I frequent a lot of sites. Some for articles, some for opinion pieces, some just to find out news. But every once in a while I find that one of these sites does a really good podcast.

On TwoDashStash.com they recently posted a podcast about Women In Gaming. They talk about the perception of women characters and they affect society as a whole. They give examples as how certain things are affecting the next generation of women gamers, they talk about developers and what their mindsets are as to why they do these things.

To be clear, they tell both sides of the story, but they aren't afraid to talk about how they feel. One of the first things they talk about is a study done for a book, after hearing about it, I got angry, mainly because I couldn't believe it happened and that it turned out that way. If you don't listen to the whole thing fine but at least stay until the end of that story, it's the first thing they talk about.

Anyway here's the link: http://twodashstash.com/2013/10/tds-games-cast-special-women-gaming/

Listen to it and feel free to comment both there and here and what you heard and what you think.

Without even listening to the podcast... I only think women are portrait like they should be in Cooking Mama

Cooking Mama? Interesting.

Sorry, but I read the description and feel like I have enough information about the podcast without needing to listen.

"When do we stop thinking about looks and start thinking about who they are? Why does it feel like we’re going backwards instead of going forwards? Is the future of gaming in regards to equality doomed, because we have doomed it?"

Yeah, that's not going to be objective at all.

Edit:  Okay, I lied.  Despite the judgemental, blame-assigning description, I'm listening to the beginning.

Yeah that description is a little blame placing isn't it? But if you listen (beyond the beginning) they really do talk about those points and they kind of make good ones. They talk about how it's about marketing that fuels these sentiments and the "belief" of "what guys/girls" want" it's honestly rather compelling.

But you're right, they went a little strong on that opening.

Women in gaming?

Are people blind to how women are represented in almost every facet of our society's entertainment?

I don't have the time to listen to the whole thing, I have to leave soon, but I agree, it's pretty interesting. They're being honest and I like the female who is speaking, even if I don't quite see eye-to-eye with her on everything.

The third guy, however, touches on my whole problem with some of the criticism. You cannot say, "okay, no more games that are intended to appeal to guys." You can't do it, that's holding up an unfair standard for games only. The film and television industry has products made to appeal to guys and products made to appeal to girls. The book industry has products made to appeal to guy and products made to appeal to girls. When someone comes along and say that DoA shouldn't be made, it pisses me off. Fine, then, go stop romance novels from being made, or romantic comedies that objectify the male lead.

I do agree with some other points, however, like over-sexualizing when it doesn't fit the game.

That's the core of it. Part of the big criticism of Metroid: Other M was that they seemed to come up with excuses to show Samus in her Zero Suit that did not suit the game at all. Other games are also guilty of sexualizing the women in contrast with tone or in contrast with good sense.

There's nothing wrong with games like Dead or Alive, because they're obviously embracing it, or Bayonetta which takes it over the top and off into the stars the big problem is when the obvious intent is undermined in order to provide fanservice, like RPG girls who wear skimpy outfits even if they're in a class that would require practical armor (bonus fan-service outfits are a different matter, as mere easter eggs), or female characters who fall short of their potential in the plot leaving the serious business to the men.

This is actually a self created problem with the industry. Its one nobody actually really cares about. Whether it be male or female, gender, race, ethnicity ..ext none are going to be portrayed relealistically. Where are are the articles that condemn Nathan Drake for being commiting Cuban genocide over treasure that he only thinks is there? What about articles questioning the portrayal of Nathan Drake as some man who somehow has the ability to even carry that level of murder? .. No one cares because its a "Video game" . Why is this topic becoming so important? Look at how our women role play as these characters this article is not in favor of. Do they care?

All these future of gaming articles rarely ever have anything to do with gaming.

wfz: they're not saying they aren't in it. They're saying that a lot of them aren't be treated with equality.

pokoko: Yeah they did make good points. Your absolutely right, people can't say "this game can't be made" because that's unfair to both sides of the gaming community. I'm glad they pointed that out.

Mr. Khan: On the surface I will agree that there's nothing wrong with games like DOA and Bayonetta (I would've liked to hear them go into more details on that) but as that one person said it's the question of "who are you trying to appeal to by making the characters this way?" It's like they think the outfits are more important than the fighters or characters themselves. It's an issue that can be talked about for days with no resolution, that's for sure.

xxain: Actually there are articles that talk about men in gaming. They only touched on it in the podcast but there are stereotypes of men that get overexaggreated and played up because they think it's "right." Both men and women have unfavorable characteristics in regards to video games, it just appears that the men get the better end of the stick. As for this being just an "in industry" issue I disagree. This topic is relevant outside of it as well. We've taken leaps and bounds in the games industry to stop sterotyping races (though not completely gone) and ethnicites to a certain extent. And yet women in games just don't seem to advance. They talk about Quiet in MGSV, what was the point of her other than Kojima saying "I want an erotic character?"