Difference between revisions of "Gender in Video Games"

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[[File:Screen Shot 2020-03-13 at 4.19.39 PM.png|thumbnail|Male and Female Sheperd, main characters from the Mass Effect Series]]
 
[[File:Screen Shot 2020-03-13 at 4.19.39 PM.png|thumbnail|Male and Female Sheperd, main characters from the Mass Effect Series]]
Gender in Video Games refers to the portrayal and representation of gender and gender identities in characters created for the video gaming medium. While gaming as both a medium and culture has changed drastically over its history, the content that it contains has evolved to accommodate not only new technologies as they are invented, but to also cater to the social environment and audience. Many feel that the very nature of video games allows them to become a brief escape from reality, giving players the chance to live fantastical lives outside of their own. Outside of the purview of sports games where play is strictly based on real world people and human attributes, many of these games facilitate the story they tell by using fantastical characters, even those who's worlds are based in reality.  
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Gender in Video Games refers to how gender and gender identities are portrayal and represented in characters created for the video gaming medium. Many feel that the very nature of video games allows them to become a brief escape from reality, giving players the chance to live fantastical lives outside of their own, yet the identities in gaming have been known to  Outside of the purview of sports games where play is strictly based on real world people and human attributes, many of these games facilitate the story they tell by using fantastical characters, even those who's worlds are based in reality.  
  
 
==Identifying With the Character==
 
==Identifying With the Character==
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While not expressly contributing to how gender is represented in the video gaming market, the history of video gaming plays some role in what characters are used and how they fit into the stories told. The history of electronic gaming itself spans nearly 50 years when home consoles such as the Magnavox Odyssey were released back in the early 70's, yet the true heyday of gaming didn't start until the release of the Famicom in Japan, and the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) to the US and the rest of the world in 1983. The trends that would define how gaming was seen for the foreseeable future, however, had already begun to emerge before the release of this system.
 
While not expressly contributing to how gender is represented in the video gaming market, the history of video gaming plays some role in what characters are used and how they fit into the stories told. The history of electronic gaming itself spans nearly 50 years when home consoles such as the Magnavox Odyssey were released back in the early 70's, yet the true heyday of gaming didn't start until the release of the Famicom in Japan, and the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) to the US and the rest of the world in 1983. The trends that would define how gaming was seen for the foreseeable future, however, had already begun to emerge before the release of this system.
  
In its early days, large cabinets were needed to produce the improved graphics desired by players over those of the home consoles, and arcades were the dominant place to socialize and enjoy these benefits. Since many gamers who would go to enjoy their pastime were much more often young adult men and boys than girls or women of comparable age, this affected the representation of gender in the games themselves since designers were not only looking to make a great game, they needed one that would appeal to the largest possible audience. As a pioneer of the medium and still active creator Shigeru Miyamoto states in an interview with Kotaku regarding the development of the 1981 game ''Donkey Kong'' : "back in the days when we made the first Donkey Kong, that was a game we first made for the arcades, the arcades were not places girls went into often. And so we didn't even consider making a character that would be playable for girls."
+
In its early days, large cabinets were needed to produce the improved graphics desired by players over those of the home consoles, and arcades were the dominant place to socialize and enjoy these benefits. Since many gamers who would go to enjoy their pastime were much more often young adult men and boys than girls or women of comparable age, this affected the representation of gender in the games themselves since designers were not only looking to make a great game, they needed one that would appeal to the largest possible audience. As a pioneer of the medium and still active creator Shigeru Miyamoto states in an interview with Kotaku regarding the development of the 1981 game ''Donkey Kong'' : "back in the days when we made the first Donkey Kong, that was a game we first made for the arcades, the arcades were not places girls went into often. And so we didn't even consider making a character that would be playable for girls."<ref>Totilo, Stephen. “Shigeru Miyamoto and the Damsel In Distress.” Kotaku, 20 June 2013, 2:45, https://kotaku.com/shigeru-miyamoto-and-the-damsel-in-distress-520259897.</ref>
  
While gaming was originally marketed as a family activity for children and adults of all genders and ages alike, after the video game crash of 1983, and due in large part to this understood discrepancy in male-to-female gamers at the time, Nintendo's new home console was marketed primarily toward boys and young men as a toy. Subsequent consoles of the era followed suit and soon video gaming was seen as a hobby meant mostly for the male population. This can be seen in how games were created in that era, and while this would remain true for many years to come, the rumblings of diversity and gender representation through gaming would begin as the console market took hold. In 1986's hit title ''Metroid'' for the NES it would be revealed to the player, upon completing the game in a specified amount of time, that the strong, defiant, lone-wolf hero character they had been playing throughout the adventure was in fact a woman in a suit of armor. While this was a shock to many players, it by no means shifted the video gaming culture at large, and in fact much of the gender based controversy in gaming to come would take place in the decades to follow. The reveal of Samus Aran would, however, serve as one of the first instances of a strong female protagonist in video gaming, and through much of the following controversies and even the growing number of characters in gaming, Samus Aran remains one of the most popular and respected characters in video games to this day.
+
While gaming was originally marketed as a family activity for children and adults of all genders and ages alike, after the video game crash of 1983<ref>“Video Game Crash of 1983.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Mar. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_crash_of_1983</ref>, and due in large part to this understood discrepancy in male-to-female gamers at the time, Nintendo's new home console was marketed primarily toward boys and young men as a toy. Subsequent consoles of the era followed suit and soon video gaming was seen as a hobby meant mostly for the male population. This can be seen in how games were created in that era, and while this would remain true for many years to come, the rumblings of diversity and gender representation through gaming would begin as the console market took hold. In 1986's hit title ''Metroid'' for the NES it would be revealed to the player, upon completing the game in a specified amount of time, that the strong, defiant, lone-wolf hero character they had been playing throughout the adventure was in fact a woman in a suit of armor. While this was a shock to many players, it by no means shifted the video gaming culture at large, and in fact much of the gender based controversy in gaming to come would take place in the decades to follow. The reveal of Samus Aran would, however, serve as one of the first instances of a strong female protagonist in video gaming, and through much of the following controversies and even the growing number of characters in gaming, Samus Aran remains one of the most popular and respected characters in video games to this day.
  
 
==Overview of Player Base==
 
==Overview of Player Base==
 
[[File:Screen Shot 2020-03-13 at 4.41.12 PM.png|thumbnail|Distribution of male to female gamers from 2006-2019. Credit: Statistica.com]]
 
[[File:Screen Shot 2020-03-13 at 4.41.12 PM.png|thumbnail|Distribution of male to female gamers from 2006-2019. Credit: Statistica.com]]
A published medium has to take into account the audience who consumes their content, and the ways in which sex and gender have been expressed in video gaming has been due in no small part to said audience. While video gaming as a platform for published works is quite young in comparison to other popular forms of entertainment that it also takes cues from such as comic books and film, and even in comparison to other forms of pop culture such as music, literature, and magazines, video gaming has a great impact on a large portion of the population today. In 2018, nearly 2.7 billion people worldwide played video games, and those who identified as gamers accounted for 66% of the US population alone. While the medium has traditionally been seen as having a player base that largely identifies as male, today in the U.S. the difference is much closer to a 50/50 split, as in 2019 it was reported that 46% of the population claiming to be part of the gaming community identified as female. With the player base being so close to an even split today, and with continued pressure from third parties decrying the portrayal of genders in gaming as they have been portrayed throughout history, the market has been slowly shifting, and the ways in which characters are portrayed in games today, as well as the roles that these characters play in the story, has changed dramatically over the years.
+
A published medium has to take into account the audience who consumes their content, and the ways in which sex and gender have been expressed in video gaming has been due in no small part to said audience. While video gaming as a platform for published works is quite young in comparison to other popular forms of entertainment that it also takes cues from such as comic books and film, and even in comparison to other forms of pop culture such as music, literature, and magazines, video gaming has a great impact on a large portion of the population today. In 2018, nearly 2.7 billion people worldwide played video games, and those who identified as gamers accounted for 66% of the US population alone.<ref>Fuller, Steve. “U.S. Gamers.” www.statista.com, www.statista.com/topics/3070/us-gamers/</ref> While the medium has traditionally been seen as having a player base that largely identifies as male, today in the U.S. the difference is much closer to a 50/50 split<ref>Gough, Christina. “U.S. Video Gamer Gender Statistics 2019.” Statista, 3 July 2019, [http://www.statista.com/statistics/232383/gender-split-of-us-computer-and-video-gamers/ </ref>, as in 2019 it was reported that 46% of the population claiming to be part of the gaming community identified as female. With the player base being so close to an even split today, and with continued pressure from third parties decrying the portrayal of genders in gaming as they have been portrayed throughout history, the market has been slowly shifting, and the ways in which characters are portrayed in games today, as well as the roles that these characters play in the story, has changed dramatically over the years.
  
 
==Gender Expression in Video Games==
 
==Gender Expression in Video Games==
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Throughout a large portion of gaming history it has been understood that
 
Throughout a large portion of gaming history it has been understood that
  
Because of the pressure that has been placed on many of these companies,  
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==Moving Forward==
 
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Throughout its many controversies, trials, and tribulations, the video gaming industry shows little sign of slowing down. In 2018 U.S. game sales reached $44.3 billion domestically, an increase of 18 percent over the previous year.<ref>“U.S. Video Game Sales Reach Record-Breaking $43.4 Billion in 2018.” Entertainment Software Association, 21 May 2019, www.theesa.com/press-releases/u-s-video-game-sales-reach-record-breaking-43-4-billion-in-2018/.</ref> Because of this there are more and more eyes on the industry every year. Much of the controversy surrounding the expression of gender in gaming, especially that of women in gaming took off after Anita Sarkeesian launched her Tropes vs. Women in Video Games YouTube series in 2013, and a bigger light began being shown on the industry after the Gamergate Controversy in 2014. <ref>“Gamergate Controversy.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Feb. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamergate_controversy.</ref>
 
==References==
 
==References==
Gough, Christina. “U.S. Video Gamer Gender Statistics 2019.” Statista, 3 July 2019, [http://www.statista.com/statistics/232383/gender-split-of-us-computer-and-video-gamers/ www.statista.com/statistics/232383/gender-split-of-us-computer-and-video-gamers/].
 
 
Fuller, Steve. “U.S. Gamers.” www.statista.com, [http://www.statista.com/topics/3070/us-gamers/ www.statista.com/topics/3070/us-gamers/].
 
 
Totilo, Stephen. “Shigeru Miyamoto and the Damsel In Distress.” Kotaku, 20 June 2013, 2:45, https://kotaku.com/shigeru-miyamoto-and-the-damsel-in-distress-520259897.
 
  
“Video Game Crash of 1983.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Mar. 2020, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_crash_of_1983 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_crash_of_1983].
 
 
[[Category:2020New]]
 
[[Category:2020New]]
 
[[Category:2020Concept]]
 
[[Category:2020Concept]]

Revision as of 05:11, 29 March 2020

Male and Female Sheperd, main characters from the Mass Effect Series

Gender in Video Games refers to how gender and gender identities are portrayal and represented in characters created for the video gaming medium. Many feel that the very nature of video games allows them to become a brief escape from reality, giving players the chance to live fantastical lives outside of their own, yet the identities in gaming have been known to Outside of the purview of sports games where play is strictly based on real world people and human attributes, many of these games facilitate the story they tell by using fantastical characters, even those who's worlds are based in reality.

Identifying With the Character

Characters are often designed to be identifiable with the player in some fashion, whether this is through the expression of desired traits such as physical strength or fitness, through or through the pursuit of a desired goal. Outside of the use of potentially addicting game mechanics, the ability for the player to place themselves in the shoes of the game's protagonist(s) and to share a desire to complete their goals and ambitions helps to keep the player engaged, and as such they are more likely to continue playing the game. While game designers sometimes look to real world examples to flesh out the content and characters of their games, many fantastical ideas are often borrowed from the other forms of media that have been its predecessors, such as movies, comics, and literature. The intended social consequences of the resulting work is most often benign, but in many cases the aforementioned ability to identify with a character can in some ways bleed over in the other direction, from the fantastical and into the real. These include the ways in which people see themselves who are from the societal, economical, racial, and gendered demographics that are represented by these images.

While the depictions that negatively affect the image of those disparaged should not be overlooked, the most hotly contested representations in our culture today derive from those of gender.

History

While not expressly contributing to how gender is represented in the video gaming market, the history of video gaming plays some role in what characters are used and how they fit into the stories told. The history of electronic gaming itself spans nearly 50 years when home consoles such as the Magnavox Odyssey were released back in the early 70's, yet the true heyday of gaming didn't start until the release of the Famicom in Japan, and the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) to the US and the rest of the world in 1983. The trends that would define how gaming was seen for the foreseeable future, however, had already begun to emerge before the release of this system.

In its early days, large cabinets were needed to produce the improved graphics desired by players over those of the home consoles, and arcades were the dominant place to socialize and enjoy these benefits. Since many gamers who would go to enjoy their pastime were much more often young adult men and boys than girls or women of comparable age, this affected the representation of gender in the games themselves since designers were not only looking to make a great game, they needed one that would appeal to the largest possible audience. As a pioneer of the medium and still active creator Shigeru Miyamoto states in an interview with Kotaku regarding the development of the 1981 game Donkey Kong : "back in the days when we made the first Donkey Kong, that was a game we first made for the arcades, the arcades were not places girls went into often. And so we didn't even consider making a character that would be playable for girls."[1]

While gaming was originally marketed as a family activity for children and adults of all genders and ages alike, after the video game crash of 1983[2], and due in large part to this understood discrepancy in male-to-female gamers at the time, Nintendo's new home console was marketed primarily toward boys and young men as a toy. Subsequent consoles of the era followed suit and soon video gaming was seen as a hobby meant mostly for the male population. This can be seen in how games were created in that era, and while this would remain true for many years to come, the rumblings of diversity and gender representation through gaming would begin as the console market took hold. In 1986's hit title Metroid for the NES it would be revealed to the player, upon completing the game in a specified amount of time, that the strong, defiant, lone-wolf hero character they had been playing throughout the adventure was in fact a woman in a suit of armor. While this was a shock to many players, it by no means shifted the video gaming culture at large, and in fact much of the gender based controversy in gaming to come would take place in the decades to follow. The reveal of Samus Aran would, however, serve as one of the first instances of a strong female protagonist in video gaming, and through much of the following controversies and even the growing number of characters in gaming, Samus Aran remains one of the most popular and respected characters in video games to this day.

Overview of Player Base

Distribution of male to female gamers from 2006-2019. Credit: Statistica.com

A published medium has to take into account the audience who consumes their content, and the ways in which sex and gender have been expressed in video gaming has been due in no small part to said audience. While video gaming as a platform for published works is quite young in comparison to other popular forms of entertainment that it also takes cues from such as comic books and film, and even in comparison to other forms of pop culture such as music, literature, and magazines, video gaming has a great impact on a large portion of the population today. In 2018, nearly 2.7 billion people worldwide played video games, and those who identified as gamers accounted for 66% of the US population alone.[3] While the medium has traditionally been seen as having a player base that largely identifies as male, today in the U.S. the difference is much closer to a 50/50 split[4], as in 2019 it was reported that 46% of the population claiming to be part of the gaming community identified as female. With the player base being so close to an even split today, and with continued pressure from third parties decrying the portrayal of genders in gaming as they have been portrayed throughout history, the market has been slowly shifting, and the ways in which characters are portrayed in games today, as well as the roles that these characters play in the story, has changed dramatically over the years.

Gender Expression in Video Games

Evolution of Lara Croft, 1996-2013

Throughout a large portion of gaming history it has been understood that

Moving Forward

Throughout its many controversies, trials, and tribulations, the video gaming industry shows little sign of slowing down. In 2018 U.S. game sales reached $44.3 billion domestically, an increase of 18 percent over the previous year.[5] Because of this there are more and more eyes on the industry every year. Much of the controversy surrounding the expression of gender in gaming, especially that of women in gaming took off after Anita Sarkeesian launched her Tropes vs. Women in Video Games YouTube series in 2013, and a bigger light began being shown on the industry after the Gamergate Controversy in 2014. [6]

References

  1. Totilo, Stephen. “Shigeru Miyamoto and the Damsel In Distress.” Kotaku, 20 June 2013, 2:45, https://kotaku.com/shigeru-miyamoto-and-the-damsel-in-distress-520259897.
  2. “Video Game Crash of 1983.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Mar. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_crash_of_1983
  3. Fuller, Steve. “U.S. Gamers.” www.statista.com, www.statista.com/topics/3070/us-gamers/
  4. Gough, Christina. “U.S. Video Gamer Gender Statistics 2019.” Statista, 3 July 2019, [http://www.statista.com/statistics/232383/gender-split-of-us-computer-and-video-gamers/
  5. “U.S. Video Game Sales Reach Record-Breaking $43.4 Billion in 2018.” Entertainment Software Association, 21 May 2019, www.theesa.com/press-releases/u-s-video-game-sales-reach-record-breaking-43-4-billion-in-2018/.
  6. “Gamergate Controversy.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Feb. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamergate_controversy.