Okay so before we even get started, please respect the description: don't make this about sexism and dumb accusations that are, for the most part, unfounded. This thread is not about being politically correct, nor is it about women being portrayed in a poor or demeaning way (like DOA Extreme for example). This is about women characters in games, especially as playable characters. I don't want to be mean, but I will edit any spam from this thread (spam = off topic posts, including people making this about things it isn't meant to be).
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Now on to the topic

The question popped into my head randomly when I remembered Infinity Ward talking about introducing female characters in Call of Duty multiplayer a couple of years ago. The memory of them saying that was followed by my smart aleck side saying "Welcome to modern day gaming IW." because seriously, what took them so long to add that?

Now without getting into arguing about sexism and such, I will say that I don't believe in women joining the armed forces, but I'm also not one of those loons that tries to force real life morals onto video game characters. I mean I also don't believe in fighting except to defend others, but I won't hesitate to kill in a video game to save my character's life. They're video games, not life.

But I digress.

So statistics show that there are just as many (possibly more) female gamers as there are male gamers, and some developers are finally catching on to that after all these years by including options for females in their games. But as a whole, do you feel women are underrepresented in games? As playable characters not NPCs.

Again, keep this about the topic and only the topic please. Thanks.

I like pudding








And  there are plenty of them in newer gamers, so I don't really see the problem with it. Most games now have playable characters that are females, but if there aren't, its usually in a game such as Grand Theft Auto, which is mostly a male market. 

I like this thread. I would like to give a small input of my thoughts about this. There are like many games that female tends to play but it depends what they play. And do I see most of them playing multiplayer call of duty? Maybe, maybe not. I'm no fan of call of duty, but I do like other shooting games such as destiny no brainier there I adore that game and quite good at it. I tried playing call of duty and I simply disliked it because well the concept of the game didn't fit me well. And all I saw was stress when you play and no fun. I do see some female members play the game but not all.

As they would play others such as dark soul or other games that would fit to their benefit. And boys they can play any game and would be good at it. I dunno why most women are underrepresented in video games I feel they are most of the time. As I see the boys taking the main role in that. I would like to see some more females trying, so then things are like in balance and fair as well. So then things are not going one way for the boys and other for the girls. It depends what multiplayer games that girls do tend to play the most, and sadly I'm not up to date with that. I've heard they do so for gta the modern game of it. '-'


That's the input I felt I had to put in.

To be honest they are really represented I mean we got Samus Aran, Bayonetta, every female protagonist in Pokémon, etc. Maybe men are more represented than women, but they are there.

I think the answer greatly depends on the developer, and to an extent the theme of the game. There are games which only have female playable characters, after all, so the reason I won't cast a vote in here is because I cannot make a general vision.

I do think that cases like DOA as a whole series is absolute rubbish. Female players having like half a dozen non-free DLC about swimsuits or other revealing clothing is absolutely despicable. Not to mention that series has always been notorious for giving females a "good shape", to say something family-friendly.

There are other games, however, where females do have protagonism and come in good numbers. Soul Calibur and its sequels, for example, offer a good quantity of female fighters, some of them powerful, and only in one occasion with revealing clothing (one of them is even wearing knight armor, showcasing how much of a warrior she is). Tekken has also included many female fighters lately. These two series, however, and specially the former, have some kind of habit to not add female characters if the chronology makes them old, something like 40+, and while it's just a small detail that can be justified as the storyline progressing it's something to note.

The best example in equality should be MotorStorm, a racing game set in extreme environments. Not only do you have the ability to choose between female or male racer, both are fully customizable with an equal number of themes. And this is coming from a game where you race through rivers of lava in a skull-shaped Monster Truck, probably one of the very last things you would call "girly".

Nope.

There's playable girl characters and sometimes they're better than males (for instance Chun Li from street fighter)

While there are more males, there's still -enough- females.

p.s. despite choosing 'No' I like pudding

Women are very well represented as characters in games, from the way I see it. Most game series that I can think of with multiple player characters have at least one female character, if not more, and let's not even get started with how many games with character creators there are. To be honest, it doesn't really matter all that much which gender my character is, what I truly care about is what they're like to play as. I'd like to see more women in video games, but they're certainly not underrepresented.

I'm gonna have to say no.There are often one or two playable female characters in games with multiple characters, but I kinda think it's more of a formality at this point.

Even so, there are few games with the guts to say "You can't play as a dude.Deal with it.".I feel that most games that do feature a female protagonist kinda try too hard.You can tell they're really over thinking the whole "we're making a game with a girl in it, so we have to make sure she's perfect, but not too perfect, so let's give her a sad backstory and make her snob dudes for being....dudes".

So, while they are slowly creeping into more games, I'd say a lot of developers still aren't comfortable with it yet.

I say no... females are represented in games...
One of the biggest games this year (Rise of the Tomb Raider) features a female lead.

Every fighting game has just as many females as males, the list goes on...

Spidey243 : I think George RR Martin said it best as to why he writes good female characters (and perhaps other writers are bad at it).

Interviewer- "...I noticed that you write women well and really different. Where does that come from?"

George- "You know... I've always considered women to be people."

I'm going to go against the grain and say yes they are underrepresented. However, I don't think that it is a bad thing. It's pretty logical in nearly every game that I've ever played.

Most games don't make sense to have an equal number of females in them. I don't want to waste my time going through the genre's and explaining why each type makes sense to have more men than women. Forcing women into games where they don't make sense will make those games less likely to be successful.

I guess what I'm saying is that I don't think it's a problem that women are underrepresented in games. For many of the games made that I've played growing up it only made sense to have more men than women.

My answer is short and sweet and it's no video game developers caught on to this ages ago and if it weren't for female gamers picking up games Peach wouldn't be a option in Mario Party or Mario Kart. Same goes for Pokemon because it wouldn't be until Pokemon Crystal that you could choose between a boy or a girl. Females would go on to have games that targeted them individually like they targeted us for example Nintendogs, Super Princess Peach, and Metroid. Girls are more represented in video games than anything else in the world. 

November Joy : Not gonna lie man, I would like to see more female leads in games too, but only ones that handle them well. Honestly I've always connected more easily with games that have female leads for some reason, and if given the choice I always pick the female to play as except in games where the character is made to represent another version of you (such as with character creation) or in fighting games I'm more opt to choose a male. I'm not sure why I prefer to play as the female, I just do.



Spidey243 : Really good answer, man. And you're right, they are represented but less so than men in that few games give you no choice to be a man but many give no choice to be female. I really think that's largely due to the fact that most game stories fit male leads best (a female soldier in WWII? etc).
Another good reason could be that most game developers are men (though there are many females in the business), and it may be that it's easier to write about someone we can identify with better.
Finally when gender isn't an issue we tend to default to masculine. For example, when speaking of someone that we haven't yet identified in a story (say an enemy or a legendary hero) we call them "He" despite having no information on their gender.


Vanelan : A very good point by that writer, but also it's important to note that while women are people, they aren't identical to men in most other story related matters. Emotionally, mentally, physically, women characters do have to be treated differently in most ways. And throwing a female in the mix changes up the kind of bonds and camaraderie you can have between the lead and their friends/allies.


geeogree : Agreed. Some games a female lead makes no sense in, and forcing one into that game regardless makes little sense. When a character feels forced it only makes the player resent them and so ruins the game.


austipokedude : That's probably true too. I hate how people make a fuss about games being sexist when they are one of the most equal forms of entertainment out there today. And I do feel that women are being represented well in games these days.

I don't necessarily think that they're underrepresented, but I also do think that, while there are a lot of games with females as playable characters (fighting games and metroid immediately come to  mind.) There are still way more games with males in them.

So yeah, I'm somewhere in the middle about this.

But like you said Eirinn, a lot of action and fps games just fit a male character better.

(does that mean I have to vote for I like pudding or just not vote at all?)

I LIKE PUDDING <3  XD


TBH No... I don't think so... Usually the only games that seem that way is Grand Theft Auto and similar games as that. Most games have female characters you can pick.

I like pudding, i have an obsessio-... I didn't say anything.

But i think females should be equal to males in Video Games. I have no idea what else to say here. So i guess that should do it.

P.S: I noticed i typed 'video games' as 'Video Games', as i type in a name. Too lazy to change it.

Eirinn : I think the problem is that a lot of writers write about stereotypes rather than reality.

Maybe in the past Like the NES days saving a Princes, and such. But now every other game has a female hero,

I'm not sure they're necessarily underrepresented, but often, when they're presented in a game, they're highly sexualized, even in Nintendo franchises. For example, Star Fox, Metroid and Bayonetta all have female characters that dress in attire that may be pornographic to some (Krystal, Samus, and Bayonetta all wear skintight suits). An oft-prevailing stereotype of female leads is "strong but provacative". Therefore, the main problem isn't that there is too little representation, but with how they are presented.

One positive depiction of a female in a video game is Jade in Beyond Good & Evil. She's strong, modest, and cares deeply for her friends. If there were more examples of women like that, I would be pleased. I'm hoping Beyond Good & Evil 2 comes to PC. I know it likely won't come to Wii U, but I would be pleased if it did and the port was solid.

From what I've heard when they say that females are half of gamers they're fudging the truth. Basically they're including things like Facebook games and mobile games. My mother has a few games on her phone that she plays and I've never seen her with the slightest will to pick up a controller.

I would have to agree with this thread and say yes that females are underrepresented in video games.

Whenever you see females in video games, they are often put into the stereotypical female roles of how society sees them. You have princesses who need heroes to save them from deep troubles of villains or women who just whine and complain a lot, causing them to be dead weight or make us annoyed. Stuff like just makes my blood boil and it influences not only the gamer population but others who don't even game to make us believe that oh that is how a female should act like in real life. Sure there are a few games that have brave strong women protagonists/main characters but it is not enough to change many people's perspectives on women.  There isn't enough different kinds of exposure on women like there are for men.

Take a look at the gaming community like Vizzed or Twitch for example. It is mostly male dominated and some can be shocked/amazed/etc.. when they see a female wandering around. Luckily Vizzed is a great place for everyone but Twitch has a whole new community mixed with lots of good and bad. I've been around some female streamers' chats and some users just treat them like dirt and nothing to the point where it disgusts me. It is the worst where lots of popular games have women look sexually attractive and be objects to viewers and then they are influenced to reflect back that behavior onto others.

I would like to see more diverse female roles as much as males in video games! Isn't that why the world is so interesting? We have lots of different kinds of people with all kinds of colors and personalities!

Sure we have some progress right now but it is still not enough yet.