What Does Gender Have To Do With It:

The Inherent Biases Of The Video Game

Industry

Aaron Williams

Who Plays?

The Prologue Video games emulated sports and were played in bars.

Home consoles were marketed to the family.

Pong was the biggest hit for the Atari system, based on

table tennis.

The Fall and Revival of Video

Games

Oversaturation of bad licensed titles e.g E.T The

Extraterrestrial for Atari led to video game crash of 1983.

Nintendo Inc. revived the industry with NES home console

(1985).

Marketed as a toy in America.

Damsels in Distress Typically the reward and object

of affection to the protagonist

Escapist fantasy for male player

e.g. Mario, Dragon’s Lair,

Legend of Zelda,

Hyper-sexualization

“Strong Female Characters” Many developers attempt to portray

strong female characters in lead roles or supporting roles still fail to portray them non-sexually.

E.g. Samus from Metroid, Quiet from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Violence against women

Harmful effects

#Gamergate A twitter following that began

in August 2014 after game

developer Zoe Quinn was

accused of committing sexual

favors for favorable reviews of

her game.

Became victim of hacking

attempts, rape and death

threats.

Other targets included Anita

Sarkeesian, Phil Fish

What can we do?

Non-sexualized female characters

Gender neutral characters

Strong lead characters, no victimization

Casual games