As I sat here this morning, a rather startling thought hit me.
"Shit," I would say "I have to write my own blog post this time, I can't piggy back."
A sad realization indeed. Thankfully, being a full time gamer and part time gambler, I was in luck. This morning, Tracy Lien, a writer for Polygon (A gaming publication that emerged recently out of the meld of several top tier writers from other publications), published an article that is exactly what I was looking for.
"No Girls Allowed" examines the stereotype that exists within the gaming community as a whole that women do not play video games. It is a common assumption, and one that perforates the online world almost as prevalently as "Your mom," jokes. An unfortunate reality, if you will.
Lien, to compact it all down into a rather broad and short way, shows us that the existing stereotype for women in games was not formed overnight. Rather, much like the way toys are organized by male and female gender in a toy store, the types of marketing techniques that have been used by big corporations and makers of video games has slowly brought us to believe that, in fact, girls do not play games.
This is largely due to the way marketing numbers work. Across a wide selection of more mainstream titles, take First Person Shooters (FPS) for example, statistics primarily show that male consumers are more likely to buy the product. In other instances, such as the SIMs (A reality simulation that lets you control a character and live their life as you see fit), the demographic most approached was female. The second category is a much smaller market, and much less profitable, so marketing teams have evolved to specifically target male gamers to sell their products, which, by default then, also tend to move towards the FPS genre/type of game.
After years and years of this (starting, originally, around 1993), we have developed the idea that women do not play games, more than anything, because they are not targeted by the market. They are, as one might say, excluded from the community by its most basic infrastructure, and as such, excluded on the member level as well.
The article is rather lengthy, but a joy to read. I was pleasantly surprised, to be honest. Plus, it brings to light a very troubling issue within the gaming community at large, which, as a gamer, I always support. Enjoy.
http://www.polygon.com/features/2013/12/2/5143856/no-girls-allowed
Regards,
Hunter Smith
I remember growing up and playing with Barbie's, and my cousins had GI Joes. They let us play with them and play house...didn't we all do that? I believe I was in junior high, my brother was in middle school and got the XBOX...we were so excited! I had a volleyball game and my brother had all of the "manly" games. I played with him, though, and enjoyed them so much. We had competitions to see who could have the most kills or who could survive the longest. A few years later, they came out with the XBOX 360, and my brother got more games. We played Halo, Black Ops, some 4-Wheeler game that I loved, and all of that. I remember always seeing men playing video games for advertising, but why not show women doing the same thing? I know so many women who actually love those kind of video games, and I believe if they were advertised with women in them, there would be more sales of those video games. When they came out with Dr. Pepper Ten saying that it was what men drink, that boosted sales and so many women came and bought it because they thought they are just like men, so why can it only be a man drink?
ReplyDeleteThis is kind of like sports or different hobbies we all have. Volleyball and cheerleading are seen as "girly" sports, while basketball is seen as a "manly" sport. Why is this? I knew a guy who was on the cheerleading squad for our high school basketball team and he was very good. He was respected and could do all the flips, more than what any of the girls could do. And why is it girls are seen as housewives while men are seen enjoying the wild and their sports? I for one live in the country and grew up on a farm. It was the best experience ever. I had cows, my cousins had pigs and horses, my dad and brother farm fields around the house and a few counties. Why aren't many girls shown working on farms and why aren't many men shown being housewives? Stereotypes...norms...if you don't fit in, you are classified as wierd.
This is a great post because I believe everyone can relate to it in one way or another. It doesn't have to be with video games, it can be with anything. Gender always plays a role in our society today. Men aren't acknoledged as nurses and women aren't acknoledged as scientists. More and more people are stepping out of what the norm says so that they can reach happiness in their lives...good for them! I'm in a major that is mostly dominated by men, but they all treat me as an equal. We don't care what religion you're from or your gender; if you share a love of something, a hobby, go explore it and learn more about it!!!
When I was younger, I enjoyed playing video games. We had a PlayStation 1, 2, and a Wii. My favorite games being Crash Nitro cart, and Spyro: Year of the Dragon, anyway I mainly play these games because it was of my brothers interest. You see, my brother is two years older than me, and when I was younger I always copied what he was doing and wanted to do everything he did. So he played a video game, I played a video game, simple as that. Although I enjoyed playing these games, it wasn’t my initial interest to play them. It wasn’t the commercial advertisement that would catch my eye, but it would catch my brother’s eye, and then I would follow.
ReplyDeleteThis correlates with what this article is trying to convey, that the market for the gaming industry is based solely on male consumers. In which case, I would have to completely agree! Even today when I see games being advertised, they are mainly FPS games (as you mentioned Hunter), and quite frankly, I do not know too many females that are interested in going into a war zone and killing enemies. But hey, everyone breaks stereotypes right?! But there are stereotypes for a reason, and the stereotype that women do not play video games is a real thing. Honestly, I think the gaming industry would thrive more if they targeted a female audience as well. I would enjoy playing such brain stimulating games, but they do not target such games for females. I mean don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed a little James Bond shooter games back in the day, but typically – girls don’t go for it.
I remember as a kid, I would always get into battles with my older sister over who could play our video gaming console. Our first one ever was a Nintendo 64, and my parents made the disastrous decision of only buying one controller when it was given to us for Christmas. If I do recall correctly, we were given the Nintendo 64 when I was in kindergarten and my sister was in second grade. Being older than me, she was always able to take the controller away and play whatever game she pleased. We would get into fights for hours over whose turn it was to play next, or the infamous lie, “mom said I could play one more game.” My mother never said play one more game, she would always say “you two have to learn how to share or no one gets to play.”
ReplyDeleteLooking back, my mother made the best decision, and probably saved our family as a whole, when she took me to the local gaming store to buy another controller. My sister and I never fought anymore over whose turn it was, we both had our own controller with our name on it and were able to play at the same time. I guess I never realized until reading this post that a lot more females play video games in today’s society than we expect. Female workers at my local Gamestop in Kent, Ohio seem to know a lot more about video games than I do, which does not surprise me seeing as they are surrounded by gamers all day long. Females are much more involved in the speculated male dominated gamer community, but their presence seems to go unnoticed.