1) Women Like RPG’s More due to the romantic storylines

2)Women are home makers alot dont have time for games. I think alot of women find there a waist of time.

3) Why the hell…. ok yea games have sexy women in them but its funny to laugh at it just like the way they make anime girls all over sexy. They dont need to be reinvented.

Answer More RPG games and maybe pitch a add that explains more what an RPG game is. Dont just show some finall fantasy poster on tv and automaticly go Ok everyone will know what this is.

Yes im a girl I play games I see nothing wrong with the overly sexy women explosions etc.

Although, I do have a different taste in video games than my male gaming friends, preferring RPGs, MMORPGs, Horror Games and the Tekken franchise… as opposed to the super hero and shooting games that my male friends prefer.

… Either way, I’m down with the gaming.

Why? Because its a little too one-sided. Yes, all the women in games looks incredible. Is nothing like the male game figures which of course totally resemble the average male population. Heck, last time I was at a LAN party I looked around and thought, “Gee, we really do resemble the characters in Gears of War here.”

Ok, so I admit, I am part of the problem. Everytime I’m in a left for dead match making session and there is really a girl playing I get a little confused and I feel compelled to sacrifice my AI at any cost to save her from the zombies.

Hopefully the next generation of male gamers wont have my hang ups. But until then, we’ll enjoy a few minutes of fantasy game immersion as it should be, far enough away from the scenery at a local walmart that we can enjoy ourselves.

Taking a bite of twix bar though, I’m now inclined to agree with everything he said and move that we lobby James Cameron to make sure the DVD version of Avatar has some overweight Navi in it!

Interesting video though if only because it rehashes perceptions of statistics from the observers point of view.

I am the Lead Tester on an MMO called Fallen Earth. That means I am one of the folks telling people on which portion they are going to test. I don’t have a huge department only about 14 people including me and my boss. Of that 14, 7 of them are women. Admittedly not every department is as evenly spread but they are not far off either. QA testing is usually the first stop for a lot of folks looking to get into industry. It is there for a good sign we have such an even split.

One of the things that has made me proud is my boss early on realized he wanted more diversity in the department. It has been an active goal to recruit for that in mind. That said it wasn’t that hard to find women that are more than qualified. Not only did they have the basic skills but the drive and the love of gaming. I freely admit many of them can kick my tale in many games.

I guess my point is that while the video is very much correct, it seems to be changing. We are getting a more even spread on the guys to girls at least in my little corner of the industry.

Anyways I though you might like the view of someone in the gaming production side.

Apparently, there’s a general feeling of disgust among men when they are shown the equivalent body language in male characters as is used for many female characters. Seeing a scantily clad man giving off all the body language of wanting to hop into bed with the viewer is apparently a huge turn-off for men. So any wonder it’s kind of annoying for a lot of women?

Maybe there weren’t a lot of girl-specific games out there at the time, but I was perfectly happy playing Commando, Legend of Zelda and A Boy and His Blob. That’s why I think games like Little Big Planet are important — they get the whole family playing, but they’re not littered with pink puppies.

To me, it seems a little patronizing to young girls. I think the key is creating content that’s really enjoyable across all ages, genders, etc. and get them that way. (as Hanna mentioned above with Guitar Hero, Rock Band, etc.)

Personal anecdote – I actually think it was my mom who got me into games at a very young age. She used to tell me how much she played Ms. Pac-Man and Frogger when she was on maternity leave and was completely supportive of my gaming habits growing up. (In fact, I think she actually bought me an NES before I even knew I wanted one…)

It’ll be exciting to see the next generation of gamers. There’s already a considerable shift in the audience and that’s only going to further influence who’s in the industry.

p.s. thanks for the shout out!
p.p.s. my mom is awesome.

http://rinrygamegame.blogspot.com/

The part towards the end where he talks about how drawing the gender line is probably contributing more to the problem than helping solve it — this is 100% my view on the topic. Maybe I’m just weird that I never really thought to consider that, as a girl, I wasn’t “supposed” to be interested in gaming or other geeky things, but it seems to me that both guys and girls are just making their lives harder by creating so many limitations for themselves and others.

I agree that it’s sad how such a great character as Lara Croft gets reduced to sex in marketing, and I get that some girls might be intimidated by the sexiness of female game characters, but really, how is it any different from female movie stars or even music stars? Women get catty about them, but ultimately, we look up to them and want to be like them. And, as he notes in the video, the male characters are the same way. It’s not talked about as much, but I’m sure it does make guy gamers feel insecure at least occasionally. =)