If you regard my feelings on this topic as ‘sexist’ and ‘feminist’ then you are very, very wrong.

 

 

 

The video game industry is in a rut in regards of creative ideas and imagination. A rut it created for itself by doing something very stupid – catering only to males and creating the very silly notion that only males play video games. That rut has made video games hard to be accepted as an art form by those who regard movies and books as an art form, although writing is an art form anyway. It has gotten video games seen as immature, childish and pointless due to it being seen as a male only hobby.

 

Now there is a way that such a thing can be remedied, it’s actually a very easy thing to do but so many developers and publishers lack the courage, creative talent and imagination to go through with it.The solution is to begin having female leads in gaming more often and to have gender choice in games a lot more often, and for female leads to be created, developed and written in very respectful, mature ways where they aren’t some brain dead ditz, the damsel in distress, the sex toy, the victim and the useless support role.

 

Basically playable female leads and allowing the player to play as female would make a big difference over time, it would attract the rising female gamer demographic to those games, it would attract male gamers who are tired of the usual male stereotype and it would open the doors to new ideas and creative thought. However since the industry is largely run by men and the majority of developers are men, then they tend to stick to the very stale male lead only in games while making the excuse that only males work with games, when they don’t.

 

A creative mind can adjust a story to fit a female character just fine, a creative mind can look outside of the box and develop a female character who doesn’t have to slot into some badly defined stereotype. But from my experiences of gaming, which I have been doing since 1984/1985, creative thought tends to be rare in the industry when it comes to looking outside of the box and creating a female lead who isn’t there as sex appeal for some horny male teen and horny grown heterosexual male.

 

 

 

A recent case in point is the game Neverdead, it’s pretty new and the concept sounds interesting, but it’s once again a male lead only. The main lead is immortal and male at that, the usual for an immortal character. That is an example of a complete lack of creative thought and imagination. Why should males be the only ones to be immortal in a game, a story, a movie or a TV series? That doesn’t allow for any new ideas to develop.

 

I have looked for any examples of immortal female characters in the media and there are so few as to be none-existent, the only immortal female character to exist outside of some cliché filled anime is my story character of Reina Harit Beaumont, as well as her twin sister Rena Narso Beaumont, Reina’s daughter Karen Linla Beaumont and Karen’s daughter Kate Carol Beaumont. Those are characters I have been developing and creating for a long term story since 1998 and I am very surprised that no one else has ever done such a thing before.

 

I could explain the story but this article is not for that.

 

When you take into account the number of female leads and games with gender choice and compare them with games that are male lead only, it isn’t hard to tell that there is a very large difference. There are more male lead only games than female lead and games with gender choice. The constant catering to male gamers is limiting imagination and new ideas, the mishandling and disrespect of females in gaming is an indication that the industry is extremely immature and controlled by immature men who have not grasped the reality that such a thing is not grown up or clever, it’s instead very sexist, very backwards and very immature.

 

Only having male leads narrows the chances for new ideas that branch from the usual ‘man have gun, man kill many’ ‘man big hero, man save world’ ‘man greatest, man rule all’ nonsense that never brings in anything new to an industry that hasn’t progressed much in concepts and ideas when it comes to characters for a long time. Video games have never been a male only hobby, both male and female enjoy video gaming and have done since video games became a public leisure.

 

However many female gamers tend to avoid letting their interest in gaming be known because of outdated social concepts of what either gender should do in order to conform to a narrow and very limiting social construct of life. There is also the annoying habit of male gamers, not all but most, to be rude, ill mannered, sexist and vile towards female gamers. This can result in a female gamer hiding behind a male persona so not to be pestered for cybersex, to show her breasts or to be some male’s online girlfriend. While some female gamers like the attention, many don’t. Many female gamers just want to able to game in peace.

 

[Source]

 

 

Now female gamers are a larger demographic than the video game industry wants to admit. With males being much easier to cater to – just slap a big gun on a cover and you’ve got a lot of males clamouring for another generic shooter – female gamers can be harder to ask for due to many asking for better stories, being able to play as female for a change, a balance of action and non-action elements and for a more emotional, more developed set of characters and story. Basically the very things that gaming needs if it wants to progress past the rut it’s now in when it comes to the lack of new ideas, generic male lead only characters and too much of the same old thing with nothing new.

 

As a writer I know it can be hard to create rather than just rehash, however I find creating new things and new characters – although I only write female characters for the most part and very few males unless they fit just right to my form of character and emotion based story telling since male characters are too boring and bland to write since people always want male characters to be boring and bland to fit with the stereotype expected of males – to be refreshing and a great boost to my creative skills. An artist who can’t look outside of the box is an artist who can’t progress. Yet that notion is very alien to much of the industry.

 

Take Rockstar’s games for example. For well over a decade their games have been male lead only with only a pretty boring table tennis game being the first ever to allow for playing as female. Their games, although being popular and a big name in the industry, are in a rut. The constant male leads, the lack of gender choice, the boring stories and the lack of fun has been done to death in their games yet they continue to sell because those who hate change flock to those games. The same with military FPS shooters like Call Of Duty and many more, as well as the vast majority of FPS and TPS games. Change scares many gamers, males especially, since change means facing the unknown instead of being safe and comfy in their comfort zones. If such games had a female lead in them and better stories then many male gamers, or all of them, would be up in arms for any new and different. Much like they are with many new IP’s and any sequel that tries new ideas. Developers and publishers hear the whining and complaining of those who hate change and they decide not to try new ideas while sticking to the same thing over and over again while their games become increasingly stale.

 

 

Change is life, it is a very important part of everyone’s lives from birth to death. Without change there would be no growth. Without change, the human race would still be basic cells in some primordial genetic soup. Without change there would be no life, no chance to tap into the potential that exists within everything and everyone. Change is important.

 

So why does the industry refuse to change for the better? Why is it so set on ignoring female gamers while doing the same old thing for male gamers? If the movie industry, the music industry and more could change with the times over the past centuries, then why not the video game industry?

 

Are the men in control of the industry so scared of new ideas and new creative thought that they are willing to see the industry die slowly? The industry needs to progress, it needs to embrace change for the better. It needs to be rid of this whole ‘males only’ nonsense and learn to embrace male and female gamer alike, to have more female leads and gender choice in games, to encourage and support new ideas and new creative thought.

 

Change is life, we can never avoid it because if we do then we end up being surpassed by those who embrace change while we stagnant and rot in our cosy little fear of change.

 

In the words of my story character of Reina Beaumont:

 

 

And there we go, all done.