Women in Gaming 1 Creators 2 Characters 3 Gamers Why do people play games For the challenge For the arousal For the competition For the diversion For the fantasy For the social interaction The Good Improve memory Enhance reaction times Assist in overcoming physiological problems Allow people to have fun The Bad Violence Morality Children Sexuality The Game Industry A glamorized industry Project based team work leads to crunching The passion that leads people to become designers and developers can be mishandled Erin Hoffman came out with how EA was overworking and exploiting her husband Infamously gendered culture of the industry booth babes 1reasonwhy movement on Twitter people started confronting the sexual The industry remains one that struggles against gender discrimination and content of female gaming disparity 1ReasonToBe GDC 2013 women from the industry came together to talk about their experience in the game industry Characters human Appear less frequently than males On the list of top 50 characters only 5 were females and 2 of those weren t When they do appear they re often hypersexualized Why is Sexual Imagery a Problem Social comparison Reinforces the thin ideal Representations of voluptuous capable women are desirable and sought after Hypersexualization leads to objectification Female Characters differently than males Even when female options are given they are often conceptualized With improving graphical integrity features of the female form are made more extreme Fortunately designers and consumers of video games are beginning to value and include strong complex and capable female characters Gamers true If you google search female gamer the images that come up are very sexual The reality is that many women play Women are often marginalized as being only casual gamers In part that s But an increasing number of women are playing hard core games When women and girls play games its largely for the same reasons as men and boys In part women don t play games because they aren t marketed towards them Often assumed that women can t play games because of biological propensities but very little scientific evidence backs this up A more likely culprit is the social environment Many women experience harassment are trolled or other hostility due to their gender Industry reps and society has started to take note of this Research into stereotyping and prejudice is going on at IU Other research is examining the motivating forces behind female gamers participation with the activity Concluding thoughts Good news from the gaming world Women are making their voices heard Video games are a dynamic interactive and engaging media form Getting women more involved in gaming has implications beyond just the leisure activity o Comfort and literacy o To reap the cognitive benefits of games you must actually play them