Why are video games so violent? The ones I've seen remind me of the 4th of July, with everything exploding, buildings, cars, airplanes, men and women. Kill, kill, and kill for sport and entertainment.
Video games seem to be mostly a boy thing -- viewed by young boys and created by big boys. I believe that if more videos games were created by women, the violence in these games -- especially against women -- would be rapidly toned down.
There's one catch, however. To design these games women have to become computer scientists. Yes, they have to enter a field, which has increasingly been dominated by men, and it's getting worse, not better. While enrollment in math, science and even engineering has been growing for women, computer science is moving the other way. In 1985, 38 percent of computer scientists were women. That figure has plummeted to 17 percent in some years.
A group of Vermont women formed a new networking organization for women in science, math and engineering and finance to encourage more women. A group of Harvard students recently revived a long dormant organization, Women in Computer Sciences. Why?
They discovered that the percentage of women in the field fell from 42 percent in the class of 2013, to 22 percent in the class of 2014.
Why is computer science a good field for women? For one thing, that's where the jobs are, and for another, the pay is better than for many jobs, and finally, it's easier to combine career and family.
But that's not all. Yes, you may get a job at Facebook or Microsoft, but there's more at stake.
"If you completely shut out the entire feminine perspective on the world, you are going to have a different set of products," the president of Harvey Mudd College, Maria Klawe, told Judy Woodruff on the PBS News Hour. The presence of women in computer labs will determine what kind of medical devices get created, what kind of products we buy.
Boys often get attracted to computer science because they like to watch video games. When women begin to create those games, more girls will begin to watch them too, and by the time they start college, they'll be hooked, not only on playing games, but also on a career in computer science. This is how greater gender equality can enrich all of our lives.
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Up to 97% of characters you have to kill, torture, mutilated etc in videogame are males, yes the videogames are more market toward men but these same videogames are mostly represented in worlds where males are victims of violence by other males.
"To design these games women have to become computer scientists. Yes, they have to enter a field, which has increasingly been dominated by men, and it's getting worse, not better. While enrollment in math, science and even engineering has been growing for women, computer science is moving the other way. In 1985, 38 percent of computer scientists were women. That figure has plummeted to 17 percent in some years."
So where are the "girls outperforming boys" people? when men became minority on colleges, it was celebrate by feminists and others as proof that women are better, BUT suddenly men are still dominating STEM is the "worse" could happen.
On a side note, a couple universities have tried pushing this pitch about programming games in general which, not so suprisingly, has been myth. There isn't currently a shortage of coders for gaming companies. I'd b curious to see what the enrollment rates for CS degrees are in total at the moment, as that industry has also been offshored to a significant degree.
True, there aren't enough women in video games, but there ARE women in places of power...for example, the hit game Portal 2, one of the best.games.ever! was created by a woman, as was the extremely popular Assassin's Creed. On the RPG/Sim side, the Harvest Moon series are mostly designed by women. A half-hour of research on your part will result in many, many more examples. I don't think the crowd is going to go after this "raw meat", because we're much more informed than in the days of the PMRC.
Having software engineering as a strength is fine, but I have found labor practices in the field to be exploitative and short sighted. You are viewed as over the hill by your 40's.
I have been doing computer and system security since the 1980's and am 60 and still going. But until the employment practices are moved from sweatshop conditions structured around expendable and replaceable standardized "resources" I do not recommend going into the field.
It is quite possible to build stable and supportive team environments that are much better for the worker - and productivity, but it requires a more thoughtful and competent management style than is currently widespread.
I hope not.
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This is reverse sexism thinking, which is totally out dated. It erroneous to suggest that women cannot have the same violent and aggressive mind set as men with the growth of women in the military, gay women, and female officials like Margret Thatcher, Janet Reno, Madeleine Albright, and Hillary Clinton.
Hillary Clinton encouraged the aggression in Libya and viewed the assassination of Bin Laden, both acts that many men found disturbing!
So I challenge this author’s claim that women designers would guarantee less violent video games; consumer demand is what drive video design.
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Naaah! No way, pal. It is lack of imagination that drives the inclusion of violence in video games. A designer will create a great virtual world for players to explore and be in, then the design team have to think up things to do in this world. Mm. What to do? Something that any one can do? Fight! Let's give'em weapons and have fights. We'll have challenges, missions, tasks and quests so we can have lost of fights. Yeh!
Reason demand for violent video games is currently market led is because designers have been stuck for ideas for twenty years. TWENTY YEARS! Bring in the girls!
That's not because they are out of ideas. It's because it is a money making machine.
If you want games to be less violent, that's fine. I will simply not play those games. People complain about the violence in movies and on television, but they are acceptable and legitimate avenues of escape, they are fantasy; only video games come under such harsh scrutiny. Women being involved in the process isn't going to change the culture of gaming. Sorry.
Computer science has nothing to with it except the mechanics of the game.
Not bashing you...rather suggesting you look at the Mechanics of things.....of life and females vs males. Females tend to be more creative/ imaginative..males tend to numbers, get it done, and yes or no .......here's the difference and what I believe is the HUGE point you should have made:
ALL GAMES ALL Computer app's .......need "maybe"....Yes, as a programer myself, I understand all too well how either 0 or 1 ...no or yes decides everthing. We don't have 2.....MAYBE........but I believe it will be a woman that will come up with 2. That's what the world needs..a 2 ...a maybe. Maybe we do not need to do a viscious GET GIRLS INTO SCIENCE AND MATH program ...maybe we need to let girls be girls.....2 will never exist less something drastict happens to a transistor......but a female- being female, will pose one day the correct question to a binary system that will make it actually consider "maybe".. .