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"Sexist gaming"

Even though I am of the male race, I think it is unfair that most characters in modern video games are Male. I do reason that some games have female players, for example perfect dark, but this only features two female agents and the rest of the characters are male.
I would like to see future games with an equal balance of both sexes, it would make the games a lot more practical and satisfactory.

there aren't many girls i know that play computer games. only one of my friends. But she's obsesd with them. she'll play them for 3 hours at a time...no break. i'm not saying thats wrong......wait....yes i am saying thats wrong.....you'll hurt your eyes poor dears, as my mum always used to say "Don't watch the TV to much..........."
come on....you know what comes next.....

I know lots of females who play consoles, let's see...the gaming guru, ghostface, that girl down my road...errrr. Okay, I'm not being biased, but it does seem to me that the majority of gamers are men. ALSO, MY 5 YEAR OLD SISTER LOVES SPYRO THE DRAGON AS WELL AS Barbie Riding Club on PC.

I sincerly doubt it. I won not so long ago, so I won't win again.

I wasn't meaning to either, and I am honoured you think it will do...

(Honoured? What the hell are you on about?)

Ok. I am pleased you think it will do.

(No, try again.)

Errr... I am, suprised?

(That's better.)

If you win a game for that you better give it to me. You'll have too many, and besides I have no money to Majora's Mask :)

Muscley women.

Ergghhhh.

It does look disgusting.

I see games more as an escape from reality, but not as sad as it sounds.

It's just pure fun. And if people don't enjoy it, it's their loss.

So what really must be the problem, is why aren't women playing games?

One of two possibilities springs to mind:

1) Most women don't like computer games.

Fair enough. But some do. The second one is:

2) Most women are scared of computer games.


I will try not to be sexist now, but I expect I will be, somehow.

Women could be "afraid" of computer games. Either, they don't see the point in playing, whatsoever. Or they really don't want to fall into the trap of addiction.

I think it has more to do with not seeing the "point" in gaming.

If you think about it, all that girls see when they watch boys play, are sad individuals crouched round a screen, with a lump of plastic in their hand, and seemingly mesmerised by a screen with unrealistic characters on.

Put it that way, and games don't seem so enjoyable anymore.

But games aren't that. Games are, I think, more than an escape; they are intelligent puzzles. Like a film, but you have to think about what happens, control the outcome, and feel the tingling satisfaction of beating the computer, being the best at what you do.

There, computer games wise, is not much more exhilarating than in X-Wing Alliance, when you blow up the Death Star core, and you suddenly become the pilot of the Millennium Falcon, and you realise that, either you move very quickly towards the exit now, or you are going to die.

Although we try not to get totally controlled by the games, and actually think we are killing hundreds of people, sometimes, within the insanity of gaming, we have no choice.

As long as we can tell that a game is a game, then we will have no problems. It's just for most of the population of women to realise what they are missing, and then they will realise why we spend so much of our time "crouched" around a blurry screen, madly punching on buttons.

Computer companies bring out games for males and females, but what they think males and females will like they have completely wrong. Computer companies like Nintendo and playstation bring out games, that if you glanced at them, you would think they were for boys. WWF, Perfect Dark, Tomb Raider (coz of Lara Croft), but females play these too. Then thinking girls won't like the games they're releasing, they bring out games for us. and what do they release?.....................Barbie. Barbie? In this day and age you will not get 8 year old girls playing Barbie, coz they are too busy trying to get popular by chatting with their friends. And if computer companies think that the avarage teenage girl is going to play Barbie on her N64, they've got another thing coming. So it's not just what they put in games ( Lara Croft again...) it's also what games they release for females. The sexist thing is the computer companies thinking we are not equal enough to play things like WWF and Perfect Dark, but idiotic enough to give us Barbie. But then you wonder,......do these computer companies know who theyr'e releasing their stuff to. I mean if they are releasing Barbie to people who won't play it...............

I can't see this changing for a number of reasons, but can I just say that I'm all for equal rights, even more so than the next man (or should I say person?).

Firstly, I think the idea of games is to let the gamesplayer be a 'hero', and society, as a whole, usually thinks of the male race as 'heros'. I know it sounds silly, but people are raised in this world of Hollywood movies and sexist advertising. This is probably because the workplace is still sexist - most jobs of autority are owned by men, and therefore important opinions are predominantly made by males.
Movie heroes are usually strong and muscley, and to be honest, more women like muscley men than vice versa. It is just a fact of life.

Secondly, the games industry is a stereotype of what I have written above. The education system treats male IT experts more seriously than female ones, so therefore the majority of programmers are male. This means that games are going to involve a very strong male influence. I am not a fan of this at all, but it happens and until schools treat both sexes the same, it is not going to change.

Finally, it appeals to the major target audience - teenage boys. I know this is being just as stereotypical, but it is true that game makers target this audience, because they are most likely to buy games - they are spoilt, they have nothing to do in life and they day dream all the time (and before you say anything, I am a teenage boy). Whereas having a 80-year-old mercenary as a game star is not appealing to them at all, playing as a strong male or a busty female does, which is, sadly, what sells games.

If, in any part of this comment, I have sounded sexist, please tell me, because I am a firm believer that everyone is equal and today's society is rotten.

I perfectly agree and if you look through the posts below you will see that I have espoused a similar view to yours below. The point is that not only is there a lack of female characters in games BUT when female characters do appear they are all rediculously curvaceous.

We need to get away from the schoolboy perving that is prevalent in video games. Women/Girls play these games as well and their enjoyment should not be ruined by the overt sexism of the gaming industry.

I am male, dislike feminists vehemently and would even consider some of my views conservative (with a little c) but even I think that sexism in gaming needs to be stamped out.

We need to make Gaming an accepted alternative to watching a video, going to the movies or watching the TV. Its entertainment and no segment of society should be considered alien to gaming. Everyone should be free to enjoy games without being confronted by excessive stereotyping.

Even though I am of the male race, I think it is unfair that most characters in modern video games are Male. I do reason that some games have female players, for example perfect dark, but this only features two female agents and the rest of the characters are male.
I would like to see future games with an equal balance of both sexes, it would make the games a lot more practical and satisfactory.