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Video Games Need A Woman's Touch
hattan wrote to mention an AP article going around detailing one woman's frustration with the roles for women in games. From the article: "Tara Teich enjoys nothing more than slipping into the role of a female video game character. But the 26-year-old software programmer gets annoyed by the appearance of such digital alter egos as the busty tomb raider Lara Croft or the belly-baring Wu the Lotus Blossom of 'Jade Empire.' Don't even get her started on the thong-bikini babes that the male gunmen win as prizes in 'Grand Theft Auto,' which was sent to stores with hidden sex scenes left embedded on the discs by programmers. "
No one's creative work "needs" anything. If you don't like what someone has made, then make your own. There's plenty of media and games out there I have no interest in, or that even downright annoy me. Do I say everyone should be making the types of games I like? No, different people have different tastes. I stick to the games I like, and others can do likewise.
Why, she asks, must women in video games always look like Las Vegas show girls?
For the same reason the men look like action heros.
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
Yet another article on women in the games industry that contains no more information than a few rambling paragraphs about a random game player, who happens to be female, not enjoying what the industry has to offer.
If you don't like the games, stop buying them. Vote with your dollars, people.
How is this even news? Is it because she's female? Is that supposed to matter? Guys dislike crappy games, too.
see a fat woman with big hair and lots of tatoos?
Daytime TV shows need a man's touch.
She walks 15 hours a day and spends the other 3 fighting. She's wearing her world's equivalent of a sportbra. That's normal. Move on.
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show that it's gamers who need a woman's touch.
OSTG user statistics (Including Slashdot).
- 97% of OSTG readers are men
- average age is 29
Arguing about women in games on Slashdot is like a vegan arging about animal rights in a sausage factory.
94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act
It's a shame that none of the people who know exactly how to attract female gamers bother to actually, y'know, make games. (With the one exception of Brenda Laurel, who mostly succeeded in issuing lots of press releases about how smart she is before blowing through all her investors' money.)
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
There is a funny rant about this in today's sfgate.com (There's Sex In My Violence! What's this lame soft-core porn doing in my ultraviolent "Grand Theft Auto"? I am outraged!).
~~~~~~~
"You are not remembered for doing what is expected of you." - Atul Chitnis
Wow... And just as we thought Hot Coffee was dead.
This 'feminist' attitude in particular annoys the hell out of me. How is it that consentual sex with a *girlfriend* in a game is automatically considered demeaning to women?
Does 'feminism' imply that all mention of sex should be eradicated? Because somehow males only use it for their pleasure or to demean women? Sorry to break it to these 'feminists', but women enjoy sex too.
And on top of that, the amount of time and effort it takes to get with any of the women in GTA for 'hot coffee' is significantly higher than what it takes to learn to fly, defeat a drug ring, and take over half a city. Real life women are usually far easier.
Skewed attitudes about sex do exist in videogames, but the article seems to be grabbing at popularity here. Maybe instead of getting on the bandwagon and producing a knee jerk response to the 'awful sex' in GTA the author should actually think about what he or she is implying.
End rant.. that just pissed me off.
What's with this onslaught of "there's not enough female programmers" or "I don't like the portrayal of women in video games" stories? Why is it "important" that we have more women programmers? I have no problem with it either way, as people should be judged based on performance, but if programming doesn't interest women, why is that being portrayed as some sort of failure by the industry? I've said it before and I'll say it again: men and women are different, they have different abilities, inclinations, emotions, brains and bodies.
I find it hard to believe that many (or probably any) women decided against a career in programming because of scantily clad or anatomically-exaggerated female characters in games. People who program tend to do so because they like to program. There are hudreds, if not thousands, of programming roles that have no interaction with large-breasted female pixel-models. Even within a given game, there's so much to do besides render the models that this entire line of reasoning is just asinine. If you don't like the products your company makes, work somewhere else.
As for nudity in games: every information medium ever created was promptly appropriated for pornography. Considering sex is among the most important issues for people everywhere, since about... forever, I don't see why this is surprising or shocking.
A game like GTA:SA is targeted at a specific demographic: men over the age of 18. If the game sells well in its target market then it's a success. If people outside the target demo don't like it, it doesn't really matter. The games industry has introduced games targeted at females of several age groups and by and large, they're flops. The reason behind this is pretty simple; see my first paragraph.
rooooar
Many of the shows on TV contain scenes that contain sexual situations, even if they don't show much skin its still suggestive. Also women on TV are often dressed in skimpy outfits, why is it 100 times worse if its in a game?
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I just have one thing to say: If Lara Croft gets used as the first and typical example of a female video game heroine, I'm gonna start slapping people. If you have a discusion about this and don't mention that Samus Aran was in fact the first, and exemplifies everything that's right with a video game heroine, you need to give up your gamer licence immediatly.
If forums teach us anything, it is that logic and critical thinking should be required courses in the public schools.
Woman lucy = new Woman();
In the midst of a long conversation with a reporter about being a woman programmer and a woman gamer, he posed the question, how do you feel about the representation of women in games? I responded that I don't know why woman have to be so scantily clad, but it doesn't stop me from playing the games.
I had lots of good things to say about games. I am a gamer, I love games, including Jade Empire, and I never made a single comment about the portrayal of women in GTA. Note he says, "Don't get her started on..." He didn't get me started. It never came up. I thought the interesting part of the article was going to be about the challenges of breaking into a difficult industry, and the challenges of broadening the appeal of the industry beyond the hardcore gamer.
I didn't just use The Sims as an example of accessible, non "male oriented" games. I cited several examples to show that there's a public misconception that there are no other types of games out there. Look at Amplitude, Pikmin, Karaoke Revolution, look at the growing online gaming sector. My hope was to show that the game industry is NOT in need of a woman's touch. It's in need of better publicity. This article just reinforces the stereotypes.
Don't believe everything you read.
I think you have it backwards. The porn fetish is because of the taboo. Compare with western Europe. Most of the countries are much more sexually liberal, with sex education starting at an early age. The result? Fewer teenage pregnancies, no association of simple nudity with sex, and fewer problems with sex in general.
In short, it would be difficult for America to go even further backwards unless they want to reenter the Dark Ages.
LOAD "SIG",8,1
That is hidden content to be released 2 years from now when sales have slowed down.
last time i was in europe i didnt see any 12 year old girls wearing 'porn *' shirts.
always mosh clockwise
"...'Grand Theft Auto,' which was sent to stores with hidden sex scenes left embedded on the discs by programmers. "
Get the FUCK over it! God anyone else tired of this yet!?! Everyday I'm half tempted to just stop reading "gaming" news. If I wanted drama I'd go by a ticket to a play!
Being an independent developer, we have an enormous amount of freedom in how we can portray our in-game characters. In our most recent action title, we made sure to portray male and female characters in a fairly realistic fasion. The result was that a major gaming magazine chided us for a female protagonist that wasn't busty enough. Apparently our undersexualized portrayal of women is a turn-off for males.
Similarly, we've noticed that for our puzzle games (where we portray no people), women make up roughly half of our customers. This drops way down for our action titles (where we do portray people). I must guess, then, that our undersexualized portrayal of men in these games has been a turn off for women. As such, starting with our next title, we will implement the Five Foot Phallus rule.
Let me explain.
- The Five Foot Phallus - All major male characters will possess a phallus at least five feet in length.
- Minor Characters may have phalli that are 3-4 feet long, which is closer to the human average, so nobody can complain about that.
- Gameplay - It should be noted that such a member is soley for aesthetic presentation, and will not affect gameplay. Players will not be able to walk up to enemies and beat them to death with their enormous genitalia. This only goes along with the industry trend, since in most video games, you can't use a female character's ridiculous bosom to suffocate opponents.
- Simulation - We're currently researching how we might most naturally present this, and are looking into licensing various engines for rigid-body physics.
I'm convinced that this move will bring the female demographic for our action games up in no time.What do you think?
We're indie. We're working on our 14th game.
Hmm. The GAME industry certainly isn't ignoring the fact that web/downloadable games are wildly popular with women. It's the MEDIA that ignores it. I brought up the fact that this is one of the fastest growing categories of games in my interview. But. That's not a hot button topic like GTA, so it didn't get mentioned.
As to women not liking competition, I don't know if you've met any. Women that is. Most of the women I know are fiercely competitive. I know I am. I know I'm not the exception either. There's all sorts of competitiveness in women, it just comes out in different ways.
Does playing with dolls really tell us something? Ever play with dolls yourself? You sure? What about action figures, or GI Joes? I'm not really so sure what playing with dolls means. Women like competition and challenges. Anyone who says otherwise hasn't met a woman. What are all those women playing Bejeweled doing? Trying to get a top score. Trying to beat their friends score. Trying to break a record. That's competition.