Letters to the Editor

Otaku

The author makes loads upon loads of sweeping generalizations, and likens every male gamer to a pre-pubescent boy, eagerly picking up the next volume of Dead or Alive: Beach Volleyball so we can stare at exposed breasts. Not only is this an intensely sexist view, but it's outright wrong - most men think the way women are represented in games is absurd.

A much more worthwhile examination on the nature of the "female monster" could have been conducted if the author, rather than trying to convince me of the inherent evil my genitalia confers, had actually studied Japan's culture. Most of our games are the product of Japanese, not American, developers, and it's a gross and erroneous generalization to assume that the same pathologies extend from Japanese developers to American consumers. The "woman monster and monstrous woman" has a long and rich tradition in Japan, and its examination would probably grant much more insight into how and why female monsters occur the way that they do. Furthermore, Japan's cultural struggle with sexuality and gender equality, not America's, is much more relevant to the portrayal (or lack thereof) of true female heroes.

-A. Abadi

To the Editor: You forgot one aspect of why female parts are so sexy - it was answered so simply and shortly by a game developer I asked when I saw him making just such a character - "Because we don't have girlfriends."

With the reported long work hours that many of the developers put in, they just don't have time to develop the fully rounded interpersonal relationships needed for a fulfilled life. Oh yes, as a father, I found the sexy female as a turn off, even for me.

-K. W. Randolph

To the Editor: We all feel the pinch of the lack of "diversity" (a horrible buz word that is dangerous to use) in gaming. The demographic is horribly one sided and I think your articles this week have done a great job at showing this imbalance.

I am a graduate student at a tech university in MA. The school population is 92% male. Being a hardcore gamer and a student in this environment is a double-whammy of girl-less-ness. I know no one wants girls to game more than male gamers do. The obvious questions posed by these articles, is how do we get girls to game (or study Computer Science so they can develop the games and then improve the female-motivated content)?

The one point I felt that was left out throughout all of these pieces was the need for grass-roots style campaign to increase children's affinity for intellectual pursuits. Give your daughter a DS instead of a Barbie doll!

You ask a child what they want to be when they grow up and I'm guessing they don't say software developer, electrical engineer or inventor (I did, but I was weird, right?). The other side of the coin is that they aren't going to reply fireman, doctor or whale biologist either, anymore. Pop culture now dictates what we want to be and its pigeon-holing us into anti-intellectualism. The nut of the problem is how to make intellectualism cool.

-Andy