It seems like gaming industry keeps ignoring women, both in games and outside the cyberspace. We remember the buzz over the new trailers for ‘Hitman’ and ‘Tomb Rider’: first one showed us the nuns dressed in latex suits; the second one shocks the viewer with the scene of Lara Croft’s being a survivor of a rape. Okay, the buzz over the first one is quite understandable and isn’t all about respect for women. But c’mon, what’s wrong with ‘Tomb Rider’? I mean, Lara definitely has complicated relationships with men, and such a turn in the plot perfectly explains this fact. Besides, many movie directors used this trick, so I just don’t understand why the community became so condemnatory about Lara’s destiny.
Also, I’d like to add a couple of thoughts about the objectification of women in gaming industry. This tendency is plain to see not only in the games but literally everywhere. That’s quite explainable: men are supposed to pay attention to beautiful and healthy for propagation of their species’ sake. Unfortunately, we can’t help it.
As for the place of a woman in gaming industry, there is a lot of unfairness. Thus, a female friend of mine complains that she wasn’t allowed to play shooters in the store but persistently offered to play games on Facebook. Besides, a female journalist from German Gamestar Magazine claimed the same problem. Every time she was supposed to write a review on shooter, the staff was shocked and tried to substitute her with a male reviewer. That’s exactly what worries me: lots of women love playing games, and many of them prefer shooters and other ‘manly’ genres, but salesmen in the stores keep ignoring them and don’t take them serious. I think that’s a huge mistake and ignoring their interests, the industry loses a lot of opportunities.
