The Reach for Another Issue
This week’s blogpost has to do with the role of genders in the gaming industry, which I believe to not be an issue at all. The biggest problem, is the people that are reaching out for it to be a problem, in the first place. In a world full of sensitive people and unlimited access to social platforms, I have the pleasure of reading all of their opinionated posts daily. Well, add another two articles to the list. The first one being “The Misconception of Masculinity,” written by Ryan Perez, and an interview from Sheri Graner Ray, and upset female game designer.
Ryan Perez, the world’s most sophisticated grown up, goes into detail on how males are misrepresented in the gaming industry. While I can agree, not all guys are good looking, fast, jacked, leaders, on a mission to save the world, I do not understand why this would be a topic to write about in the first place. I have not met a single person that ever thought this was a problem in gaming.
Why would you not want to be able to feel young again? Creativity is at its peak when one is a kid. Therefore, when Perez says, “I suppose it’s best that we appreciate the developers who bother offering male characters with depth and variety, as opposed to the developers who can’t seem to get their heads out of sixth grade,” I am nothing but confused. What is wrong with acting like a kid when playing video games? Think about the times you had when you were young. I vividly can picture setting up all of my muscular super heroes, and having them battle to death against the “bad guys.” Why should one not be allowed to go back and do that in the form of a video game, when they are older? We do not always need to be old, boring, sophisticated men. In this case, we don’t have to act our age, but we can act our shoe size. (22 years old vs. 12 years old)
I was simply upset after reading this article, because it was such an unnecessary reach for an issue, in a world full of bigger issues. Age is just a number. Yes, one must grow up, get a job, move out of their parent’s house, at some point. However, that does not mean you can’t buy an Xbox, grab Call of Duty WWII, and blow shit up every once and awhile.
In the interview with Sheri Graner Ray, I started to cool down, as I read about the attitude she looks for when hiring game designers. She said “when I am interviewing designers, I want a designer who can look at that and say, ‘Yeah, I don’t play Hello Kitty myself personally, but I am going to make this the best darn Hello Kitty game those twelve-year- old girls have ever seen, and I’m going to take pride in that design.’” This type of attitude can be applied to almost anything in life and I respect anyone who has it.
Ray mentioned, that her studies show women tending to choose games that have indirect competition, rather than direct competition. In other words, females would rather do gymnastics than play football. For whatever reason, they are more comfortable with this competition. A similar study shows that females are more comfortable with the forgiveness approach, when messing up in a game, versus, the boys who prefer a punishment approach when messing up in a game. Again, this must be due to the way males and females are wired differently. Ray thinks that developers should develop games with this in their minds. However, I disagree, the market has been set already. Why would developers take this risk when designing games when the majority of the audience that will be willing to play the game will be males anyways? Making these changes as developers could make the males more uncomfortable and we could possibly see a crash in the booming gaming industry.
The world we live in is way too sensitive. Gaming is a very minor issue in the grand scheme of things, but the sensitive community is the root of a lot of the bigger issues. If girls like Ray don’t like the video games that are being released, learn how to code. Get more girls like Ray, and create video games that more girls will like. The games currently being made, are great games. The developers are creating games for the current audience they have. The majority is males because males have always played video games, and we are not getting upset over the products that are being put out, besides Ryan Perez. I simply do not think it is an issue. My little sisters want to play Call of Duty. They play Minecraft. They playing online computer games, phone games, FIFA. My girlfriend loves to play Mortal Kombat. Every player in Mortal Kombat is busty, and “ready for sex.” They even say sexual things. The guys are the same way: jacked and shirtless. Not to mention, I know a number of girls that like to play video games, to be more boyish. They do not want to be the stereotypical girl that doesn’t play video games because of violence or sexual innuendos. There is not a problem with genders in the gaming industry.
Kaifai, Y., Heeter, C., Denner, J., & Sun, J. (Eds.). (n.d.). Interview with Sheri Graner Ray. Retrieved November 18, 2017, from https://drive.google.com/file/d/19VpXwl5qPgOnImv_PHV-pzxPsvmOsYvH/view
Perez, R. (2011, March 17). The Misconception of Masculinity in Games. Retrieved November 18, 2017, from https://venturebeat.com/community/2011/03/17/the-misconception-of-masculinity-in-games/
