It's quite weird that a few days after my thoughts on Megan Fox, and her views towards female gaming that a video about females in the video game world arises.
Coincidence? Well, yea probably.
After watching the video I have a few thoughts and disagreements about the subject matter presented by Daniel Floyd and Leigh Alexander.
Daniel Floyd/Leign Alexander Video
The overall spirit of the video is based on a question that has alluded many for a long time - Why aren't women interested in video games? While that's a general, and widely speculative question, I'll play along.
The video starts out saying that some women play games, but that they're a minority in the overall gaming population. Leigh Alexander, a widely known video game journalist is used as a guest expert and I'm guessing most of the video is based on her research as it sounds similar to articles I've read by her.
The two main points that I took away from the vid is that women mostly stay away from games because they see a lot of titles objectifying women, and that most ladies are playing casual games. Well, I disagree with both points. The second being a contradiction to the argument the video is presenting anyway - isn't a "casual" game, still a game?
The video uses 'Halo' quite a bit as a barometer of where "hardcore" gamers fall into. This is silly to me, because to be quite honest I consider Halo a very casual game. This is of course coming from someone who grew up with FPS's on the PC. And once you've beaten the final stage of the original Unreal Tournament on Godlike!, everything else just seems casual. Which is exactly my point. You can't judge how many 'true' female gamers there are based on the muddy dichotomy of hardcore/casual. The farther you tweak the slider for judging someone as 'hardcore', the more people you're going to alienate, women and all.
The second main point of the video is something else I disagree with, and I might actually step on some toes with this. Floyd, and Alexander are of the mind that games are alienating to women because of objectification. Well, I have a reality check for both. In this modern advertising world, we're all objectified. Men, women, boys, girls; the content that is present in all our main media outlets objectifies someone in certain ways. Read an issue of Seventeen, and tell me that teens, both male and female aren't objectified in some way. It's quite astounding actually. Yet, the majority of its readers are female.
Sex sales. That isn't going to change ever, and to be quite honest I don't think it should. I could be in the minority but there's nothing wrong with engaging our carnal side. There's nothing inherently wrong with buxom female characters. Christie Monteiro is my favorite fighter in Tekken and could arguably be the most scantily clad of the roster. I don't want to see that change. And in doing so, probably isn't going to draw any more female gamers into the mix. I think if we try and take sex out, or try to tone the objectification down we're just going to create this weird state of censorship. I can just see developers sitting around a table asking - "are her breasts too big?", "should we make her shorts longer?", "maybe she should be wearing pants instead of shorts?". Well, if Lara Croft is in the snow I'd say she probably should be wearing pants.. ;)
I think the video's two strongest points are its' least talked about. First, we need more ladies represented in the industry. Here's an interesting article on CNN about the rising number of females in the development industry. Reports like this make me incredibly happy; because we need our industry diversified. The gaming industry can only grow, and become a stronger medium if we reach out and tap into creative minds previously unused. Having the female mind represented can not only further women's involvement in games, but will assist the health of the industry altogether.
Something else the video makes note of, in just one sentence I believe, is that we need to start our girls out playing games at a younger age. It's odd that it isn't expanded upon more, because it's the strongest argument in my mind.
I can use my sister as an example. I don't think my parents ever bought her a video game system until the pink Nintendo DS was released. She became of video game age around the time the Nintendo 64 had just released, yet she's never received a console. I did let her keep my old Nintendo 64, when I had my Gamecube and PS2. She played it like crazy. In fact I think she probably has more time logged into Harvest Moon 64 than I do, and I consider that one of my favorite games ever. I can only imagine how much more of a gamer she would have been, if she was more exposed to consoles than I was. If her lone (and lucky ;) ) victory in Punch-Out! on the Wii is evidence, she probably could have turned out a better gamer than I am.
In conclusion, I believe there's no true answer to the question presented by the video. All we can really do is try and expand the market, and do everything necessary to execute. Having a more diversified industry is definitely a good start. From there, the sky is the limit. Who knows, maybe there's a video game idea out there that can break down all the walls between men, women, hardcore, and casual. If it is out there, I'd sure as hell like to see it.