For the past four years, the organisation Feminist Frequency has looked into the gender breakdown of games featured at E3, an annual event for the video games industry to introduce and advertise their upcoming games.

 

Every year the figure wavers between seven and nine per cent of all games having exclusively playable female protagonists. Last year, only eight per cent of games featured lead female protagonists. This was nine games out of 118 featured at the conference. Meanwhile, over three times as many games had solely male protagonists.

 

It is important that female representation in video games is addressed. Games like 2017’s Horizon Zero Dawn and the upcoming The Last of Us 2 feature set female protagonists, meaning that players must experience those worlds through the lens of a woman.

 

These games work towards normalising the idea that male gamers can project themselves onto and identify with female protagonists, just as female players have done with male characters.

 

Dr Linda Kaye, a cyberpsychologist at Edge Hill University, says that the overwhelming number of male characters are due to the stereotype that men are more dominant and competent. “That’s possibly why a lot of game designers put more male characters. It’s a cycle and these assumptions make male characters seem more useful and beneficial for gameplay,” she says.

 

‘Rose’ is an EA Game Changer, which means she is granted early access to gameplay and is able to give feedback to developers. She says that a common issue she comes across is female characters being written with little personality and made to cater to men's fantasies. “Video games need balance and I'm so glad that so many female creators live in this day and age, where gaming doesn't have to be taboo anymore and we're being considered in the designing process,” she says.

 

It is unlikely that there will be more female-focused games featured at E3 this June, but Dr Kaye adds that there are social movements and efforts to get more women in STEM: “There’s a big outreach to get girls into coding and that’ll take time. Those participating in that now are children, so in the next 10 or 20 years we may see more women seeking employment in the gaming industry, which will be a huge step for gender representation.”