Video games have been around for decades, but it has always been a male-dominated activity. Why is this? I really enjoyed this particular conversation in class, because I liked learning about the history. It dates back to arcades and gambling, because the prominent gender involved in these activities were male. In class my mind kept wondering back to stranger things, since I had just finished the season prior to this class. The show, based in the 80s, follows a group of kids, boys in the beginning, on a long and complicated adventure, but they spend their free time playing games and going to the arcade. What really stuck out to me in our class discussion was that fact that girls were rarely found in arcades, and even when a new girl character was introduced on the show, the boys did not imagine it would be a girl because they were at the arcade. It’s a minor detail within the show but I found it so well done how much it accurately correlated to history and our class discussion.
Although games are 50/50 between male and females, you would think there would not only be more female representation, but this idea of a male dominated activity would be diminished. however, that is not the case. Even now a days, more or less, “females within computer games is [are] consistently sexualized and stereotypical…” (Bryce and Rutter 244). Game developers might ask, “Should game producers attempt to produce games with a recognizably feminine touch?” For instance, with the release of the Gameboy, should there be a girl version? It was actually developed as the “Gamegirl”. A pink version of the Gameboy. This did not really add or lessen the number of girls playing with these devices. There really is no resolution to this debate or ideology of females within the gaming industry, but with the rise in representation and awareness, the future could hold a more equalized gendered space.
Game Studies 
I think that the main reason why women are not well represented in the gaming world because of the lack of the industry accepting them. We have seen that even a young girl beating grown men in a tournament leads to extreme amounts of bullying, to the extent that she does not even play anymore. I think that the geeky gamer boys need to stop only letting males be a part of their little elite clique. I think that in the case of Laura Croft…it is known, in any industry, sex sells. It is nice to see a female represented but just because she is sexualized doesn’t make her a ‘bimbo’. I think that true gamers play for the game, not the appearance of the avatar. But hey, I would rather play with one that is good looking versus one that is ugly (assuming appearance does not affect gameplay). It’s time to see more FPS with a female as the main character, this time let’s make her dress in Army uniform and see how it works…most likely differently unfortunately.
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What I find interesting about this, is that, in a similar way, men have been sexualized in video games as well. However, the response and reasoning behind it is different. For women, its a little more obvious, like you said: sex sells, and the game companies are mostly trying to appeal to a male audience. However, the sexualization, or rather, over masculating of men is to give the “gamer boy” a more ideal representation of themselves.
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This take me back to one of the discussions hat was held in class. The same class we talked about gender roles and video games. we had a convo about a very young girl being the best game player at a game that was very difficult for most people to execute. once she was acknowledged for her great performance she was shamed and bullied for being a gir that could execute the game, a young one at that. The gendered social constructs in our society have never been okay because it has never been equal. It is absolutely sad that there is no resolution to this problem with females in the gaming industry.
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It still blows my mind how the game industry’s “consumer” is half or more female, and the idea that it is looked down upon if a female excels in the industry is wrong. Like everything else in life, these types of problems could evolve and get better with time, but it is not something that can happen overnight.
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I love learning historical facts and then being able to see them represented in movies or tv shows. I had never really put that small detail together until after you had mentioned it. AS for gender representation in games, I definitely feel we have made steps to better representation, especially since the “GameGirl” days, but still a long, long way to go…
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I also wrote about Killing like a girl in my blog post and I enjoyed to read your point of view of the article. It was interesting to know the history of the unfair role-playing in the game world. And I will always support gender equality in the game world.
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