How important do you think video game women are to kids' perspectives on gender?

I was thinking the other day about Chun Li in the Street Fighter games. She was really a rather breakthrough character, in that she was the first one (so far as I know) to be a hero rather than damsel. Moreover, she was not created as an inferior fighter to the males. Of the 8 original characters, she was the fastest fighter (hence the one I was the best at till I got to play Vega.)





Contrast this with video games in the early 80s. Any females would either be nonexistant or objects to be rescued--a trend that continued well after Chun Li in some cases. I never thought of women as lessers, as a child. I know some people have strong female role models in their real life, but I didn't, and not everyone else did either. Sometimes stories are all you have to go by.





So how important do you think this is anyway? For all those kids who have no other strong woman in their world, how much difference do you think a video game character can make?|||I think it can make a huge difference. As someone who plays video games like crazy, I know about the hours one can invest into it. RPGs, for instance, can take up to 80 hours of game play, and most RPGs in the last 10-15 years have had plenty of strong female characters, usually fully dressed, even though the primary lead character is male most of the time. For instance, right now I'm playing Xenosaga, and about half the playable characters so far are female or female looking androids, only one of which really shows any flesh.





Other games I like such as the Resident Evil series and Parasite Eve have strong female lead characters who definitely look hot but are dressed reasonably and can kick ***. For instance, Aya Brea from Parasite Eve is a New York City police detective who looks good but her outfit is basically jeans, t-shirt, and a leather jacket.





So these days, you can have a video game that satisfies my "horny adolescent bloodlust" side without compromising the women characters involved. Everyone wins.





Unfortunately, it seems that it's the Grand Theft Auto type games that have everyone's attention (I don't mind violence in video games- nothing I enjoy more than blowing heads off zombies in RE 2- but beating up hookers is a bit sadistic for my tastes). But really, most games on the market aren't like that.





EDIT: Well, kicking *** is usually not her only redeeming characteristic; women in these games are often quick witted and intelligent. For isntance, Shion, the lead in Xenosaga is a genius who is in charge of the development of a powerful battle android called KOS-MOS. And as far as attractiveness goes, how many unattractive lead male characters are there?





To Robinson: I actually haven't played Xenogears, though I really want to. I've played most major RPGs since the early 90s; that's one of the few I couldn't get my hands on.|||When it comes to videogames and the process of creating a world in their mind, it all comes down to how they are raised. If they are raised to think not to think as women as lesser beings, then it wouldn't matter if they only play games that only have the female as damsels in distress and that goes with any other situation. But games can act as a trigger for a way of thinking if they let it happen.





PS: Videogames aren't the real world.|||I think they need to put some clothes on them. They are turning women into objects at an early age. Then they grow up and watch porn.|||Xenosaga, eh KoreaGuy?!





Did you play the original Xenogears? Best RPG ever in my opinion.





On another note, maybe the whole concept of being scantily clad is tied a little more to action and less to something with an actual story...





Parasite Eve was awesome too- I played that game at least three times, which is more than I can say for just about anything else. Great game with a great female lead.





I think stories and games like that kind of make you disappointed with reality, though.





Getting more to the point... this is a difficult question for me to answer, because I can't make a judgment call as to how video games affected me in relation to gender, but I do have a mother, so that kind of botches up my perspective on this.|||Videogames and especially computergames are waaay to technically and to stressfull to be considered "fun" by the vast majority of girls. Chunli is an early thomb raider meaning throwing in juggs in the product so that guys have something to look at.|||hehe, do you remember "justin bailey?"





in the 80s, Metroid broke the mold by having Samus Aran appear as a female. It was meant to be a HUGE surprise because there were no strong female characters in games of that era. The instruction manual even called Samus a male.





the thing about fighting game female characters is that they are always portrayed to be beautiful, thin, agile and fast. women in these games never get to be heavy hitters, and they're always ballerina-like, with acrobatic moves and dance worthy choreography.





Street fighter 3 third strike did have Makoto, the boyish looking young girl who packs a wallop. But fast, weak, and pretty characters like Xianghua, Sophitia, and Talim (soul calibur) far outnumber these exceptions.





we all know how popular (and profitable) games are, but they are not the only source of socialization for young people. women can be objectified in any form of entertainment. i don't think this is unique to video games.





but in the case of games, a lot of times it's based on fighting, shooting guns, ect, and that's not something that is commonly associated with women. a fantasy or sci fi setting helps sometimes because it lets the developers be a bit more flexible with that kind of thing.





the key is to not let these things become the only influence, and to always be aware that girls play video games now too.