Female Portrayal In Games

There is an interesting blog post from an Indie Developer over at GBGames' Blog that discusses the portrayal of females in video games. He makes an interesting point about attracting non-gamers with traditional game "stereotypes and highly-sexualized imagery".

I find this point interesting because I think he is correct. The traditional ways of high violence and great graphics are not going to attract non-gamers or even casual gamers like they do the hard core gamer. The casual gamers like to be able to sit down and play games that do not take a lot of time to learn or gain skill in. They can sit down and play them then get up and do what they need to do.

He goes on to mention that women are rarely playable characters and when they are playable characters they are sexualized with boobs with realistic physics. Many people read to much into things like this, but he does make you think. Most of the time it doesn't bother me if women are sexualized in games, but if they are the selling point of a game I find it disturbing. Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball is such a game. There needs to be more to a game then chicks playing volleyball on a beach.

He goes on to talk about network play as well. It can be hard to play online if you are a female, but more so in first person shooter type games than casual games. If you are into playing first person shooters, you will have to deal with some derogatory name calling at times. Occasionally, casual gamers may have to deal with this, but probably not as often.

The blog definitely raises some interesting points and makes you stop and think.

Thanks GBGames Blog