This one.
I just don't think that the ability to recognise anagrams is going to be affected by the theme of the games you're playing (unless it's edutainment I suppose).
So... basically you think they faked the results?
Here's the thing. Any character you encounter in a video-game, has absolutely zero agency.
Within the context of the game's story? Nonsense.
To use an extreme example, take nearly any female follower from the Mass Effect games. The depth of the characters in those games made them seem like something other than an achievement to tick off or a purely mechanical set of stats and abilities to round out a party for any given mission. They were all sexual characters, even sexualised to a degree, but each demonstrated considerable agency as a character within the universe of the game. They all had their own goals and motivations, independent of the main character and interwoven with the main plot.
Now not every game is that type of game, so you won't have that sort of depth universally. But I just wanted to make the point that characters can have agency within the context of the game they are in, in much the same way that characters in TV, films and books can have agency as well. It's a question of writing rather than medium.
I was on a forum once and someone took the standpoint that how women are represented in videogames is a syptom of a larger problem in reality. I tend to take this view on it, you want women to change in video games you need women in reality or at least the perception of women in reality to change.
Well, yes, except it's
people in reality, not women. Right on perceptions though. It's pretty obvious that this is about changing culture and attitudes towards women at large.
Video games are an aspect of culture and influence it in turn. You can't separate the two. But sometimes some aspects of culture are easier to change than others. Video games being a relatively young and accessible industry it might be easier to impact them than other, larger, more established aspects.
I know this comes across as jerkish and I get that that is the intention behind trying to get games to change but changing games may have an affect in making young females make the choice to be different than what is expected, but it does little or nothing about the current situation.
I think you are viewing this as an attempt at social engineering through video games. That's not it at all. I'd say that these are the main desirable goals;
1) Make video games an equal playing field where men and women are both welcome, as players, developers, critics, whatever.
2) Increase awareness of harmful sexist stereotypes and tropes
present in all media by exploring them in video games.
3) Hope that this maybe results in a reduction in their use in mainstream games.
"harmful tropes" is purely my term, not attributable to anyone else. I use it because I view the thoughtless use of said tropes as encouraging depictions of women in games that can be harmful in ways related through the various studies both linked in the recent reference links and in various others I've posted/read in the past.