Who turned the industry into a sausage festival?

Published July 27, 2012 | By Stephen Carter

It’s that time again to get on (or off) the high horse and question what the hell is going on within the gaming industry. Well today I am asking for change, and it may seem a surprising one but I’m asking for it nonetheless. Those of you who already have an idea what I’m talking about because you read the title of the piece, then let’s get on with today’s subject matter.

So who exactly did turn the games industry into a complete and utter sausage festival? I mean, are developers really that short sighted and stereotypical that women don’t exist in their little fantasy realms? Surely they know that a woman is right?

I’m not even going to stick to one genre here because they are all guilty of it in some way or another and whether we have noticed it or not, our beloved titles fall foul of this act constantly. For instance, how come there are never any women footballers in FIFA? Or why don’t they get their own game? Didn’t think of that one now did you…

You see, I don’t get how we have come to be in this position because we live in a time where everyone is seen as equal. Apart from the occasional tongue-in-cheek comments here and there, women are on a level pegging with men when it comes to pretty much every walk of life. That is, except for the gaming industry where some haven’t made the transition from the 1920’s way of thinking.

Now there are clearly some issues concerning shooting titles as women don’t fill roles of active combat duty in the armed forces but should that stop us from seeing women in them altogether? Even if they play a supporting lead role out of combat then surely we can get them in somewhere, rather than having your three or four stereotypical testosterone junkies in every shooter out there?

I’m not completely ignorant as to suggest that there aren’t any games out there that haven’t featured women heavily but let’s face it; for some reason they are never as well received as they would be had a male filled their role instead. Why is this? Who knows. But one thing is for sure; it’s not all a one-sided affair.

Before developers start making games where women are filling main roles or even in a game at all, us as gamers need to change in order to accept this. It’s not a case of being sexist or derogatory towards women, far from it, it’s just how we have been brought up over the last few years playing our games. Through no fault of our own, we have accepted male dominance in the industry and shunned the female character as a result.

When all is said and done, what do we even have to show for it? We may have missed out on what could have been some excellent ideas because somebody somewhere thought ‘Let’s not make them a woman, let’s make everyone male’.

Games such as Tomb Raider and WET need to be praised and made examples of because we need to see equality in everyday life. It’s a subconscious and accidental thing that’s happening to us and we don’t even recognise it’s happening most of the time. But if we take a step back, put our current prejudices aside, then we can all accept that women deserve a place in video games and not just as the stereotypical woman in distress or the sexy nurse.

I’m asking nicely here; let the industry grow up and mature so we can all benefit from the fruits of its nature.