Geeks + Gamers › Forums › Gaming › General Gaming Discussion › Women in gaming; is it really a good idea?
Tagged: esports, gender disbalance, Olympics
I’m sure that after reading the title there are many raised eyebrows. Here me out before you dogpile me.
Historically gaming has been male dominated, both on the developer side, and on the gaming side. Female gamers/devs were extremely rare. Men have always been the primary audience for games, and even though there are now more female gamers than ever, the primary audience remains male.
Due to the psychological differences between men and women, I believe that women would generally approach game development from a different perspective than men, and that women want different things from gaming than men do. Many of these new female gamers that have appeared as gaming has become mainstream are very casual. Think walking sims, Angry Birds etc.
I think that for the industry to continue providing the experiences that the primary audience (men) expects, the influence of women on development ought to be limited. Can you imagine a female led studio with many female members creating games like Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal? I sure can’t. I realize there are exceptions. Amy Hennig for example is behind the Uncharted series, Legacy of Kain, and Jak and Daxter. Women like Amy are rare though in my opinion.
I was arguing about this on Twitter, and someone linked me an article about 20 women in gaming. Almost all of them worked on the business side of things or were engaged in woke activism, with only 3 out of that 20 making significant contributions to gaming in the form of memorable and industry shaping franchises.
Now as far as playing games, I have no issue with women jumping in, as long as they realize that it is a male dominated world and plan accordingly. Thoughts?
Edit: This should also be a good test of Jeremy’s claim that opposing viewpoints are welcome and that G+G does not engage in censorship.
Typically the complaints from the “fairer sex” come from the inability or unfamiliarity with the psychological aspect of competition in general. I have had conversations with women who game who don’t really understand the idea of “getting in the other person’s head” to cause them to make mistakes. This is an aspect of gaming and all competitions from the physical (think of the trash talking that happens with football players and etc…) to the more cerebral/mental (even in something as mental as chess, you will see players do things to mess with the opponents mental aspect no matter how subtle). With computer gaming, this is simply an extension of all this and many (predominantly female but some males as well) simply can not handle this aspect of competition. Sometimes it is just “one of those days” where someone can not deal with someone deriding them for losing in some way and I get that, everyone has those times where you just don’t want to deal with it and are instead just looking to relax but most have never gone on to make a political movement out of such experiences.
I think that this is where the primary differences lie in all this. There are those who are better suited to handle the inherently confrontational nature that is competition then there are those who are just not able to handle it at all. When it comes to things like first person shooters or other then the person, male or female, better be prepared because things can, and will, get rough at times. It is part of it. Without that aspect we would not have the concept of “games” or “sports”….
All this being said, there are some women who are very good in the industry and have shown, again and again, that they not only *can* compete, they *excel* at it. Granted, not in anywhere near the numbers of the male side of society but then that leads to discussions on “inherent differences between the sexes” and then that leads down another set of “rabbit holes” and things degrade quickly.
If the women making games were real gamers like some Japanese Vtuber from Hololive (they have hours of streams playing retro and new games) I would trust them to design games since they’ve joined well into the gaming community, In the other hand people like Frosk and Sarkeesian, they just want to infiltrate, lecture and spread their propaganda.
For me this isn’t about biology but about being authentic, take for example a “man” like Druckmann he became “feminist” or already was, then he started to spew the same nonsense than their female counterparts and ruined TLoU franchise.
Everything involves a “bell curve”…. Some women are fantastic with their perspective and their experience in gaming… Just like some men are absolutely horrible in both. With the more recent cultural shifts, this has gotten very “interesting” and as was evidenced with G4 recently, not all who are “accomplished” in gaming are suited for all the aspects associated with it.
I have no problem with women who like to game or make games. I do have a problem with neopuritan entertainment deconstructionism, that is, developers making games they think people “ought” to like, not games that people actually like. It’s all about virtue signaling, not enjoyment.
And that’s just expensive nagging. Get woke, go broke. :)
Yes you are right. Women are not as competitive as men, and so they often do not do well in multiplayer.
I feel they also do not always understand what makes for a great video game.
Due to the psychological differences between men and women,
As someone said, I think it’s more about the influence you get exposed to. There are female gamers who are not interested in making woke games and there are males like Druckmann who wanna do it.
the influence of women on development ought to be limited.
I think trying to cut down or stop females in any way of entering the market is a terrible idea and just sexist tbh. What happened to ”equal opportunities?”
I think females should be able to make their games even if they are woke and have preachy messages as much as they want and let people who are interested in it buy it. It’s just that in a male dominated industry, those games will not sell good which is why they use tactics like taking an already established game and turn it woke which is in my opinion the problem.
If you wanna create woke games, go ahead. I just won’t buy it and if someone wants to buy it, I couldn’t care less. Just don’t push it in other games.
The issue is that they want women to get into gaming because of the inclusion agenda. Not because they want games to be good or well written. If a woman has skill and can offer something good to gaming, great. Sugoi! But, if they are adding women just to add women, then you get where we are right now in gaming. The complaining or victimizing, the changing of content to fit a narrative meaning less “sexy and objectifying” female characters and or content (but it’s ok to keep all the male stuff). It’s all frankly ruining gaming in my opinion. Why is it wrong to want to play Lara Croft in lingerie, but ok to blow people up in Call of Duty? Where does this lop sided logic come from? Well, it comes from agenda’s and activists in gaming now. And it all started with the inclusion mandates.
I have ZERO problems with women in gaming, and I want more. I love it. My old SWTOR guild leader was female and she was as much of a gamer and knowledgeable as any guy. However, I want actual women gamers who love gaming and aren’t thin skinned victims trying to change a long standing industry to fit them. Not leftist agenda driven activists who want to project their issues into games and the community. I don’t want people like Frosk in gaming, I don’t care what her gender is, people like her are just shit starters and one sided activists. People like her are NOT inclusive.
The fact is women are wired differently than men. They flock towards different things because that is how they are wired. Nothing wrong with it, men do to. So, not every single thing in life needs to be “equal” or “inclusive”. You don’t see men flocking to crochet sites, and you don’t see men protesting and wanting to be included in their groups either. So, why is it ok for one, but not the other? It’s always hypocrisy and a singular narrow minded agenda these days, and I am sick of it.
It also depends on if u count gaming as just shooters or also bedazzled or tetris or animal farm etc. I think a lot of women dabble into that so you can get a high balance of female gamers.
I do not consider it sexist to acknowledge the fact that men and women think differently, and that these differences could result in different games. The main audience for games is men, so games ought to target that audience.
There are assumptions people bake into conversations like this that are false. You see this in that whole Frosk thing. It is not sexist for men to desire women or express that desire. What Frosk spoke about was not sexism but just dudes being gross by saying things out loud that should only be said among friends or to themselves.
The thing is these baked in assumptions are part of what the left does intentionally to taint the argument. For example, racism. It is now assumed that ANY bias is racism. If that’s true THEN EVERYONE IS RACIST. EVERYONE is biased, mostly towards themselves and that is human nature. Racism is not bias. Same with “sexism”.
Why is this done this way? So that everyone is a sinner so that everyone is subjugated to and by the religion of the left. Yes Christianity (which I am a part of) believes the same, but at least there if forgiveness. With the left there is no absolution.
With that said there is nothing wrong at all with ladies in gaming so long as it is an organic thing. At the point you force women into it because someone decides there should be no spaces dominated by men is where it goes wrong.
Lady gamer here. Have been since I was a toddler playing on the old AMEGA (educational games mind you). My first proper console was a second hand MegaDrive (Genesis for anyone reading this overseas). Have been gaming since.
I’m not a very competitive person and never have been so I’m fine with life simulation games. In fact, most women play life simulation games which is why there’s a lot of women that play ‘The Sims’ (it WOULD be nice of EA to actually have more content and clothes for male Sims though). Sometimes I do play action games like Assassins Creed for a change of pace. Or the LEGO games for a laugh. There’s a lot of female YouTubers I watch who play games too.
As people have pointed out, it’s them trying to force male gamers out that’s the main problem.
It’s an interesting thing that there is difference even in the games men and women choose to play. BUT THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT! Men and women ,while equal, ARE DIFFERENT (and thank goodness for those differences). I can vouch for the Sims thing, I have a teenage daughter (please say prayers for me) and she has been playing SIMs 3 and 4 for a few years (the money we have spent on packs is scary). She plays some action games (the girl can headshot a fly 3 miles away) but does seem to gravitate to the things you mentioned.
I honestly think men love to see women in things considered men’s spaces. In fact we often find that very attractive. The thing men don’t like is inviting ladies into that space with sincerity and then being told to get out.
I do not consider it sexist to acknowledge the fact that men and women think differently, and that these differences could result in different games. The main audience for games is men, so games ought to target that audience.
that is not sexist but
the influence of women on development ought to be limited.
this is 100% sexist and what I was referring to. It’s a dangerously slippery slope to not give everyone the same opportunity. If a company or industry where the majority of the audience were females suddenly started to say we won’t hire more men, everyone on this forum would go insane and piss themselves. And while we are on this path, why stop on sex?
Should kebab restaurants limit christian or jewish employees because they are a minority in kebab consuming? Should sushi restaurants limit hiring non asians because the majority of sushi consumers are asian? Should BMW limit hiring non wealthy employees because the majority of people who drive BMW’s are wealthy?
Yeah, a lot of people have complained about the prices of some of the packs of ‘The Sims’. That’s why I only go after the ones I’m interested in getting and even then I usually wait for a sale. I recently got the ‘Cats and Dogs’ and ‘Cottage Living’ packs during their recent sale. Been thinking about getting the ‘Cottage Living’ one for a while because I liked the clothes for it which looked nice lol.
Agreed with what you said there as I’m a tomboy myself. Have been for years. This Frosk lady isn’t helping or attracting female gamers by behaving the way she is.