ON GENDER AND VIDEO GAMES

Any uneasy feelings that a feminist may have when exploring gender issues in the gaming world, whether it be console or online games, are not assuaged evidentially in many journal articles.

This short blog will indeed argue that gender differentiation and re-inforcement of typical gender bias existing in real life spills over into the virtual world of gaming, described in a review of a Women in Games Conference (Westecott, 2006, p.212) as “deep-seated presumptions that still shape the sector”[animation, film and television].

An explanation of the domination of male orientated content, narrative and design is arguably found within the actual work practices and labour force contained within the industrial production of games. Long hours are expected of those working in the gaming industry. Sixty-five to eighty hour working weeks are common during crunch times (close to the deadline for a project. This representation of the “dark side” of gamework with “passionate pay slaves, precarious global developers and networked labour (modders and fans)” (Deuze et al, 2007, p. 347) has historically developed through exploitation of the passionate or dedicated gamers. The hours required and the pressures of crunch time naturally exclude many from the industry.

The attraction of gamework for young, unmarried male urban professionals who envisage ‘work as play’ employment provide the large majority of the workforce. It is therefore obvious that a masculine culture will develop which will flow through to the work produced (ibid).

Heather Kelly argues with most producers being male, they can’t be bothered developing games for girls for three reasons, Firstly, “so called girl’s games have a bad reputation .. and rightly so” (Kelly in Deuze et al 2007, p. 345) Secondly, the budgets for such games are commonly much less than for male games and thirdly, when these games are created they are “usually full of dumb clichés”. (ibid)

The observation can be made from Kelly’s comments of the reflection of attitudes of the male programmers in the re-inforcement of gender stereotyping. i.e. the games are developed from the male’s presumption of what games would interest their niece. The issue of small budgets provided for girl’s games is interesting as it is possible that there could be an untapped market in the genre of girl’s games. It is reasonable to assume that young females have just as much disposable income as young males, perhaps the product is simply not available.

Further evidence of gender issues are literally illustrated when a brief quantitative survey was carried out on the Intothepixel web site. This site showcases video game art and has been chaired for the last three years by Nichol Bradford, Global Director of Strategic Growth at Vivendi Universal Games (VUG).


Investigating contest winners art from 2008 back to 2004 reveals only one example of art representing females (shown below). The stereotypical cultural representation of the helpless young female is in contrast with the many male warrior type representations in many of the eighty examples of art showcased from 2008 to 2004 on the intothepixel site.

Pictured left: Crimson Butterfly : Artist Name : Keisuke Kikuchi, Hitoshi Hasegawa, and Makoto Shibata Game : Fatal Frame 2 : Crimson Butterfly Software : SoftImage, Photoshop, (Source: http://www.intothepixel.com/artwork-details/winner_details.asp?idArtwork=536 ; Accessed 19 May, 2009)




It can be argued these two pictures are typical cultural gender representations




Pictured left: Ryu Hayabusa : Artist Name: Tomonobu Itagaki and Hiroaki Matsui Game : Ninja Gaiden Software : SoftImage3D 3.922, Maya 4.5, Photoshop 7.0 , (Source: http://www.intothepixel.com/artwork-details/winner_details.asp?idArtwork=517 ; Accessed 19 May 2009)


The above illustrates some of the problems within the gaming industry concerning gender. Particularly in games, it seems the dominance of male gameworkers will continue to create imbalances in gender representation throughout the digital gaming industry until the following description of a typical gameworker is altered somehow:
“white, male, heterosexual, not disabled, 31 years old, working in the industry just over five years,university/college educated, is a programmer, artist or designer”, (Source : http://igda.org/diversity (quote taken from pp. 9–10)(accessed 8 June 2007)), in Deutze et al, 2007, p. 351.


References:

• Deutze, M., Chase Bowen, M.,& Allen, C., 2007, ‘The professional identity of gameworkers’, Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, Sage publications, London, Los Angeles, New Delhi and Singapore pp. 335 – 353.
• Westecott, E., 2007, ‘Review: Women in games conference, University of Tesside, 10 – 11July 2006, Animation:An Interdisciplinary Journal, Vol. 2., Sage Publications, pp. 209 – 213.
• Intothepixel: an exhibition of the art of the video game, collection archive; URL: http://www.intothepixel.com/artwork/index.asp , (Date of access 19 May, 2009).
• Beyond Barbie and mortal Kombat: New perspectives on Gender, Games and Computers; Workshop Participants; URL: http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kafai/conferences/barbie/participants.htm , (Date of access 19 May, 2009)