Gender in Gaming

Morgan Webb is hot.

Thank you. Please drive through.

-Xian

This thread needs more Morgan Webb pictures:

http://www.webbcountry.net/Maxim.html.0.html

First the racial card a day or too ago , now the gender card and both will be repeated ad naseum

What I want to know is when are the midget rights supporters going to surface?

I mean for CHRIST'S sake every video game that even has a midget in it portrays them as "short" always

I mean WTF??

Women will never be as into video games as men, it's simply not in their biology. They don't have the hand/eye cooridination that males do. It's only only their physical limits that hold them back in professional sports. Women are also more social and most girls would prefer shopping to games. However, perhaps there is a place for them in the RTS market with all that multitasking.

Samus Aran is one of the more interesting female characters only because she is so completely the opposite of this industry's typical "busty bombshells" who spout attitude and demand attention. Bleh.

I'd like to see more female characters that have some depth to them. Of course this could be said of the typical male stereotyped hero - the anti-hero who doesn't want the job or the teenager thrown into a weird situation or the one who blindly follows orders.

So, let me get this straight...

Women get tired of having to "save the princess" over and over again.

Women also get tired of having to look at buxom, clear-skinned little hotties in games like Dead Or Alive Beach Volleyball.

Well, as a red-blooded American male, you know what I think?

I get tired of having to save the princess, too! If she were a little smarter and more resourceful, maybe she wouldn't end up getting caught!

And in terms of feeling senses of inadequacy at looking at Japanese schoolgirls frolicking on a beach with excellently crafted breast physics?

How do you think us guys feel when we have to look at the endless specimens of ubermanhood that litter games. B.J. Blazkowicz is a rugged, take-not-shit Army ranger with chiseled features. He kills hordes of Nazis and zombies. I am neither rugger, nor do I have particularly chiseled features. I also probably wouldn't stand much of a chance against a room full of Nazis. That makes me feel like such a loser.

And what about all those Japanese games with those pretty boys with their impossibly spiky hair and their swords as big as telephone poles and their blemishless skin. Have you TRIED to get your hair to spike like that??? It's hard! And I don't even know where to BUY a sword that big. Maybe Costco has them.

Gordon Freeman doesn't say a goddamn word - EVER - and he's got that little tart Alyx all over his jock like ants at a picnic. Because he's cool, and he's good looking, and he kills a lot, and he's got that whole reluctant-hero thing going for him. What a jerk. Yeah, like I'm going to hang out a bar for 3 hours with someone like HIM there.

For every game that has some woman who has to be saved, or some buxom bit of tail, there are A THOUSAND games that portray men with superhuman strength, square chins, that five-o-clock shadow that doesn't make them look like a slob (how do they DO that?).

How do those stereotypical portrayals of men make us GUYS feel? Huh? After spending a lifetime playing computer games, I have serious body image issues, not to mention unrealistic expectations about what I should be physically capable of.

And don't EVEN get me started on how my Tauren Warrior in World Of Warcraft makes ME feel inadequate...

Samus from Metroid? Man that is a sad example. She's in a robotic suit and you can barely tell she is female.

I know a lot of women that have no problem with and actually like Lara Croft which is absolutely a more popular female character in gaming. Yeah she might have unrealistic proportions if you want to focus on that, but her actions are more defining I think. She's not the busty, lingerie wearing elf from EverQuest or the princess that needs saving - she is an adventurer and kicks ass.

She's the female version of Indiana Jones.

Let's ask Katie Holmes. She is close to Tom Cruise who would know, and she could give a gender take on it all...

If girls were really into gaming they would be writing their own games, particularly since there are apparently few specifically for the female gamer. Its not that hard to write a (simple) game more so if graphics arent that important.

Ethnicity, now gender.

Not that there aren't valid reasons to question ourselves over such things and allow for some introspection, but...

I eagerly await the debate whether Christianity is under-represented in games. Or XYZ religion is misrepresented.

Articles like this are why we can't have nice things!

Isn't the real solution more female game developers? Asking a team of basement dwelling geeky guys to make a game that appeals to girls, is a bit like asking Britney Spears to do color commentary on the Super Bowl.

here we go again.

This is how chicks in videogames should be: http://www.shacknews.com/ja.zz?id=9040250

Male video game characters are typically super buffed out with exagerrated proportions. Why should it be any different for women?

Morgan Webb pretty much represents how female characters have been largely protrayed in games: She looks hot, but acts way more aloof than she actually is or probably wants to be.

I wish they would let her drop the act, and act like a real woman, instead of pandering to the immature 12-18 year old demographic.

Hello I am 31 and I buy a shitload of games and gaming-related stuff. I have a lot of disposable income. I am your core audience. I watch your programmes just as much as the kids.

Pander to ME PLEASE!

Her saving graces are when she gets to attend shows like E3 and does interviews a bit outside of the X-Play format and she actually gets to act like a normal female who loves playing video games.

The race card and the gender card in within two days of each other - Alec is in bloodthristy mood indeed this wee, with that said............................

(Mortal Combat voice)


FIGHT

Ok, trying to be non-judgemental on this one..

1. What's up with the Ms. Quakecon tournament? (just curious)
2. Why is Morgan Webb complaining about guys building shrines to her, isn't she the one who has all these uber-hawt photo shoots of herself all over the web?
3. Last year (at quakecon), it seemed like the female "uber-gamers" did fit some of the characteristics mentioned above. But umm, why is this a problem?

Dammit now I actually have to answer your question after seeing the only two choices you listed were

A.Devs being more mindful about the female characters in games

or

B.Making games specifically for female gamers


well what about

C. Neither ? In other words I think its another hot button that likes to rile people up but I find nothing wrong with it the way it is and think its wrong to assume something drastic needs to be done to begin with


I suppose then I would have to pick B out of your two choices you give as when I game in an RPG I like seeing the women in bikini clad armor and with amazing over the top physiques - I see enough dumpy women every day in the business world -:)

(and yes I could care less that that sounds insensitive my fiance agrees that
people who worry about such trivial things and over analyze such things in games need to get a grip - she likes the hot looking chicks in game too thank god :) )

Why do you keep asking me these questions Alec Matias?! For godsakes I don't know the answers!!!

Oh no, first ethnic diversity, now gender.

*covers eyes*