based in Orange County, CA. He is a graphic designer and illustrator.

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Sue

The issue isn’t necessarily the desexualization of women in video games, though it’s something that needs to be kept an eye on; that’s been less and less the trend (and when it is, it’s things like Suda51′s Lollipop Chainsaw, which is really more parody than actual sexualization). With player-character customizables like Dragon Age or Skyrim or Mass Effect, the popularity with women of RPGs, always pretty popular with women to begin with, has soared, and I’d estimate that 95% of my female friends are not only gamers but serious ones, not casual gamers (which are on their own a major chunk of the female gaming market).

The issue that concerns my friends most is that female characters fall into specific tropes of their own. You have the Healer Chick, the magey girl, or the voluptuous ass-kicker in revealing clothing, all obsessed with the main character, or you get tough women like Samus and Lara Croft, who could give less of a damn about males. There aren’t any women characters who can be both strong and feminine– they’re all masculine roles played by chicks. Guys with tits, practically. That’s why player character games like the ones I mentioned are such a big deal– they allow you to control a character who can be both strong and feminine, who can fall in love and still manage to kick ass. There’s not a lot of pre-made characters that fall into those areas, though, and that’s really what’s troubling– that in order to be a woman gamer with those games, you have to either identify with characters who are typically passive, or you have to be okay with basically just playing the same model character the men do, only with tits pasted on. It can be demoralizing. Why should we play games that insist we have to be ‘cute’ instead of just ‘strong’?

And let’s not even go into playing online with male gamers. Almost everyone I know can never use voice chat or have a handle that gives away their gender, or they get nothing but attention– not just bullshit like ‘get back in the kitchen’, but unwanted gifts, special consideration, and messages asking for pics or trying to be the romantic dude who ‘gets’ women gamers. It’s frankly insulting and it definitely makes playing games less of a friendly atmosphere. And it’s not an isolated event, either; take a look at http://www.reddit.com/r/GirlGamers/ (Reddit’s female gaming community) and see how it’s a constant concern. We shouldn’t have to feel ‘separate’ from male gamers. Gaming is fun. A lot of people do it. We should be a united community, not ‘gamers’ and ‘girls who play games’.

Also, I’m not sure how I feel about an article about desexualizing women in games coupled with a picture of a chick with her tits hanging out. Just saying.
- http://nerdreactor.com/ John Spartan
  
  Hi Sue, thanks for your input. The picture has been changed to fit with the theme of the article.
Day December
http://www.facebook.com/derpomatic Amanda McAllister

If you’re going to write an article about gender equality and hope for women in video games, the idea would be to NOT use a picture that portrays exactly what we’re up against. Just a suggestion.

Hey ladies! Where do women fit in the man’s world of video games?

“Girlfriend Mode”

Hope for Women in Video Games

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