Gender Issues in Video Games
Nour Polloni works as a leading female producer of a video game. This particular video game features a tomboyish teenage girl named Kya. Ms Polloni, had difficulties when negotiating with the video game design team on the appearance and portrayal of Kya in the game.
The all-male, multinational creative team wanted to dress Kya in a dark string bikini. As one of the few women working in video game design and production, Ms. Polloni was forced to exert her authority over the design team. Polloni believed it was important for the design team to show Kya’s personality as a character. Polloni agreed that sex does sell. However she maintains that if video games are ever to appeal to both sexes, female characters need to offer far more than digital skin ‘pinup girls’ do. (Marriott, 2003: 4)
Polloni insisted that Kya appear as a slender 17 year-old dressed in baggy pants and a loose fitting blouse that exposes her navel. This is a significant case because most female lead characters in video games are portrayed as men would like a women to be. Kya is different to the other female characters in the video gaming industry because she is not a fantasy girl. According to Polloni, “She is charming, a bit sexy, but not overwhelmingly sexy� (Marriott, 2003: 4)
If Kya were wearing dark lineage like the male design team suggested, female players would not be able to identify with her. Polini hopes that women will want to play as much as men will when it comes to this particular video game. (Marriott, 2003:4)
The case study suggests that Polloni struggled to get her point across to the male designers. According to Kobrin, most design teams consist of a group of men sitting around designing the games that they want to play. Only 10 to 15 percent of those in International Game Developers Association are women. (Kobrin, 2004, 1)
This case study highlights the need in the video game industry for female game designers. There is a great need for making more games that are appealing to women, improving mentoring programs for female game designers and toning down the ‘hypersexed’ female representations.
Women gamers. com offers a community for women on the Internet. It is designed for women to feel more included in the community of people who are playing computer and console games. Womengamers.com organised a conference on women and gaming in the U.S. At the conference it announced that it was teaming up with the Southern Methodist University to offer academic training in game design. They will establish a scholarship fund for women seeking careers in the gaming industry. (Bray, 2004: 7)
This is a positive step to increasing the numbers of women in video game design. Hopefully, other universities and colleges will follow suit and get the message across to young women and older women that digital games are a profession.
Bray, H. (2004) ‘ Women seek to level playing field’, Boston Globe [online] Available: [Go to Article] [Accessed 7/09/04]
Korbin, J. (2004) ‘U.S- media: Designing women focus on video games’, Global Information Network [online] Available: [Go to Article] [Accessed 16/10/04]</nowiki>
Marriott, M. (2003) ‘Fighting women enter the arena, no holds barred’ pg.1 [Online]. Available:[Go to Article]
