Girls and the games aimed at men

[mstickle]

I'm a gamer, I'm female and I have a love of FPS based games. I play Halo 3 online and recently Modern Warfare 2. These games and many other I enjoy are very much aimed at the male demograhpic, with males overwhelmingly dominating the player base it's pretty obvious that this is the right group to market to. But there are girls that play these, I'm one of them and very occasionally (maybe once a week) I come across another girl.

There are some games that cater to the rare female, L4D has Zoey to play, Borderlands has lillith, Fallout 3 and a many others allow you to create you own character male or female.

I guess what I'm getting at here is that some games seem to forget about girls altogether. Halo has some inclusion, you have the ability the change you death screams to female. I guess what annoys me about that is it seems a little like a half baked after thought. If you play as an elite you still have the Spartan female voice, the elite death screams are the funniest in the game and I don't think I should have to change to male just to have them.

But then we come to Modern Warfare 2. The only real customisation of your dude is the weapon you choose can dictate the camo you wear (snipers wear ghillie suits for example). Of course there are the call signs, I currently have Compainion Crate (pink hearts) and the pink soap emblem - but that's a bit of an overgirly for me because I don't have any other 'girl' options, but then I've seen guys use those too. The thing that actually got me think about all this was one of the accolades - ALPHA MALE: Killed most of lower rank, I in jest said to my husband "that's a bit sexist". As I thought more about it I wondered why there was no option to have a female charater in multiplayer, obviously the story is based on specific people so I don't expect it in campaign (come to think of it the only females I remember in the single player were the victims from the airport. Odd, women join the military now right?)

Funny, I just remembered something from COD4 too, the only female I remember managed to crash her heli only to have you risk your life to save her...

So, Escapist community, what are you thoughts on this? Do you think the could be a little more for those of us females that enjoy these games? And, what are your thoughts on the portyal of females in games?

 

[geldonyetich]

Do you enjoy shotguns? The question you're asking certainly has a wide cone of fire on it.

 

[DannyBoy451]

the gaming world is generally a man's world. Women are the minority. Thus men will be catered to more. Sad fact. So there's going to be a lot of playing to the bloke's ego: damsel in distress minor characters or... damn, I can't think of another exception than Perfect Dark right now.

Well, you get my point. Now I'm off to read Terry Pratchett alone and sob gently into my pillow, like every other night.

Basically this.

Aside from the sobbing, that's just not cool bro'

My pet hate is how women are depicted in fantasy RPGs: Dainty little things who can lift a sword and fight despite having the figure of a fashion model.

 

[slabomeat]

Well females do join the military, but I know as far as the US military females can't be in combat and are never intentionally put in that position.

 

[thiosk]

I would propose designer handbags as collectible (and tradable!) items in most entries of the FPS genera.

 

[Pilot Bush]

BECAUSE DEATH AND DESTRUCTION IS MANLY
...because most of us are incapable of anything else...HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

 

[Space Spoons]

I think that, like with every other form of entertainment media, the portrayal of gender roles is never going to be universally satisfactory. For every game that handles female roles in a mature and realistic fashion (Portal), there will be ten that objectify woman, or portray them as violently emotional bitchmonsters (Rumble Roses and Super Princess Peach, respectively).

Obviously, there's more that could be done to help remedy the situation, but I think that for most developers and gamers, it simply isn't considered a big enough issue to address. The big issue is gameplay and presentation. Issues like gender roles kind of take a back seat.

For my part, I'm all for the inclusion of more female-friendly customization options, but I can't say I'm overly concerned with gender issues when I'm gaming. I'm generally more interested in having fun.

Also, Samus Aran. Just sayin'.

 

[Kuchinawa212]

I suppose, but you gotta be sure that they don't turn into a girly game. Sure, I see what your saying, and I agree, they really need to make more of a effort, but it's hard to serve both audiences

 

[CerealKiller]

The games themselves are fine,if you enjoy playing FPS then nothing should be changed.I'll be sexist and i don't care really,so,what do you want in a FPS,a dress?Offcourse not!Camo,face paint,a gun and lots of ammo,that's what you need.Gear up and shoot.

Other than that,i'm one of the few that don't care about "sexist","not sexist","blahblahblahblah" cr@p in games like that.I want shooting,i want blood and i want lots of fun,so yeah.
I dont' know if you own a pc but if you do,make a mod the way you want it.
If we'll end up calling even FPS's sexist then what's next?It'll be illegal to have a d*ck?

I know that i seem rude here but you have to see it from my POV for a moment.



So....who's gonna flame me first...? lol


Edited to fix something.

 

[Katana314]

I really don't see the avatar as the primary concern. There's a big female audience for TF2, and that has an all-male cast. There are plenty of action-shooters in which the protagonist is a female, though the target audience is male. What usually seems to matter is how much the game appeals to females overall. I must admit I'm a little surprised that the styling of the avatar is as important an issue.

 

[Jeronus]

It is all about effort = profit. Until enough women start playing these games there won't be enough profit to justify the effort needed to get what you want done.

 

[Axle_Bullitt_19]

OT:I have a sister who I introduced to shooters and her games of choice are Warhawk and CoD. Warhawk doesn't have female characters but logos(that range from guns, cars, flowers, cute panda bears and more) for your character that you can make whatever color you want, also a wide selection of paint schemes for you plane that are just as varied as the logos. Another PS3 exclusive that does right by the ladys' is Resistance 2 were you can have your multiplayer character be Rachel Parker or a female soilder, but its DLC for $.99 each but its something.

 

[gillebro]

interesting post. i feel i should add my two cents, as another gaming female (though admittedly a fairly recent one)
for the most part i think that having female main characters is kind of unnecessary, but might be nice. it's like... having a token black or asian person as a main host in a tv show. it's unnecessary, but i guess it makes blacks and asians feel more included? i don't know... i don't see the connection and find it silly; i've never felt alienated when watching japanese tv, which lacks white people as i think it damn well should. moving along from my long-winded analogy, i know that a lot of us chicks are into the halo 3 and cod series, and if i had the money and/or currently lived with my younger brother i would be too, but personally i don't find the general lack of female characters at all off-putting, and think that having all the main characters as male depicts the world more realistically, stereotypical though it may seem.
one thing i do find really annoying is the general tendency for women central characters to either be hopeless damsels in distress or completely unlikeable and unrealistically hot bad-asses ala lara croft. another weird example, but i really liked how in super paper mario peach is not only quite clever and heroic in a way that she certainly isn't in other mario games, but she's actually useful. the day that nintendo release a zelda game with zelda as the main character kicking serious arse in the way that i think most of us believe she can, is the day that i can officially declare myself able to die happy. but i suppose having the sword-weilding and shotgun-savvy female characters being drawn with racks i could hang the entirely of my kitchen utensils on and scientifically impossible waist-to-hip ratios is similar to how all the blokes in FPSs have enormous biceps and require state-of-the-art double-stitched trousers to handle all of their extra manliness.
...i'd like to see more realistic characters, both male and female. that's all i'm saying

 

[Kermi]

I actually considered the idea of female avatars in MW2's multiplayer and then kind of... dismissed it. I don't necessarily think game designers outright dismiss the idea of female game characters when making their multiplayer, or at least they don't dismiss them for any particular reason. I mean, there's a lot of good reasons in this thread as to why they weren't included in MW2 but video games are fantasy, and while I don't encourage six-foot tall gunweilding penises, or gleaming unicorns in certain multiplayer games as this would be far too much of an immersion breach, I don't see why in a video game we can't have some girls running around in camouflague. I mean once you factor in army uniforms they don't need to look significantly different from the male avatars.

I think mstickle's main objection here is that MW2 in particular is very masculine in it's execution of damn near everything, like IW went to special effort to make MW2 a guy game, wheras something like Halo 3 at least allows for the possibility that girls will play.

 

[joshthor]

the gaming world is generally a man's world. Women are the minority. Thus men will be catered to more. Sad fact. So there's going to be a lot of playing to the bloke's ego: damsel in distress minor characters or... damn, I can't think of another exception than Perfect Dark right now.

Well, you get my point. Now I'm off to read Terry Pratchett alone and sob gently into my pillow, like every other night.

Basically this.

Aside from the sobbing, that's just not cool bro'

My pet hate is how women are depicted in fantasy RPGs: Dainty little things who can lift a sword and fight despite having the figure of a fashion model.

quite right - i would much rather have a large burly woman with biceps the size of a rocket launcher.

 

[DannyBoy451]

the gaming world is generally a man's world. Women are the minority. Thus men will be catered to more. Sad fact. So there's going to be a lot of playing to the bloke's ego: damsel in distress minor characters or... damn, I can't think of another exception than Perfect Dark right now.

Well, you get my point. Now I'm off to read Terry Pratchett alone and sob gently into my pillow, like every other night.

Basically this.

Aside from the sobbing, that's just not cool bro'

My pet hate is how women are depicted in fantasy RPGs: Dainty little things who can lift a sword and fight despite having the figure of a fashion model.

quite right - i would much rather have a large burly woman with biceps the size of a rocket launcher.

I just think it's blatantly pandering to the wank fantasies of teenage boys, I really can't take female warriors in RPGs seriously at all when they look like figure skaters.

 

[joshthor]

the gaming world is generally a man's world. Women are the minority. Thus men will be catered to more. Sad fact. So there's going to be a lot of playing to the bloke's ego: damsel in distress minor characters or... damn, I can't think of another exception than Perfect Dark right now.

Well, you get my point. Now I'm off to read Terry Pratchett alone and sob gently into my pillow, like every other night.

Basically this.

Aside from the sobbing, that's just not cool bro'

My pet hate is how women are depicted in fantasy RPGs: Dainty little things who can lift a sword and fight despite having the figure of a fashion model.

quite right - i would much rather have a large burly woman with biceps the size of a rocket launcher.

I just think it's blatantly pandering to the wank fantasies of teenage boys, I really can't take female warriors in RPGs seriously at all when they look like figure skaters.

very true, but in this beauty centric world no one wants to play as an ugly person. their appearence doesnt irk me too much, but what does take away some of the realism is the "armor" that covers hardly nothing. not that im complaining.

 

[ObsessiveSketch]

Well females do join the military, but I know as far as the US military females can't be in combat and are never intentionally put in that position.

did not know that, had to google it to believe it.

Anyways, catering to the main demographic, blah blah blah, all that. It's been said many times before.
MW2 doesn't incorporate girls just like it also doesn't have dedicated PC servers. They aren't the demographic. They'll make more money off of male console gamers, so they won't waste time and resources adding other features that won't make them ludicrous amounts of money