At this year's E3 the issue of sexism in the gaming industry reared its ugly head yet again.
When a feminist game critic pointed out the lack of female protagonists featured in any of the dozens of new games announced, she was attacked with a vicious, misogynistic backlash on Twitter.
Although there was a notable reduction in 'booth babes' this year, there were still a few publishers using good-looking women in revealing outfits to attract attention.
Clearly, sexism is alive and well in the gaming industry. But are things improving?
A recent study by the American Entertainment Software Association (ESA) found that there are more female gamers than there are boy gamers younger than 17, and that women make up 45 percent of the total game playing population. In America, 58 percent of the general population play videogames.
Siobhan Keogh is one of New Zealand's top gaming journalists and the editor of PC World Magazine. I spoke to her recently to get more of an idea of the state of gender inequality in the gaming world from a female perspective.
"I would say I consume games more than I consume any other media," says Keogh.
"I think [women being catered to in the gaming world] is getting better. The female characters in games are getting a lot more agency these days. Historically, they've been mostly sex objects or incidental characters that are mostly there to further the mission of a male character."
You might think the lack of female protagonists in games is due to a lack of women working on the games, but that is also improving. I spoke to a number of game developers at E3 and with two of what may appear to be the manliest games at the expo, Titanfall and Killzone: Shadowfall, the developers I spoke to were women.
"I don't think that we've attached a gender to [Titanfall]," says Titanfall community manager Abbie Heppe.
"We have role-playable female characters in the game. I don't know, I don't categorise games by gender. I've been playing shooters since I was 12, and I've been playing games since I was 5 or 6. Games are for everyone, if you make a fun game hopefully everyone will play it."
"I think it's a common misunderstanding that there's not so many female gamers," says Killzone: Shadowfall producer Angie Smets.
"Recent research shows there are plenty of female gamers out there - almost 50 percent. And also on the development side, there's so many great women developing games these days. So I think it's maybe sort of something from 50 years ago [thinking gaming is only for boys]. It's definitely changed."
Gender inequality may still be a problem with games, but things do indeed appear to be improving. Keogh points to Remember Me, Beyond: Two Souls, Tomb Raider and The Last of Us as recent games that have had strong female central characters setting an example.
"Ellie in The Last of Us is a really great character," says Keogh.
"She has to prove herself, but once she does, she kind of calls the shots to some extent. I think that's really important because it's traditionally always been men that are calling the shots. I think it's really interesting as a story element as well, for women to be making decisions about themselves, for themselves."
There are certainly more solid female characters in games than ever before, but - just as with film and television - the gaming world has a long way to go to achieve gender equality.
Watch the video for my full interview with Siobhan Keogh.
3 News
source: newshub archive
