The video game industry's REAL problems

Observer columnist discusss the role women play in video games- from the good, to the bad, & the ugly

orginally printed: 11/6/07

When I opened the paper to the Life and Leisure section last week, I couldn't help but laugh.

Not because I was at all amused with what I was seeing, but I found that the picture of a half-naked scene chick using two Game Boy Colors as nipple pasties with the caption "a look at the changes in video game culture" reflected more truly to culture than the article that accompanied it.

Of course, I agree that the video game industry is one that only Hollywood can match, bringing entertainment to a level of interactivity that was thought to be impossible 30 years ago. I also think that the representation of women in game and the treatment of women by the industry haven't really changed at all.

The gamer world still remains staunchly misogynist, heterosexist and, for the most part, racially insensitive.

Video games in America, for the most part, are made for the white male palate. Anyone who finds the images and messages of games unsavory are ignored or belittled. I have been a gamer for two decades and I've seen no real changes in the overall mentality of the industry.

From the dawn of gaming, the roles of women have been pretty weak. There is nothing new about the over sexing of women in games. One of the first female protagonists was a hooker, turning tricks in all her eight-bit glory. So I'm not shocked that 20 years later BloodRayne is topless in "Playboy," "The Guy Game" is rewarding you with "Girls Gone Wild"-esque clips and banging a hooker in the back of a stolen car give you health in "Grand Theft Auto 3". It seems that, even with more women working in the industry, things aren't looking up.

I grew up gaming; I beat my first game, "Contra," when I was five alongside my older brother.

I've since had my hands on every Nintendo gaming system, Sega Genesis, Nomad, CD, Game Gear and PlayStation One, Two and Three.

Hell, I even mess with Xbox every now and then.

All while, I've remained a snotty elitist PC gamer.

It is a constant tug of war inside me. There's the part of me that just wants to see what a new graphics engine can do or how an innovation is going to be utilized in the newest game. But there's still a part of me that wonders why I'm paying 60 dollars to see myself be misrepresented.

The older I get and the more advanced technology in games have become, the more I noticed females being poorly represented in games (or not being represented at all).

I remember "Def Jam Vendetta" on the GameCube. I couldn't wait to play this game. All the game magazines were going on and on about the new character customization.

One magazine touted you could make your character look like you no matter what you looked like. I couldn't wait to spend my entire winter break watching myself roundhouse kick Fat Joe in front of a NYC train.

Unfortunately my fantasies were never realized. There was a pretty good character customization tool; you could pick any body type, height and race. Even ethnic hairstyles were available.

But one thing your hero couldn't have was a vagina. All the women in game were girlfriends; they were bimbos who fought each other for your character's interest. You could trade girlfriends like one would a goat or maybe a shiny rock. The highest ranking of the flock was Carmen Electra, and the lowest was Shaniqua… I had in my hands the most innovative fighting game of 2004 and I couldn't enjoy it. I could no longer sit and watch myself be represented as quite literally a sideline ho whose only use is being arm candy and every now and then and picking a fight to win affections.

It's no wonder millions of women gamers flock to gender neutral games like "The Sims."

2006 saw the "Super Mario Bros." franchise's Princess Peach headlining her own game for the first time in the game's series history. Like many women interested in games I was eager to give this game a try, even though it is one of the pricier games available for the DS Lite.

What a disappointment. I was hopping to see the princess stomping goombas and killing boos. What I got was a bi-polar twit flopping around the Mushroom Kingdom crying because a prancing flower touched her.

What kind of message is this sending? Girl power comes by skipping your Zoloft?

Nuking that garbage game and smacking it with a hammer was the only thing that calmed my rage.

I didn't want to trade it in least some unsuspecting parent purchase it for their daughter.

I think in the coming years the video game industry will have to grow up, it will have to realize that it is not a little boys club and it will have to stop downplaying the roles of women.

It's insulting to the intelligence of all gamers.

The video game industry will be in much better shape when it wakes up and realizes that women will be more than happy to give our support and money when they see themselves in games as characters that they would want to be (and not characters that would look good in "Hustler").

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