Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
(U-WIRE) BOULDER, Colo. -- You can almost hear the women's studies department cheer as the Psychotic Man Slayerz, an all-female clan of video gamers, gang up on other players in various online multiplayer games such as "Quake," "Counter-Strike" and "Halo."
That's right, guys. That trash talk you hear isn't just some prepubescent boy. The girls have come out to play too.
Since the creation of "Doom," "Zelda" and the myriad of other games that revolutionized the video game industry, the culture of video gaming has been one associated with males. This can be seen in several aspects of video games from first person shooters to role playing games to the arcade style action fighters.
Most video games are centered around some sort of violence, whether it be the blood-soaked mayhem of the popular "Resident Evil" series or the cartoon-like explosion of enemies into gold coins as seen in the Mario games.
Erin Steinke, freshman film major and video game enthusiast, offered that this violent and aggressive tendency of games was a big factor in keeping girls out of the gaming culture for quite some time. Steinke, however, is an example of a female who does not follow this suit, stating her favorite games to be in the "Silent Hill" series, an action/horror title that focuses on scare tactics and violence.
Rachel Atkinson, sophomore French and theatre major, said that girls seem to be attracted to social games that are mainly played with friends. She offers "Mario Kart" as an example.
Female gaming clans such as PMS, which recently changed its name to Pandora's Mighty Soldiers, and FragDolls represent a female fraction in the world of violence-based video games. Advocating the idea that women should not be excluded from gaming because of their sex.
However, the aesthetic traits of most video game characters still scream "male audience." The male characters are generally well built, manly and suave. "Resident Evil 4"'s Leon Kennedy, "Turok" and the video game adaptations of James Bond are examples of this.
Atkinson said that in her experience as a platform gamer, the male characters dominantly exhibit the most desirable qualities in games, most notably physical strength.
The female characters are also geared towards a male audience, but most often for viewing pleasure. Just watch the carefully animated breast jiggling of Lara Croft in "Tomb Raider" or the short-skirted adventures of many "Final Fantasy" characters to make a valid argument here.
However, Harrison Jones, freshman engineering major and avid video gamer, said that female video game characters seem to be moving away from the Lara Croft image, which is physically unattainable in real life. The fact that games such as "World of Warcraft," "Morrowind" and "Tiger Woods PGA Tour" allow players to fully customize characters contributes to this. Players are more easily able to create a character that they can identify with and do not have to play as a specific character.
Jones, who frequents multiplayer online games like "World of Warcraft," said that he has noticed more female players appearing in these games. Still, he and Steinke agree that there is a social stigma attached to gaming. Girls who play video games are often marked as tomboys to a degree. Jones said that in his experience he has only encountered older females in their late teens and above, whereas the male player's age base spans from adolescence all the way to middle-aged men.
Interestingly, while the female audience is still the minority in video gaming, there are several instances of males pretending to be females in online games.
"You see that kind of thing a fair amount," Jones said.
When asked why anyone would do this, Jones suggested that these males might be simply role playing to a degree. He also said that it is possible these males are attempting to gain some privileges that female players are often subject to. He attributes this to a sense of chivalry that exists in gaming. He said that presumably, female players were often given special treatment without even prompting it, and males might be trying to profit off of this.
Regardless of this occurrence, there is still a rising amount of female players in the gaming industry.
Despite the physical differences between males and females, both sexes seem to enjoy gaming for the same reasons, especially for its entertaining nature.
"They're fun and you can play them with friends," Steinke said. "And sometimes it's fun to beat boys."
(C) 2006 Campus Press via U-WIRE
