Editorial: There’s No Room For Sexist Views In The Video Game Industry
By William on Thursday, January 3rd, 2008 at 10:34 AM PST In Editorials, Gamer Life
While interviewing Gameinatrix aka Cori Roberts of Gamer Girls Radio, for an upcoming article on Gaming Today, we touched some interesting topics in our side conversations such as sexist beliefs that are still very common in the video game industry. She told us about the remarks made by a senior VP of Marketing from a major game developer who stated, “Women don’t really play anything but The Sims”. This is a topic they covered on a recent podcast for Gamers Girls Radio and will probably be a topic worthy of debate as long as the problem of sexism continues in the game industry. I was slightly surprised that a marketing VP would make such a statement, but not shocked.
Fortunately, great progress has taken place over the past few years in the industry, but we still have a long way to go. In many ways, it would be nice to see a day when female gamers are looked simply as gamers, instead of females who happen to play games. It’s an interesting topic, and there may not be an obvious fix-all solution at this time. Currently, female gamers are a rapidly growing group and there really isn’t any room for sexist views in the gaming industry.
Women now comprise 43% of PC gamers and 35% of console gamers. Some may try to argue that women are more inclined to play “casual” games, but that’s really not the point. Even the women playing casual games should be considered “gamers”. The game industry simply has not adequately responded to the needs and interests of female gamers. Game content, marketing, game publications and gaming websites have a long way to go.
Feel free to let us know what you think in the comments section below. This is a topic of great interest for many people and something we should all try to think about a little more often.
This is an unfortunate reality that I think is tied into the perception of gaming and gamers as a whole. Traditionally, the gaming market has been dominated by males, and only recently have female gamers swollen their ranks to the point they are at today.
However, as much as we may want it to change, there’s a reason it doesn’t. Marketing. Developers, publishers, and PR firms know that targeting ads at male gamers yields results, and those results are measured with dollar signs. Sure, there’s money to made by targeting a female demographic, but the benefits of male-targeted advertising far outweigh the costs.
Whether female gamers like it or not, their ranks have been swollen by the casual gaming housewife. I know that there are tons of hardcore gaming females out there. In fact there are several all-female gaming clans that can give any guys a run for their money. It’s not about that.
At the end of the day, it’s about someone in marketing reading a spreadsheet and making a decision based on a bottom line. Until that changes, you’ll see this same problem persist.
Actually, just as owning a tennis racket and playing every now and then does not make you a ‘player’ (in this case tennis), having a PC (no doubt mainly owned for reasons other than gaming) and playing a few games on it does not make you a gamer (regardless of your sex). I know plenty of people who own consoles, rest assured that these people are not gamers either. ‘Gamer’ is a special title reserved for those who have devoted themselves to this hobby, investing of themselves and time. They love games, they love to play them and they love to talk about them. That is a gamer.
Additionally, we all know stats are complete BS, so 40% or 35% unlikely. Where did the sample data come from, how was it gathered, was it skewed, how was it tested for validity?
How is that even remotely sexist? It’s true. Face it ladies, most of your peers play some kind of MMO or some other game. I’ve run into more girls online there than in all my gaming. Yes, more women play games today than they do yesterday, but they are often cocentrated in certain genres.
“Women don’t really play anything but The Sims”
Thats such a dumb thing to say. What about Nintendogs?
I would have to disagree with many of the paternophile gaming marketers, seeing as I still get my ass handed to me by a girl I play Halo with on a regular basis.
I think Halo is definitely a game that many would consider hard-core and there are plenty of female Halo players.. and plenty of female Halo players that are better than I am.
@Kareem: “How is that even remotely sexist? It’s true. Face it ladies, most of your peers play some kind of MMO or some other game. I’ve run into more girls online there than in all my gaming. Yes, more women play games today than they do yesterday, but they are often cocentrated in certain genres.”
Have you played online recently? Women are playing everything these days. Not just casual games or MMO’s, but games that run the gamut from FPS to RTS to RPG. In fact, many of the the female gamers are riding near the top of leaderboards in many games.
The problem is, as I said before, that marketing decisions are made based on the majority, not the totality. Until marketing attitudes change, these issues will persist.
Marketing is usually based on the majority which is a bit of a problem sometimes, but a good business decision. I do think the industry has grown to the point where the majority may not need to be the primary marketing group each time though. We’re already seeing some games marketed towards females and I think that will continue to grow. Gaming is really big enough now to where the minority is still an extremely large group of people.