Gaming & Gender: The Ever Changing Battlefield

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The relationship between the world of videogames and gender has always been one of heated debates and tumultuous divides. This topic and relationship is one that I view as deeply important, not only because of my personal involvement throughout my life, but also because of how prevalent it has become in the public eye in recent months. One of the biggest events that has caused this topic to gain attention in the public eye in the recent months has been the event known as GamerGate. This event happened in August of this year and has become more notable in the public eye for the ongoing heated argument about the misogyny found in the video gaming industry and the community (“Gamergate Controversy” 1). Other events that add to this attention are the numerous death threats and misogynistic comments made by a very small population of the gaming community towards women and feminist activists who have plastered the GamerGate Twitter hashtag and conversations with accusations and vehement commentary on the entirety of gaming’s history (1). Now as a female who games, I think that it’s important to bring light to this situation. However, I have started to see the violence and hate that has started to grow over the course of the year about this topic. I agree with some of the points made by some of the critics, yet I also disagree with some of them.

Nevertheless, I want to state now that I vehemently disagree and am completely disgusted with the abhorrent actions that have been enacted against these speakers and commentators by the small portion of the gaming community. No one deserves to have their families, lives, and well-beings threatened and harassed simply due to their speaking their own opinion. I also would like it kept in mind that, just like much of the content created on the internet, many of the people who are speaking out about this topic are speaking from personal experiences and are coming from a predisposed biased. This is all despite their using research and evidence that has been well researched and well used. This blog post is no different in that I am speaking from a personal connection that I have with the topic, however, I do want to pause here and tell you that I will be keeping an objective view of this situation and will only be using personal experiences or examples whenever they are absolutely necessary.

There is a longstanding, traditional ideal that is still apart of the gaming community and industry today. This idea is that gaming has been seen and advertised as a masculine activity and is viewed as a sort of “boy’s club.” With a majority of the protagonists in video games being male and a good portion of those popular video games including some sort of violence, it is no wonder that this idea has been around for so long. This idea is one that has been a major part of the community for a while, yet nowadays there has been a shift. The younger population of the Millennial generation has started to shift this idea out of the picture, making it an old view. And in recent years, the numbers have started to show how much this change has been supported. In a recent facts sheet published in April 2014 by The Entertainment Software Association:

• “59% of American play video games.” (The Entertainment Software Association 2)

• “There are an average of two gamers in each game-playing U.S. household.” (2)

• 52% of game players are male while 48% of game players are female (3)

• “Women age 18 or older represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (36%) than boys age 18 or younger (17%).” (3)

It has become very apparent that women make up a good portion of members in the gaming demographic, coming in as almost half of the population. The past idea of gaming being a “boy’s club” seems to be fading into history in the community, but companies still seem to be holding on tight to the idea and the demographic that is tightly attached to it.

Gaming companies today still seem to name the male demographic as their primary demographic. And this still is apparent in the games that are, and have been, produced and popular in the community. In the recent years, the games that seem to top the charts of the most popular games are that fall into the categories of first person shooters (FPS), fantasy, role-playing games (RPG), survival horror, and sandbox. Most of the games contain violence to some extreme. The extreme to which the violence exists or appears in the game depends on the game, but most of the games that are popular this year contain violence. Violence in general has always been associated in the gender binary as a masculine trait. Along with the violence, the protagonist character’s default gender is male in most of the games except two (Destiny and The Last of Us: Left Behind). Thus placating to the correlation between masculinity, violence, and video games. To play for the other side for a moment, there are gaming companies that have been known to be gender-friendly in their character designs and gameplay. One such company being BioWare who gave gamers both strong and confident female characters such as Commander Shepard in the Mass Effect series and romantic relationships that go further than the common heteronormative relationship styles found in most games (Scimeca 1). However, companies such as BioWare are few and far between. When gaming companies are asked about whether or not they will consider the female gamer audience in their developing, most of the time they will come out saying no due to it being both an economic and workload issue. They aren’t sure if the games will sell if female characters are made the main protagonist or an option for the gameplay. Along with that, the ‘large amount of work’ that would go into making an available female protagonist would be too much for the company to handle. Despite the reasons, whether founded or unfounded, game companies haven’t considered the demographic that could nearly double their sales, developing for the demographic that they already know could buy.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I know plenty of female gamers who would jump at a chance to take over their own mechanized war machine such as the ones in Titanfall or shoot a hoard of the undead like in The Last of Us. Although, despite the enthusiasm that female gamers may have, there are many of them who are driven away from these games due to the hyper-masculine nature of their gameplay, narratives, and themes. And the fact that these companies are coming out saying that these changes would be economically unsound further the focus on their primary consumer audience. So really, even if the game includes equally as tough and well-equipped female characters; the stories, gameplay, and themes that are weaved into the games are far from gender neutral. And this marketing ploy, not only has a detrimental effect on the companies, but also the ideals and views of the community that it markets and placates to.

Gaming and gender is definitely in a push and pull relationship in the area of gaming marketing, yet it goes deeper than just marketing ploys and demographics. Although changing in ideologies, the gaming community still retains a portion of their population who hold onto this idea of gaming being masculine and a masculine activity. In the gaming community, there is definitely a male majority. This majority could be connected to a widespread plethora of different reasons. It could be that women simply don’t engage in the social aspect of gaming and the community. Or it could be that most women who play games simply just don’t identify themselves as “gamers” (1). Whatever the reason, this majority has created a divide in the community between the females who do participate and the male majority. This divide has caused a bit of strife between the two sections. Reports of anything from harassment and exclusion to simple rude or hurtful comments are some of the common reports made by women in the community. These reports have since lessened in the past couple of years, but there are still a few instances where someone has verbally attacked or excluded someone from a gaming group or conversation based solely on the fact that the gamer was female.

The biggest instance of harassment is the recent GamerGate controversy. GamerGate started during August of this year. Although it started as a movement against certain ethical issues apparent in video game journalism, the movement has gotten more press over the year for the violent and abhorrent harassment, threats, and comments targeted towards prominent female figures in the culture (“Gamergate Controversy” 1). Some of the women who have received the worst of these threats have spoken out against the misogynistic themes and tropes used in modern video games. Such women as feminist video game commentator and blogger Anita Sarkeesian and video game blogger and celebrity Felicia Day. These women has spoken out against the harassment of, not only each other, but also women in gaming in general. The response was horrible threats against their family, comments wishing death and rape upon these women, and hacking of social networking accounts. It’s harassment that wasn’t overlooked by the press and other media, getting sensationalized as a new social movement against gaming as a whole.

Now, I’m not saying that harassment isn’t exclusive to gaming culture or other nerd culture sects. Although nerd culture has been known for it’s moments of misogyny, harassment towards women (and people in general) isn’t an uncommon occurrence in today’s society. Yet, being a member of multiple sects of nerd culture for most of my life, most of my experiences with harassment and rudeness due to my gender has mostly come out of the populations of the nerd culture sects that I belong to and frequent. Again, my knowledge is that of personal experiences and the personal experiences of others.

What’s interesting is that, during the events of GamerGate, another reason was suggested as to why there was friction between male and female gamers. there are those who say that the friction between male and female gamers comes from the themes and narratives that are present in the popular games of today and gaming past. This idea was briefly mentioned in Anita Sarkeesian’s YouTube video series “Tropes vs Women in Video Games.” Although mentioned briefly, the ideas have started to gain weight in the struggle between gaming and feminists. Essentially, the idea is that due to the level of interactivity between the games and the players, the games’ narratives are pushing the ideals that women are nothing but weak, passive objects to victimize and use whenever the male wants. Now, I am an advocate for equal rights, but this idea gives way to the notion of “monkey see, monkey do.” Basically, this means that if someone sees their character kidnap, beat, assault, and kill a woman in a video game, that it means that they will think that it’s alright to do it in real life. This idea is completely unfounded. True, there have been many times in contemporary history where acts of horrid violence have been attributed to video games. And some of the time, the criminal will often say that they saw it in a game, therefore thought it was alright to do. However, the mere concept that games are poisoning our youth into thinking that women are nothing but objects is nothing but pure conjecture. Honestly, if people wanted to blame something for the harassment, gender binary stereotypes, rape and violence culture, and double standards that women have to put up with, they would need to broaden their blame to the entirety of our society’s constructs. In essence, video games aren’t the only one to blame, if they are even to blame. I know of plenty of members, both male and female, of the gaming community who game regularly and treat everyone, regardless of gender, with the utmost respect. That could be said about many horrible, but true aspects about our society. Yet, I can’t, in good faith, sit here and tell you that the misogynistic themes and narratives that appear in most games nowadays are the reason that the relationship between male and female gamers has so much friction.

As a female who games, I have experienced my fair share of harassment, rude comments, and hurtful words. But, I have also watched this community shift and grow in their ideals and views. Yet, in the end, there is still room for some change. Female protagonists are still few and far between. And the few that we do have are either masculine women or could be construed as being androgynous in their design and masculine in their personality. The old, re-used tropes of the Damsel in Distress and the Ms. Mr. Character are still used as major selling points by game developers and game companies. No matter how far we come, there is always that looming idea that companies will continue to use these tropes and methods because they have worked since the beginning. However, I think that the commentators and activists who are speaking out against these misogynistic tropes and plots should be giving the gaming community and industry more credit than they currently do. There are many women in the gaming community, such as myself, who have had more good experiences than bad experiences. When I first entered the gaming community, I was welcomed with open arms and open minds. I could count on one hand the amount of times my gender had been made an issue. Along with that, just as with many female gamers, the idea of the default protagonist being male isn’t an aspect that is viewed as a problem or an offense. Some activists will say that is due to my acceptance of misogyny. I say that it’s due to my acceptance that gaming is nothing more but one thing: entertainment. Sure, I would like a take-no-prisoners, strong female protagonist, but only if it would be applicable to the story and the gameplay. The idea of having a girl protagonist in a video game solely to just have her there seems more ridiculous than anything. Yet, again, a discussion such as this comes down to personal experiences and opinions.

In the end, I don’t think that the relationship between gaming and gender will settle down anytime in the immediate future. Just as with most mass media markets, changes tend to happen slowly and gradually. And those who run these markets will always favor the long standing traditions and marketing tools that have worked for them in the past. However, I do think that it’s only a matter a time before this mass media market of gaming catches up with the current social views and ideas of their new demographic. And who knows? Perhaps in the future, people will celebrating and delving deep into the adventures of powerful women, escaping into worlds of fantasy and adventure. A trait that has, and always will, be the most powerful and engaging trait of video games.

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Sources:

“Gamergate Controversy.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. October 2014. Web. 24 Oct 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamergate_controversy>

Scimeca, Dennis. “The Gender Inequality in Core Gaming is Worse than You Think.” GamesBeat. VentureBeat Online, 19 Sept 2013. Web. 22 Oct 2014. <http://venturebeat.com/2013/09/19/gender-inequality/view-all/>

The Entertainment Software Association. “2014 Sales, Demographic, and Usage Data: Essential Facts about the Computer and Video Game Industry.” The Entertainment Software Association Online. April 2014. 2-13. PDF.

To watch Anita Sarkeesian’s “Tropes vs. Women in Video Games” Series, follow the link here.