Gamertell

As an active member of several women gamer sites, I know there are a lot of women who game online and offline both with computers and consoles. So where does Kate Muir of Times Online get the idea that console gamers are boys and that my console is merely a toy?

This has been the topic of the week in the forums of some women gaming sites and I couldn’t agree with them more as they question where the heck Muir got her information or if she even games or knows what she’s talking about. In her article, Muir writes “Xboxes were toys for very big boys indeed,“ and that men (at least in the UK) are “infantalised by night in a virtual world,“ clinching her stereotypical views with…

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Often when people think of women in gaming, they either think of the digital super cute, super sexy or super barbaric women found videogames often portrayed as the damsel in distress or weak. On October 25, 2007, the Xfire Debate Club logged on for their ninth meeting to discuss issues women face trying to get into the gaming industry or as a gamer.

The eight million strong gaming community, Xfire, invited nine successful women of the gaming industry to speak with the Xfire community on the topic of women in the gaming culture, game marketing, portrayal of female characters in videogames and the online gaming experience as women to name a few. Xfire is one of the fastest growing online gaming platform and community in the world helping gamers to easily connect, chat and play with their friends online

The eight women in the gaming industry who attended include:

• Colette Bennett, Editor, Destructoid
• Amber "AthenaTwin" Dalton, Clan Leader and Founder, PMS Clan
• Robyn Fleming, Senior Editor, Cerise Magazine
• Jasmin Kassner, Founder, PixelTamer Games
• Helen Kennedy, Senior Lecturer, University of the West of England
• Lesley Smith, Freelance Games Journalist

Leigh Alexander, Staff Writer of Gamasutra was unable to make the panel.

"Women play an increasingly important role within the gaming industry as gaming becomes ever more mainstream," said Frederic Descamps, senior director of marketing at Xfire. "We are thrilled to welcome this panel of experts, each of whom brings a unique perspective and approach to issues facing women in the industry."

Helen Kennedy, a feminist researching and writes about women and how they game and play, moderated the event and began the debate by asking the panel about the specific challenges each of them faced as a gamer and as a professional.

"I think most women have had at least a few irritating conversations about whether they really play games," responded Fleming."... and when you do something gaming-related for work, the assumptions just keep right on coming - only now it's about you as a professional as well as a hobbyist. I think there are lots of gaming communities that are ready to take women seriously as players."

Bennett agreed and added, "I know personally (that) people still don't really believe women play games," she said. "Or if they do, they play girl-specific games. Personally I feel you just have to let these stereotypes roll off you. I think women are very much judged because of the fact that we are women; a stereotype that is hundreds of years old won't just go away because a girl shows up and says she can beat you at a game."

During the debate Bennett mentioned that the image of women in general is always an issue to some communities.

"I think the image of women in games versus women who play games in real life is always an issue," Bennett explained adding that to avoid the harassment some women hide their gender when playing online. "Women are still being heavily objectified in most games. Whether we like it or not, it has an impact on how we are viewed in general. Well, the internet gives you the ability to create yourself as you wish (to a degree.) You don't have to identify as female if you don't want to. Hiding your gender seems pointless, but some women will do it so they won't be harassed."

Dalton agreed and added, "Offline is more friendly I think than online," she said. "Online, where people hide behind anonymity, is where women are really harassed more I think."

Kassner disagreed stating that she has been playing MMOs for a long time to include Ultima Online for 9 years and has never been harassed. Kassner added that in Germany women are widely more accepted as gamers than elsewhere.

Dalton was quick to tell Kassner that her perfect gaming experience won't last once the male gamers start see more and more women coming out and saying "look we are here, we play just like you do."

Kennedy asked the ladies if they had experienced any pressure as gamers professionally and as competitive gamers. The panel all agreed, Fleming pointed out that there is even pressure for women to be the right kind of female player to earn acceptance within gaming groups.

"Sometimes there's pressure to be 'one of the guys,' and not remind your fellow players that you are ... a woman," Fleming explained. "And other times, the pressure is to be cute or sexy, or to play the damsel in distress, etc."

Bennett agreed and said even as a female journalist in the gaming industry there is pressure, but not as much as the ugly treatment competitive female gamers often go through just to enjoy gaming.

"I think the image of women in games versus women who play games in real life is always an issue," Bennett added. "Women are still being heavily objectified in most games. Whether we like it or not, it has an impact on how we are viewed in general. Games became important to me when I was 8 years old. I think girls of today may have to contend with what their parents think of gaming and if they believe in the negative media that people like Jack Thompson support. If that doesn't stand in the way, they may be able to discover the gaming culture naturally. It scares me because when I think of what games represented to me, and how they made my childhood and young adulthood so much better, I fear that girls growing up may be cheated out of that because of the media image of gaming."

Kennedy focused on how negative media has scared many potential young female gamers and created the "Pink Poison" most young girls are given as alternative games.

"The pink poison problem (are those) games that are targeted at women (and) are always in pink boxes and advertised as for women only," Fleming explained. "I kinda like the pink ... but I hate the way it's marketed."

Smith agreed and added that "pink consoles are a bane, I personally hate them intensely and yet the major manufacturers continue creating them," she said. "I think women don't really care about the colour, it's the console and games that matter but the industry can't understand they do not need to make special ones just for us."

Dalton agrees the whole usage of color to make a system or game women specific is a lame attempt by the gaming industry to make them feel apart of the culture when it actually separates them.

"We are a viable market companies should be targeting as consumers, employees, etc.," Dalton explained and said although she likes pink consoles but more of a fashion or personalization choice not because its for women. "We are individuals that like all different things, brought together by a love of gaming. I think they all work together, have the games we like and have the way to make it as personal as we like it. It is about personal preferences, and neither is wrong. (It's not just about) color, fashion is a natural companion for male and female audiences ... personalization is key. Women on the forefront is still underdeveloped, and we owe it to the next generation to be able to say 'yes you are a girl' and that is fine to play."

The debate then turned its attention to the new line of girl-specific games from UbiSoft called the Imagine series. The series was released in October 2007 as the first games in the Imagine line for the Nintendo DS system. The game series for girls include Imagine: Fashion Designer, Imagine: Animal Doctor, Imagine: Babyz and Imagine: Master Chef. With an upcoming release of Imagine: Figure Skater to be released in early 2008.

Smith calls this new line a "prime example of how not to do games for women."

Kassner told the panel that companies should stop being gender specific and just produce good games.

"What I really want to bring across is that in front of the PC we are all the same. No matter what color, what gender or what sexual preferences. We have this unique opportunity to be all the same: Gamers," Kassner said. "Why does the marketing still cling on to the old fashioned values of male or female and stuff. Its stupid. By marketing a game to guys you loose females players and vice versa. Marketing peeps have to come into the present and realize that they can just market good games."

Bennett added that she couldn't blame a videogame company because they only produce what the public wants based on a survey, but even the survey needs to broaden.

"Well, the hard thing about trashing the Ubisoft line is that it is based on a survey of what girls in a certain age range wanted (supposedly)," she said. "I don't like the idea that these games are being pushed at little girls, but at the same time how do you market Contra to an 8-year-old girl? I think all PR and marketing ideas are directly linked to the bottom line. Money. Which is what makes it difficult to ever escape these stereotypes."

When challenged by the panel over her Contra statement Bennett explained her opinion further.

"What I am getting at is that when I was growing up, I played all kinds of games, Contra and Barbie games alike," she said. "I got to choose what I liked. In today's day and age, it seems much more important to be marketing at certain groups since gaming has become such a powerful industry."

Smith added that the whole pink issue is purely based on the childhood idea that pink is for girls and blue for boys which is outdated. The panel agreed that this type of marketing strategy separates women and men in gaming and often times turn female gamers into targets.

"I think it's a case of there are no such thing as women or men games, there should be just gamers,"mith said.

The panel agreed that because a lot of women don't have a problem with the sexualized images they use as avatars or screen names which separates men and women gamers, and often open themselves up as targets.

"I've received too many random rape threats just for having a female name on an online game," Fleming said surprising the panel and the audience. "It doesn't happen to every woman, but it does happen to many. When I'm playing a game, I often like to have a female avatar but that's as far as I tend to go and I still get that crap."

The group agreed that the gaming experience is getting better with monitoring to prevent harassment but as far as the gaming industry, they agree there needs to be more women in the gaming industry. At the end of the discussion Kennedy asked each panelist one final question. If they could improve the contemporary game culture what would they change?

Lesley Smith: "Stop segregating women, make games and magazines for gamers not for one gender or the other."

Colette Bennett: "More emphasis on creativity and breaking the mold. We have enough FPS, RPG, Platformers, etc., etc. Try to strive for genre hybrids or new genres altogether."

Robyn Fleming: "More variety of female characters in all kinds of games."

Jasmin Kassner: "Marketing should change to 'Global' in a sense of no sexism, racsim, etc..."

Amber "Athena Twin" Dalton: "Make development groups more diversified, all races, backgrounds, lifestyles to appeal to all aspects of gamers."

Site [Xfire Debate Panels] Read [UbiSoft] Site [PMS Clan] Site [Cerise: Gaming Magazine for Women]

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