Women and video games
In 2008, a Pew Internet & American Life Project study found that among teens, 65% of men and 35% of women describe themselves as daily gamers.
Other organizations including the Australian/New-Zealander Interactive Games & Entertainment Association (IGEA) since 2005 collect and publish demographic data on their constituent populations on a semi-regular basis.
In Europe, the regional Interactive Software Federation of Europe (ISFE) and numerous smaller national groups like the Belgian Entertainment Association (BEA), the Nederlandse Vereniging van Producenten en Importeurs van beeld- en geluidsdragers (NVPI), and the Association for UK Interactive Entertainment (UKIE) have also begun to collect data on female video gamers since 2012.
[89] Controversially, some critics such as Simon Parkin have suggested that the term "gamer" is endemic to the stereotypical male audience and has become outmoded by the industry's changing demographics.
[94] The study also mentioned that, within the same genre, some specific games show a noticeably higher or lower percentage of women than other similar titles.
A content analysis report of 571 games released between 1983 and 2014 with playable female characters touches on one of the possible reasons behind a lack of women in certain video game genres; women may choose to avoid certain genres depicting female characters in a negative light, such as oversexualization, in order not to become part of a "self-perpetuating cycle".
This emphasis on socialization extends beyond just the game itself: In a study published in the Journal of Communication in 2009, researchers found that 61% of female MMORPG players played with a romantic partner, compared to 24% of men.
[99] According to data collected by Quantic Foundry in 2016, the primary motivations why people play video games differ, on average, by gender.
Kevin Kelly of Joystiq has suggested that a high degree of circular reasoning is evident when male developers use focus groups and research numbers to determine what kinds of games girls play.
In studies on male gamers of the baby boomer generation, for example, players displayed a marked aversion to violence.
In Japan the rise of cute culture and its associated marketing has made gaming accessible for girls, and this trend has also carried over to Taiwan and recently China (both countries previously having focused mostly on MMOs and where parents usually place harsher restrictions on daughters than on sons).
In a 2016 study published in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, researchers found that, after controlling for confounds such as the amount of play time and guild membership, women players advance at least as fast as men do in two MMOs, the Western EverQuest II and the Chinese Chevaliers' Romance III.
[citation needed] Dota 2 remains exclusively male-dominated when it comes to prestigious tournaments, with women mainly making their way into caster and staff positions.
Just recently there was an article (although I can't remember the title) that described the state of the women's Dota scene perfectly.
On the other hand, a good idea would be to create a venue where girls can play with more confidence, being able to eventually make it to the main stage.
[126] Carol Shaw is recognized as the first woman to develop a commercially released game, 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe for the Atari 2600 in 1978, though she would gain later fame with her title River Raid in 1983.
[6] In 2013, Gary Carr (the creative director of Lionhead Studios) predicted that within the next 5 to 10 years, the games development workforce would be 50% female.
The group was formed in order to foster a positive impact on the game industry regarding gender balance in the workplace and/or marketplace.
Riot Games came under review after a Kotaku report that year, based on interviews with a few dozen current and former female employees, that there was a culture of sexism at the company.
[149] The situation at Riot subsequently led to a scenario in August 2019 when several female and non-binary developers separately stepped forward to accuse coworkers and others in the industry of sexual misconduct.
[150] In early 2020, several Ubisoft employees accused numerous executives of sexual misconduct and that the company's human resources department did little to respond to internal complaints.
These companies had some turbulent months as these suits or incidents were brought forward but otherwise appeared to try to cover up the situation and return to the status quo as quickly as possible.
[89][164] Erin Hamilton argues that part of the problem comes from the difficulty in "juxtaposing femininity and feminism in a good video game.
"[83] When female characters do appear in video games, they are regarded by some as presenting unhealthy messages concerning unrealistic body images and provocative sexual and violent behaviors for players of both genders.
[166] Furthermore, over-sexualized depictions[82][89] of scantily clad female video game characters such as Tomb Raider's Lara Croft[83] are not appealing to some girls.
[89] Video games have also been used in academic settings to help develop the confidence of young girls in expressing their individual voices online and in their real lives.
Video games that promote creative thinking and multiplayer interactions (e.g., Minecraft) have helped young girls to communicate sense of authority and confidence in their social and academic lives.
[176] Researchers have identified that one of the best ways to increase the percentage of female players comes from the aspect of authorship (either in-game as with Neopets and Whyville, or indirectly as with the Harry Potter series' inclusion of Hermione as a playable character subsequent to fan requests).
[84] The solution to the problem of societal pigeonholing of female gamers is often identified as interventionist work such as the insertion of women into the industry.
[81][83][179] One of the earliest attempts to broaden the market to include women could be seen in Sega's[83] use of the increased number of female protagonists in fighting games.
