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Forums - Politics Discussion - Are women over-represented in video games?

 

Which of these MOST describes your view?

Women are over-represented in video games. 8 10.13%
 
Women have too much of a ... 4 5.06%
 
Both of the above. 7 8.86%
 
None of the above. I will clarify. Honestly. 60 75.95%
 
Total:79

Erm, I don't think most people actually have issues with digital renderings of fictional women in video games or fictional characters in films.. I think most are responding to these developers/studios hyping their products up and patting themselves on the back so much simply because they seem to be disingenuously propping up women to the forefront or worse, having this baseless hostility of essentially attacking those consumers who don't like their female-led works as sexist with little to no basis of proof (rather than address that it might merely be the quality or lack thereof of the product itself). Even if not everyone does the best job of communicating this at a core level, this is what I sense is the issue.

It seems to have become this catch-all way to absolve and deflect their work from any legitimate critique, which for my money seems to be somewhat condescending to women if anything. Ghostbusters is perhaps the biggest example of this, but Last Jedi is certainly another (despite the fact that The Force Awakens and Rogue One both have female leads and were pretty well received by comparison). People are beginning to see this as a way to use women as sort of human shields to deflect a poorly created product and a cheap loophole to bypass the foolproof capitalistic mantra of "the customer is always right" - This is certainly the way I see it anyway.

Obviously there are a few weirdos out there who actually are insecure enough to be uncomfortable or sexist enough to find beef with this trend, but they don't seem to be near the majority from where I sit.

Last edited by DarthMetalliCube - on 04 September 2018

 

"We hold these truths to be self-evident - all men and women created by the, go-you know.. you know the thing!" - Joe Biden

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And the OP seems to have failed tremendously considering the Pool show 75% of the people here doesn't think there is any over-representation. And also seems like he fled the discussion.



duduspace11 "Well, since we are estimating costs, Pokemon Red/Blue did cost Nintendo about $50m to make back in 1996"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=8808363

Mr Puggsly: "Hehe, I said good profit. You said big profit. Frankly, not losing money is what I meant by good. Don't get hung up on semantics"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9008994

Azzanation: "PS5 wouldn't sold out at launch without scalpers."

is the game good? is the story good? did the character develop well?

those are the things that i think about.

whatever the character is, female, male, other, i dont care. its a video game. some of my favorite characters are female, not because they are female, but the games are good and interesting. i think some blow it out of proportion for whatever reason they have.



 

Jaicee said:

I just don't see people creating threads that go in the reverse direction, complaining about the over-representation of men in games or movies or the making thereof or what have you (which frankly would be far more justified objectively) or about the far more common phenomenon of all-male casts of lead characters (as compared with the rare employment of all-female ensemble casts) or what have you. Only when it is girls or women who are presented in those roles does there seem to be a political issue.

 

Ok. Ill try to mansplain it to you as good as i can. Please try to understand and please dont go all wilderbeastly and witchcrafty on me.

 

When female gamers asked which gender they prefer when given the option, the majority goes for a female character. Same goes for male gamers, prefering male characters. No problem there, right? And what goes for a singular can also be applied to a group. What goes for the individual is applicable to a collective.

If we go back in time, to the beginnings of video games, what come to mind when we think of the first consoles? Intellivision, Magnavox Odyssey. What was targeted demographic? Exactly. It was everyone. Young, old, girl, boy, a thing the the whole family can enjoy. Or... there was no specific age or gender the marketeers had in mind. After the great crisis of the north american video game industry this changed. It changed with none other than Nintendo. When setting up the stage for the NES it was determined to narrow the target audience, for marketing to be more focused,  thus more effective. They went out to find out who plays videogames the most. It was the Boys. To this day this hasnt changed much...

 

 

Generations of male gamers building, supporting, growing up the whole video entertainment art form. Growing attached to franchises, consoles, videogame icons and developers.

 

The issue isnt how much and in what way women are represented. The problem is, you - the women - are hostile invaders. You are entering someones abode and redecorate very much to his dismay. You are the girls besieging the boys tree house...

 

 

..trying to conquer, for the sole purpose of making yourself comfortable in it with all your girly stuff. 

 

Nono, it is you who gyrals the whole thing into a social political drama. I'm not the one bursting into a Girls Only Night and screams: "Misandristic Bitches!"

 

 

When i saw the reveal of the newest mainline Gears Of War, i was baffled. For a overwhelmingly male audience? Hu.. thatsuuhh... 

 

Also mindboggling was Microsofts decision to make turnbased Gears game a PC exclusive. Of a franchise that has its mainbase on a console. But they made the Halo RTS available for the Xbox. 



Hunting Season is done...

Zoombael said:
Jaicee said:

I just don't see people creating threads that go in the reverse direction, complaining about the over-representation of men in games or movies or the making thereof or what have you (which frankly would be far more justified objectively) or about the far more common phenomenon of all-male casts of lead characters (as compared with the rare employment of all-female ensemble casts) or what have you. Only when it is girls or women who are presented in those roles does there seem to be a political issue.

 

Ok. Ill try to mansplain it to you as good as i can. Please try to understand and please dont go all wilderbeastly and witchcrafty on me.

 

When female gamers asked which gender they prefer when given the option, the majority goes for a female character. Same goes for male gamers, prefering male characters. No problem there, right? And what goes for a singular can also be applied to a group. What goes for the individual is applicable to a collective.

If we go back in time, to the beginnings of video games, what come to mind when we think of the first consoles? Intellivision, Magnavox Odyssey. What was targeted demographic? Exactly. It was everyone. Young, old, girl, boy, a thing the the whole family can enjoy. Or... there was no specific age or gender the marketeers had in mind. After the great crisis of the north american video game industry this changed. It changed with none other than Nintendo. When setting up the stage for the NES it was determined to narrow the target audience, for marketing to be more focused,  thus more effective. They went out to find out who plays videogames the most. It was the Boys. To this day this hasnt changed much...

 

 

Generations of male gamers building, supporting, growing up the whole video entertainment art form. Growing attached to franchises, consoles, videogame icons and developers.

 

The issue isnt how much and in what way women are represented. The problem is, you - the women - are hostile invaders. You are entering someones abode and redecorate very much to his dismay. You are the girls besieging the boys tree house...

 

 

..trying to conquer, for the sole purpose of making yourself comfortable in it with all your girly stuff. 

 

Nono, it is you who gyrals the whole thing into a social political drama. I'm not the one bursting into a Girls Only Night and screams: "Misandristic Bitches!"

 

 

When i saw the reveal of the newest mainline Gears Of War, i was baffled. For a overwhelmingly male audience? Hu.. thatsuuhh... 

 

Also mindboggling was Microsofts decision to make turnbased Gears game a PC exclusive. Of a franchise that has its mainbase on a console. But they made the Halo RTS available for the Xbox. 

That is prohibited knowledge. We need to believe that for some reason the patriarch made that even pong was a game that was aimed at boys.



duduspace11 "Well, since we are estimating costs, Pokemon Red/Blue did cost Nintendo about $50m to make back in 1996"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=8808363

Mr Puggsly: "Hehe, I said good profit. You said big profit. Frankly, not losing money is what I meant by good. Don't get hung up on semantics"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9008994

Azzanation: "PS5 wouldn't sold out at launch without scalpers."

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Sales determine if something is wanted or not. How well games sell determine whether the industry is 10% female lead, 50% or 90%.

But I hate topics like this, especially when talking jobs. Like when you hear stuff like women are under-represented in the tech industry or something. They will say the population is 50% or 55% or whatever it is female, so your workforce should be that % female. Or the population is 20% black, so you should have a 20% black force, ect.

Tell me how that works out when say 90% of the graduates in the IT field are White males or Asians. (made up stats, but the point remains. The percentage of workforce should be based on graduate percentages, not population. Push schools to try to get more diversified students versus businesses trying to meet an unrealistic quota)



irstupid said:
Sales determine if something is wanted or not. How well games sell determine whether the industry is 10% female lead, 50% or 90%.

But I hate topics like this, especially when talking jobs. Like when you hear stuff like women are under-represented in the tech industry or something. They will say the population is 50% or 55% or whatever it is female, so your workforce should be that % female. Or the population is 20% black, so you should have a 20% black force, ect.

Tell me how that works out when say 90% of the graduates in the IT field are White males or Asians. (made up stats, but the point remains. The percentage of workforce should be based on graduate percentages, not population. Push schools to try to get more diversified students versus businesses trying to meet an unrealistic quota)

You shouldn't even push schools to have more diversified students. Different people have different interest and this "it is all social construct" is silly.



duduspace11 "Well, since we are estimating costs, Pokemon Red/Blue did cost Nintendo about $50m to make back in 1996"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=8808363

Mr Puggsly: "Hehe, I said good profit. You said big profit. Frankly, not losing money is what I meant by good. Don't get hung up on semantics"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9008994

Azzanation: "PS5 wouldn't sold out at launch without scalpers."

DonFerrari said:
irstupid said:
Sales determine if something is wanted or not. How well games sell determine whether the industry is 10% female lead, 50% or 90%.

But I hate topics like this, especially when talking jobs. Like when you hear stuff like women are under-represented in the tech industry or something. They will say the population is 50% or 55% or whatever it is female, so your workforce should be that % female. Or the population is 20% black, so you should have a 20% black force, ect.

Tell me how that works out when say 90% of the graduates in the IT field are White males or Asians. (made up stats, but the point remains. The percentage of workforce should be based on graduate percentages, not population. Push schools to try to get more diversified students versus businesses trying to meet an unrealistic quota)

You shouldn't even push schools to have more diversified students. Different people have different interest and this "it is all social construct" is silly.

When I say push, I don't mean that a school should limit who it accepts to try and fit a quota, but I mean to try and get recruiters to get those that shy away from a field to consider it.

Say IT and Nursing.

Nursing is dominated by females. I know many nurses and they would love more men in the field. Men are able to help them with lifting heavier stuff, patient moving, stuff on high places, ect. But nursing is not seen as a "manly" job.

IT is the same. It now is seen more as a nerdy male job versus it used to be seen as a female job.

Schools/society/ect need to do their best to try and not "label" jobs as for certain people. But I don't see that happening anytime soon. Too much money is made on labeling people into groups.



DonFerrari said:

That is prohibited knowledge. We need to believe that for some reason the patriarch made that even pong was a game that was aimed at boys.

Two phallic objects that kick around what can only be assumed a female writer trying to enter the game industry. It's basically the pinnacle of the oppressive nature of the patriarchy.



If you demand respect or gratitude for your volunteer work, you're doing volunteering wrong.

irstupid said:
DonFerrari said:

You shouldn't even push schools to have more diversified students. Different people have different interest and this "it is all social construct" is silly.

When I say push, I don't mean that a school should limit who it accepts to try and fit a quota, but I mean to try and get recruiters to get those that shy away from a field to consider it.

Say IT and Nursing.

Nursing is dominated by females. I know many nurses and they would love more men in the field. Men are able to help them with lifting heavier stuff, patient moving, stuff on high places, ect. But nursing is not seen as a "manly" job.

IT is the same. It now is seen more as a nerdy male job versus it used to be seen as a female job.

Schools/society/ect need to do their best to try and not "label" jobs as for certain people. But I don't see that happening anytime soon. Too much money is made on labeling people into groups.

Scouting should be done for the best independent of where they are or how they look. So that is all the school should do.



duduspace11 "Well, since we are estimating costs, Pokemon Red/Blue did cost Nintendo about $50m to make back in 1996"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=8808363

Mr Puggsly: "Hehe, I said good profit. You said big profit. Frankly, not losing money is what I meant by good. Don't get hung up on semantics"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9008994

Azzanation: "PS5 wouldn't sold out at launch without scalpers."