We need more women in games. Guardian article.
A new study shows that females are missing from videogames, in which 85% of the characters are male. Videogame players may be more diverse than ever, but for game characters the digital realm is still very much a white man's world. A study published this week looking at gender, race and age has found that female and minority characters are severely under-represented. US researchers examined the top 150 games from March 2005 to February 2006, including titles such as Doom 3 and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. They discovered that 85% of characters are male, compared to just 49% of the US population. The figure rises to 90% for player-controlled characters. Black, Hispanic and Native American characters also fail to reflect their real-life counterparts, and mainly appear in sports games or titles that reinforce racial stereotypes, such as 50 Cent Bulletproof. Turning to age groups, children and the elderly are almost non-existent in games, with adult characters making up nearly 87% of the total. Previous studies have examined questions of representation in games, but this new research is the most comprehensive so far. The findings also take sales data in to account by weighting the most popular games as more important, under the assumption that they have a larger effect on players. Dmitri Williams led the research, published in the journal New Media & Society. He suggests that media under-representation can be an indicator of social inequality. more... http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2009/jul/31/videogames-gender-balance _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
