[NetBehaviour] We need more women in games.

[marc garrett]

Thanks Aileen,

I will have a look :-)

marc
> 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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