Women in "Modern Warfare"...

[Woodsey]

Look at the real army, I doubt I've seen more than a dozen women tops in all the news reports and what not since the start of the Iraq war.

That's just the way it is. Plus, look at the target audience for the games; most are going to have balls.

EDIT: Taking that in mind, how many of the men playing are going to want to then shoot women?

 

[Keldon888]

Because female models would take up more space and effort that they don't want to be bothered with?

They're in oblivion and fallout cause there are already game files for women. They aren't in Gears cause they'd have to make big f'd up female models. It's effort.

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

In Gars of War the Bereserkers are women. The locust queen is a woman. There are female refugees.
In Halo there are quite a few female marines (well, halo2 and 3)

 

[KaZZaP]

I remember Donna from that 70's show did a special guest marine voice in Halo 2. She's the one who gives you a shotgun after getting out of the warthog to go threw a blockade.

"tight quarters on the other side sir"

 

[Undeadpool]

Oddly they actually give an explanation in Gears: the human race's population has been so reduced that they can't afford to lose anymore women, so unless a woman is infertile (as in Bernie in the novels), she can't serve frontline duty.

 

[Tdc2182]

Mabye its cause big pussys like me dont want to shoot or watch womens die.

I think Im with this guy. And Women don't serve on the front lines in special ops like they ussually have you play in modern warfare. And women joining the army these days doesn't make us moderrn. What makes us modern is nuclear arms and rediculous machinery.

 

[Distorted Stu]

Maybe they just find women harder to model? I t would be nice to shoot along side a woman, but i think it will be abit off putting hearing woman scream in pain.

 

[PurpleLeafRave]

Hmmm ever seen GI Jane?

It goes on about how men react more emotionally on the battlefield when they see a woman get hurt.

Maybe we gamers, as a male dominated bunch might find it hard to see lil' ladies get their heads blown to bits. Our maculine protective nature might fuck with our heads.

Case in point: A certain game where a girl you love gets murdered, anyone who's played it knows how much that moment hurt.

Uncle Paulie. What an asshole he was in that game.

 

[Artemis923]

*I understand that women only make up about 15% of our current US armed forces...but looking at video games, it seems to reflect that percentage as being less that 2%...

Aye, the TOTAL US armed forces.

Not those on the frontlines, serving in direct combat duties.

Name women you know that are active combatants in the military. I sure as hell don't know any.

 

[Xanadu84]

I don't think this is a problem. Women serve in the military, but usually, it's not on the front line. And there fighting terrorists in the middle east, generally fighting Muslim, fundamentalist extremists. And they aren't exactly progressive in regards to females, them. It makes sense that there isn't a lot of females, and I congratulate IW for casually tossing in a female NPC, and then treating it as a non-event: She's just another soldier, soldiering alongside the guys, and it's not anything worth turning your head over. You can't get a better feminist expression then that. In less realistic games where there are less female characters, well that merely reflects our own personal, cultural bias, and even then, they usually can't resist making the female character particularly badass just to prove a point. And lastly, in the wilder settings, there is plenty of female characters, frequently more badass then there male counterparts. In terms of this, I don't think there's anything particularly sinister.

 

[raxer92]

Ummm... a few more in the Halo series...

The pelican pilot (foehammer) in H:CE was female (or at least sounded like it ;¬).

Also, Miranda Keyes in H2.

Ya got ya fair share of women in Kingdom Hearts 2 and Final Fantasy games so i dont see what ya talking about o.o, still remember that the main audience is white males and that they want to see super macho characters and want it to be a no girls allowed club

 

[Sgtkillalot0]

Hey, guess what games feature women shooting at other things? (men, women, aliens, zombies, etc...)

Mass Effect
Borderlands
Left 4 Dead
Halo ODST
Wet
and probably many, many others

EDIT: Others i forgot:
TF2 (pyro!)
FAllout 1,2,3
Half Life 2?
that's all I remembered...

 

[Damienduerst]

actually cod4 had one woman the cobra pilot before the nuke went off was a woman and there were also some women getting slaughtered in the level when you were riding in a car

 

[Aur0ra145]

1) How do you think this reflects developers? I don't think they are sexist, but do you think they don't believe women are integral in war? Is it possible that not a single member working on Modern Warfare walked up to his teammates and said, "maybe we should throw in some more female npc's..."?

Well, I think you're lookng for a can of worms where they don't exist. The United States military has never had frontline, boots on the ground women in combat areas. We just don't do it. So, playing video games where a majority of the actions takes place on the frontline and in enemy territory, it's only natural that no women are seen.

Furthermore, some of the only combat roles women are allowed to obtain is that of being a pilot. Though, even if a women can possibly become a pilot a very small percentage of women end up being fighter/attack pilots. The percentages of women flying in the Air Force is around 4% and that counts crewchief with that percentage. So, it's a bit of a stretch for every other pilot in a game to be a woman.

On the other hand, women do make up a great deal of the Medical Corps in the military. Though I think developers would rather have you believing you're amazing, perfect and the best green beanie in the world, rather than let you get wounded and set to hang with the REMF's and get patched up.

2) How do you think this reflects us gamers? This is something we have all noticed at one time or another, but is the fact that we don't make a big deal about it signify that we, in a way, agree with it? That its appropriate for women to serve in the two present roles I listed? Would the presences of more female soldiers fighting by your side change the gameplay positively, negatively, or not at all?

Personally, I don't care. As for how it reflects on gamers? Aren't we supposed to be the socially akward, non-outgoing loser group? Why should we even care about women? I believe that not having women depicted in frontline combat roles doens't have a bad effect on gamers. I think games like DOA and Bloodrayne reflect badly on gamers.

But why should we fight a battle about something that is inaccurate? Also, you're asuming that we would want to have more female NPC NavySEAL, Delta Force, Hoorah women running around; most likely with large breasts and a story line that will eventually uncover that said NPC is a lesbian with some other Russian female Spetznaz, ex-Statsi communist person.

Well I for one don't want that, infact I probably wouldn't buy a game if it included such ludacris ideas and inaccuracies. Women most likely will never be NavySEALs nor Delta Force snake-eaters. But, in the two roles you mentioned, I'd be more than happy to see women fill those roles. I've met lots of great female pilots, I'd be happy to have them covering my ass from above any day.

I would rather have a game that is more historically accurate than one that's had tits-mcgee thrown in to special operations group to please teenage boys.

3) How do you think this affects our appearance to outsiders? To the arguments that other people make that video games aren't really a serious medium like books/television/films can be?

Women aren't shooters, so how could it have a bad effect on us? Hell, Americas Army 3 doesn't have frontline women in it and that was paid for by the US Army.

As for video games being a credible medium, I believe we are upholding our credibility by sticking to the facts. Women can fly or sit in the rear with the gear. (with the exception of a few MP's, but what game have you seen in Modern Combat that had MP's?) I think video games would loose crediblity by writing female charecters into roles that they aren't fulfilling in todays world.

Games depicting busty bed-fellows only hurt the video game industry.

4) How do you think this affects our appearance to women? There is already discussions on an absence of female protagonists, but does the absence of women merely appearing present in certain situations turn-off potential female gamers? Have any of you women reading this feel it makes a difference?

It probably doesn't. It might, but I don't think it's that big of a deal when we're talking facts.

5) What are your expectations of this trend changing. Do you expect to see things differently in Modern Warfare 2?

No. Maybe, female pilots and an intelligence officer, but I don't think we will have any female shooters belonging the the US Military in MW2.

 

[IronicBeet]

*Ahem* Who the f*ck cares?

 

[whycantibelinus]

You're wrong about Halo, there are female soldiers all over the place in those games, mostly voiced by Michelle Rodriguez and Donna from that 70's show.