Women in Gaming Talking Points
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WOMEN’S ISSUES IN GAMING I. Treatment of women in online gaming A. Stereotype of women’s gaming genre/style preference 1. Casual vs. hardcore gaming 2. “Girls only play The Sims” 3. “Girls only pretend to like gaming to attract men” a.k.a. The “Fake” Gamer Girl idea i. ex. Felicia Day of The Guild and Geek & Sundry ii. Gamergate B. Treatment of women at the game store 1. “Are you buying this for your boyfriend?” 2. “This game won’t make sense unless you’ve played (insert prequel the clerk assumes you haven’t played)…” C. In-game harassment 1. Voice chat harassment i. Different between console/FPS and computer/MMO? a. Integration of voice chat b. Demographic 2. Game chat harassment i. “Girls don’t play WOW” II. General misogyny in video games, themselves A. Damsel in distress 1. Women portrayed as weak and in need of saving i. Objectifies women as something that has been stolen from men ii. Ex. Zelda—one original advertisement askes, “Whilst thou get the girl? Or play like one?” 2. Lack of strong female protagonists i. Many game franchises still do not have playable women characters or do not have female versions all classes of characters 3. Strong women portrayed as villains or “bitches” B. Hypersexualization 1. Armor/costume choices i. The Plate Armor Bikini ii. ANNOYING. SERIOUSLY. 2. Character creation i. “Boob-Physics” especially in Korean games such as Terra
description
Talking-point bullet list to ease the conversations of women in gaming.
Transcript of Women in Gaming Talking Points
WOMEN’S ISSUES IN GAMING
I. Treatment of women in online gamingA. Stereotype of women’s gaming genre/style preference
1. Casual vs. hardcore gaming2. “Girls only play The Sims”3. “Girls only pretend to like gaming to attract men” a.k.a. The “Fake” Gamer Girl
ideai. ex. Felicia Day of The Guild and Geek & Sundryii. Gamergate
B. Treatment of women at the game store1. “Are you buying this for your boyfriend?”2. “This game won’t make sense unless you’ve played (insert prequel the clerk
assumes you haven’t played)…”C. In-game harassment
1. Voice chat harassmenti. Different between console/FPS and computer/MMO?
a. Integration of voice chatb. Demographic
2. Game chat harassmenti. “Girls don’t play WOW”
II. General misogyny in video games, themselvesA. Damsel in distress
1. Women portrayed as weak and in need of savingi. Objectifies women as something that has been stolen from menii. Ex. Zelda—one original advertisement askes, “Whilst thou get the girl? Or
play like one?”2. Lack of strong female protagonists
i. Many game franchises still do not have playable women characters or do not have female versions all classes of characters
3. Strong women portrayed as villains or “bitches”B. Hypersexualization
1. Armor/costume choicesi. The Plate Armor Bikiniii. ANNOYING. SERIOUSLY.
2. Character creationi. “Boob-Physics” especially in Korean games such as Terra
C. Women as a reward1. Examples
i. The kiss or sex from the damsel in distressii. the damsel given in marriage by her fatheriii. Unlockable hypersexualized costumes or other instances where a woman’s
body is the rewardiv. Experience points for sexual or misogynistic actionsv. Achievements or visual trophies for sexual or misogynistic actions
2. Creates women or their bodies as something gamers “earn the right to” based on their gaming prowess
3. Women have no choice—they are simply given to the hero
