Portrayal of Women

Research showed that the most iconic characters who are female in games are Lara Croft, Princess Peach and Zelda.

What about fighting games such as Call of Duty or Battlefield? Almost all of these women have been incredibly sexualized; they take on the incredibly passive role in just about every game. Women in games are treated as eye candy or simply as an object to be saved, but this isn't new. Cast your mind back to Disney films, which usually portrayed a princess who needs to be rescued from something evil by a handsome prince. This is a fairy tale, therefore could it be said that games are the modern extension and edition of the fairy tale?

Many people, including Edgnet states that:

“Gaming is gaining among women: women own the casual and social gaming areas and have gained on male gamers generally.”

“Women over 18 represent a greater portion of the game playing population than 42%”

Gumbovision states that women gamers wear an electronic burka, “they are afraid to show any gender or identity for the responces of being immediately vilified, berated or fawned over as an ideal instead of a person.”

“Over sexed, blond portrayals of women should be outliers instead of the norm.”

“Men are often proportioned just as outrageously as women.” The clothing that characters wear says a lot about their character, male avatars with torn trousers, scars or a specific tone will often have a more sophisticated back story than female avatars that are over-sexualised and are there to be beautiful.

One female gamer discussed her difficulties in being a gamer; she mentioned that there was an Asian aesthetic. “If you are a good gamer then you must be Asian”. Although stereotypes exist, it is usually the minority who exploit this and fall to sexism and verbal abuse within the gaming community.

On the other hand, why should games present a real representation? They, after all, are escapism from the real world. If male characters are unrealistic would that stop a woman playing a certain game? Out of the 10 women that I have asked 99% said that it would not stop them from playing. One even noted that games often use aliens or creatures, “how realistic is it being eaten by a zombie”. This moves me on to my other point, gaming adverts and games themselves are becoming like films. The way they are marketed appeals greatly to the film audience, and so the cross over between the two is becoming increasingly blurred.

Aside from combat and fighting games there has been a huge increase in fitness games, Nintendo have owned this market with the Wii. The ability to get fit without leaving the house has become popular across the globe. Nintendo use a wide variety of adverts to appeal to several different markets, and the games that run with the system can be personalised by the user by creating a Mii character.

I contacted a member of the Nintendo Company to ask some questions about their campaign and how they identified that they needed to target more than one audience and had this response:

Hello Laura,

Thanks for contacting Nintendo of America. I’m sorry for not replying sooner. We’ve been receiving larger than normal email volumes, which has impacted our response time.

While I would like to be able to assist you with your project, I don't have access to the type of information that you're looking for. Due to the number of similar emails that we receive, we're not able to assist with school assignments, and we're not equipped to track down the official responses to your questions that you're looking for. We do, however, appreciate your enthusiasm and curiosity.

It may interest you to know that all of the information we have available is posted on our website at www.nintendo.com. If you visit our site, be sure to check out the "Corporate" section. This is where we have posted Nintendo's business-related information, annual reports, and a company history.

Also, several books and articles have been written on the video game industry. "Game Over” by David Sheff and “The Ultimate History of Video Games” by Steve L. Kent were written several years ago, but are excellent resources on the video game industry.

Although we regret being unable to assist you with your request, we're confident that you will find the listed resources useful.

Sincerely,

Alain Dao
Nintendo of America Inc