What are good ways to address sexism in video games?

I am a female art major who is interested in becoming a part of the game developing industry, however, as a woman I am still offended by much of the material presented in games. "Chain-mail bikinis" and the like. After the recent release of the game The Witcher I am particularly appalled by the over-use of sexual content and objectification of the female characters.





As a gamer and as a potential future developer, I would like advice on ways to address this issue.|||Beyond simply not buying games that have offensive depictions of women, there are two things you can do. First, you can set a standard for yourself regarding what types of games you will work on. I have made the personal decision that I will not work on any game that demeans women, or overly objectifies them. I would leave the game industry before I would work on a GTA game. I realize that limits my job prospects, but so far I haven't had to make that choice. There are many, many games out there that don't involve sexual content, ridiculous bust sizes, or objectification of women. They just aren't the ones that 19 year old male game reviewers focus on.





The second thing you can do is join the International Game Developers Association's (IGDA) Special Interest Group on Women in Game Development. They have a mailing list here: http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listin鈥?/a> which is very welcoming and supportive of students looking to get into the game industry. We discuss issues surrounding the image of female characters in games, the percentage of gamers who are female and their expectations, and the difficulties of working in an industry that is still 90% male. It's also a good way to hear about projects that don't objectify women and companies that value female game developers.|||Design a kick *** game that doe not include any of it. Then when you are the new boss, hire only people who see it your way.|||The gaming industry is too large and varied to have a real impact in this area (and I say this at the risk of sounding too negative).


I agree with you about the objectification of women, because you see even small undertones of it in harmless games like Need for Speed. But in order to make a change, you have to do it from within the system. Make female characters who are "real" (proportionally and everything else), and if the game is good, you will find support. But the key is making a kick *** game. Do that, and you will have created a strong vehicle for your message.





Edit: I just read the first answer and it's prettymuch identical, but I didn't read his first and then give this answer. We are just on the same page.