Original Comment by: wiper
"The only problem I had with the article is that the author sets up something of a straw man argument when he suggests that sexism in the games themselves is the other side's argument when that's only part of it. He's missing the part of the argument that focuses on the tasks that the games asks a player to perform. Some of those tasks are just not interesting to many women and it doesn't matter whether the main character of the game performing those tasks is male or female. That said, I still think this is a thought-provoking article."
Hmm. An issue often bandied about, and an understandable one, but one I take to task. It makes a certain assumption, that there are certain tasks that are inherently of interest to men, but not of interest to women. I would argue against that, but then, I am one of those weirdos who thinks queer theory is incredibly interesting and the right way to be going. There are certain things which women 'generally' find more interesting than men, and vice-versa. But that's nearly always down to social conditioning, either through the whole 'permission' issue - what is expected of women through social constraints, usually as hangovers from ye fun animal needs - or through indirect social issues - a lot of women [in my experience: not stats to prove this, I may be horribly wrong] seem to have considerably less free time than men, often down to fulfilling gender stereotypes (being the mothers/homemakers in families), though this tends to show itself the older the people are. Students are generally an exception, but that goes for most things, no?
Of course, there are games which men are more likely to show more interest in playing than women: stereotypical examples being flight simulators. I'd say that's more to do with women not being daft enough to waste hours of their life away on something so lonely and, well, tedious. Not so much that these are games directed at women, but that these are games directed at geeks. That geeks are mostly men is another issue entirely (a much more general, social one).
The other big 'geeky' genres I can think of are the single-player RPG and RTS, and while RTS's suffer from much the same problem as flight sims, RPG's seem to be a genre more women are more likely to take an in. Perhaps it's because RPG's tend to be much more narrative-led. They also tend to have a much anti-social atmosphere, thanks to this narrative-led approach. Essentially - these are niche genres, designed for (large) niches of gamers: it shouldn't be a surprise, or at all worrying, that they play mainly to the men that happen to make up these niches. If they were the only genres around then yes, it could be an issue: but they aren't.
Then there's sports games. I believe this simply reinforces the permission aspect: a lot of women will enjoy sports when they engage in them (a lot won't, however: but the same goes for me). Unlike men, however, most women feel socially forced [whether they're aware of it or not] to stay out of what is ostensibly a man's domain, while many men feel forced to engage in them [again, whether aware of it or not] as a playful way of showing their dominance.
As such, making sports games, while very 'mainstream' in playing to masculine stereotypes, obscures the female simply because it requires that the female player have both have passed the permission phase for enjoying sports as well as computer games.
As for other mainstream genres - well, are they /really/ of less interest to women than men?
Yes, action games, like action films, have a tendency of being of more interest to men than women - but just like action films, that doesn't mean that a good portion of women still find them entertaining. And you must be careful not to underestimate the number of games around that don't just play the simple 'action' card.
There are plot- and adventure-driven games by the bucketload; MMORPG's continue to be a surprisingly gender-egalitarian force; puzzle, platform and adventure games arrive at frequent intervals on all formats: the majority of games really /aren't/ part of these mythical only-of-male-interest genres. The main notable absence is of genres that are generally of more interest to women than men [with the exception of such fun social experimentation games as the Sims, but we wouldn't want to try and pay that any heed now would we?] - which is likely to be something that would change with more females in positions of power - well, at least I imagine it to be.
But really, as Walker has quite brilliantly put forward, the issue isn't often somewhat overblown and/or ill-conceived. And I'll stop, because I'm sure this comment is looking overblown and ill-conceived itself. But yes, in summation, I have to say I support Walker entirely in this argument. Nail on head moment.
Doesn't stop the fact that he's a girl though. Girl.
