Or my comment on the rumours around Activision’s “evil” game-making practices.

My attention on the article in question was drawn by Dilyan, who wrote a post about it earlier this week.

So, insiders are saying that Activision insists on male lead characters in the games in order to boost its sales, and people think it’s bad.

Hit the jump to read the rest.

I have to admit, when Dilyan first told me about the article I was angry. Why demonise a company for trying to find the best strategy to make more profit and why deny the truth — gaming is still considered a male-dominated domain by the majority of people. It isn’t the company’s fault that it attempts to follow the demand on the market.

However, there should be articles and reports posing questions about the place of women in gaming. It is good to ask questions, make noise, talk about something you want to change.

As a girl gamer I’ve always been regarded as a “geek”, “freak”, “nerd”, “strange” or an “addict” by all other girls I know.  So, society which is so willing to judge a company for “discriminatory” practices against females is not ready to hear or accept that girls and women are part of the gaming world.

Maybe we should want companies to be show females in games more often and as centre characters and not just little hotties pumping up the lead male’s libido. A change, however, cannot be made by the businesses for which games are only the product they sell. Society should help as well. In the past, many problems with discrimination have been solved by introducing the so-called quotas – quota for African-Americans in movies, quota for students from minorities in colleges and universities etc. Currently, a big issue in Germany is the introduction of a quota for females in top-level management at big enterprises. Maybe it is not a bad idea to have a quota for female characters in games. A regulation like that could help achieve a balance between male- and female-led games.

What would a female quota in games mean for the sector market? — It would raise demand for such games.

Why would that happen? — Because the number of playing females would increase.

What things look like now? — There are many cool games that mainly appeal to boys. The lead characters in most of those games are strong males that the players can identify with. If the players are male that is. On the other hand, there are a few strong, great lead female characters who girls could identify with. If that changes, the market demand would eventually change. More girls playing, more game sales and everybody is happy.

The female rights issue is for society to deal with, because society cares for respect and tolerance and the upstanding of moral standards. If society wants to have new rules to impose on businesses it should be active and not stand in the corner and judge. What I mean is that we have much more control over what the future of gaming would look like than we give ourselves credit for.