Just for those who do not understand the title, it is a culmination of all the reading article titles together. Anyways, talking about the actual readings, what was said holds very true even to this day in my opinion. The two articles, Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat and The Proteus Paradox, were both focused on the inequality of gender in the development work force of games, and the image of gender provided by games (even more specifically, female image and place in games). While the article Lara was focused on the development of the game Tomb Raider and its main protagonist, Lara Croft, as well as the impact the game had on society as a whole.

Reflecting over what Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat and The Proteus Paradox, both are scarily huge issues today when it come to games and the gaming community as a whole. Both go into discussion about how the social culture around games is very heavily male oriented and designed around the male fantasy. Now, speaking truthfully here, I too have a general concept that most “gamers” are males and I can’t help but express a split second of surprise when I hear about female playing a male dominated game (But don’t get me wrong, I do not believe games should be just for guys.). The reason I have this split second of surprise is largely due to the culture and experience I have had with games. Both of my sisters were never really into games, and it did not really help that when I talked about games, they gave me a look of confusion on how I could spend so much time into something that was not real. As well as, whenever I would play games, it would be with my guy friends together playing a game. These examples are similar to the examples the articles provided on why it has been so hard for females to get into the gaming industry, it is because it is really hard to change a social construct about who or what something is for.

Sadly, I do not see the industry having any real change anytime soon. Hopefully with time and the need to expand the market, females will have a more equal place in the gaming community. But with some communities being outright toxic, it will be hard to say when females will become a more normal idea of regular “gamers”. As with any change in the past, it will take a lot of effort for females to work through that initial prejudices and then work in gaming development community (where they will probably be looked down upon) until their place in the community becomes more normalized.

Now games do have their bright spots, shown in Tomb Raider with Lara Croft. The developers of the game did not have the intention of making Lara Croft overly sexualized and a male fantasy, unlike many female characters personas in games such as Mortal Kombat, World of Warcraft, and EverQuest. Lara Croft is a good example of a well rounded character, but I do concede in that she is not totally unbiased and gender neutral in ideality. But with her success, there came a better understanding in that by keeping body images neutral, they can tap a wider market by not turning off or disgusting potential players. Even today, with a new Tomb Raider game that has recently come out, Lara Croft can still be seen as a platform that developers and gamers can work off of in order to equalize gaming inequalities.

I would love to hear what you guys think, I know that some people disagree with the disparity between female gamers and male gamers and I would love to hear what they think. Sorry for sounding so doom and gloom though during the post, I do hope though for the best in gaming in the future.