Desmond Christman

A5

4/15/15

Noyce

Should Video game developers include more female Characters in lead playable roles?

Game developers should include more playable female lead roles because women are being

treated unfairly in the gaming world. For Example, 10% of video game characters are likely to

be playable female roles this leave 90% of video game characters unspecified or male lead

roles, plus if people put a woman on the cover of a game box the game is more likely to sell for

less money than the ones that have a male on the cover.

Game developers are a little bit sexist when it comes to the characters in their game. Recent

data shows that “70% of video game characters are male, 20% of video game characters are

unspecified, and the rest are women” (Starr). This shows that game developers would rather

put unspecified characters in a game rather than females as lead roles. This also shows that

women are being treated unfair in the in the gaming world. This is important because it is

stripping the women of their equal rights women have as much right to be in video games just

as much as men.

So many people are sexist when it comes to video games because “Smaller quantity of female-

led games, did not sell well. The ones that were male-only sold better. Games that allow you to

choose your gender are reviewed better than game that offer male-only heroes, but the games
with male-only heroes sold better. In terms of pure sales numbers, is in the first three months

female hero. Games with exclusively male heroes sold around 75% better than games with only

female heroes” (Kuchera). This shows that more people prefer game with male only roles

rather than female lead roles. This also shows that people prefer only male game rather than a

Choose your own kind of game.

Some argue that all the facts are wrong because of this fact “12 out of 20 of the top games of

2013 have playable female roles” (ESA). They say that the top two game on that list are games

with playable female roles. This also says that the #1 dame is “Grand Theft Auto V” which in

fact has playable female roles.

This however, is just the top 20 games of 2013 but the games have changed and so have the

people. Women are still getting treated un fair in the gaming world. For Example, “Out of 669

games only 24 have female protagonists”(Kuchera). This shows that those other 624 games are

made up of all men of an unidentified gender. This also shows that most game makers believe

that playable female characters should not be in video games.

Should Video game developers include more female Characters in lead playable roles? Yes

absolutely they should because women are being treated unfair in the gaming world, and they

have the power to put a stop to it. Yes, if you put a women on the cover of a video game the

game will sell less copies but that doesn’t mean that you can’t do it.
Starr, Michelle “The Risk of the Female Game Protagonists” 8/6/2014. 2/11/2015

<http://www.cnet.com/news/the-risk-of-the-female-game-protagonist/

Kuchera, Ben “Games with exclusively female heroes don’t sell (because publishers don’t

support them)” 11/21/12. 2/2/2015 <http://penny arcade.com/report/artical /games-

with-female-heroes-don’t-sell-because-publishers-don’t-support-them#/entry/signin

Entertainment Software Association (ESA). “2014 Essential Facts about the Computer and Video

Game Industry”. The Entertainment Software Association, 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 10 Feb.

2015. <http://www.theesa.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ESA_EF_2014.pdf>