NorthApple
GIVE ME THE APPLE!!
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2009
- Location
- UK :D
I'm sorry if this has been brought up before, but I couldn't find a thread quite about this point... I'm not even sure if it belongs in this section... I contemplated MD, but I don't think it's serious enough for that :3 But anyway...
Now, I don't normally listen to the radio much, but I was on the road for a couple of hours last tuesday, so I thought why not. But what I heard is still bothering me. For those of you in the US who probably won't know, BBC Radio 1 have apparently been having a "Gaming Week", or something (Basically seeming to consist of "FPS FPS FPS FOOTBALL-SIM FPS FPS Oh hey, look rest-of-audience Mario's here too!!1!11! FPS FPS FPS", but I digress...), but one of the topics that kept coming up has kind of stuck in my brain: Namely saying that "The Video Game Industry Needs/Wants more female characters/female developers."
And it's odd, because in some areas I'm a feminist to the last... but I realised, this isn't one of them. I mean, surely it makes no difference who designs/makes the game... since it all depends on the target market... and if a game's aimed at guys (as most games tend to be), then regardless of whether the designer is female or not, it's always going to appeal to guys first and foremost. Thus, it makes no difference who's making them, only that they're skilled in doing so... and I'm fine with guys making the majority of games, they do a good job as it is. Sure, the industry could have a few more females here and there, but it wouldn't matter much. If it isn't broken, don't fix it... right?
Still, at the time I presumed that they were referring to the fact that the industry wants more females to help produce games specifically aimed at females, since guys aren't always the best at judging what a "typical" girl would want out of her games... and to, lets be honest, to help make more realistic female characters, rather than breasts-on-legs. (This point seems to be a little null and void to me though, since I know plenty of normal female characters in todays games and I think the supposed sexism is a bit over-exaggerated to be honest.).
Maybe I've misinterpreted it, but when I looked at the various articles on the BBC's site the broadcast suggested, it seems to indicating that more games should have a female character inserted into them to instantly make them more appealing to "girl gamers".
That's the impression I got, but regardless of whether that's what they're really getting at, that's the other thing I want to talk about... since I don't know about you, but I find a major issue with that logic. Inserting a playable female character into say, your typical FPS seems pretty pointless to me, since from what I've seen, the females who enjoy that genre don't usually feel the need for a female character, they're perfectly find playing as a dude (for various reasons, from not wanting to face the cry of T!TS OR GTFO, to just not being bothered about it). The girls who aren't okay with this, on the whole mind, tend to be the ones who wouldn't enjoy that genre anyway, the ones who'd be better suited to the more casual and gender-neutral games. And that leads me rather long-windedly to the main thing that's been bothering me: Do females really need female characters to enjoy 'hardcore' games to the full? Do things need to change?
Now, I'm hardly your 'typical' female, but I know what my answer to that is. Presumably the logic is based around females being able to connect better with female characters, and thus all the experience to be more immersive for us/them... but to be honest, the only times I've ever felt I couldn't properly connect with a male character is when they were engaging with female CPUs. More specifically, when they were flirting and then the things that follow etc... for obvious reasons. But even then, actions on the more loving/caring/romantic/fraternal end of the spectrum don't pull me out of the experience at all, things like that don't stop me from empathising with the male character. And then during fighting/battling... it's just a game, and I find the gender of the character matters little when you're beating the crap out of enemies... and when horde of them are coming at you I kind of have more important things to concentrate on than what equiptment the character has in their pants (to put it bluntly), you know, like not being killed by the enemies =D Besides, I'm a big believer in the fact that games great because they are windows to experiences you could never have in real life... and for females, when it actually comes up in gameplay, seeing the world through the eyes of a dude is one of them.
But as I said, that's just me, and I know I'm not the best person to use as an example. To make it clear though, I'm not on about actual sexism that spawns from gaming, for example male players being unfair to females while playing online, or the sometimes stereotypical portrayal of female characters. That's not the point this time around :3 And I'm not talking about in more 'casual' games either, I'm on about more 'hardcore' ones (urgh, I detest those labels, but anyway.)
So what do you guys think... does the industry need more female designers? Would it make a difference? Do games need a female option, and girls, is a female character necessary/would allow you to enjoy games more?
(Note: just, forget about M/AO games and the like for now that aren't rated thus for gore alone, for obvious reasons... a female option might help in some cases, in others, it would just make things disturbing o-o)
Now, I don't normally listen to the radio much, but I was on the road for a couple of hours last tuesday, so I thought why not. But what I heard is still bothering me. For those of you in the US who probably won't know, BBC Radio 1 have apparently been having a "Gaming Week", or something (Basically seeming to consist of "FPS FPS FPS FOOTBALL-SIM FPS FPS Oh hey, look rest-of-audience Mario's here too!!1!11! FPS FPS FPS", but I digress...), but one of the topics that kept coming up has kind of stuck in my brain: Namely saying that "The Video Game Industry Needs/Wants more female characters/female developers."
And it's odd, because in some areas I'm a feminist to the last... but I realised, this isn't one of them. I mean, surely it makes no difference who designs/makes the game... since it all depends on the target market... and if a game's aimed at guys (as most games tend to be), then regardless of whether the designer is female or not, it's always going to appeal to guys first and foremost. Thus, it makes no difference who's making them, only that they're skilled in doing so... and I'm fine with guys making the majority of games, they do a good job as it is. Sure, the industry could have a few more females here and there, but it wouldn't matter much. If it isn't broken, don't fix it... right?
Still, at the time I presumed that they were referring to the fact that the industry wants more females to help produce games specifically aimed at females, since guys aren't always the best at judging what a "typical" girl would want out of her games... and to, lets be honest, to help make more realistic female characters, rather than breasts-on-legs. (This point seems to be a little null and void to me though, since I know plenty of normal female characters in todays games and I think the supposed sexism is a bit over-exaggerated to be honest.).
Maybe I've misinterpreted it, but when I looked at the various articles on the BBC's site the broadcast suggested, it seems to indicating that more games should have a female character inserted into them to instantly make them more appealing to "girl gamers".
That's the impression I got, but regardless of whether that's what they're really getting at, that's the other thing I want to talk about... since I don't know about you, but I find a major issue with that logic. Inserting a playable female character into say, your typical FPS seems pretty pointless to me, since from what I've seen, the females who enjoy that genre don't usually feel the need for a female character, they're perfectly find playing as a dude (for various reasons, from not wanting to face the cry of T!TS OR GTFO, to just not being bothered about it). The girls who aren't okay with this, on the whole mind, tend to be the ones who wouldn't enjoy that genre anyway, the ones who'd be better suited to the more casual and gender-neutral games. And that leads me rather long-windedly to the main thing that's been bothering me: Do females really need female characters to enjoy 'hardcore' games to the full? Do things need to change?
Now, I'm hardly your 'typical' female, but I know what my answer to that is. Presumably the logic is based around females being able to connect better with female characters, and thus all the experience to be more immersive for us/them... but to be honest, the only times I've ever felt I couldn't properly connect with a male character is when they were engaging with female CPUs. More specifically, when they were flirting and then the things that follow etc... for obvious reasons. But even then, actions on the more loving/caring/romantic/fraternal end of the spectrum don't pull me out of the experience at all, things like that don't stop me from empathising with the male character. And then during fighting/battling... it's just a game, and I find the gender of the character matters little when you're beating the crap out of enemies... and when horde of them are coming at you I kind of have more important things to concentrate on than what equiptment the character has in their pants (to put it bluntly), you know, like not being killed by the enemies =D Besides, I'm a big believer in the fact that games great because they are windows to experiences you could never have in real life... and for females, when it actually comes up in gameplay, seeing the world through the eyes of a dude is one of them.
But as I said, that's just me, and I know I'm not the best person to use as an example. To make it clear though, I'm not on about actual sexism that spawns from gaming, for example male players being unfair to females while playing online, or the sometimes stereotypical portrayal of female characters. That's not the point this time around :3 And I'm not talking about in more 'casual' games either, I'm on about more 'hardcore' ones (urgh, I detest those labels, but anyway.)
So what do you guys think... does the industry need more female designers? Would it make a difference? Do games need a female option, and girls, is a female character necessary/would allow you to enjoy games more?
(Note: just, forget about M/AO games and the like for now that aren't rated thus for gore alone, for obvious reasons... a female option might help in some cases, in others, it would just make things disturbing o-o)