The ‘Children Now’ study surveyed the top 10 selling games for each of three popular console systems — Sony Corp.’s PlayStation, Sega Corp. Dreamcast and Nintendo Co. Ltd’s Nintendo 64. From this survey it was discovered that 54 percent of the games surveyed contained female lead characters while 92 percent had male lead characters. Those games that do feature female characters tend to display women in an exaggerated and stereotypical manner, with 38 percent displaying significant body exposure, including thighs, cleavage and midriffs. In addition, 38 percent of female game characters had large breasts and 46 percent had unusually small waists according to the group in a news release announcing its findings. Altogether, 54 percent of the female characters were depicted as fighting or being violent, while many also exhibited stereotypical female behaviour and characteristics.
Until recently, women have appeared in computer games mostly as eroticised competitors to the male protagonist, distressed maidens, or other victims or objects. Recently, the ‘girls' gamers’ movement has taken the computer-game industry to task for the use of these misogynistic images. However, it seems that this collection of girl gamers calls are falling on deaf ears.
Liz Buckley, product manager for Majesco, a game design house in Edison, N.J., said that her designers had learned in focus groups that boys and young men not only like games with female characters but also pay far more attention to those characters than they do to their digital male counterparts. Ms. Buckley cited Majesco's recent release of Blood Rayne, which centres on a vicious yet seductive woman who is half vampire. Most action-adventure games engage the player through a character viewed only from the rear as he or she confronts foes and challenges. The solution was to reverse the vantage point whenever the character was at rest.
''After several rounds of focus testing, we learned that everyone wanted to see her face more…Players could see her face and watch her adjusting her leather pants, her belt…The lead character is inherently sexy…I don't have a problem of using that to get her out there.”
Ms. Buckley recalled of Blood Rayne. According to Ms. Buckley by injecting sensuality into the game, which cost $2 million to develop, it enhanced its market prospects. She described its mix of plunging necklines, blood-red hair and pointy teeth as ''lethal erotica.''
So while it seems positive that male players pay more attention to female characters we now understand why. Obviously by having a scantily clad, sexy and erotic character games such as these are contributing to the sexist nature of some video games and adding to the male dominant ideology that all characters must fit this description.
Violence, however, is not the only controversial issue in video games. On average, male characters outnumbered female characters in video games 13 to 1. In addition, women were rescued or kidnapped 30 percent of the time, and although men were in occasional need of rescue, women never saved them. Hence adding to the ideology that women are helpless and men remain more dominant. While sensual female characters are proliferating in the gaming universe, Lara Croft, whose fame ultimately transcended the game genre, is moving in new directions game-wise. At first release, however, her appearance fit very well into the stereotyped female character the sexism in these particular video games became quite evident.
In Tomb Raider, Lara Croft, is yet another scantly clad female lead character that has remained a popular video game series for the Sony Playstation and PC. She has a disproportionate body -- with enormous breasts and a tiny waist. In reality she shouldn't be able to move that easily in shorts that tight. She is also easily manipulated and there are issues that, because of this easy manipulation, it makes them feel more dominate. This could be why the series became a great success. In fact, a popular file available on the Internet allows players to alter the game's program so Croft appears naked. An actress dressed as Croft also posed naked for Playboy magazine. However this is not the only example of a perverted portrayal of women in video games.
Nintendo Entertainment System debuted in 1984, and was immediately the hottest-selling item in every toy store across the country. The games were simple at first, with bright colours, fantasy violence and G ratings. As technology improved, the violence quotient in video games increased. Fifteen years after the Nintendo first hit the shelves, the games have reached a violent peak.
Grand Theft Auto, a popular game for PCs, awards points based on how many successful car-jackings the player completes, and awards huge bonuses for shooting cops. This is the only game however where in the Grand Theft Auto II and Vice City you can hire a prostitute to increase your health and then gun her down afterwards to get your money back. Not only is this a negative portrayal of women, also there is no interaction with any other women besides the prostitutes in the game.
Shana featured in Dragoon Warrior is an example of unequal power relations. She is the only character whose attack doesn't allow combos (she uses a bow and arrow), which means her attacks are the weakest. Even her Dragoon form is a disappointment. Her normal attack doesn't change at all and most of her magic attacks are limited to (another example of female characters) healing. She is also a weak and is constantly slowing down the rest of the group. Perhaps the most sexist of all is whenever the group enter a fort or house she goes into "happy homemaker mode" and starts cooking. Proving how the female is in this ‘woman’s place is in the home’ stereotype.
In Transworld Surf - Reef Girls it is sexist commentary that is prevalent. Phrases like: "You're so hot I'll pick you up any time" and "Why don't I help you wax your board?" are an example of what the reef girls in Transworld surf say when they pick you (the male surfer) up on their jet skies. Not only does each phrase contain some form of innuendo or sexual connotation, it should be noted, that they (male surfers) hardly ever say anything to the one girl surfer in this game.
Of course there are examples of some games that are not quite as bad as the previous examples. Take Lulu from Final Fantasy X. This character is one of the top fighters in terms of power in Final Fantasy X. She has an "ice queen" demeanour and there is equal power with her and other characters. Her outfit however is a different matter. Her heaving cleavage leaves nothing to the imagination and this is difficult to take considering she hols a position of authority in the game. In the next version New Yuna - Final Fantasy X-2 it seems that not only her top has gone, but most of her clothes also. It is a positive step that Final Fantasy have a girl as the main character, but unfortunately yet again revealing clothing is more important.
So with all these popular games selling so well it is difficult to see what the future holds in terms of female stereotypes in video games. As new demand and technology emerges however, so do people’s desires. Even after all this deformation of video games there is some light at the end of the tunnel. The new female characters are becoming clever, karate-kicking protagonists controlled by players of either sex. Their victories are depending exclusively on the player's ability and the game's design, not who is the weaker sex.
Even Lara Croft, the heroine who made the leap from video console to Hollywood film as a sort of female Indiana Jones, is getting a makeover in a new game emphasizing her martial-arts prowess. Soon, watching women do combat in video games will always be seen as empowering and images in popular culture will include women as fighters not stereotypes.
There is a game, still in production – Kya: Dark Lineage – she appears as a slender 17-year-old dressed in baggy pants and a loose-fitting blouse that exposes her navel. Due to most female lead characters in games being portrayed to be what men would like to have in women, Kya: Dark Lineage, will not be a fantasy girl. We wanted her to be charming, a bit sexy, but not overwhelmingly sexy. For female players, who want with no option but to play similarly games like Cy Girls, Brute Force, WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos, and Enter the Matrix, female characters have just as much chance of winning as the males do.
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