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Zaria Rogers

Lacee Nisbett

EN 102-326

02/07/19

Gaming for Women

How many girls do you know of that own a game console or play Fortnite? Most likely

the answer is a select few. Growing up, the sight of a girl playing a computer game would occur

on the special occasion when the teacher allows the class to log onto hoodamath.com,

coolmath.com, etc. Women are not pictured as the typical gamer. Author T. L. Taylor is aware of

this concept.

Taylor “has focused on internet and game studies for over two decades.” She is a “highly

sought after speaker” having received invitations from the White House and International

Olympics Committee. Taylor being a professor explains her scholarly approach of this topic (“T.

L. Taylor”). She can recognized as a credible source through her use of gaming language. Her

writing level is aimed towards a mature audience. Her use of feminist topics, historical issues,

and profanity imply the reading is for an older audience. Her message will be greater received

and understood by the older gamer population although intended for the general gamer

population.

T. L. Taylor explores why the female audience for computer games is minute in the

chapter “Where the Women Are” from her published book Play Between Worlds: Exploring

Online Game Culture. The number of perceived female gamers is smaller than the actual number
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reported. She communicates the characteristics of computer games that do not appeal to women.

Critiques and suggestions are made towards the design of computer games to represent women in

the game play. Taylor’s purpose in writing this chapter was to bring attention to the invisibility

of women in gaming. She was effective in revealing computer games overlooking the female

audience by using female gamers’ experiences, independent study results, a game designer

quote, and the effect of older societal thinking but weakened her argument with extensive

information on topics not directly related to the exclusiveness of women in gaming.

User stories were the most effective resource for discussing this topic. In the section

“Design Limits,” two women give feedback on the avatars of EverQuest. Kordama relays that

she wants choices in her avatar: “I want the ability to play a woman, and I want to decide what

she looks like. I want my character to be beautiful, but not brazen. I don’t want to display even

virtual buttocks to the world” (Taylor). This illustrates that women have limited choices. If there

is an option of playing a female, there is little adjustments to be made to her. This does not cater

to the different tastes of women. Another player that Taylor interviewed mentioned the clothing

of the avatar but also the designer’s mindset when creating the game: “I keep reminding myself

that Verant probably did not consider women a viable market share of the game when they

designed it” (Taylor). This is a first-hand account that women do not feel included in the game.

Low participation is not due to uninterest but underrepresentation.

Using logos as a technique, Taylor incorporates the results from Gareth Schott’s

Nintendo study. The participants, all women, played with the device and gave feedback prior to

being exposed to the Nintendo advertisements. The women’s perception and feedback changed

after viewing the advertisements because it was labeled “for men” (Taylor). The exclusiveness of

the advertisement of gaming devices further discourages women from liking or participating in
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the activity. Designers along with society have the concept that gaming content is for men and

automatically take women out of the equation. To incorporate ethos into her argument, she

includes the quotation of a senior game designer for Sony Online Entertainment, Sheri Graner

Ray. Ray addresses the poor body design issue of the avatars after male designers denied it was

an issue of representation for females: “…male avatars are not hypersexualized in the way

female ones are: they do not walk around with erections and signal constant sexual receptivity,

for example” (Taylor). Ray makes a valid point of women being objectified and not thought of as

valuable components of the game, rather objects of pleasure and enjoyment for the male

audience. She adds validity to the subject by being a designer and a woman.

Kairos was at work when Taylor went into detail about older thinking affecting the view

of who the audience of gaming should be. First, she educates the reader on the pink-games

movement that created games exclusively for girls. Then, she reminds the reader to keep the past

rhetoric in mind for why women are seen as “intruders” rather than “inhabitants of gamer

culture” today (Taylor). She wants the reader to see how the feminist movement of pink-games

was working to combat the exclusiveness of gaming towards women but did the opposite by

further separating women and men through games. Games to steer women towards more

traditional roles were made while the men kept the adventure and violence filled games.

Taylor’s scholarly approach may not have a large effect on the younger gaming

community, but she effectively communicates the disconnect between gaming and women for

the mature gaming audience. The user stories provide quality feedback from the women already

participating in the gaming culture for designers. If the designers work to innovate the gaming

culture, the market can expand to include women. The more gamers speak out on the topic, the

more likely designers will act to fix it. The issue should not be looked only as a women’s issue; it
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is about inclusiveness. Gaming is not an activity that should be enjoyed only by men as with any

other activity. Furthermore, basic entry into gaming without equal or progressive features for

women is neglect. Creating a female avatar with no options of customization and no skill level

does not count as including women. The design of games from the story to the graphics should

consider male and females.

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Works Cited

Taylor, T. L. “Where the Women Are.” Play Between Worlds: Exploring Online Game
Culture. The MIT Press, 2016, 93-124.

“T.L. Taylor.” MIT Comparative Media Studies/Writing, Massachusetts Institute of

Technology, cmsw.mit.edu/profile/tl-taylor/.