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German game developer Crytek caused a stir in the gaming press when the lead producer on its forthcoming multiplayer shooter "Warface" justified the game's cartoonishly sexualized portrayals of female characters, saying it was what players wanted to see. This is the latest example of a common trend of treating female video game characters differently than their male counterparts — relegating women to derogatory supporting roles, giving them inhumanly exaggerated bodily proportions, and generally casting them as little more than sexual objects.
Crytek's justification — which producer Joshua Howard explained to Wired — was based on focus group testing, which differed by region: In the West, from Russia to the U.S., the female characters will have Barbie-doll measurements and skimpy tops (though in China, they will be more modestly dressed). So when the game is released for PC in the U.S. this week, the only female character that gamers — men or women — will be able to choose to play is a hypersexualized
one.
The common defense marshaled in favor of such inequitable treatment is to say, "It's just a game." That may be true, but a research paper published this summer in the journal "Computers in Human Behavior" suggests that a virtual gender imbalance could have real-world consequences.
www.nbcnews.com
Crytek's justification — which producer Joshua Howard explained to Wired — was based on focus group testing, which differed by region: In the West, from Russia to the U.S., the female characters will have Barbie-doll measurements and skimpy tops (though in China, they will be more modestly dressed). So when the game is released for PC in the U.S. this week, the only female character that gamers — men or women — will be able to choose to play is a hypersexualized
one.
The common defense marshaled in favor of such inequitable treatment is to say, "It's just a game." That may be true, but a research paper published this summer in the journal "Computers in Human Behavior" suggests that a virtual gender imbalance could have real-world consequences.
Video games' sexual double standard may have real-world impact
www.nbcnews.com
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