Portrayal of gender Video game controversies

some scholars have expressed concern video games may have effect of reinforcing sexist stereotypes. in 1998, study dietz, conducted @ university of central florida, found of thirty-three games sampled, 41% did not feature female characters, 28% sexually objectified women, 21% depicted violence against women, , 30% did not represent female population @ all. furthermore, characterizations of women tended stereotypical: highly sexualized ( visions of beauty large breasts , hips ), dependent ( victim or proverbial damsel in distress ), opponents ( evil or obstacles goal of game ), , trivial ( females depicted in non-significant roles ). however, study criticized not including wide range of video games study , including old games published twenty years ago not represent current industry standards, example, increased presence of strong female characters.

in 2002, kennedy considered characteristics of character, lara croft in tomb raider video game series. presented beautiful, clever, athletic, , brave english archaeologist-adventurer. lara croft has achieved popularity both males , females action heroine, although depending on perspective applied can either represent positive role model young girls or combination of eye , thumb candy boys . dietz s findings supported survey commissioned in 2003 children now. survey found gender stereotypes pervade video games: male characters (52%) more females (32%) engage in physical aggression; 20% of female characters hyper-sexualized in way, while 35% of male characters extremely muscular.

in 2004, game developer, eidos, remodeled lara croft tomb raider: legend. character modified have more believable figure less revealing clothing. in 2005, terry flew, academic, expressed similar opinion: gender bias , stereotyping exists in many games. male characters portrayed hard bodied, muscled men while female characters portrayed soft bodied, naked women large breasts, portrayed in narrowly stereotypical manner. females constructed visual objects in need of protection wait male rescue, whereas men portrayed more power. according flew, such depiction of females in games reflects underlying social ideas of male dominance , themes of masculinity. although not video games contain such stereotypes, flew suggests there enough make general trait , ...different genders have different gaming.