Race and Gender in Video Games Paper Example

Why is it important to examine race and gender in video games?

Video games have increasingly become a popular and very profitable medium, with approximately 40% of the Americans participating in them on a regular basis (Williams et al. 2009). Games are regarded as an important component of the media, which underlines why they need to be understood as crucial systems of symbols which could have significant effects. There are different reasons why the absence, presence, or kind of portraying of the social groups is important in a diverse community. The importance range from power imbalances, social justices, models of effects and the formation of stereotypes. The media is regarded as a mirror of power relations socially. This means that a media environment where one is represented highly will lead to a player or viewer who is likely to recall the person compared to other people. The way a general group is depicted in media has an influence on the perceptions of the users about the specific group. According to Williams et al. (2009), Games have begun displacing previous media as the major prevalent symbols sets for American citizens. In gaming, the groups which are seen in specific roles have begun accessing the player or viewer. Representation has self-esteem and identity effects on people from these groups. The need for representations can be explained through the social identity theory which implies that groups identify representations of themselves, and this is compared to those of other groups. These group's presence even in games is an important mark for the members to understand and ascertain their roles in the community. The lack of these portrayals could result in feelings of relative powerlessness and unimportance. These kinds of influences could be less probable when the populations participate in the games less frequently.

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Why and how are women excluded from the video game industry as players and designers?

Women are not part of the video game industry as designers or players. Ochsner (2017) reveals that recent studies on game cultures and digital games have presented many challenges to female professionals within the game industry. This raised major concerns which led to discussions in 2012 on Twitter, with a user asking why there were few lady game creators. Apparently, this is not a phenomenon which began recently. Conte (2015) states that in the mid-1990s, a small group of the video designers tried lessening the gender gap in the gaming industry through the creation of software which targeted girls. Nonetheless, these efforts collapsed in 1999, and since then the video games industry has been a masculinized technology. The mainstream organizations have largely ignored the movement of the game by girls. Instead, these mainstream companies have focused on male audiences through the sexualized female characters, player representations, predominantly male authors, and magazine covers which features only men. Therefore, given the nature of reality and representation, the absence of women in consumer press has impacted the ability of girls to identify themselves as gamers and making way into the gaming industry (Conte, 2015). Lynch et al. (2016) lay claim that video games are an important part of the entertainment for both boys and girls, women and men.

Nonetheless, women only make up 22%of the workers in the video game industry as from 2014. Video games have become a masculine activity. For example, a 2010 outcry regarding sexism led to debates over the nature of gaming culture. At the time the video games industry made way into the U.S.A during the 1950s and 1960s, the computer industry hired women in work which needed limited skills, offered low salaries, and provided a restricted upward mobility (Lynch et al. 2016). Only a small percentage of female characters made appearances in video games in the 1980s, but the characters played gender-stereotyped roles. Regardless of the increment in the production of video games in the 1990s, the female characters were sexually objectified and underrepresented. The reason why there is no representation of women in the video games industry is explained by the fact that the United States of America's game industry adopted the gender disparity where women had limited roles. Women are excluded from the video games industry because of institutionalized sexism which has been part of many professional areas. Scholars have connected the lack of input by a female in creative development to the negativity for the female characters (Lynch et al. 2016).

What can be done to attract a wider cross-section of people to the video game industry?

Consulting video game reviewers before one buys a video game. The favorable reviews could make one buy or decide against buying a particular video game.

The ESRB definitions need to offer greater clarity and consistency in relation to sexual content.

The female characters should be portrayed as capable, attractive, and strong and without sexualization. This move will encourage women to develop interests in gaming. This is also an approach which will help in the accomplishment of gender parity.

There is also a need for avoiding character development which seeks to objectify women.

References

Cote, A. C. (2018). Writing "Gamers" The Gendered Construction of Gamer Identity in Nintendo Power (1994-1999). Games and Culture, 13(5), 479-503.

Lynch, T., Tompkins, J. E., van Driel, I. I., & Fritz, N. (2016). Sexy, strong, and secondary: A content analysis of female characters in video games across 31 years. Journal of Communication, 66(4), 564-584.

Ochsner, A. (2017). Reasons Why: Examining the Experience of Women in Games 140 Characters at a Time. Games and Culture, 1555412017709418.

Williams, D., Martins, N., Consalvo, M., & Ivory, J. D. (2009). The virtual census: Representations of gender, race, and age in video games. New Media & Society, 11(5), 815-834.