gaming & gender
TRANSCRIPT
Where are all the female game developers?
Elke Schneider 2017
47% of video game players are female $2.462 Billion = Australian total digital games
industry value (traditional retail + digital sales) > $100 Billion = World
games market ~10% workers in game
industry are female Game industry is
dominated by white men under the age of 45
1. Female game characters are overwhelmingly negatively represented
2. There are too few female main game characters
3. Female gamers are harassed4. Female game designers/developers are
uncommon
Damsel in distress Traditional gender roles
‘women as decoration’
Sexual objectification
Revealing clothing & unrealistic body images
Violence against women
Decrease empathy for female violence victims
GTA, Assassin’s Creed II, Far Cry 3, The Witcher, Red Dead Redemption
A plot device in which a female character is placed in a perilous situation from which she cannot escape on her own and must be rescued by a male character, usually providing a core incentive or motivation for the protagonist’s quest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6p5AZp7r_Q
ONLY 6 games at the E3 2016 event featured female playable characters (main character)
Mass Effect:Andromeda (Ryder)
Horizon Zero Dawn (Aloy)
Dishonored 2 (Emily Kaldwin)
ReCore (Joule)
Bound
Battlefield 1
Ubisoft - Assassin’s Creed: Unity Too much extra work!
DICE – Battlefield 1 Female soldiers are not to the core
audience of boys – risk alienating young male gamers
Nintendo – Zelda: Breath of the Wild Stick to original game plan
If Princess Zelda is the character, then what will Link do?
Not In The Kitchen Anymorehttp://www.notinthekitchenanymore.com/ (Not for young viewers)
• Jaw dropping examples of online female gamer harassment, including violent threats
• Microsoft responds after outcry on social media
Females in IT
Why is it so difficult to encourage females to the IT industry?
Cultural stereotypes, harassment (at work & online), co-worker negativity, bias
#Gamergate
Threats towards Zoe Quinn (game developer)
Quinn was ‘doxed’ & relentlessly harassed
Jane McGonigal – inspirational female in IT Robin Hunicke – worked on Journey & now
co-founder of Funomena
Laments that media questions revolve around her gender and not her work
Lisette Titre – game designer; art director Elizabeth Sampat – award-winning game
designer (Subway Surfers, Plants vs Zombies 2, Ghost
Recon & more)