The Great Representation Debate

A number of events over the last few weeks have served as a stark reminder that gender is still a hot topic in the games industry and surrounding media. The issue has become a problem due to what seems to be certain sections of the internet’s inability to have a sensible and mature debate on the issue. It is not uncommon for vocal minorities to entirely spoil a debate, but it is unsettling to see such an important and sensitive issue being spoiled by such vitriol. The main example of this is the abuse some Twitter users received over comments disapproving of Giant Bomb hiring two more white males onto their staff. Some commenters felt that Giant Bomb should consider hiring some people from different demographic backgrounds. They then received horrific verbal assaults over Twitter and other social media sites from those who disagreed with them, many even going as far as sending rape and death threats.

While I thought Giant Bomb were correct to hire those they thought were best qualified for the positions, I was disgusted by the abuse those who disagreed received. This approach only serves to fuel the more extreme sides of the debate and it is easy to see why certain feminist Twitter users are so aggressive when threats of rape and death are being thrown around. However, it feels like the actual issue of wider gender representation across the industry, is being clouded over by two groups insulting each other instead of actually attempting to tackle or discuss it. So in the hope that we can have an adult conversation about an important issue that spans our industry, the following is my ten cents on the topic. If you disagree please leave a comment, healthy discussion is how these problems are promoted and solved. I just ask that you remember it is possible to disagree with someone and get along amicably.

The video game industry itself is a relatively young industry and it is still settling into its burgeoning mainstream success. This is not to say that gaming has not always had fans from all walks of life, but historically it began as a predominantly white male pastime. Now we are in a transitional period where gaming is opening up to more sections of society and more people than ever are becoming interested in gaming and gaming media. This greater exposure means that some of gaming’s historical failures in terms of representation are becoming apparent, most notably its portrayal of women and its lack of representation of LGBT people despite modest  improvement in recent years over how gender and sexuality has been portrayed in recent triple A games. there is a good case to be made that historically many female characters are both poorly written and often over-sexualized, while for a large part homosexuality is non-existent outside player’s choice of their own characters’ sexual partners. However, it is difficult to talk about wanting an industry representative of those in it when the demography of those in it is a hotly debated topic.

There have been several studies into the gender demographics of gamers but I think a simple universal map of all gamers difficult and does not entirely tell the full story. So while writing about the gender makeup of gamers talking about a universal model is very difficult, the Entertainment Software Association gives its latest figures as gamers are 52% male and 48% female with the numbers getting closer year on year. However very little detail is given on how they attain their data or how they define “gamer”. I say this not to create a divide between different gamers, but with the emergence of smart phones many people gain access to gaming without ever being an audience for core games. In the study 47% of gamers say they play genres most associated with mobile gaming such as puzzle games most frequently. Other data, such as that from the Magmic mobile games developer blog (again this is far from perfect data) suggests that the gender split for certain mobile games such as Bejewled Blitz the gender split is 78% women to 22% men. While the figures they give for what are considered more core games such as Call of Duty the gender split is 92% male and 8% female. Call of Duty, whatever your opinion of it, is one of the largest core game franchises. The study does not have any figures for any other core franchises, however I would assume games of a similar genre would attract similar audiences. The question that arises is whether this current market makeup is the natural shape that games of those genres attract or would a different approach to them make them more successful.

It is inevitable that different games are always going to appeal to different groups of people. In a healthy environment there would be games that appeal to every different group of people and ones that have cross-market appeal. This is the real issue we have as an industry in terms of representation. We are still in a time where the largest triple A successes are games that largely appeal to male audiences. This combined with the large proportion of games developers being male, means that gender biases are going to be inevitable in many titles. Most figures I can find have the divide at around 90% of developers being male (again I don’t know how much I trust these figures as they do not explain their method or give any indication of their sample size).The gender divide of our gamesmakers is probably the most important factor in making sure we have a wide variety of games for all audiences. There is a ray of light in this, however, because while the data shows that the majority of games developers are men they also show year on year a steady increase in the percentage of women in the industry. This is indicative of wider moves across games and society as gender taboos around jobs and hobbies begin to fade.    

As games creators naturally become a more representative group of people, we will begin to get a greater variety of games for greater audiences. This should begin to improve the current disparity between the gender makeup of gamers and game creators. Naturally as companies begin to realize that by having greater variety of people on staff they will produce products that greater resonate with their market. I think that looking at the upcoming triple A release calendar games creators are beginning to realize this. While the current situation is far from perfect I believe that the market is beginning to fix this problem and while progress is not going to be quick, it is picking up speed. I for one hopeful for the future and am looking forward to seeing where our industry goes.