Gender Representation in Video Games
By Maggie Liang, Jessica Mendoza, Yin Ting Pang, Tyler David Takeuchi
Introduction
Video games have become a prominent form of entertainment and a significant cultural influence in today’s society. They have the power to immerse players in interactive worlds, offering unique experiences and narratives. However, the industry has long grappled with a persistent problem: gender representation. From the portrayal of characters to the roles they assume, video games have often fallen into stereotypical and limited depictions of gender. This issue has sparked conversations about the importance of diversity, inclusivity, and accurate representation within the gaming community.
Problem
One common issue is the underrepresentation of female characters in leading roles. Many popular video games have predominantly featured male protagonists, leaving female characters as sidekicks or presenting them through a narrow lens. Female characters have often been hypersexualized, with exaggerated physical features and limited agency. This lack of representation can send a message that women are not as capable or important as male characters, reinforcing gender inequalities.
Purpose of Research
Our goal is to analyze the progression of gender representation over time within video games. After gaining an understanding of the proportion of men and women within the storylines, our hope is to analyze how they are being portrayed (main/side character, protagonist/antagonist, sexualization/love interest, etc.). Analyzing this dataset, it will empower consumers to support practices and storytelling which adequately represent women in a society that usually does not.
We also want to raise awareness of gender representation in video games. By analyzing the data, we can bring attention to the issue of unequal or problematic portrayals in video games. This data can be used to raise awareness among developers, players, and the wider gaming community about the need for better representation and its impact on inclusivity, diversity, and overall gaming experiences.
Data
When conducting an analysis, it is important to understand a dataset’s origin and contents. Let’s dive into the dataset used, look into the data collection process, the inclusion of various elements, and the potential ethical considerations at play.
The data was collected by Brisa Palomar, a self-employed data analyst known for her expertise in the field. You can find more information about her and her other data-related works on her website: https://www.brisaanalytics.com/. The dataset includes information on the top-rated video games with a storyline from 2012 to 2022 with the context of gender representation. The dataset contains three distinct files: “characters,” “games,” and “sexualization.” Let’s take a closer look at each of them to better understand the data and what it can provide.
Characters
This file contains crucial details about the characters that play significant roles in the game’s storylines. It includes information such as their names, gender, age, relevance to the story, and more. This file allows us to explore the various dimensions and attributes of a character within a video game.
Games
This file includes comprehensive data and details about each video game mentioned in the dataset. It includes the title, release date, genre, and other relevant attributes. This file provides us valuable insights into the video game landscape, allowing us to analyze trends and patterns over the years.
Sexualization
Lastly, this file introduces a rating system based on four criteria to determine whether a given character is sexualized or not in a video game. However, it is important to remember that the subjectivity surrounding the concept of sexualization can potentially lead to conflicts in opinion. What may be considered conservative for one person could be perceived as promiscuous or sexual by another. Consequently, relying solely on the data collector’s judgment for determining some attributes, such as “sexualized clothing” and “sexualized cutscenes”, can raise concerns.
One noteworthy ethical consideration pertains to the, previously mentioned, potential bias in the sexualization indicators. From our observation, they tend to be skewed toward women. There is also concern about the generalization of the criteria a character has to meet to be labeled as sexualized. This raises questions about the ethical implications of analyzing the data and making assumptions based on such generalized criteria. From this, it is necessary for us to be mindful of these considerations as we look into the data surrounding the sexualization of characters and how we present our findings. By acknowledging these considerations, we can approach the analysis responsibly and ensure an accurate and ethical interpretation/presentation of the data.
Methodology
In order to create graphs that we can analyze, we choose to utilize the Python pandas and matplotlib libraries. We first used pandas to read the CSV files and merge the three different datasets together. We did have to rename one of the columns in the characters dataset from “game” to “game_id” so that it can be used to merge into the games dataset. We then used that consolidated dataset to create graphs. For each graph, we did some sort of group-bys, then we used the matplotlib library to create and customize each visualization.
Findings
Distribution of Video Game Characters by Gender Per Year
The graph reveals male characters consistently dominate the video game landscape, with a higher average (35.7) compared to female(18.5) and non-binary(3) characters. Although there are yearly fluctuations in gender representation, some years show an increase in presence in comparison to a decline in male character presence, such as in 2021. Non-binary characters have a smaller presence overall, but there seems to be a notable increase in their representation in 2022.
Gender Representation in Video Games by Genre
This graph of “Gender Representation in Video Games by Genre” shows that Action and Action-adventure games tend to have a higher proportion of male characters compared to female characters. This finding aligns with the historical trend of male-dominated protagonists in these genres. Compare to Action and Action-adventure games, Adventure and RPGs demonstrate a more balanced gender representation, the number of female characters is more than half of the male characters. The Adventure game has the highest female proportion compared to others. I think it might be because the video game industry is slowly moving toward greater inclusivity and diversity in recent years. For RPGs, the genre also includes custom choice, indicating a conscious effort to provide diverse options for players. Through this graph, we could also see a lack of Interactive and Simulation type of video games in this dataset.
Gender Representation vs Video Game Publishers
With this graph, we wanted to examine how each video game publisher did at gender representation when it comes to their most popular games. This graph reveals the proportion of male, female, and non-binary video game characters that each publisher represents. We can see that almost all of the publishers have more male characters in their video games than female characters. Additionally, only 18 out of 44 publishers have non-binary characters in their games.
Gender Representation within Nintendo IP — Why Numbers Don’t Tell The Whole Story
Finding a publisher/developer that is representative of the entire industry is near impossible, but Nintendo’s impact on video games is greater than most. This graph shows the clear bias Nintendo’s top selling games have towards male characters. What isn’t clear from this graph is the sexism within the narratives. The only “Damsel in distress” would be Princess Peach within the Super Mario franchise, but the lack of substance behind the female characters is very evident. Princess Daisy and the low effort “girl version” characters are very seldom seen and almost never playable characters. The Pokemon series requires a bit of background knowledge but the primary “equal” representation lies in the fact that you can choose to play as a boy or girl. Beyond this, the gym leaders, side characters, and NPCs offer very little representation because they are nothing more than vessels to carry out turn-based battles. Zelda is an iconic game series but with a very strange twist, Link is the most significant character in the game, a boy. Lastly, Bayonetta is one of the most sexualized characters within the Nintendo world. She is however a very skilled fighter and the protagonist of the game, so in that way, maybe it is somewhat forgivable that she also has proportions which could only be imagined by a middle-aged Japanese man.
Analysis
These graphs offer insight into the biases within the most popular games, and how the industry consistently overlooks the importance of gender representation in the telling of their stories. A concerning look at this can be found within the first graph which observes representation over time. The only year which has even remotely close representation is 2021, with the disparity between gender representation growing greater just the next year. Action, action/adventure, and RPG games are likely the most significant in the observation because they rely on characters to tell the story. WIthin those genres, it is very evident that male characters are very dominant. Women are often delegated to supporting roles (Harveston, 2017), so even the numbers can’t quite capture how little attention is paid to women in regards to character development. Some publishers are better than others at giving some screentime to women, but what must be discussed is the kind of attention that these women are given. Are they portrayed as strong and inspiring people? Or are they portrayed as weak and in need of a strong man to save them? The best-selling games which met the criteria to be added to the dataset do have a compelling justification because that is what the people are buying. However, the most dominant and influential publishers like Nintendo, EA, Activision, or Ubisoft have done an abysmal job at integrating more women into their games which can be seen within the numbers/graphs or simply by playing the games. There are no hidden gems or silver linings, the video game industry has to do better.
Next Steps
There are several possible directions that could be explored to further enhance the analysis of gender representation in video games, including intersectionality, character storylines, and developer practices.
In addition to a character’s gender, one could look into the intersectionality of gender with other identities, such as race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. This would provide an understanding of how different marginalized groups are represented in games, reinforcing the promotion of inclusivity and representation in different forms of media.
Considering the perspectives and experiences of a character and the way they are portrayed in video games can provide valuable insights into the perceptions of different experiences, identities/attributes of a person, or stereotypes. This would provide an understanding of the impact of the presentation of character traits on players/ consumers, potentially informing future game development to foster more inclusive experiences.
Exploring the practices and processes game developers take while developing a storyline in media can help uncover potential causes behind gender representation in video games. This can be investigated to gain insights into the systemic influences on representation and, in turn, can contribute to promoting equitable representation within the gaming industry.