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关于有无必要特别针对女性开发游戏的思考

发布时间:2014-04-11 09:15:10 Tags:,,,

作者:Itzhak Wolkowicz

我最近同一名Facebook好友陷入了关于游戏中性别平等问题的争执,这名女性玩家声称以色列游戏行业缺乏女孩类型的游戏。她称当地的女孩仍然只能玩芭比娃娃,而男孩却有许多鼓励竞争和提升想象力的门户网站等场所。

我个人经历与此不同,尤其是在涉及Flash游戏网站和虚拟游戏世界(这在以色列很普遍)时——在我看来数字游戏在所有性别的年轻人中都很浒,而像我们这种数据为导向的行业总会下意识地将女性玩家排除在外,似乎这并不是一个很好的商业操作。

sexism(from whitmanpioneer.com)

sexism(from whitmanpioneer.com)

我对该好友的回答是,关于女性玩家实际上需要不同的内容这种观念对我来说有点性别歧视和冒犯意味。我纯粹是出于自觉地回答这个问题——我个人观点认为女性应该被平等对待,并且可以选择自己喜欢的任何内容(反之亦然,男孩子也应该能够玩芭比娃娃)。隔离任何一种性别,在我看来都是违反效率的做法。必须指出的是,我并非女权主义者,我也清楚平等对待男女并非现代女权主义者所认为的最佳解决方案。我尽量让自己看起来显得公正和道德。因此,我是基于以下原因形成了我们应该公平对待所有人的观点:

1.被我们许多人视为一种艺术形式,或者产品或者二者兼而有之的游戏,应该成为一种提升女性地位的工具吗?

女性玩家确实存在,许多年轻的女孩也玩并不区分性别的游戏——为何我们需要特意针对某一性别制作游戏呢?

2.先有鸡还是先有蛋?——在我们的例子中:究竟是游戏催生了性别歧视和性别角色,还是性别歧视和性别角色决定了我们所玩的游戏类型?

3.题材——是否存在瞄准特定性别的特定题材?动作(暴力)以及赛车游戏就是会排斥女性玩家的题材吗?赛车游戏对女孩来说就不好玩了吗?也许这是一个关于不同游戏行为的问题。

4.内容——电子游戏中是否存在主张性别歧视的特定内容?是否存在以女孩为主并且不主张性别歧视的内容?我们的游戏中缺少哪类“女性友好型”内容?这与“虚拟芭比娃娃”有何区别?

5.混合性别的游戏门户网站——是否会排斥女性玩家?单一性别的游戏门户网站(游戏邦注:例如特别针对女孩玩家创造的门户网站)与单一性别教育有何不同?

6.我们游戏行业中的女性显然少于男性,这会对游戏设计产生什么影响,女性游戏设计师又能够带来哪些男性设计师不具备的优势?是否存在那些由女性设计并因此而具有内在“区别”的优秀游戏例子?

7.游戏仍然被视为“男孩专利”吗?如果是——原因是什么?这种言论又该如何解释手机游戏市场中诸如《Candy Crush Saga》等游戏的主要玩家是女性这一现象?(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,拒绝任何不保留版权的转载,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

Can we make good games for *Everybody*?

by Itzhak Wolkowicz

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community.

The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

I’ve recently entered a debate with a Facebook friend about gender equality in games – the friend, a female gamer, claimed that we (the Israeli game industry) lack girl oriented games. She claimed that girls still play with Barbie dolls (even if virtual ones) and young boys have a many boy-oriented portals that encourage competition and promote imagination using fantasy.

My own experience is different, especially if we talk about Flash gaming portals and virtual gaming worlds (which are common in Israel) – it always seemed to me that digital games are very popular among young people of all genders, and that a data-driven industry as ours would consciously exclude female gamers as it’s not a good business practice.

I’ve answered my friend that the mere notion in which female gamers actually need a different content seemed to me somewhat sexist and offensive.  I gave this answer out of pure intuition – my personal views dictate that woman should be treated equally, and as such, can choose whatever content they like (and vice-versa, boys should be able to play with Barbie dolls, there is nothing wrong with that either). Segregation of any sort always seemed to me like a counter-productive approach. It must be said – I’m not educated in Feminism and I’m aware that giving equal treatment for both men and women isn’t always considered the optimum solution by modern feminist approaches. I try to act as I perceive right and moral. Hence it’s my opinion that what we seek is to treat everyone with equality and I base my questions according to that:

Do games, which many of us either see as a form of art, or a product, or both – should be used as a tool to promote empowerment for women?

Female gamers do exist, and many young girls play games that are not gender oriented – why do we need games that are built specifically for either gender?

Which came first? Was it the chicken or the egg? – In our case: Is it the games that contribute to sexism and gender roles, or is it sexism and gender roles that dictate the games we play?

Genres – are specific genres oriented toward specific genders? Are Action (violence) and Racing games necessarily genres that exclude female gamers? Are racing games not fun for girls? Maybe it’s a question of different gaming behavior (multi-tasking, shorter attention span)?

Content – is there a specific content in video games that promotes sexism?
Is there a content that can be oriented toward girls and NOT promote sexism? What type of ‘female-friendly’ content do we lack in games? How does that differ from ‘virtual-barbies’?

Mixed-sex gaming portals – do those exclude female gamers in anyway? How are single-sex gaming portals (i.e. creating portals specifically for girl gamers) differ from single-sex education?

We definitely have fewer women than man in the game industry, how does that affect game-design and what can female game-designers bring to the table that man can’t? Are there any good examples of games that are inherently ‘different’ because they were designed by women?

Is gaming still considered a ‘boys club’? If so – why? And how much of this claim applies to the mobile market, where, for example, games such as Candy Crush Saga are being played by more women than men?(source:gamasutra


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