Female Representation in Video Games Isn't Getting Any Better [WIRED] (Sarkeesian Annual E3 Analysis)

Deleted member 8861 · Jun 15, 2019

Link here:

https://www.wired.com/story/e3-2019-female-representation-videogames/

So, Anita Sarkeesian and Carolyn Petit conduct a statistical analysis of representation at E3 every year, in which they calculate how many of showcased protagonists are (exclusively) female characters, as well as a few other metrics (like the percentage of female presenters).

Of the 126 games we tallied from the E3 events held by Microsoft, Nintendo, Bethesda, Ubisoft, Square Enix, and EA, as well as the annual PC Gaming Show, a paltry six centered exclusively female protagonists, while almost five times as many, 28, centered male characters. (When you consider that we place role-playing games in which you control a party of heroes in our "multiple options" category, the numbers are even more dire, since a significant number of these games, including the Final Fantasy VII remake, Final Fantasy VIII, Dragon Quest XI, The Last Remnant Remastered, and others, clearly center male heroes.)

Posting the other metrics would be essentially copying the article, so I encourage you to go take a look at them yourself.

And needless to say, if you want to talk about how representation of women in gaming doesn't matter to you at all, you should probably leave this thread now and save yourself the trouble.

Edit:

Screenshot courtest of Sankara , it's not really improving on the "exclusively female protagonists" front:

Turin Turambar · Jun 15, 2019

'Multiple options' went from 46% to 66%. Progress?

TheInfinityGauntlet · Jun 15, 2019

It feels kinda weird to include remasters in this, like what they're supposed to replace Cloud? Come on now

It is a damn shame though, even with how hard they flipped the Cyberpunk advertising to go all man now that release date is creeping and while that's optional for the player that's an active choice they went with

A whole lot of potential perspectives on things to be explored still but they just don't want to, it's kinda sad

Kanann · Jun 15, 2019

Agree, DQ DLC on smash without any Female hero make me wanna smack Sakurai butt with my foot.

Kewlmyc · Jun 15, 2019

While exclusively female led games are still pretty low, I would say that the option of having multiple male and female playable characters and/or the ability to choose between male and female main characters is getting better.

There is improvement happening, though it might not be enough and/or fast enough.

ItsBobbyDarin · Jun 15, 2019

TheInfinityGauntlet said:
It feels kinda weird to include remasters in this, like what they're supposed to replace Cloud? Come on now

It is a damn shame though, even with how hard they flipped the Cyberpunk advertising to go all man now that release date is creeping and while that's optional for the player that's an active choice they went with

A whole lot of potential perspectives on things to be explored still but they just don't want to, it's kinda sad

The first shown gameplay of Cyberpunk was the protagonist playing as a female character.

Razor Mom · Jun 15, 2019

TheInfinityGauntlet said:
It feels kinda weird to include remasters in this, like what they're supposed to replace Cloud? Come on now

That's kind of the first thing I thought when I saw the examples list. So many games are remasters at this point, or spiritual reboots or straight up sequels like halo and Doom. We're basically looking at a landscape of IPs and games that have existed for about 2 decades.

ISOM · Jun 15, 2019

ItsBobbyDarin said:
The first shown gameplay of Cyberpunk was the protagonist playing as a female character.

Which was way cooler than the male version they went with recently. I don't know if it was just to show the option but I thought it was fine to go with the female version.

Almeister · Jun 15, 2019

Turin Turambar said:
'Multiple options' went from 46% to 66%. Progress?

Yeah this feels to me like an important metric to note. The aim should be more choice represented, right? Rather than exclusively one gender or the other.

LuisGarcia · Jun 15, 2019

Of course it is getting better. You would have to be ignorant to think otherwise.

A lot of games are giving you the choice now.

Porky · Jun 15, 2019

The anchor points they're using here are kinda weird, especially when including remasters. So they didn't change FFVII or Ni No Kuni to have female protagonists?

Also, have they done this every year? What if it goes up and then back down again? Surely, that's natural. Or are they expecting representation to continually rise until female representation reaches 100%?

I feel like "multiple options" going from 46% to 66% is good news...

Deleted member 8861 · Jun 15, 2019

Turin Turambar said:
'Multiple options' went from 46% to 66%. Progress?

Almeister said:
Yeah this feels to me like an important metric to note. The aim should be more choice represented, right? Rather than exclusively one gender or the other.

I think it's good! However, fully defined protagonists offer a different experience where an exclusively female protagonist might be able to explore a female perspective or simply give female protagonists a better foothold in mainstream gaming culture (because as it stands the vast majority of extremely popular titles have a male protagonist and there are few prominent female protagonists to talk about, especially those with developed stories and personalities).

I personally somewhat disagree with the way that was expressed in the article though, which is something along the lines of "multiple protagonists will let men who are more comfortable with a male character play as a guy which lessens that game's value as representation". Like, obviously relating a touch more to people of the same gender is not an isolated phenomenon by any stretch, that's part of why more/better female representation would be a wonderful thing, no need to deride male players for preferring male characters IMO. I say this as a guy who usually prefers the design of female characters, finds them more novel, and so plays as them, but I might just be tone policing so whatever.

I also don't think that female representation shouldn't only be measured by exclusively female protagonists, but it's not my place to criticize Sarkeesian et al. for how they frame their research. (And I think it clearly would've occurred to them too, so I trust there's a reason the analysis has been framed this way.)

ISOM said:
Which was way cooler than the male version they went with recently. I don't know if it was just to show the option but I thought it was fine to go with the female version.

I don't have a horse in that race but god that male character on the horrible box art looks mediocre at best

KillerMan91 · Jun 15, 2019

I mean going by that chart games were you can solely play as a male have dropped significantly too (from high of 41% to 21%). I think it's a bit weird to ignore the fact that more and more games simply let you choose your gender. In 2015 you could choose to play as a female in 55% of games shown at E3. This year 71%. Female represantion has definitely gotten better going by that.

Deleted member 8861 · Jun 15, 2019

Porky said:
The anchor points they're using here are kinda weird, especially when including remasters. So they didn't change FFVII or Ni No Kuni to have female protagonists?

Also, have they done this every year? What if it goes up and then back down again? Surely, that's natural. Or are they expecting representation to continually rise until female representation reaches 100%?

1. Dunno about NNK but they said FF7R was counter as "multiple protagonists" even though there's a clearly central character (Cloud).

2. Check the article. It's been a thing for... 5 years now I think? They aren't expecting female representation to reach 100% but for example exclusively male protagonists still appear to be about 4 times as common.

ISOM · Jun 15, 2019

Funyarinpa said:
I don't have a horse in that race but god that male character on the horrible box art looks mediocre at best

Yeah, he has that generic male protagonist look while the female character was dripping with personality. to me anyway.

MouldyK · Jun 15, 2019

This year, of the 126 games we surveyed, 107 featured combat of some form as a gameplay mechanic, while only 19 games, or about 15 percent, did not. Of course, not all combat is the same: the endearing sword-swinging of Link in Nintendo's adorable upcoming remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening is a far cry from the grisly demon-slaying of Doom: Eternal. However, we believe that there remains a vast range of unexplored potential for games as a medium, and continue to advocate for a greater percentage of games that explore the possibilities of nonviolent gameplay mechanics.

I get what she means, but there are many games that do non-combat.

Just they are more indie I guess.

Razor Mom · Jun 15, 2019

Funyarinpa said:
I think it's good! However, fully defined protagonists offer a different experience where an exclusively female protagonist might be able to explore a female perspective or simply give female protagonists a better foothold in mainstream gaming culture (because as it stands the vast majority of extremely popular titles have a male protagonist and there are few prominent female protagonists to talk about, especially those with developed stories and personalities).

I personally somewhat disagree with the way that was expressed in the article though, which is something along the lines of "multiple protagonists will let men who are more comfortable with a male character play as a guy which lessens that game's value as representation". Like, obviously relating a touch more to people of the same gender is not an isolated phenomenon by any stretch, that's part of why more/better female representation would be a wonderful thing, no need to deride male players for preferring male characters IMO. I say this as a guy who usually prefers the design of female characters, finds them more novel, and so plays as them, but I might just be tone policing so whatever.

I also don't think that female representation shouldn't only be measured by exclusively female protagonists, but it's not my place to criticize Sarkeesian et al. for how they frame their research. (And I think it clearly would've occurred to them too, so I trust there's a reason the analysis has been framed this way.)

I don't have a horse in that race but god that male character on the horrible box art looks mediocre at best

I mean if you wanted to play as a female character in a game, this year you could across over 3/4 of all games right? And that's including remasters of old games like the last remnant. It seems like a pretty solid step in the right direction, but the article is kind of framing it as a backwards one and I don't get why. I understand the want for stories told from exclusively female perspectives, but if it's about playing as characters that you feel represent you (through race, gender etc) then this seems like pretty great news. Also I think you're allowed to criticise anything you want, if you want to.

TaleSpun · Jun 15, 2019

Diversity as a numbers game just strikes me as clinical and cold to the touch. It's like, what does it matter that there are so many more games starring men if half of those characters aren't even compelling, if they're much more than a silent self-insert to begin with? It's not just stats - it's not just representation. You've got to give people compelling characters with depth to them as well as diversify.

It's just unfortunate that Sarkeesian's analysis continues to be this way. We never get deeper readings of the games, in proper context (like how they just throw in remasters here. I mean, huh?), the games just get filed away based on tropes or stats. It's a very old schtick at this point.

mrprime · Jun 15, 2019

Is the tracking of combat vs non-combat new? seems like an odd metric considering as they themselves point out 'combat' can include both Zelda and Doom. Feels like a bit of an odd thing to be looking for at E3, the games industry is much bigger than E3 and there's heaps of non-combat titles, given what E3 has become trying to make the representation of non-combat games there seem indicative of the industry as a whole seems misguided.

That said, warmed to see the reaction to new Flight Sim.

Tizoc · Jun 15, 2019

TheInfinityGauntlet said:
It feels kinda weird to include remasters in this, like what they're supposed to replace Cloud? Come on now

Razor Mom said:
That's kind of the first thing I thought when I saw the examples list. So many games are remasters at this point, or spiritual reboots or straight up sequels like halo and Doom.

Porky said:
The anchor points they're using here are kinda weird, especially when including remasters. So they didn't change FFVII or Ni No Kuni to have female protagonists?

I'm sorry but what does remaster mean in this context? Re-release of an old game with touched up visuals?

Razor Mom · Jun 15, 2019

Tizoc said:
I'm sorry but what does remaster mean in this context? Re-release of an old game with touched up visuals?

Yeah exactly, or just a port to newer systems with old dlc included or whatever.

Polyh3dron · Jun 15, 2019

One more wrinkle to the whole including remasters (which this E3 had a disproportionate shit ton of), is that if the makers of these remasters let you play as a, say, female Cloud for example, it'd just be another one of the Ms. Male Characters that Anita made a video decrying. Even then, Aerith, Tifa, and (maybe) Yuffie are all part of your party.

Deleted member 426 · Jun 15, 2019

Yeah SE are typically the best for female main characters. But they're currently raiding their 90s back catalogue, and they weren't as good then.

That said the overall point stands. Few female main characters, and it's bad. More options is good, but it's still a real shame video game companies don't have the confidence to lead a game's marketing with a woman.

Razor Mom · Jun 15, 2019

Polyh3dron said:
One more wrinkle to the whole including remasters (which this E3 had a disproportionate shit ton of), is that if the makers of these remasters let you play as a, say, female Cloud for example, it'd just be another one of the Ms. Male Characters that Anita made a video decrying.

I mean I really don't think anybody wants Cloudette, do they?

Rhinestone_Cowgirl · Jun 15, 2019

More multiple options is always good. But games written with a female protagonist in mind would be nice to see.

The slow change probably reflects the fact that the games industry makes heavy use of sequels and remakes, where they're going to likely have the same (most likely male) protagonist. Old IPs are the bread and butter of the industry in some respects.

Deleted member 8861 · Jun 15, 2019

MouldyK said:
I get what she means, but there are many games that do non-combat.

Just they are more indie I guess.

Well, that comes back to why E3 is important- essentially, this is the stuff that'll break into the mainstream for the most part, and so how prominent combat is in *these* games which have the best chance of going mainstream is important for defining industry trends.

Razor Mom said:
I mean if you wanted to play as a female character in a game, this year you could across over 3/4 of all games right? And that's including remasters of old games like the last remnant. It seems like a pretty solid step in the right direction, but the article is kind of framing it as a backwards one and I don't get why. I understand the want for stories told from exclusively female perspectives, but if it's about playing as characters that you feel represent you (through race, gender etc) then this seems like pretty great news. Also I think you're allowed to criticise anything you want, if you want to.

Stories absolutely play a great part, which I suppose is why exclusively female protagonists are regarded as so important.
(Also, I'm saying my criticism doesn't matter as much for the simple reason that women's voices carry greater weight in this discussion and I'm also not literally one of the most prominent analysts in feminist game criticism.)

mrprime said:
Is the tracking of combat vs non-combat new? seems like an odd metric considering as they themselves point out 'combat' can include both Zelda and Doom. Feels like a bit of an odd thing to be looking for at E3, the games industry is much bigger than E3 and there's heaps of non-combat titles, given what E3 has become trying to make the representation of non-combat games there seem indicative of the industry as a whole seems misguided.

That said, warmed to see the reaction to new Flight Sim.

Zelda vs. Doom being included in the same category is (verbatim) acknowledged in the article I think, the idea is that games could be utilizing non-combat mechanics to tell stories and create experiences, and so explicitly non-violent games diverge from the norm.

Tizoc · Jun 15, 2019

Razor Mom said:
Yeah exactly, or just a port to newer systems with old dlc included or whatever.

Ah then in that case, those should be excluded, I agree.

Off topic, but one thing I'd have liked the FF7 Remake to have done is make you play through the game with a different character's POV like Tifa or Barret. Or heck just giving them their own scenario where you can see things from their POV instead of following Cloud's.

pswii60 · Jun 15, 2019

The only way this will change in any meaningful way is by getting more women in lead development roles. I was pleased to see a woman - Rahni Tucker - leading the charge as Creative Director of Ninja Theory's Bleeding Edge for example, indeed the whole game was her idea.

We really need to see more of this across the whole industry. I realise it is partly a chicken and egg situation and there is work to do to encourage more women to enter the industry in the first place. Certainly the stigma of a male dominated and sexist industry isn't going to help make that any easier.

Of course publishers also have a responsibility with being less obsessed with only greenlighting games with generic straight white male protagonists. I realise they are reluctant to take "risks" these days but I don't see how it's a risk when movies and TV shows with female and/or black protagonists are successful every week. The games industry needs to catch the fuck up.

Deleted member 8861 · Jun 15, 2019

pswii60 said:
The only way this will change in any meaningful way is by getting more women in lead development roles. I was pleased to see a woman - Rahni Tucker - leading the charge as Creative Director of Ninja Theory's Bleeding Edge for example, indeed the whole game was her idea.

We really need to see more of this across the whole industry. I realise it is partly a chicken and egg situation and there is work to do to encourage more women to enter the industry in the first place. Certainly the stigma of a male dominated and sexist industry isn't going to help make that any easier.

Agreed. The industry already owes a lot, and will owe a lot more still, to women in gaming who believe in the medium and stick with it despite being mistreated every step of the way.

SMD · Jun 15, 2019

Resiverence · Jun 15, 2019

So female representation isn't getting better but the actual facts support they are. That's some pretty uhh sour framing there. Oh well. Also including remasters seems extremely odd to me.

Reinhardt Schneider · Jun 15, 2019

Kanann said:
Agree, DQ DLC on smash without any Female hero make me wanna smack Sakurai butt with my foot.

I highly doubt Sakurai has any saying in that

Razor Mom · Jun 15, 2019

Resiverence said:
So female representation isn't getting better but the actual facts support they are. That's some pretty uhh sour framing there. Oh well. Also including remasters seems extremely odd to me.

It is just strangely framed, imo.

Deleted member 23212 · Jun 15, 2019

I think the issue isn't that there is no progress, but rather that there isn't enough progress.

Razor Mom · Jun 15, 2019

Oheao said:
I think the issue isn't that there is no progress, but rather that there isn't enough progress.

I mean, fair, but that's not at all what the title of the article says. It's literally saying it's not getting better. It's kind of framed that way for the whole text.

Polyh3dron · Jun 15, 2019

Rhinestone_Cowgirl said:
More multiple options is always good. But games written with a female protagonist in mind would be nice to see.

The slow change probably reflects the fact that the games industry makes heavy use of sequels and remakes, where they're going to likely have the same (most likely male) protagonist. Old IPs are the bread and butter of the industry in some respects.

Gears 5 is a game that was shown at E3, the latest installment in a series which has a foundation primarily made of hyper-masculinity, and this new installment is written with a female protagonist in mind. It's a big budget AAA game with a female lead, and the series is a pillar of Microsoft's first party game output, second only to Halo as far as importance to the Xbox brand goes. Not some cheap palette swap, and not something that was shoehorned into the series for no reason other than to appease Anita Sarkeesian, but an organically developed character who truly belongs in the storyline. If that's not progress, I don't know what is, and a mountain of remasters of old games with already-established characters and stories shouldn't count against that. Your post is worded in a way to suggest that such a thing never happens.

Brotherhood93 · Jun 15, 2019

Their own analysis shows that more games featured playable female characters than any other E3, even if this is because the trend is towards multiple options rather than exclusively female protagonists it is still progress. Slow progress and it'd be fair to say it's still not good enough but I'm not sure you can reach the conclusion it isn't getting any better.

Only using games at E3 to judge the entire industry is also slightly flawed. In terms of games with exclusively female protagonists, Control and The Last of Us Part II will be out by the time next E3 comes around, if Sony had a showcase this year both would very likely have been there this year. A Plague Tale just came out last month. It's not a comprehensive data set.

Blindy · Jun 15, 2019

Seems like they aren't counting Co main protagonists which is odd. Games like Avengers, Black Widow matters as much as the other characters there isn't one true hero above all. The male to female ratio is slanted absolutely but Black Widow seems like a primary feature of the game especially when you gave Laura Bailey voicing a said character.

Games like Deathloop have a Co main protagonist in a black female that is as important going off of the CGI trailer as the male counterpart.

Watchdogs has no main protagonists, the female granny was as important as the other hackers on her team and if anything the white male was the guy who died in the trailer....

Visanideth · Jun 15, 2019

Oheao said:
I think the issue isn't that there is no progress, but rather that there isn't enough progress.

Fair point, as progress as an idea implies that you still haven't reached your goal, but if the idea is "we're moving forward too slowly" then "We're not moving forward at all" is a peculiar way to express it.

Deleted member 23212 · Jun 15, 2019

Razor Mom said:
I mean, fair, but that's not at all what the title of the article says. It's literally saying it's not getting better. It's kind of framed that way for the whole text.

I know, and I am not impressed with them for doing this because they could have still brought up the issue without resorting to such hyperbole.

Kittens McMittens · Jun 15, 2019

Funyarinpa said:
I don't have a horse in that race but god that male character on the horrible box art looks mediocre at best

Cyberpunk will probably end up like Mass Effect, where FemShep was clearly the canon choice.

Rodjer · Jun 15, 2019

Oheao said:
I think the issue isn't that there is no progress, but rather that there isn't enough progress.

Not enough progress? We had more female leads in big brands and AAA games in then gen compared to the last one.
That's a lot of progress especially when you see Microsoft, Sony, Bethesda, Ubisoft and EA greenlighting AAA games with female leads.

Deleted member 8001 · Jun 15, 2019

Kanann said:
Agree, DQ DLC on smash without any Female hero make me wanna smack Sakurai butt with my foot.

agreed

Deleted member 23212 · Jun 15, 2019

Rodjer said:
Not enough progress? We had more female leads in big brands and AAA games in then gen compared to the last one.
That's a lot of progress especially when you see Microsoft, Sony, Bethesda, Ubisoft and EA greenlighting AAA games with female leads.

Of course we have more, I just said there was progress. My argument is that it isn't enough.

BocoDragon · Jun 15, 2019

I always think it's weird to be in this place nowadays when the late 90s had a glut of videogames starring female heroes in response to Tomb Raider. Sure they were in service of male fantasies and were certainly sexualized, but that archetype was that they were all badass. Not too different from a Black Widow type character.

I'd also like to strike FF games from this list because they have had strong female main characters for 25 years, and this decade finished off a trilogy of female starring games. (I'm half joking because I know how adding up all the games at E3 works)

I blame the rise of militarism games in the 2000s. So much war and soldiers... and that leans male.

Sankara · Jun 15, 2019

6 female characters versus 28 is still fucking atrocious. And it's been so many years that people have been talking loudly about the issue that there is simply no excuse any longer from developers or publishers.

Rodjer said:
Not enough progress? We had more female leads in big brands and AAA games in then gen compared to the last one.
That's a lot of progress especially when you see Microsoft, Sony, Bethesda, Ubisoft and EA greenlighting AAA games with female leads.

You should probably read the title of the article and this entire thread again.

halcali · Jun 15, 2019

Yes, I played The Witcher 3.

Deleted member 23850 · Jun 15, 2019

Great article. Will peruse.

Asbsand · Jun 15, 2019

Turin Turambar said:
'Multiple options' went from 46% to 66%. Progress?

The bigger something is the harder it is to change. Progress like this does mean something but I understand the frustrations for all those who wish we could just cross the river already.

Blindy · Jun 15, 2019

Kanann said:
Agree, DQ DLC on smash without any Female hero make me wanna smack Sakurai butt with my foot.

That's why you punish them with Miss Kazooie, the personality and spunk of the Banjo games. She's awesome.

Female Representation in Video Games Isn't Getting Any Better [WIRED] (Sarkeesian Annual E3 Analysis)

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