WORDS Emmie Taylor

ILLUSTRATION Alice Wilson

The discussion of gender inequality is often an issue that sends the masses spiralling into fits of outrage or bouts of disgusted eye-rolling. Unfortunately, within the realm of video games it is also a subject that can’t really be ignored. From the advent of Mario and his incessant need to rescue Princess Peach who was always in another castle, to the quest of the mythical “nude Lara Croft” cheat, to the complete and utter shock at finding out that Metroid’s Samus Aran was a woman the entire time, video games have always been rife with issues of gender. Whether it is in relation to the female characters within games, or the women creating and playing the games themselves, the gaming industry can no longer escape the fact that it is undeniably sexist.

 

When considering the roles of women working within the industry, one has to look no further than next-gen consoles PS4 and Xbox One, and the publicity surrounding their releases. Following numerous reports of women — booth babes, journalists and PR personnel alike — being verbally threatened and even groped at E3 this past year, the convention now has a new nickname: “Creepy-Rapey-E3”. While many might think gross behaviour at conventions is reserved for the more vocal jerks of the world, the startling reality is that some of these reports involved convention staff, and even male writers and journalists. These were not simple acts made by hormonal, teenage idiots, but rather professionals within the industry.

 

Worse still is that the companies themselves are not only condoning sexism, but perpetuating it. Sony’s two-page commercial promoting the UK release of the PS4 read: “Apologies to Rosie, 22, from Middlesex. Today’s page 3 is for the players.” Their joke was not only in reference to the “players” pun, which insinuates only males can play video games, but about the ad’s placement; page three of The Sun is usually reserved for a topless model. Microsoft also jumped on the sexist bandwagon by publishing a letter on their website meant to encourage non-gamers to try the Xbox One. Unfortunately, the letter’s first line read: “Hey honey, not sure if you’ve heard, but Xbox One is now available. That means we can start playing games like Dead Rising 3. I know, I know. You’d rather knit than watch me slay zombies.” The letter has since been taken down and apologies have been made, but the bitter aftertaste remains. All in all, 2013 was certainly not the best year to be a woman in the gaming world.

 

Within the games themselves there is also a great disparity, particularly when examining the differences between male and female protagonists. It is telling that, while Sam Fisher and Gordon Freeman are known for being complex and interesting characters, Lara Croft and Tifa Lockhart are more famous for their cup sizes than their accomplishments or personalities. Also, in the 2013 Tomb Raider release, Square Enix’s decision to include a quick-time event in order to escape an attempted rape — a threat that would never be considered for a male hero — sparked so much outrage from fans that it was changed into a less sexual throttling scene instead. Even Samus Aran was reduced to a cat-suit clad, baby-obsessed shadow of her formerly badass self in Metroid: Other M; and when a strong, fully-clothed female protagonist does emerge, like Final Fantasy XIII’s Lightning, she’s constantly subjected to complaints that she is simply a female version of Final Fantasy VII’s male protagonist, Cloud Strife. It’s difficult to be a female protagonist in today’s gaming world; one is either reduced to their physical attributes, or seen as masculine and uninteresting.

 

While the discussion of gender in gaming can often be a sticky issue to navigate, Bing Gordon, the co-founder and former Chief Creative Officer for Electronic Arts, and current member of the Board of Directors for Amazon, Ngmoco and Zynga, was kind enough to answer a few questions and provide insight into this history of gendered issues in gaming, as well as current efforts to mitigate these concerns. When asked about sexism within the industry, Gordon states, “I have found that most games targeted at females were created by fathers of daughters, partly because women didn’t want to take the seeming career risk. I believe that is changing, again, as a female audience becomes so important. At Zynga, the creative leader of Farmville is Maureen Fan, for example.” This demonstrates a shift within the industry to accommodate changes within gaming demographics — according to the Entertainment Software Association, women make up 45% of all gamers as of 2014. While Gordon could not speak for other companies, he made it clear that Zynga is pioneering a future with more opportunities for women within the industry through their Women at Zynga program, led by Fan and Meg Makalou, VP HR. Instead, in Gordon’s opinion, the “hardest issue is lack of females graduating with computer science degrees, since engineers make up 35% of game company population”. While the industry clearly has a long way to go in terms of closing the gender gap between its developers, as more and more women take positions of power within gaming companies, hopefully progress can be made.

Gordon also believes that with the huge growth of female audiences, these themes and disparities within the games themselves will change in time. He pointed out that, “before Tomb Raider, boys would not play females in games, but Lara Croft changed that. After about 2000, the ‘stigma’ of boys playing girls seemed to disappear.  In about 2005, one report showed that 48% of female avatars in Everquest were actually played by males.” The Mass Effect series has also shown great effort at destroying gendered stereotypes in gaming, not only through the option to play as Female Commander Shepherd, or “FemShep”, but also through the options to carry out heterosexual or homosexual relationships throughout the games. While it is a bit disheartening that only 18% of Mass Effect players choose to play as FemShep, perhaps with her character finally featured in the trailers and on the box art for Mass Effect 3, this statistic will see a change in the future. “My sense is that there has been more gender crossover since about 2000 in children as well as teens and adults,” says Gordon, and fourteen years later it seems that things are perhaps improving within the industry. Sexism still remains, and likely will for years to come, but any strides made toward more fair and equal representations of gender, both for women working in the industry and for portrayals of women within the games themselves, can only be positive for gamers, male and female, everywhere.