As an evolving species, we must move forward, leave certain things in the past, and better ourselves by looking at our mistakes. Something that has been a problem in the world of video games are gender stereotypes. They exist outside of video games, make no mistake about that. But that is a much larger problem, that is slowly fixing itself. It's something the world is changing each time a woman is accepted as normal and not as an oddity. We're making strides in become a more accepting species, although at times it may seem very slow changing. But as video games become more popular and accepted into the mainstream, my concerns lie more in us not having to go through all the growing pains and being able to jump into the evolution process in full stride.
The problems I think take shape where video game publishers/developers view us as consumers. As game players we are broken down into specific game players. There are certain players who enjoy a certain experience over another. We're catered to a certain way depending on if we want a huge bloody mess or nice casual experience. What age demographic play a huge part in what games are marketed towards us. I think that fine and dandy. But when, I think about the gender based marketing process, I'm a little disgusted.
It's a little hard to explain in words. Take for example myself. I like cute things. I've never hidden my interest in those types of things. There are people who know this but more importantly there are people who know this and want to use this to make money. So they slap a picture of a cute anime girl on the box and I buy it. After years of buying things, I realized this trend. I'm not saying, "don't like what you like." It's impossibly hard to tune out commercialism completely. There are whole teams of people paid to do just that. But if you're aware of such things, I think you'll be better equipped at telling what is something that you enjoy and what is something you're just being marketed towards.
I think marketing towards kids is especially brutal. They are the easiest to get. Their minds are young and they don't know much about the world. You could flash anything shiny in front of their faces and they'd want it. Take for example the DS game below. What 12 year old girl is not going to want the game. I think it's quite despicable.
It's not that I don't think there should be a market for those games, but where do we stop? Brain Age comes out now we have a mountain of brain trainer clones. Everyone will try to out do the other or at least try to get a piece of the pie.The point of this post isn't to try to get you to change the world, stop buying video games, or hate big business. But I do want to make sure that people are aware of these sorts of things. People look at you as a guy and say guys like this, let's put this in. The same goes for women too. Video games are a new medium. They're getting more popular by the day. So be ready, It's only
begun.
Thanks,
David
3 comments:
It's simply continuing a trend that starts from the day we're born to the day we're die. Babies are dressed in different colours and outfits depending on gender, children recieve different toys and are treated differently by most parents, at school there are different sports, different literature and so forth.
The thing is, in my opinion, it makes complete sense. I would never consider buying a barbie game because I was raised to believe that barbie is for girls. Even if someone said that it was a 10/10 game, I'd still be reluctant to buy it.
I think it's more of a social thing than marketing. For example, you seem to be looking at that DS cover and saying "12 year old girls would like this" but if you were in a society without the stereotypes you might think "Dressing up dogs with clothes. Interesting." from the very same cover.
I'm curious, how would you prefer to have the "Petz Dogz Fashion" game cover look like to make it less despicable?
In the end, marketing will follow social trends as much as social trends will follow marketing. Change will be slow since both are hindering the other from developing.
(I apologize if I'm rambling, if this is completely irrelevant or not making any sense.)
Boys are blue and girls are pink. That's how America works. Boys play football and girls play with dolls. Boys who wear pink and girls who wear blue aren't considered normal.
It really bothers me how there's this large population of 18-34 males who consider themselves 'guys' because they play Halo, drink lots of beer, watch Spike TV and enjoy women degrading themselves. I'm not saying ALL men do that - just a large portion. That's how Gears of War and Halo and Call Of Duty 4 have become so popular - it's thanks to THAT demographic.
And it's that perception of women, as well, that affects how video games are made. Not enough games are just generated at PEOPLE. Not 18-34 men, or tweenie girls, just...people.
I mean, that's what we've come to as a populace. I'm just glad that there are men such as you, David, who are able to stand by yourself with your interests. That way, you're not just 'one of the guys.' You're you.
The problem isn't as much as social segregation through stereotyping, but those who take advantage of it. Lets face it, if everyone were truly as unique as they claimed nothing would sell. Products wouldn't have a definitive fanbase and they wouldn't sell, it's said, but this is something that's true for every industry.
Auto manufacturers developed big, powerful, gas guzzling vehicles to appeal towards testosterone driven men and SuVs that can carry multiple people to appeal to the carpooling soccer mom.
Pokemon became popular like wildfire on both sides of the spectrum of children because it had monsters fighting each other, and small cute creatures. The ensuring card game just happened to appease the majority fanbase.
Of course this all really does go deeper on those two accounts in that those stereotypes actually dictate what the consumer will actually do. That makes them reliable consumers with in turn makes for reliable markets, and reliable markets are the slowest to change. As far as things like the sexual degrading of women in gaming goes, I think it's already reached it's peak just like the film industry, and really just depends on the game you're playing at this point.
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