Video Games and Feminism

Because my previous post was so negative, so accusatory, I decided to write about some of the positive things game makers are doing for women in video games, in a virtual space and in the real world.

For the longest time, video games were perceived as a domain for men -- pale, greasy men that subsisted on stale Cheetos in basements around the globe (just kidding). But it's no longer the case. A report from the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) in 2011 revealed some new numbers about female gamers, most notably their growing presence in the gaming community. As of 2011, 47 percent of the gaming audience is female, up from 42 percent in 2010 and 40 percent in 2009. Another interesting statistic: women age 18 and older represent a larger segment of the community than men 17 and younger. So much for prepubescent boys dominating the video game community.

Furthermore, women make up 48 percent of the people who actually buy video games, although this number could be skewed by the number of steely-eyed, slightly frazzled women waiting patiently for their hyperactive, grubby children to pick out a game in the local GameStop (as someone who dragged his own mother forty minutes away from home to pick out the latest N64 game in Toys "R" Us, I know the truth of this scenario). But what's this! The ESA report goes on to say that 59 percent of parents play video games with their kids for a variety of reasons. So if mothers are indeed buying all these games, they are also sharing the experience with their children (as someone who brought his own mother to the edge of a video game-induced seizure, I know the truth of this scenario).

Unfortunately this increase in women playing games has not translated to women making games; fewer than one in ten game writers and developers are women. But there are notable success stories. Two of them are Bonnie Ross, head of 343 Industries, and Kiki Wolfkill, executive producer of Halo 4. In October both denounced sexist behavior on Xbox Live. They said that developers have a responsibility to erase such offensive behavior by creating software that defies gender stereotypes. "As developers, we have a personal responsibility to think about how our games come across," Ross said. "With Halo 4, we were very deliberate in thinking about who should be female and who should be male in the game, and if we came off stereotypical, we went back to question what we were doing and why."

Kiki Wolfkill is the Executive Producer of Halo 4.

The philosophy behind the business decisions of executives like Ross and Wolfkill -- that women should be able to play games without fear of harassment and that game characters should be set free from stereotypical gender roles -- has not yet taken hold in the industry. There are still very few games that allow female protagonists, and even fewer games with an exclusively female protagonist. According to data gathered by Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (EEDAR) in 2012, only 24 (4%) of surveyed games featured an exclusively female protagonist, and 300 (45%) provided the option of selecting one.* EEDAR found that games that included an option to play as a female protagonist scored better, but games with a male-only protagonist sold better. However, games with exclusively female protagonists had only 50 percent of the marketing budget of female-optional games, and 40 percent of the marketing budget of games with exclusively male protagonists. So it's difficult to tell whether games that revolve around female protagonists are relatively unpopular because of their content or because publishers are reluctant to advertise them. Perhaps it's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Many modern RPGs allow players to select gender.

But, as was the case with Ross and Wolfkill, there are success stories. One has only to look at Tomb Raider, which launched one week ago today. The latest game in the long-running franchise, Tomb Raider is a reboot that provides a back story for the series' heroine Lara Croft. Less than 48 hours after its release, the game had more than one million players. In the United Kingdom, Tomb Raider debuted at number one in the charts. There are other examples as well, although many fail to reach the level of popularity that games like Tomb Raider and Metroid enjoy. Last year, Gravity Rush and Resident Evil: Revelations arrived on Vita and 3DS, respectively. In Gravity Rush, players act as Kat, a brand new, endearing heroine; in Revelations, players control Jill Valentine, a Resident Evil favorite.

Lara appears as a young woman in the 2013 reboot.

So things are getting better for women in video games -- both in the industry and in the virtual space. But there is still much room for improvement, in corporate lobbies and in multiplayer lobbies. It's up to us, as consumers, to vote with our wallets and to take responsibility for our actions and words when playing with others.

I want to end this post with another quote from Bonnie Ross, the head of the studio that will be bringing Halo to the world for the foreseeable future.

"Most people look at a franchise like Halo, and automatically assume it's run by a guy. People are surprised to learn that it's a woman who's running the Halo 4 show. When Microsoft created 343 Industries to take over Halo, I was given first choice to run the studio because I had proven myself. My gender played no part in it."


* 669 games from the action, shooter, and RPG genres were selected.