I just finished reading through Zoe Flower s excellently researched article on the representation of women in gaming. While Flower does an great job of getting comments from game designers and publishers, offering up a variety of voices on the topic, she fails to include the most important voice: Her own. Flower does talk a bit about her own opinion at the end, but really fails to synthesize the information she has gathered into any single, strong opinion.

I just finished reading through Zoe Flower s excellently researched article on the representation of women in gaming. While Flower does an great job of getting comments from game designers and publishers, offering up a variety of voices on the topic, she fails to include the most important voice: Her own. Flower does talk a bit about her own opinion at the end, but really fails to synthesize the information she has gathered into any single, strong opinion.

Sure the game industry is growing and the more women in the industry, the more games will be created to appeal to them. But what s Flower s take on Lara Croft? Was she the best or worst thing to ever happen to women in games? What about Playboy: The Mansion? Can you create a game based on the objectification of women, that is instead a celebration of women?

I m not surprised to read that the designers of these games say they are doing everything they can to be tasteful, but doesn t that sort of fly in the face of Playboy: The Mansion s senior designer talking ad nauseum about breast physics?

Games are still created to make money, not be social commentary. As long as we as an industry are focused on profit and panache, style over substance, then you can hardly expect developers to move beyond depicting woman as an unattainable mix of busty and trim or creating games based on mud wrestling.

Getting the Girl [1Up]

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