Why we must foster a female role in video games

Not to be nit-picky, but "Windwaker" is actually titled "The Wind Waker" and was released for the Nintendo Gamecube in 2003. While a great game, it probably wouldn't be considered "classic" as of yet.

I dunno. I'm a girl, and though I don't conisder myself a hardcore gamer I can devote hours to a game in one sitting (fortunately, not everyday!!!! lol) My current semi-obsession is Skyrim and the character I was allowed to create for myself is female.

It seems to me that the older games are generally "male" but the games that have become available starting from around the start of 1998 to now are very quickly sliding towards unisex players. They are neither strickly male or female, but allow for either gender-player.

As I said, I don't know. Seems like making any game "female" or "male" is a generally bad idea. A title should be appropriate for both genders, rather than catagorizing it for one or the other.

First, let me state that I am a 26 year old female gamer.

My petpeeve about this article is that they're using examples from Mario, Donkey Kong and Zelda. These are iconic characters and just doesn't work with this whole "feminist" theme. These characters, since the beginning, have always been the heroes of their own story. To change them, flip them around so Princess Peach saves Mario or Zelda saving Link, just doesn't work.

Seems like they're just attacking the Nintendo games. How about Playstation or Xbox? Final Fantasy 13's main character is a female, how about that? After so many years of a male lead. Tomb Raider, a strong female lead, has been a recurring success since it began in 1996. What about all those open quest games like Skyrim where you can create either a female or male character? Even Pokemon allows you to choose male or female!!

I'm not hating on Sarkeesian but open your eyes a little bit more. There's so much more to gaming than just characters. They are a part of a story and you're playing to unravel the story behind them. It's like watching a movie where the lead role just so happens to be male. If you're playing a game just to play a female character, then it seems like you're better off playing a female character in a fighting game and just beat the crap out of the male characters. If feminists had its way, it would be Batgirl: Arkham City, Super Maria Sisters, Assassin's Creed: Sisterhood, Maxine Payne, Goddess of War, etc. It just doesn't work!!

This is just my opinion, I do not think games are sexist. Maybe in the past, but not in the modern day. And why the heck is a 3 year old playing video games?? That's a parenting fail, if you ask me.

I agree with Josee, that aside from a lot of female costumes in games, I really don't see the sexism, although I admit there is some out there. (Duke Nukem anyone..) But I would not call it pervasive by any means.

I think the real problem, is that boys like combat and girls don't. Now before I get accused of sexism here, let me just say that this is relative, not absolute. My guess is probably 90% of games out there today are combat focused in some form. Even myself as a male gamer, starts to wonder, is there anything else to do in gaming besides attack and destroy things? Well not really, when the market is dominated by young males and game manufacturers are obviously going to target their main audience.

Not sure if dividing the market between Call of Duty type games and Hello Kitty is the answer. Both are ok, but there there seems to be very little in the middle, for both sexes to enjoy. Putting more social features into all games, such as housing, crafting and group activities that don't involve just massive destruction would be helpful I think. Something to do besides just kill stuff and then maybe, guys and gals can all have fun in the same game.

It's people like Sarkeesian who are destroying the feminist movement.
She's attacking franchises that have been in operation for decades and accusing them of being sexist for producing games that aren't female centric. Would you have them stop making games that everyone loves just because they offend your delicate sensibilities? Would you have them change Mario into a woman just to satisfy this woman's ego? Mario is a man, not because it's a sexist issue, but because he was a man when they started the franchise decades ago. No one is going to tear down a gaming icon just because it doesn't fit into your world view.

Secondly, she completely ignores every franchise that has a woman as the lead character. There are a lot of classic franchises out there that have a strong female lead, such as samus from Metroid, lara croft from tomb raider, and any of the resident evil characters. To a lesser extent there are also a score of strong female secondary characters. She ignores them all because they don't prove her point.

If she would open her eyes a little she would see that the majority of the game developers are now making unisex characters for the player so that the lead is neither strongly male nor female. Developers have tried their best to keep up with social values because they want to sell games to girls and having strong female characters was the best way to do that. Mass Effect, Skyrim, any online game.

The only thing that I will admit to is that some developers can portray females in a sexist manner via their costumes. Another way to sell games is to have sex appeal because guys will buy games with scantily clad women in them. It's the nature of the human condition. If she wants to protest about that, then by all means, do so but don't shout down successful and fun games just because they don't cater to your personal views.

Starcraft 2 Heart of the swarm?!? Biggest PC title of the year. Female protagonist and she is a complete badass. This article is completely ignorant.

Your favourite story is a man who illegally altered a game to change Link into a girl? So in order to support girls in video games, illegal downloading and altering should be supported?

There is a serious sexism problem in videogames. Unfortunately Ms. Sarkesian and others are often focusing on games that are sometimes 20+ years old to make their point and/or are often cherry-picking their arguments to reinforce their predetermined conclusions rather than looking at the overall picture. I feel this is actually doing more damage than good as these simplistic arguments can be easily picked apart and then dismissed which prevents people from addressing the real issues of sexism in games. As much as I want to have less sexism in games I cannot back Ms. Sarkesian as her arguments are flawed.

It is a very different industry these days so looking at outdated games that were catering to an almost exclusively male audience at that time is largely unfair. Player demographics have changed and the games have changed accordingly, and although it is still not free of sexist problems, focusing on issues present decades ago doesn't address the current problems.

Often the focus of these criticisms is also on relatively superficial issues that make for good sensational headlines but ultimately don't address the real problems, or alternatively put the responsibility of general latent sexism of all media and our society at large on the backs of videogames.

I would even argue that the hacking of Donkey Kong to make the main character female and Mario the person in need of being rescued proves that the game is not sexist as it is essentially the same game either way round, showing that the character's gender is irrelevant. Also remember that most games from back in the day were essentially parodies of existing character and story archetypes and that should be taken in consideration when critiquing them.

@Marcus, what makes you think altering Donkey Kong or a Zelda game involves an illegal download? As for illegal altering, you'd have to check the protection used on the game against any precedents set under the DMCA, I guess. But yes, that's my favourite story.

Great and insightful points from all commenters here. I get the feeling that the first video focused on gaming history, mostly - remember that this is supposed to be a series. Seems to me that some of the female characters in games are portrayed in stereotypical terms, and are there mostly as eye candy. But I imagine Ms Sarkeesian will address portrayal of women in modern games in a forthcoming video. I mailed her asking her to comment here. I hope she has time to weigh in and answer some of these points.

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