To rerail the thread, I don't feel that there is a large sexism problem with games myself. That is, although sexist games exist, I feel that they are very much the minority. To investigate this, I decided to have a look at the games that I play. I'd encourage other people to do the same.
Here's the list of the games that I currently have installed on my laptop or lying around, with the exclusion of games that I got in humble bundles that I have not yet played.
Age of Empires 2
Age of Mythology
Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic
Arx Fatalis
Baldurs Gate 1+2
Bastion
Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead
Crusader Kings 2
Democracy 3
Diablo 2
Dwarf Fortress
The Escapists
Eternal Daughter
FTL
Gratuitous Space Battles
Hearthstone
Limbo
Neverwinter nights
N - The Way of the Ninja
Planescape - Torment
Pokemon red (via emulator)
Red Alert 2
Red Baron 2
Rollercoaster Tycoon
Rome Total War
Sim City 4
Starcraft: Brood War
Supreme Commander
TES4: Oblivion
TES5: Skyrim
The Sims
Thomas was Alone
Total Annihilation
Unreal Tournament 2004
VVVVV
Here's my assessment of gender equality in each of those games. Note that this is based off my recollection of the game, which in some cases is very old, and I may recall incorrectly, in which case feel free to point out my errors. I considered the gender of the protagonist, the gender of the NPCs, and if the depiction of the characters was unwarrantedly sexualised or revealing.
Age of Empires 2
All the military units are male. The resource gatherer units are equally likely to be male or female. The only exception I can think of is Joan of Arc, who appears in the campaign as a military unit. I deem the male bias as acceptable, as it is historical. The only excessive skin the male resource gatherers being shirtless.
Age of Mythology
Again, the military units are male and the resource gatherer units are mixed genders. There are also some female mythological units. The only non-mythological female characters are heroes of the campaign. I do not recall any excessive skin.
Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic
The more realistic soldier units are male. The more fantastic units are mostly nongendered. The heroes can be male or female, with no difference in stats. There is excessive skin on some of the portraits of the female heroes, but this is not depicted on the character models. There is one unit that is portrayed sexually - the nymph, which is a naked female with poor combat ability but the ability to seduce male units.
Arx Fatalis
The protagonist is a male. The humans are a mixture of male and female. The nonhuman races are depicted as exclusively male, with the exception of an exclusively female human/snake hybrid race. The female humans are non-martial and the female snakes are all spellcasters, whereas the males follow a variety of roles. There is no excess skin in the game. There is one implied sex scene, but it is just a fade to black.
Baldurs Gate 1+2
The protagonist can be male or female, with no stat differences resulting. The NPCs are a mixture of female and male. There is no excess skin in the game. In the second game, there are three romance options for male characters and one for female characters. Most of the romance options consist only of additional dialogue with the character, though the female romance option gives the romanced character additional stat points. There is no excess skin in the game.
Bastion
The protagonist is male, as are two of the three friendly NPCs. The majority of villains are animals, though some humanoids are fought near the end, of which some are male and some are female. The friendly NPCs take no part in the gameplay and are solely for narrative purposes. There is no excess skin in the game.
Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead
The protagonist can be male or female, but this has no effect on the game. The antagonists are genderless zombies. It's a roguelike, so the character is not depicted as anything more than a single letter.
Crusader Kings 2
The player can play as a male or female. Females can have the same base stats as males, but are heavily penalized in which options are available to them. I deem this acceptable, as it is meant to reflect the historical situation. The characters are depicted only as portraits, so there is no excess skin.
Democracy 3
There is no real protagonist, and hence no gender. There are no NPCs either.
Diablo 2
There are four male protagonist options and three female. Both genders have access to the same number of stat points, but different skill trees. The friendly NPCs are a mixture of female and male. The hostile NPCs are a mixture of female, male and genderless, with female the minority. The hostile female often show an impractical amount of skin.
Dwarf Fortress
I think everybody here is familiar with dwarf fortress.
The Escapists
The protagonist is male, as are all the NPCs. I deem this acceptable, as the game is set in prison. There is some nudity, but it is hardly revealing given the graphics style.
Eternal Daughter
The protagonist is female. The majority of the NPCs are male. Although many of the humanoid characters are naked, these are sludge-like characters, and it is not sexualized. The more human-appearing characters are not sexualized.
FTL
The characters are nongendered. The majority of the gameplay is spaceship battles.
Gratuitous Space Battles
This is just spaceship battles, no genders here.
Hearthstone
The creatures are a mix of male, female and nongendered. There is armour, both practical and impractical, on both genders.
Limbo
The protagonist is male. There are no humanoid NPCs, and the art style makes sexualization impossible.
Neverwinter Nights
The protagonist can be male or female. The NPCs are a mix of male and female, both friendly and hostile. There are no differences in the game mechanics or the plot whether you are male or female. None of the character models or portraits are sexualized.
N - The Way of the Ninja
The protagonist is a stick figure, and there are no NPCs.
Planescape - Torment
The protagonist is male, and the NPCs are a mixture of male and female. There are no game mechanic differences between male and female. The character models are not sexualized, but some of the portraits are.
Pokemon red (via emulator)
The only gender in this version is the nidoran family, where the evolutions are both strong, with high stats in different areas.
Red Alert 2
The soldiers in this game are all male. The cutscenes feature a mix of males and females. the only female soldier is Tanya, the hero unit. None of the characters are sexualized.
Red Baron 2
This is a WW1 flying simulator. All the pilots are male, though do not appear in the game. The male dominance is acceptable, given the historical setting.
Rollercoaster Tycoon
There is no protagonist in the game. The NPCs do not have gender either.
Rome Total War
The major characters and the minor characters are all male. I again deem this acceptable due to the historical setting.
Sim City 4
There is no protagonist, and the NPCs do not have gender.
Starcraft: Brood War
The units are a mixture of male and female, mostly male. The hero characters from the campaign are mostly male, with Kerrigan as the only female. There is no sexualization of the characters.
Supreme Commander
This is just a bunch of robots shooting each other. No gender here.
TES4: Oblivion
TES5: Skyrim
The protagonist can be male or female. The NPCs can be male or female. In oblivion, the starting stats are slightly differently distributed based on gender, but the total is the same and the stats can be improved on level up. There is no sexualization in the games, though the mod community is famous for changing that.
The Sims
The characters can be male or female, with no difference between the two, nor is the any sexualization (beyond the heavily obscured act of sex)
Thomas was Alone
The characters are all rectangles, assigned personalities by the narrator. No sexualization here.
Total Annihilation
Robots and explosions, no gender to be found.
Unreal Tournament 2004
The characters are a mix of male and female. Both males and females can be found practically attired and impractically attired.
VVVVV
The protagonist is male, and the NPCs are a mix of male and female. They are essentially stick figures, though, so no sexualization.
And my conclusions:
There were seven games with strictly male protagonists, one with a strictly female protagonist, and six with a choice between male and female. There were twenty games without a protagonist, of which ten were battle command style games, with mostly male or robotic armies.
The only games with depictions of women that I didn't find equal or acceptably unequal were age of wonders and diablo 2, the former of which only had a single unit depicted unsatisfactorily.
Although there were quite a few games with majority male characters, these tended to be games heavy on combat. Of the games with less focus on combat, or in non-combat scenes, there was no absence of male or female characters.
also, 71 new replies. Damn, that took some time to type.
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Topic: Females in Games? Thread (Read 166738 times)