Women in computer games

Women in computer games, that age old discussion. In fact there is so much it is hard to even know where to begin. Do we start with the lack of female programmers (despite female gamers being on the rise)? Do we start with the way in which women are portrayed in many games? Do we start with the way in which for many young women computers and computer programming is seen as a male activity?

Before I start with women in games I want to look at those within the industry. There is a brilliant piece from Dev8D, which is a developer event, that looked at sexism in gaming. It identifies many of the frustrations, barriers and attitudes that women come across both at school and in the workplace. It is well worth a read as a starting point.

From there perhaps it makes sense to think about the way women are portrayed in games. I'm sure anyone reading this has seen or played Tomb Raider. With the main character being female n.b people automatically jump on feminists who talk about women in games and say 'but you've got Lara Croft, what more do you want?' Well perhaps we would like a strong female character (which Lara is) who did not have to conform to 'jiggle physics'. The piece on wikipedia in the previous link explores some fantastic examples of where women have been hugely let down by the gaming industry. The following Wikipedia (trigger link) link mentions a game called 'RapeLay' and I would urge you not to click this link lightly as the content and game description is distressing, unsettling and unpleasant. It has since been banned in many countries and on-line stores removed links to buying it. The game centres around a character(s) with the only purpose, seeming to be to stalk/hurt and then rape young women. I have not linked to this lightly and questioned whether I should but I was horrified to come across this game having never heard of it. But, I felt that people should be aware that there are people producing/who have produced this violent and vile material. We need to look at how games like this were ever produced and then how we can stop this from happening again.

It is games and stories like this that only further serve to explain why women make up 12% of the game programmers, the Guardian piece explores different reasons for this as women now make up 49% of gamers. This article also highlights the controversial Feminist Whore skill that could be picked up in a game to make a female character stronger. When the errant piece of labelling in released code was noticed it was removed but this does not remove the fact that a programmer placed it there. Perhaps this helps explain why game programming is an environment where only 12% of women feel comfortable or able to work. We risk missing a huge skill set and alienating half the population if we do not look at redressing the balance.