TITS OR GTFO! Why don’t more women play games?
28 03 2008
Sarah’s been getting righteous on 4Talent Central.
“The gaming industry seems to be concerned that women aren’t spending enough money on games. How can it appeal to them? Well… there are some pretty obvious places to start. And what’s the point of a panel discussion about the issues relating to women in games if everyone’s too afraid of the word “feminism” to criticise anything?”
Nice article! Is this the Sarah that’s also Of The Dead?
There are a couple of mitigating factors for the numbers, such as the fact that war-based shooters in general, and WWII ones in particular, have good reasons for being short on playable women. But I am devil’s advocating there. I’ve never experienced the “Tits or GTFO” myself, but most of my online gameplaying is World of Warcraft, which is possibly less masculine than FPSs.
But while featuring a female protagonist in a fighting game is still a bold move
I started at this for a bit, because I couldn’t think of one without one, but then I’m thinking of Tekken-like games, without much of a protagonist, or Jade Empire, where it’s an option. I suppose gamers will (or the view is that gamers will, which is half the damage) play a girl for a little while, but if they want a story then having it specify a female protagonist is rare, yeah (sheds a tear for the corpse of Oni).
The only time it came up was when a woman in the audience asked the panel whether they thought increasing the number of women working in the games industry would lead to games becoming boring and sterile.
I have no words.
There’s an interesting story uncommented on in the last picture in the article, which is of Portal - Games Radar have an article on it, and I did find it interesting that it’s a game that within the first minute makes it very clear that you’re playing as a woman, but doesn’t make a big deal about it (similarly to how the gender of the player in most FPS’s makes little difference to anything - but then if it’s no big deal, why is it always a bloke?)
Hello,
Just thought I’d wade in here and reply to that!
Yes, that is me-of-the-dead. You’re very observant! RE: women in Vietnam/WWII games, good point, but how about COD4? Or Saint’s Row (apparently there’s gonna be a playable woman in the second one, but we’ll see)? Or Team Fortress 2? Or The Club?
(That’s obviously not an exhaustive list, just games I’ve played in the last week!)
And RE: Portal, I would have written about that at great, great length, because a) Portal is beyond amazing and b) I think there’s a lot to be said about it in terms of gender and representation and all the rest of it. Did you notice how even references to Aperture Science events were all female-centric? (i.e. Bring Your Daughter To Work Day, the … what was it, self-esteem fund for girls?) I’m going to go and read that article you linked to now. Bye!
(reminded by the 4talent newsletter, D’oh)
No no fair point about the other games, I’m just playing devil’s advocate. Though everyone knows the Pyro is female! Actually, I think there’s an awesome looking female mod for TF2 which I can’t put my finger on right now.
Yes, I noticed that, there was a very female-centric cast - although I think they refer to the Weighted Companion Cube as a male at some point.
Also this, and specifically it’s comments:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/?p=1225
(reminded by the 4talent newsletter, D’oh)
No no fair point about the other games, I’m just playing devil’s advocate. Though everyone knows the Pyro is female! Actually, I think there’s an awesome looking female mod for TF2 which I can’t put my finger on right now.
Yes, I noticed that, there was a very female-centric thing - although I think they refer to the Weighted Companion Cube as a male at some point.
Also this, and specifically it’s comments:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/?p=1225