The gaming sector has joined the movement of the gender-neutral. That’s why the industry of video games has changed its thoughts to make games more gender-neutral and has tried to stop the domination of one gender over another.
The adaptation of an industry
Since #metoo and the fight about genders, the video game industry has decided to change. Nowadays, there are plenty of video games that you can play. For a long time, the male has been dominating female characters in all of the arts like cinema, paintings, and video games. Indeed, there are games in which domination between characters is necessary for the goal of the game, but shamely, this domination is often translated by gender domination.
With the expansion of the video games industry, there are games for everyone: if you are a girl, you can check the PS4 games for girls list.
Many video game studios start to change
With the passage of time, games are getting more and more inclusive. For the moment, independent studios are much more invested in these questions than the big ones. But, there are multiple famous games that have gay romances like in Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey or Dragon Age. On the gender-neutral question, many new games like Animal Crossing or Sims 4 allow every player to wear the clothes they want and choose who they want to be.
Indeed, there is still a long way to go because, when you start a game, there is a 70% chance to be asked what gender you want to play: a boy or a girl.
Treyarch tried but failed
Many video game studios have been trying to be gender-friendly but, for the moment, they have failed. For example, Call Of Duty: Cold War beta was released a few weeks ago and the gender choosing brings issues. In fact, this game provides three genders options for players to choose from: male, female, and classified.
This last option is meant to be a non-binary option but the labeling « classified » is hamfisted. For the press, the classified option felt like gender should be classified for some dangerous reasons. Dan Bunting, from the studio Treyarch, says that this option was meant to be mysterious.
To conclude, there is another issue with this game: the players are serving President Ronald Reagan, who was known for being homophobic. Creating a non-binary character to work under this President’s orders doesn’t make any sense for the press and players.