Oh my god, they’re flanking behind us.

I desperately try to get my teammates' attention by spamming the voice line “Group up with me” from my character to get them to understand there’s a flanker, but they’re too busy on the frontlines of the brawl. I was playing healer this round of Overwatch, a first-person shooter, so naturally I was a primary target for a flanker. My squishy health and skills would make it difficult to handle this on my own. Voice comms were full of players coordinating the attack up front. I could join the voice comms, too, and let them know someone’s behind us, since they could care less about checking on the player keeping them alive. I kept listening to the voices of complete strangers, all boys, screaming at each other. I really want to say something, laugh or crack jokes with them. I might even have more fun being able to coordinate with everyone and not just follow others' lead. But that feeling of uneasiness, of self-consciousness, came back the second I thought of joining voice chat. Uh, never mind, it’s fine. I’ll just handle this on my own. I put up a decent fight against the flanker but there was only so much I could do.

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‘Oh sh-”

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“Backlines, someone in backlines, got our healer”

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“That’s a bad pick, we need to fall back and regroup. Can’t do this without him”

There it is, always assuming I’m a guy. My sister, who is sitting next to me, and I roll our eyes in unison, both for my untimely death and for the assumption of my gender. I personally would use the pronouns ‘they/them’ for people I didn’t know, or in Overwatch, simply refer to the player by the character they picked, but my gender is always assumed male, at least when I am doing well. In this situation, I was. I don’t think about what is said to me when I don’t play well, let’s just say being a girl in that situation tends to make it worse. Other players bring up whether I’m actually a gamer and what it ‘really’ means to be one, but in less kind words. I did not regret choosing to avoid the voice chat, if my teammates had realized I was a girl in this situation, I know they would have reacted differently. 

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The gaming industry is known for its bad reputation regarding sexism, that goes without saying. Video games in general are associated with young, heterosexual males. This is due to the warped perception and definition of the label ‘gamer’. When prompted with the term ‘gamer’, the image brought to mind is most often a male playing video games, perhaps a first-person shooter with a couple of friends yelling at the screen (Paaßen, Morgenroth, and Stratemeyer 2017). This misconception of what it means to be a gamer and the misconceived difference in what a female gamer is has caused numerous issues with women and the gaming industry. For one, gaming industries ignore the fact that over 40% of gamers are women and continue to cater towards male gamers because of this inaccurate stereotype. The types of games and characters they create are all fit to match the expectations and likes of male gamers. In 2020, only around 18% of games showcased in 2020 had female leads. Without female leads or developed female characters, female gamers feel they are unwelcomed in the gaming culture. The misunderstood term ‘gamer’ carries to individual experiences with gaming as well. The idea of a ‘gamer’ is that he is male and puts in time into becoming very skilled at a game. For a girl gamer, the gaming community does not apply the same definition. Instead, they say that she is a casual gamer-a subtype of the actual label of gamer. A casual gamer is someone who plays games with low skill requirements and time investment. When a woman plays a ‘hardcore’ game-a game where skill and time requirements to be good are high- she is targetted more often by other players because of her gender, often times being faced with harsh negativity regardless of her actual skill level. This, in turn, creates a social barrier between female gamers and the gaming community and prevents individuals from being able to comfortably enjoy and buy games. All this stemming from the deeply rooted misconception on what a gamer is and what it means to be one.

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Since the rise of video games in our culture, the term ‘gamer’ has become an identity. We use it to label someone who invests time, money, and effort into video games. What exactly comes with being identified as a gamer affects who decides to wear that identity. The gamer identity is often connected with being competitive and cold in nature. As found in Paaßen, Morgenroth, and Stratemeyer 2017, these traits are more related to the idea of masculinity rather than femininity. Therefore, the identity in gaming and gender coincide with men and make it easy for them to wear both identities proudly. 

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However, women are out in a conundrum of either identifying as a woman or part of the gaming culture. As such, most do not identify as a gamer publicly because the social idea of a gamer and a woman conflict with one another. 

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This is something I used to struggle with for a long time. As a woman, I dress in what would be considered ‘girlish’ attire-dresses, skinny jeans, a nice skirt. I also acted mature for my age, something that seemed like a pleasant quality to have as a girl with the saying ‘boys will be boys’ and that girls mature faster and are more dependable than boys at younger ages. I was always conscious of how others would think of me as a woman if I revealed that I played video games. What would they think if they saw I was good at games? Would they assume I just spend the whole day in front of the screen playing video games? Would they lump me in with the notoriously toxic community of first-person shooters if they learned I played them? Would they still think I am mature for my age, like they’ve been complimenting me this whole time? Something felt conflicted inside of me, so I decided to never tell others about my gaming side. I would sit in class, overhearing a couple of boys talking about a game I played and I would get so excited thinking I’ve found someone to share this joy of gaming with, but I always psyched myself out of it. I thought I had this reputation, this image of a mature, dependable, woman to uphold, and being a gamer did not fit with it.

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However, with women, such as myself, unable to express themselves as gamers, gaming companies cannot see us as a potential audience to include in the development of their games. The industry uses what they believe is the image of a gamer to figure out who their target audiences are. As such, games are continued to be created to cater towards men and women continue to feel excluded from joining these communities openly and comfortably. 

Of course, gaming and gender identities are not the only reason female gamers feel the need to keep their interests a secret. Female gamers in online games face a much more hostile environment than male gamers. On average, a female gamer receives three times as much negative comments when using in-voice chat systems and were more likely to be targeted for sexual harassment. With girls not considered part of ‘gamers’ and men afraid to be beaten by a girl in their domain, it is no surprise this type of misogyny and singling out FIX exists. This causes women to fall into a defensive cycle when they play games deemed more for boys. They avoid using in-voice communication in games-only about 28% of women using voice systems and 71% of men using voice systems (Paaßen, Morgenroth, and Stratemeyer 2017). What happens then is male gamers will follow the stereotype of a gamer, which is that they are male, and assume the gender of the silent player to be male. Female gamers then become more invisible to the gaming culture. On an individual level, a woman may not feel as connected to the other players who enjoy the same game she does. 

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This defensive behavior was illustrated before with my experience in Overwatch. My sister (an avid gamer) follows this exact defensive behavior as well. Neither one of us ever revealed our gender to the boys we played with. 

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Recently, my sister found herself in a match in Overwatch performing extremely well. When being congratulated or coordinated with, the other players always referred to her as ‘he’ or ‘him’, just as they had with me. I had been with her that day, and although we both laughed at the misconception, neither one of us felt comfortable revealing the truth, even though she was being congratulated. As far as the boys were concerned, it was another fellow male gamer who performed better than them. What would happen if they learned we were girls, that they had been beaten by girls in a place they were ‘supposed’ to excel in? We were subconsciously afraid to face such a hostile environment, so remaining hidden was easier, especially when male gamers assumed you to be ‘one of them’. Yet because of this, people don’t know we are female gamers. This just feeds back into the loop of the misconception that female gamers don’t play certain games, and therefore gaming companies do not include women as a target audience. 

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Representation of women in gaming is also a factor contributing to the inaccurate stereotypes around gamers. The role-models you have can greatly affect the image behind a term. For example, ‘model’ might spark the image of a tall, slender, and beautiful woman due to these women being so dominant in that field while ‘athlete’ might bring the image of an African American man in a football jersey for the same reason. However, having diverse role models in any field is important for those who enjoy or are interested in that specific field because they are an important gateway for people to join larger communities or confidently show who they are. But the number of female role models in the gaming industry is virtually none. From game developers to youtubers, professional gamers, and even game reviewers (Paaßen, Morgenroth, and Stratemeyer 2017 found that out of one-hundred channels on Youtube centered about reviewing games, only two channels were run by females only), women are hardly seen, and when they are, their situations are not something other girls would be jealous of. From rape threats to death threats, professional women gamers have shared their experiences in the industry. Many say that even when taking up a profession in gaming, apart from the hostile comments, they often receive feedback that they are only there for representation for girls, but as gamers they have no merit (Gera). 

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When I was in elementary and middle school,  I often enjoyed watching game reviews or playthroughs, but I never found any youtube channels or websites created by a woman. Because of this, when I found other girls who enjoyed games, I always got overly excited in sharing this interest with them because I would have finally found someone like me. Boys do not find it weird or rare to find other boys with the same interests in games as them, but for girls, just arriving at the topic of video games can be hard, let alone admitting to playing them. For most of my years in high school, my friends did not know I played video games. It took me years to be confident enough to openly state what games I enjoy to play and that I do identify as a gamer and part of the gaming community. I found my own way of incorporating my gaming self to my identity.

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For this loop to ever be broken, there needs to be more women on the frontline of gaming. More professional esports players, more video game reviewers-their presence needs to grow. Men believe that women are not good gamers because there aren't enough of them in the spotlight. If more women were involved in these positions, the idea of gamers could begin to rework to include everyone under the label as a gamer. The gaming industry would shift to broaden their target audience, and male gamers would not be so ignorant of women in gaming. With more exposure to them, they can understand that there is no real difference between a girl and a boy who enjoy games.

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Of course, representation does not end with real people, and so the solution cannot end there either. Video games themselves do a horrid job representing women. Female game characters are often created to follow three styles-sexualized, underdressed for every situation, or the damsel in distress (no matter how strong she truly is). Why these characters are written so blandly is obvious, they are being targeted for heterosexual, young male gamers. Most women do not appreciate these grossly sexualized characters. It does not matter if it's 1210 and Geralt of Rivia is currently visiting a small village to repair some armor, because the women in that 1210 village will be wearing eye-shadow, lipstick, and blush; they will have the perfect hourglass figures and facial structures similar to Jennifer Lopez. Oh, and they will all be the same. The men in that village? Well, let’s just say they visually represented what a human living in 1210 would actually look and smell like. Unfortunately, this is how female characters in video games make their debut in new games. When a group of people begin mocking you for your race, you will obviously separate yourself from that group. You would not be comfortable around people who view you as less than them. This is the same with video games. If a woman is being so sexualized in a game it makes it uncomfortable for a girl and she will stay clear of that game.  She would stay clear of men who enjoy those types of female characters, or at least stay hidden from them.

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Female lead characters are a rarity as well. With only 18% of the top 50 best selling games in 2020 featuring a solo female lead, it’s understandable that women would feel barred from feeling welcomed in a culture so heavily centered around men. For a long time, girls have felt uncomfortable or excluded when playing with Barbie dolls. Barbie dolls were always white with blonde hair, blue eyes, and the perfect hourglass figure, so girls of different ethnic and racial groups could not identify with her. She was no role model to them. Change was brought to diversify Barbie dolls so that girls will see someone like them and feel included and welcomed to play with the dolls. This scenario is similar with female leads in video games. Without good female leads, women feel excluded and uncomfortable joining the gaming community. But why not change, then?

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 Gaming companies purposefully release games with male leads because they believe that a game featuring a female lead just won’t sell. Ubisoft, when creating Assassin's Creed Odyssey, was originally going to create a solo female lead, Kassandra. Unbelievably, Ubisoft executives demanded a male optional lead be included because a female protagonist wouldn't sell games. This idea is inaccurate. Take Lara Croft, for example. Although her character design is meant to please a male audience, women were immediately drawn to Lara’s strong and intelligent character. 40% of the audience for Lara Croft was composed by women. It’s clear that female protagonists are not a lost cause, they can actually increase the number of potential consumers for gaming companies. And you know, it seems women are so desperate for good female leads, they would not care for the overly-sexualized body of a character like Lara so long as they are written well. To include well-written female leads like Lara open doors for women to feel welcomed and join the gaming community. They may feel more comfortable wearing their identities in public or follow professional careers in the gaming industry. Then, with more representation of women, with more girls saying ‘We belong here, too”, the gamer definition can change, and so can the gaming industry. 

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This type of change has been seen before. However, the absolute dominance of the gamer stereotype is so strong, it overshadowed an attempt at change. Fire Emblem, a video game franchise by Intelligent Systems, had a plethora of female characters to play with. The characters, although predominantly white, featured a decent amount of diversity, but more importantly had well written personalities and were not secondary characters. The demographics for these games are almost even, with certain games in the franchise having more female players and others more male. This was a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, when the franchise was taken to mobile gaming, Intelligent Systems started marketing to male players exclusively, backtracking on years of progress. The mobile version of the game was intended to bring all the characters in the franchise together to create a world where players can enjoy their favorite characters on the go. The game was made as a ‘gacha’ game. 

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In this genre of gaming, players try to win characters in a manner similar to loot boxes (it is a gambling system). The characters were redrawn from their original games to create a new, modern version. They would then be released on a ‘banner’, which is similar to being released as an event loot box. Gacha games are known for people spending hundreds of dollars to pull these characters. 

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When the game was new, banners always included two female and two male characters, an even 50:50 ratio. Within a year, banners included three female characters and one male character, with male characters being lackluster (lower in rarity and strength compared to the female released characters). Female character designs were also redrawn following the stereotypical design of female characters more often, straying from their original design. Characters that were originally fully armored were released in bandages just barely covering their cleavage. Heroes with normal hips apparently received some plastic implants because their sizes went from normal to huge badonkadonks. Battle art for these female characters showcased a lot, and I mean a lot of clothes ripping. The reason behind the changes? Intelligent Systems assumed men would pay more for female characters drawn in this manner than women would for male characters drawn in the same manner. A game with an originally memorable cast of female characters was suddenly changed back to follow stereotypes because it was assumed that the female characters as they were would not sell and that even if these same changes were made to the male characters, women would not pay as much for them. 

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In the image above, you can clearly see the transformation between two original female characters, Byleth and Rhea, and their newer version as examples of characters being catered towards men in Fire Emblem Heroes. Byleth and Rhea are from the game Fire Emblem: Three Houses. In this game, players have a choice to pick either a male or female avatar. Byleth is the female version of the avatar for players to choose. In other words, she was an opportunity for women to play as their own gender as a lead character. Her original purpose as the players representative was lost in her transfer to mobile. She instead was used to cash in money from male gamers who would like these new ‘upgrades’, ignoring the fact that she is a well loved character that most players would have sentimental attachments to (you play as your avatar for up to 200 hours, naturally players feel a connection to the avatar they pick). These changes are not subtle and are turn-offs for girls who chose Byleth to represent them from buying her. The intended audience is clear in the new version, and a character who originally brought representation for women in games fell victim to targeting audiences based on the warped idea that a gamer is male and that only men will pay extra for characters created like this.

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Naturally, as a fan of the original games, I was infuriated. I had been following the game since it’s release on mobile and, at first, loved the way the characters were revamped. But, seeing IS begin to follow the same tropes for male gamers disappointed me. Even with steps in the right direction, the idea that gamers are men and only they will pay money for video games is persistent enough to destroy progress. 

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The strange part is, mobile gaming is stereotyped to be a place for female gamers seeing as to how it is considered a casual gaming platform. People associate a gamer so strongly with men and the idea that only they will spend money on games that a girl is not considered a true member of the gaming community, even in the platform that is deemed more suitable to her. 

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Yet this idea that female characters have to be sexualized in order to sell has been proven wrong (Intelligent Systems had already proven this with their original games, but they fell back into the loop caused by the dominating ‘gamer’ stereotype). Recently, another game of the same genre, Genshin Impact, had been released on mobile, console, and PC. The player base for this game is virtually equal with men only playing the game slightly more than women. Instead of targeting the men in their audience, Genshin has seemingly taken a turn to target more women. With almost all of their released event characters being male, the game has still seen incredible success and revenue. Four out of the seven top characters to make the most money were male, with the top two being men. The female characters in the top seven list were not overly sexualized, with one being a beloved child character. Below are images of the top three characters paid for in the game. 

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To Ubisoft and IS, and all the other gaming companies out there, Genshin has done it. They have focused on developing well written characters, each with unique designs meant for both men and women, and have seen incredible success. 

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The label of ‘gamer’ has been fetishized to represent only half of the people out there who enjoy video games. People associate being a gamer with being a heterosexual male who spends hours upon hours a day playing video games and are willing to spend hundreds of dollars on video games and consoles. Gamers are not thought to be warm and kind, either. Instead, they are known for their toxic behavior in multiplayer games. With the term fetishized like this, women have a hard time wearing their gaming identity as publicly as men; it conflicts with the identity of a woman and creates uncomfortable situations. Under representation helps feed into this cycle. Without women in the gaming industry, without well-written female characters, girls don’t have role models to look up to. Instead, they feel like outsiders. Because of this, female gamers are nearly invisible to the eye. This makes it easy for gaming industries to ignore them and to use men as their target audience and continue to create nonsense female characters. Men won’t change their behavior towards women because they are ignorant of the fact that gaming is not just a place for men, but for women too. This makes it hard for women to integrate themselves into the gaming community because of the misconception behind being a gamer and creates an endless cycle where the fetish simply feeds into itself, creating a dominating effect over the community.

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The idea of a gamer needs to change, but in order for that to happen, people need to step up. Gaming industries need to explore targeting a wider audience before determining that a plan would fail. The stereotype of a gamer needs to be broken down further to allow for a more comfortable environment where a woman can be confident in the different aspects of her identity. Already, we can see that the stereotype has evolved-being a gamer used to be associated with being unattractive, nerdy, unpopular, yet this idea has already changed, who's to say it can’t change some more?