Final Thoughts and Concluding Comments

Introduction

The computer games industry is a major entertainment and leisure activity for many children and adults across the globe. The games industry is firmly established as a major feature of the contemporary media landscape in many parts of the world. As we have highlighted throughout this book, the industry is big business and has a significant impact in terms of both its economic and cultural impact on society today. The cultural impact of the industry and the games they produce is of particular relevance when considering the gender divide in computer games since games influence today’s culture and media landscape. Throughout this book we have highlighted why the issue of gender and computer games is a pertinent and important issue, as well as a timely issue. A number of recent developments and technological advances have significantly impacted gaming in who plays games and where they play them. Firstly, the Internet and the emergence of online multi-players means that gamers do not need a gaming console but can play games through a PC, as well as allowing gamers to play against one another and collaborate in team games with players around the world. Secondly the emergence of wireless platforms, enabling players to play games on mobile phones (smartphones) and other handheld gaming devices. We have aimed to give readers an overview of key areas to consider in assessing gender and computer games. Importantly, we wanted to highlight the multifaceted factors involved in perpetuating and reinforcing the image that computer games are a male domain. This is especially so when considering who develops and produces computer games as well as the content of games which we argue in support of other researchers that one influences the other. In that, the content of games influences who is interested in playing computer games, which influences who desires to work in the industry, which in turn influences the content of the games, all based on gender assumptions.

We have demonstrated how a multiplicity of interacting factors influences the gendering of computer games. From the consumption to the production of games females are viewed as ‘other’, and outside of the mainstream computer games industry and gaming culture. The objective of the book was to provide the reader with a broad overview of how computer games are gendered at the detriment of girls and women reinforcing and perpetuating the view that computer games, as technology is viewed, a male domain. In particular, the book has considered how computer games are gendered through the content of the actual game, how games are played, where they are played and the reasons for playing them. The book has also considered how the production of games is also gendered and this perpetuates the industry and games as male since games are produced with not only a male audience in mind but also designed from a male perspective and view point. It is this male perspective in the design of games that has led to the underrepresentation of women within games as well as the hyper sexualisation of females in games, potentially leading to less female gamers and an underrepresentation of female game workers. The main premise of this book has been to consider the ways in which computer games are gendered and consider how this gendering may be addressed in order to close the gap between the gendered digital divide of games.