Where Are All the Women Gamers?

I was watching television the other day and saw a preview for the new movie Streetfighter, based on the popular video game franchise. I grew up in the 1980’s and like most kids from the 80’s I played video games. Actually I played a ton of video games with my friends all the time. The one game we couldn’t play enough of was any of the Streetfighter games. In fact my sister and I would hold Streetfighter 2 marathons for hours on end. She would play, not because it was her favorite game, but because it was one of the few games with any female characters. However as time wore on and she grew older, what was once her favorite aspect, female characters, became what eventually made her stop playing games altogether. In Streetfighter 2 only two of the twenty characters were female, and they looked more apt to be in a swimsuit competition rather than a fighting game. In a game that is essentially a series of streetfights, why are the women almost naked while the male characters are all fully clothed?
As my sister grew older and more intelligent these over sexualized female characters became less relevant and more offensive to her. She stopped playing Streetfighter with me and eventually just stopped playing video games altogether. This because there were no definable or realistic characters for her to relate to, and with that video game companies lost a potential lifetime consumer. Was this really worth losing a potential 50 year source of revenue over, I don’t really think so. Now that she’s a parent she also holds the same contempt for video games that she will pass on to her two daughters.
When I saw the preview for the new Streetfighter movie I was amazed to see that it featured only one original character from the game, Chun-Li. Chun-Li happens to be one of the two scantily clad characters from the original Streetfighter 2 game. You may ask yourself why would they make a movie from this classic game and feature only one of the original characters. Well because nearly naked women who beat people up sell, and especially to men. It’s already clear that these gaming companies are not focused on woman as consumers so why should a movie spun off of the video game franchise translate any differently. Every product has a specific demographic in mind when they market it for release. They say we’re going for males aged 18-35 and aim their advertising accordingly. However most products want the widest range of consumers as possible, it just makes fiscal sense. Not video game producers, they’re comfortable with the consumers they have and aren’t willing to change to accommodate anyone.
Maybe to change the types of games available to women we need more women involved in the actual process of making games. It could start at the creative level of designing games and coming up with ideas that will intrigue women to become hardcore gamers. The next step would be in the designing of the outfits of some of the characters to a more realistic and relatable style. Women in real life don’t walk around in bikinis much less fight in them, so maybe it’s time games followed suit. They could also be in the marketing and publishing of video games to help target girls and their gaming needs.
Even with this movie its not too late to change the way woman are perceived in video games. Video game producers can still use the same characters, albeit in a more toned down way. Let the Chun-Li and the rest of the female fighters wear more realistic outfits in the future games. Make it more about the style, substance and intricacies of the fighting and overall game experience and less about the cheapness of sexuality. Granted this won’t bring back gamers like my sister but it could change the gaming future for my nieces. Men are still going to play the games regardless; it’s just what we do. We will always have the internet if we want to look at anything racy and scandalous.