Does Gaming Affect your perception of women?

[Sinophile]

I was inspired to create this topic after looking at one of the many "beautiful Morrigan" modifications here on the Nexus. Unlike my other debate topics, I shall try to keep a more neutral tone, at least until the topic begins to die down a bit. The first identifiably female character in a video game was Pauline, Mario's kidnapped girlfriend in Donkey Kong. For much of the 80s and 90s, women rarely served more than princesses to be kidnapped. Notable exceptions to this rule are Samus Aran(Whose gender does not become apparent until the end credits), and Chun-Li from Street Fighter. As graphics improved, the role of women in gaming had shifted from damsel in distress to both action hero and sex symbol( E.G. Lara Croft). How women are portrayed in the media in general has always been hotly debated . However, for the scope of this topic, I would like to focus mainly on women in video games.

 

Anyway, does playing video games affect your perception of women in real life? If yes, to what extent does it affect your perceptions? How do they change your perceptions?

[Vagrant0]

I'd say most of the stereotypes get broken pretty quickly once you start playing mmo games. Although you still have a few women who play the helpless role, most of the female characters you deal with are either fairly confident and capable women, or men who have absolutely no interest in whoring themselves out, who picked a female character because either the game forced it, or they dislike staring at man-butt for hours on end. But, the difference here is that you're dealing with real people in a mmo and not some programmer's wet-dream.

 

On that end, one can actually argue that these games are only notable because they do contain some aspect of fantasy which doesn't exist in our current reality. The damsel in distress theme existed long before videogames ever existed because it was a fantastical concept that was endearing to those who heard it. It's only with a more equal minded modern perspective that we see this theme as being faulty, and to that end, mostly because it has been voiced as being such.

[Vindekarr]

Well, I'm a pretty major feminist, and I find it pretty offensive when a game sets up a female character as a mindless lump of meat to stare at.

 

The most frighteningly proficient gamer I've ever met was a woman, so I'd say it's elevated my opinions of women. My team's heavy weapon person in COD was also a woman in reality-and a terrifyingly good machine gunner/rpg trooper. In my opinion it's more about who you are rather than what you are.

 

As far as non multiplayer games go I've played a fair few female characters, probably 1 in 3, maybe even 1 in 2, I play pretty much anyone with an interesting story to tell, so if I can write a particularly interesting story around a female character, so be it. For me a large part of the fun of reading and gaming is stepping out of one's self, and playing as a diferent species or gender is about as far a step out as you can get.

 

And besides, the man-butt point is a good one. Who want's to watch a hideous mishapen barbarian stump around all day when they could watch the stereotypical anorexic pornstar types that usualy are female avatars?

[Salamander8]

Since I practically had to raise myself, I never did understand why genders were 'pigeon-holed' or 'supposed' to only do certain things, but then I can't really personally understand racism, or gay-bashing, or any other prejudices either. Despite the fact that many games do have a predilection for eye-candy (and I fully admit to loving beautiful women in revealing outfits in my games when that option exists) they also are usually portrayed as fully capable.This has improved over the years as they were often simply damsels in distress back in the day of games like Donkey Kong and Blueprint. According to one of my classic arcade game books, Ms. Pac-Man was the first video game with a wide appeal to female gamers. Alyx Vance from HL2 is a prime example of a good female game character. She's attractive and exotic and dresses in a realistic fashion considering the circumstances, and she is certainly one of the better AI teammates I've ever played with as far as skill and competence to boot.

 

My Assault character in Global Agenda looks like she can hand you your dupa and she often does:

 

http://i870.photobucket.com/albums/ab268/Salamander8888/assault2close.jpg

 

I see more and more real women playing online games as well. The stereotype of "they only play healers" in MMOs should be truly shot down by now and that was another stereotype that confused me when I first started playing games like Everquest, WoW, and CoH/CoV. My EQ guild was about half women and only 2 of them had healer mains. Team Fortress 2 has a few women I've played with as well, although all the characters (with the possible exception of the Pyro) are male.

[evilneko]

No.

 

Pyrololi will kick YOUR Lone Wanderer's ass, too. And then barbecue it.

 

Kuroe Shepard will toss you around like a toy with her biotic powers, and then put a hole in your head with a hand cannon.

 

And Fem-Boss will bust a cap in yo' ass if you *ban me* wit da SAINTS. And look good doin' it, too.

[brokenergy]

As a person who resides in the DA forums a lot I can tell one thing, character wise; Morrigan would be pissed (or flattered) if she saw all those modifications. Anyhow, gaming doesn't change my perception of women (because I am one) but I see that perception slowly changing at least in the dev level. I still want better weight representation of both genders (fit people don't represent the real people) and I would love some other hero that is nether, macho or sexy. If you also look this is nothing new, it has been used extensively in Hollywood and TV. So as long as we realize that this is not real (and tell the kids that it is not real), maybe we can change perceptions at the highest level also to make it more gender friendly.

[Ghogiel]

yeah, basically games are just enacting male fantasies that have existed for hundred's if not thousands of years. books, plays, films all have dealt with these similar themes over time. the concept being played out in a games environment i don't think has more potency to influence my perception as my own imagination has. I distinctly remember coming of age fantasy creations, about girls, in my mind as even a child.... to well i still do exercise my imagination.

I would pretend i was hero an freed the slave girl and we'd kiss, i remember as young as 7. sometimes i would play these games with girls. and they would play the submissive role even.

 

kids do emulate what adults do when playing. like playing house, or teaparty, or cops&robbers, cowboys... etc.

 

as a teen you understand or have more gender specific roles instilled upon you. and then things get sexualized more

 

this crap happened before games. It's not new.

 

it's juts a new format and media to explore these concepts in. and reinforce certain stereotyping.

 

so yes. it may influence preception of gender roles. but it doesn't and has not created them. nor make the stereotypical ones any more prevalent in western culture than they already were.

in fact, it may ultimately end up blurring the lines.

 

but, then you grow up. and you've met all types of people. some don't conform to your littl boxes. and you have to create new boxes for these people.

[JimboUK]

They haven't changed my perception of women at all, I was raised by one, I live with one and have worked with plenty. The real world tells me they are nothing like they're portrayed in games or any other media.

[billypnats]

Did gaming affect the public perception of women.. or did the public perception of women affect gaming...

[Vindekarr]

Both.

 

Where I'm from, public perception of women has always been that they are weak and worthless, video games just shoved that down the throat of more people.

 

And you can see for yourself how that perception has effected gaming. Just look-or dont-at all the hentai mods on this site alone? I'd wager a fiver that atleast a quater of the mods here are along the lines of "more female skin exposure" or "bigger boobs" society aint advancing how we think, it's getting better at ignoring it's problems and inventing machines, and thats about it really. Women are still treated in a way that is unnaccptable, until they really do have TURE EQUAL RIGHTS, then we will be too worthless as a race to even contemplate the future.