Or are they?
Introduction:
Warning: This is a little long and might bore the hell out of you, or it might raise an eyebrow and get people thinking. I don't know, I'm typing this post in anticipation of the numbers before writing my conclusions
My game collection isn't that big (about 270 titles) and does contain a fair few of the more eclectic experiences around as well as lots of shooty fighty death, but I decided to semi-scientifically test whether if videogames really are just guys shooting each other.
Method:
I decided to exclude games that I have multiple copies of or that I have copies of over more than one system, I'm counting that as one title only e.g. Tomb Raider on both PS and Saturn is only counted as one. Multi-game cartridges and compilations weren't counted.
This gives me a sample size of 253 games.
I looked for the following two fairly simple criteria:
First: the gender of the player-character in the main mode of the game. The options were:
M - Easily distinguishable as male
F - Easily distinguishable as female (no Soma Cruz jokes please
)
C - The player is provided with a choice of male or female characters (e.g. Street Fighter 2, Syndicate), can create their own avatar from a set of choices (e.g. AD&D Slayer), or has the chance to control both during the course of the game (e.g. Sin & Punishment or RPGs)
N - The player-character is not easily distinguishable as male or female (driving game, for example), or the player is given the option to manifest themselves as the player-character and the game talks directly to them (e.g. Wario Ware, Pok?mon). This does not count the game talking to you while you control someone else, like in the case of Advance Wars, which would be classed as a character choice. This also does not count being able to name your musclebound swarthy warrior Jemimah
Second: whether the player-character was directly involved in the perpetration of violence in any form. This includes anything from swords in Ninja Gaiden to lasers in PUlstar to firing shells in Mario Kart to lasers in Rez to squid abuse in Mario Sunshine. Absolutely any form of violence (shooting, hitting, squashing, anything) perpetrated directly by the player-controlled character was counted as a yes. Non-violent games were counted as no.
So release those big money roll-over balls, because here's what I found out.
Statistics:
From a sample of 253 games:
On the subject of violence:
72 (28.5%) games contain no violence whatsoever.
181 (71.5%) games did contain some form of violent act perpetrated or instructed directly by the player-character.
On the subject of gender:
100 (39.5%) games had a specifically male lead character.
Only 17 (6.7%) games had a specifically female lead character.
However, 72 (28.5%) gave players a choice or had control of both during the course of the main game.
64 (25.3%) games had a non-gender player-character or gave the opportunity for the player to self-identify the main character.
So, a total of 153 games (60.5%) did not specifically define their lead character as male.
On the subject of violence in combination with gender:
81 (81%) games with a specifically male lead contained player-perpetrated violence whereas only 19 (19%) did not.
Interestingly enough, the number of games with a female lead that involved player-violence in any form is 14 (82.4%), with only 3 (17.6%) offering non-violent play.
Obviously, your milage will vary depending on what's in your games collection, but I thought it might have been interesting to do this nonetheless.
Conclusions
My games collection possibly contains a higher percentage of non-violent games than the average gamer which may skew the statistics somewhat, but this in itself easily disproves that the argument that all games are just about perpetrating mindless violence. That parents have been happy to allow their children to play games that promote more subtle crimes such as animal abuse (I'm looking specifically at the Mario games here) brings up the question of parental and industry observation over what is deemed violent or at least unsuitable for an E rating. The large majority of video games in my collection do involve the player directly controlling or instructing violent acts.
While pursuits that are traditionally though of as male-oriented are overwhelmingly represented in the games that I, and indeed probably you, own, the gender in games issue seems to overlook the fact that in many, many games the player's character is never specified as male or female, or a gender choice is given to the player. However, because the activity partaken of is generally accepted as traditionally male-oriented or male-dominated, it's often automatically assumed that the player is controlling a man, when no actual indication is given of this during the course of the game, in the instruction manual or on the box.
I think one of the most interesting conclusions of all that can be drawn from the statistics is that female player avatars are often seen as a breath of fresh air, an inspiration and a great role model to attract female gamers, yet there's a contradiction in terms here due to the overwhelming majority of these female heroes performing exactly the same violent actions (punching, kicking, shooting, etc) as their male counterparts. Joanna Dark wields big guns and makes a racket while rescuing comparatively helpless male non-player characters but has breasts and no penis. In my mind this still makes her no more the positive role model than Duke Nukem or Ryu Hayabusa.
Discuss?
Introduction:
Warning: This is a little long and might bore the hell out of you, or it might raise an eyebrow and get people thinking. I don't know, I'm typing this post in anticipation of the numbers before writing my conclusions
My game collection isn't that big (about 270 titles) and does contain a fair few of the more eclectic experiences around as well as lots of shooty fighty death, but I decided to semi-scientifically test whether if videogames really are just guys shooting each other.
Method:
I decided to exclude games that I have multiple copies of or that I have copies of over more than one system, I'm counting that as one title only e.g. Tomb Raider on both PS and Saturn is only counted as one. Multi-game cartridges and compilations weren't counted.
This gives me a sample size of 253 games.
I looked for the following two fairly simple criteria:
First: the gender of the player-character in the main mode of the game. The options were:
M - Easily distinguishable as male
F - Easily distinguishable as female (no Soma Cruz jokes please
)C - The player is provided with a choice of male or female characters (e.g. Street Fighter 2, Syndicate), can create their own avatar from a set of choices (e.g. AD&D Slayer), or has the chance to control both during the course of the game (e.g. Sin & Punishment or RPGs)
N - The player-character is not easily distinguishable as male or female (driving game, for example), or the player is given the option to manifest themselves as the player-character and the game talks directly to them (e.g. Wario Ware, Pok?mon). This does not count the game talking to you while you control someone else, like in the case of Advance Wars, which would be classed as a character choice. This also does not count being able to name your musclebound swarthy warrior Jemimah
Second: whether the player-character was directly involved in the perpetration of violence in any form. This includes anything from swords in Ninja Gaiden to lasers in PUlstar to firing shells in Mario Kart to lasers in Rez to squid abuse in Mario Sunshine. Absolutely any form of violence (shooting, hitting, squashing, anything) perpetrated directly by the player-controlled character was counted as a yes. Non-violent games were counted as no.
So release those big money roll-over balls, because here's what I found out.
Statistics:
From a sample of 253 games:
On the subject of violence:
72 (28.5%) games contain no violence whatsoever.
181 (71.5%) games did contain some form of violent act perpetrated or instructed directly by the player-character.
On the subject of gender:
100 (39.5%) games had a specifically male lead character.
Only 17 (6.7%) games had a specifically female lead character.
However, 72 (28.5%) gave players a choice or had control of both during the course of the main game.
64 (25.3%) games had a non-gender player-character or gave the opportunity for the player to self-identify the main character.
So, a total of 153 games (60.5%) did not specifically define their lead character as male.
On the subject of violence in combination with gender:
81 (81%) games with a specifically male lead contained player-perpetrated violence whereas only 19 (19%) did not.
Interestingly enough, the number of games with a female lead that involved player-violence in any form is 14 (82.4%), with only 3 (17.6%) offering non-violent play.
Obviously, your milage will vary depending on what's in your games collection, but I thought it might have been interesting to do this nonetheless.
Conclusions
My games collection possibly contains a higher percentage of non-violent games than the average gamer which may skew the statistics somewhat, but this in itself easily disproves that the argument that all games are just about perpetrating mindless violence. That parents have been happy to allow their children to play games that promote more subtle crimes such as animal abuse (I'm looking specifically at the Mario games here) brings up the question of parental and industry observation over what is deemed violent or at least unsuitable for an E rating. The large majority of video games in my collection do involve the player directly controlling or instructing violent acts.
While pursuits that are traditionally though of as male-oriented are overwhelmingly represented in the games that I, and indeed probably you, own, the gender in games issue seems to overlook the fact that in many, many games the player's character is never specified as male or female, or a gender choice is given to the player. However, because the activity partaken of is generally accepted as traditionally male-oriented or male-dominated, it's often automatically assumed that the player is controlling a man, when no actual indication is given of this during the course of the game, in the instruction manual or on the box.
I think one of the most interesting conclusions of all that can be drawn from the statistics is that female player avatars are often seen as a breath of fresh air, an inspiration and a great role model to attract female gamers, yet there's a contradiction in terms here due to the overwhelming majority of these female heroes performing exactly the same violent actions (punching, kicking, shooting, etc) as their male counterparts. Joanna Dark wields big guns and makes a racket while rescuing comparatively helpless male non-player characters but has breasts and no penis. In my mind this still makes her no more the positive role model than Duke Nukem or Ryu Hayabusa.
Discuss?
Comment