[NetBehaviour] We need more women in games.

[Aileen Derieg]

On Sunday 02 August 2009 13:00:50 marc garrett wrote:
> We need more women in games.

On that subject I highly recommend "She's Such a Geek", one of my favorite 
books: http://www.sealpress.com/book.php?isbn=9781580051903

Enjoy,
Aileen

>
> Guardian article.
>
> A new study shows that females are missing from videogames, in which 85%
> of the characters are male. Videogame players may be more diverse than
> ever, but for game characters the digital realm is still very much a
> white man's world. A study published this week looking at gender, race
> and age has found that female and minority characters are severely
> under-represented.
>
> US researchers examined the top 150 games from March 2005 to February
> 2006, including titles such as Doom 3 and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
> They discovered that 85% of characters are male, compared to just 49% of
> the US population. The figure rises to 90% for player-controlled
> characters.
>
> Black, Hispanic and Native American characters also fail to reflect
> their real-life counterparts, and mainly appear in sports games or
> titles that reinforce racial stereotypes, such as 50 Cent Bulletproof.
> Turning to age groups, children and the elderly are almost non-existent
> in games, with adult characters making up nearly 87% of the total.
>
> Previous studies have examined questions of representation in games, but
> this new research is the most comprehensive so far. The findings also
> take sales data in to account by weighting the most popular games as
> more important, under the assumption that they have a larger effect on
> players.
>
> Dmitri Williams led the research, published in the journal New Media &
> Society. He suggests that media under-representation can be an indicator
> of social inequality.
>
> more...
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2009/jul/31/videogames-gende
>r-balance
>
>
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