| vivster said: That doesn't seem to be describing the reality I see. There is literally nothing preventing women to create and distribute art or games for that matter. No one is barring women to publish their games on steam, no one is barring women from getting a job int the gaming industry. In fact women are even singled out and used to represent games. The industry is male oriented because the majority of the audience are male. We all know those statistics that claim women are just as engaged in gaming as men but that's simply not true when it comes to the AAA/hardcore market. Women are just on average less interested in gaming and that is fine. Men aren't that interested in the fashion business either while most women don't care very much about cars and so on. That's what we get in our gender obsessed society. If you want to "fix" the gaming industry or any industry for that matter, you have to first fix society and all that gender bullshit that forces people into being stereotypes. |
If I'm being completely honest, I don't really see it as a big problem either, I was just pointing out that while I agree that the "make more characters from x demographic" side of the argument doesn't make sense (I find it disturbingly stupid, honestly), the other side does make sense in that it would be a real problem. The debate should be about to what degree it actually is a problem. I would agree with you that it isn't as huge of a problem as it's made out to be. That said, you bring up another issue, the issue of gender socialization, the way we teach girls and boys what they're "supposed" to like. And while I suppose it is "fine" that women are less interested in gaming, I think a large part of it is the culture of gaming itself being a turnoff to girls. I know it is for my girlfriend. The toxicity of the culture, especially after Gamergate, made her not even want to try gaming, and I have to coax and beg her to play Mario Kart and Snipperclips. I'm slowly getting her into games, after the damage that the culture did. I find that pretty lame, as she's otherwise a huge nerd that I have tons in common with. It seems less that girls inherently like games less than men and more like it's just because we've made it a place where they don't feel welcome. If there were any barrier to entering the industry, it would be the whole culture itself convincing girls think that being a game designer isn't for them, though obviously on the industry side it's less of a problem than on the consumer side. But for there to be a barrier to entering gaming culture at all, I mean, I suppose it isn't some horrible injustice like Kim Jong Un enslaving his own people or something, but it's still just unacceptably lame to me. It frustrates me to no end that I can't get female friends to try games just because society raised them to think it isn't for them. Like you said, you gotta fix all the gender bullshit that pushes people into being stereotypes before you can make any real progress on that front.
