Gender Stereotypes in Games

During one of the classes I took in college, I was presented with a belief that all stereotypes are bad. That there are no "good" stereotypes. Some maybe argue that their are positive stereotypes. And though its possible the attribute may be a positive one, linking that to a certain race or gender is thought process that is old-fashioned and keeps us very one dimensional in our thought processes.

As an evolving species, we must move forward, leave certain things in the past, and better ourselves by looking at our mistakes. Something that has been a problem in the world of video games are gender stereotypes. They exist outside of video games, make no mistake about that. But that is a much larger problem, that is slowly fixing itself. It's something the world is changing each time a woman is accepted as normal and not as an oddity. We're making strides in become a more accepting species, although at times it may seem very slow changing. But as video games become more popular and accepted into the mainstream, my concerns lie more in us not having to go through all the growing pains and being able to jump into the evolution process in full stride.

The problems I think take shape where video game publishers/developers view us as consumers. As game players we are broken down into specific game players. There are certain players who enjoy a certain experience over another. We're catered to a certain way depending on if we want a huge bloody mess or nice casual experience. What age demographic play a huge part in what games are marketed towards us. I think that fine and dandy. But when, I think about the gender based marketing process, I'm a little disgusted.

It's a little hard to explain in words. Take for example myself. I like cute things. I've never hidden my interest in those types of things. There are people who know this but more importantly there are people who know this and want to use this to make money. So they slap a picture of a cute anime girl on the box and I buy it. After years of buying things, I realized this trend. I'm not saying, "don't like what you like." It's impossibly hard to tune out commercialism completely. There are whole teams of people paid to do just that. But if you're aware of such things, I think you'll be better equipped at telling what is something that you enjoy and what is something you're just being marketed towards.

I think marketing towards kids is especially brutal. They are the easiest to get. Their minds are young and they don't know much about the world. You could flash anything shiny in front of their faces and they'd want it. Take for example the DS game below. What 12 year old girl is not going to want the game. I think it's quite despicable.It's not that I don't think there should be a market for those games, but where do we stop? Brain Age comes out now we have a mountain of brain trainer clones. Everyone will try to out do the other or at least try to get a piece of the pie.

The point of this post isn't to try to get you to change the world, stop buying video games, or hate big business. But I do want to make sure that people are aware of these sorts of things. People look at you as a guy and say guys like this, let's put this in. The same goes for women too. Video games are a new medium. They're getting more popular by the day. So be ready, It's only
begun.

Thanks,
David