There was one girl in all of my computer-related elective courses in high school (secondary school) and there have been a total of 2 that I saw in all of my college-level computer-related courses. I don't know what it is, but it certainly doesn't seem like an attractive major for females. I don't think their minds are any less scientific than that of males; perhaps it's a marketing and misconception problem?

When I was growing up, pretty much all girls would frown upon videogames as being for sad nerdy boys. I have a niece who has been raised by my sister in law to think that videogames 'are not for girls.' This is something she's said to me many times when I've tried to get her to play some videogames. I don't believe this is unusual either.



To then be surprised that the videogame industry is heavily unbalanced by the number of men working in videogame development or journalism compared to women is a bit ridiculous. If this turns into a 'sex' war about inequality I'll get a little pissed off as everyone I've met in this industry are the kindest, most morally aware people I've ever met.



I think what you're looking at is more of a societal issue that will become more balanced in the near future as games become more and more mainstream and part of everybody's everyday life, not just in terms of the two sexes, but in terms of age and race.

I don't why there a so few female game critics, but if read/listen to articles like 'top 5 with lisa foiles' I know, I'm not interested in such thinks as why a certain game character is hot or not, 'cause I don't care about the result. I'd like to know why. Just like when I read an article of Petra Schmitz (and yes, I had to google her to get her name right), I can read that this a person who is dedicated to games and wants to write a good article about them with all the cons and pros. But in the end, I don't care if I read a males or females article. There are a lot of male critics out there and I don't read their articles nor do I know their names.



If I should name one benefit of female game developers no matter the department, I would say its self criticism. Men tend to justify their results, don't ask for feedback or generally think of themself as superior. Part of that is what makes us male in the end.

My two sisters had no interest until Final Fantasy 7. After that they were into Silent Hill, Mario Kart 64, and I even taught one of my sisters how to infinite combo in Marvel vs Capcom. I later encountered plenty of guys later who won't touch video games. You just need to show them entertainment they'd be interested in. It's a social problem. I know plenty of people who bought the 360 for Halo, Gears, COD. I got the 360 for SOTN, Vandal Hearts and SF HDRemix. If my friends pushed only those games on me I'd be in the same boat as my sisters before FF7.

Thankfully this article is free of bias. The woman had no knowledge of the subject about which she was asked to speak, and is described as 'eloquent'. The men couldn't name a female critic and are described in buffoonish terms as ignorant and confused.



I wish I could tell where the author(s) stood on this subject.



Gender is only an issue to people who make it an issue. The only real question is whether or not there is an active force stopping interested women from entering a field. The answer is clearly no. So if they choose not to enter the field you think is proper to boost their representative number to the level you think appropriate, the only people being sexist are the ones telling them that they're making the wrong choice.

Au contraire: I was asked to speak about criticism and writing, "the words that we use", about which I know a great deal. I was consciously chosen as an interested outsider who might throw a different kind of light onto the question of games criticism. As the discussion panned out, it didn't head into those areas about which I can speak with some authority - for example, forming communities, or the influence of the web on cultural discussion, or how ideas reflected in criticism can feed back into a culture. I certainly don't know a lot about games development and the industry.



There were a lot of women there (and not a few men) who thought that gender was a problem. That means it is a problem.

Well, since this is one of my areas of academic endeavor as well as professional experience, I have a somewhat different take on it than popular perception whether amongst consumers, people in various areas of the industry, or academia.



I could talk extensively about this topic. Actually, I have done so, and continue to do so. This isn't a good medium for that, though, even though I have posted replies to similar articles or posts in the past on Gamasutra. Let me just point out a couple things to consider, and I apologize in advance for the length. ^_^;





One: Gender identity (psychological) and sexual identity (physiological) are not dichotomous, isolated choices, but rather encompass a spectrum of possibilities. If the topic is couched as a dichotomous, "male/female" topic, then the next question is what about transgendered and intersexed individuals of all types?



Two: It is not true that women do not or have not played games, and it is not true that there are not many women in the industry. I grew up during the first release of Pong, teletypes playing Spacewar, and the birth of arcades and home console systems, and I played games with plenty of girls and women. Gen Con originally focused on TSR's D&D and many events were run by female players. If you watch the original "Tron" (1982) you will see a scene near the beginning of Flynn's Arcade. This was an actual arcade used to film the scene, and you will notice plenty of girls playing as well as girls working. This was also my personal experience during the 1970s and 1980s, and during the six years I managed amusement centers from 1990 to 1996. Perhaps most importantly, gaming is global, and there are many female illustrators in Japan and other Asian countries. This includes many of the sexual portrayals of female characters that are nominally aimed at a male audience. At best, we would have to say that it is a female perception of what males find sexy, but you seldom, if ever, hear anyone complaining about misrepresetations of femininity by female artists and character designers. Likewise, you do not hear any outcry about the fact that yaoi works and otome works are made pretty much entirely by females, and that any representation of males within them is very misleading and full of misrepresentations.



Three: A person's physical, sexual identity or psychological, gender identity has nothing at all to do with whether or not someone else will find their work "good" or "bad." If everyone would stop to think about this, it would be obvious: all people who identify as female or male physically or sexually do not share the same views about various issues, topics, etc, nor do they share the same preferences in clothing, food, or other areas of life. I have had women tell me that they prefer clothing designed by male fashion designers over the offering by female fashion designers, for example, and we can see in political races that there are plenty of male and female voters on opposite sides of any issue, as well as plenty of voters of all types across the extremes of the spectrum. Historically, there are internationally well-loved stories that are heroine-focused such as "Alice in Wonderland," "Wizard of Oz," and "Carmen" that were created by males, not females. Likewise, there are works created by women that are hero-focused such as "Tale of Genji" that are enjoyed by diverse audiences. This same trend can be observed in games, of course, or other pop media such as Japanese manga and anime. Creative artists such as Rumiko Takahashi and CLAMP are internationally famous. This has nothing to do with violence or sex, either. Artists such as Carnelian are quite popular and successful even though she is known for works featuring hardcore, explicit sex and violence. Peach Pit is a team of two women artists who do not shy away from violence or sexuality. Another example would by Hatsune Miku: her character design may be by a male artist named KEI, but Sony made the huge mistake of thinking that Supercell's first album featuring Miku would be 90% male preorders when the actual demand was 45% female. It's the female cosplayers who are most visible at conventions and on video sharing sites. If we had a gaming industry that was 50/50 male/female, we would have to ask (1) where are the intersexed and transgendered individuals? and (2) within the broad male/female groups, what disagreements about story, character, content, mechanics, etc do we see? The second question would see a broad disagreement just as we see in other areas of life, of course, because everyone has different preferences and we cannot paint/stereotype an entire group with generalities.



Four: Frankly, I am tired of hearing comments about armor or other areas of fashion and claims that female characters should be decked out in head to toe plate mail. No, they should not, at least not in general, because they would be sitting ducks, just as Elven characters who wear such outfits would be sitting ducks compared to Dwarves wearing similar armor. You do not wear heavy armor that makes you almost immobile when your greatest strengths are speed, agility, and stamina. Also, for various types of characters such as spellcasters, it is far more realistic to remove anything artifical in order to remove obstacles between oneself and mystical powers. This is also the case for anyone about to embark on a major task; it is quite common for such individuals, at least in various cultures, to purify themselves by stripping and going through various purification ceremonies (including fasting, for example, in order to remove impurities). Ultimately, not everyone prefers wearing armor as it causes a trade-off of one sort or another, and not everyone who wears armor (or other outfits) has any problem with showing of physique. This varies with culture, time, social status, and other elements. We can see the difference in preferences amongst today's population, in fact. I have never heard anyone complain about the very little armor that Conan wears, when he wears any at all, nor have I heard complaints about the skintight outfit for Superman. Regarding Japanese stories, including games, it is quite common for characters of all kinds to wear aesthetically appealing outfits and have aesthetically appealing personal characteristics (e.g., ridiculously long hair such as Sailor Moon's) even if such traits are not at all "realistic." This also goes back to point #3, of course.

Hi everyone! Six years ago I started GamingAngels.com as a place for women to write about games. This was in response to a panel of Game Magazine editors telling me they would never hire a female to write about games. We are independent, so we're not as big as most sites, but I enjoy giving women a place to start writing. Many have moved on to paying jobs in the industry or writing from building their resume on GA.



In the end, it's not about which gender is writing about games. It's the game industry blind to the fact that women are writing about games. Which leads them to the same stereotypical choices of who to make games for, and how to host their press events etc.

It's good to see these issues are being raised and debated.



I agree, there should be panel about it next year.



But I hope someone pointed out that there was a panel on the issues facing women working in the game industry (which I chaired) at Free Play in 2004, and the year after... and probably every Free Play since then.



Around these panels some work was done to instigate initiatives to address some of problems women quietly face in the Australian industry: issues like maternity leave, working hours, sexual harrassment, pay disparity, professional development, opportunites for mentoring and recruitment. Some of these problems are faced by men too, but sometimes disproportionately affect women.



It's no mystery, nor does it require some TED talk-worthy innovative design solution to address the key underlying reasons for why women are still having a hard time in the Australian game industry.



Sure, have less sexist content in games etc. But let's not forget that female game developers and critics are workers. If the industry can't manage fair pay, decent working conditions, non-hostile workplaces and real opportunities for career progression then all the pro-female careers fairs and female-friendly window dressing in the world isn't going to mean shit.

I feel like the first step to solving this dilemma of inspiring more young women into the field of videogame development is to create the seeds of that inspiration through games that would generate interest from those types of demographics. From the beginning of the existence of commercialized videogames, "girl games" have been nothing but the most pandering of inspid licensed products that do nothing but insult its audience.



I feel like there needs to be a large injection of the Hayao Miyazaki-esque feminist spirit and representation in videogames now for the sake of its future growth, meaning strong representation of independant characters that overcome their flaws and turmoil in a melodrama-style that appeals to women. They don't need to be deep, just not vapid.



To use some examples of what I mean, I would categorize action titles like the upcoming Lollipop Chainsaw, or past games like WET and Bayonetta, to tread that line of female empowerement combined with mindless fun. That said, games either need to start avoiding chauvinism or make fun of it. Beyond Good and Evil tends to be cited a lot as being representative of a strong female role, or even The Longest Journey, but they're just two examples out of hundreds of thousands of games where that's not the case.



The classic examples of games that women have traditionally been associated as loving are either socially-oriented titles (e.g. The Sims, Facebook games), or abstract mental challenges (e.g. puzzle games, point-and-click, Myst, Civilization), but to attract a larger interest and audience, two things need to happen: Better visual representation of compelling female protagonists (Femshep of Mass Effect doesn't count as she's been absent from the series's marketing for the first two titles), and actual effort/marketing of said titles within the young female demographic mindshare, i.e. Cosmopolitan, Teen People Magazine, etc.



Presently, a lot of groundwork and mentality behind what games are has changed through Facebook, smart phones, and the Wii, except the Wii still made the impression that games are nothing but toys, while Facebook and smartphones suggest themselves to be time wasters. The diverse MMORPG audience might demonstrate wider penetration, but its done nothing to change the mental image of what videogames are for the general public and those who are still in the dark on the matter.

One problem of the discussion is that when someone says 'we need more female characters in games', the reply will be among the lines of why such a balance should be 'forced', along some examples where a female lead character would not have worked. Then add some comment about how the industry isn't in some kind of conspiracy to keep female characters out.



That response does not adress the issue for me, really. I think that the problem is not that the female gender is not picked for the lead character - I think the problem is that it is never even considered. That does not even happen on purpose, the very idea that a lead character could be female too just never really enters the heads of many designers during the development stage.

And when a lead character is female, it suddenly is a big deal. It is a central and important part of her character. For example - Alex, the lead character of Prototype is a person looking for his lost memories and past, and finding out why he is what he is. The fact that he is a guy doesn't matter much in the story or for those reviewing and playing the game. The fact that Lara croft is a girl is an 'issue' bigger then her cupsize! It DEFINES her as a character.

In that regard, jade is much an improvement. She might as well have been a guy and the game would not have changed for it. So when a game has a character that does not require superbeef, don't just pick the standard option without thinking about it - try picking a girl. And it may be 'weird' at first, and feel as if it will in some way change the game, but it won't. Not as long the thought behind the scenes will be 'OMG WE GOT A GIRL!'



And that is why the ongoing debate is a good thing: People need to have it rammed into their heads, into their consciousness every day, so when they create a character they can actually stop and think(!!) before picking the 'default' automatically.



There are good examples of female characters in games, however, male characters outnumber them. And on top of that, I have the feeling that many strong female characters originate from Japanese games. That is making sense, as Japan is far ahead when it comes to balance between female and male characters in media. Just look at the movies they make!