The Gaming Industry Should Market to Women

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As soon as the video game world pressed the start button on their business, they never stopped playing. Like any video game, they hit major checkpoints and beat levels. From Pac-Man with joysticks to Angry Birds on iPads, the video game industry has a consistent history of success. Today, everyone knows someone who plays or has played a video game. New games and gaming consoles are constantly being advertised and released. They are even an entertaining method of keeping people up with the growth of technology. According to Melissa Terlecki, a psychology professor, “Involvement and experience with current computerized technologies…is important to provide both men and women…Because computer video games are a seamless lead-in to the technological age, those who are not playing may be at a disadvantage.” However, as the industry got more and more successful, its target audience became narrower. Since boys were playing their games more often, the industry started focusing on its male buyers. Games were designed that made men the dominant characters and disregarded women. However, industries didn’t realize that by doing this, it was losing a huge part of its business: female gamers. This was doing more harm to the industry’s economics than good. Sexism in video games is a prevalent problem and is economically harmful because it steers girl gamers away from the video game industry. Many vintage video games had female protagonists that were financially successful without having to be sexualized. The first ever video games appeared during the 1950s, but the industry itself began in 1971 and developed its first successful games, such as the still popular Space Invaders. It was a huge jumpstart to the industry’s successful time period o... ... middle of paper ... ... Yasmin B. Kafai et al. N.p.: MIT P, 2011. 5-7. Literary Reference Center. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. Salter, Anastasia, and Bridget Blodgett. “Hypermasculinity & Dickwolves: The Contentious Role of Women in the New Gaming Public.” Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 56.3 (2012): 401-16. EBSCO eBook Collection. Web. 11 Nov. 2013. Terlecki, Melissa, et al. “Sex Differences and Similarities in Video Game Experience, Preferences, and Self-Efficacy: Implications for the Gaming Industry.” Current Psychology 30.1 (2011): 22-33. Rpt. in Current Philosophy. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. EBSCO eBook Collection. Web. 11 Nov. 2013. Williams, Mike. “$14.8 Billion Spent on Gaming in U.S. Last Year, Says N.P.D.” Gaming Industry. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Dec. 2013. Worley, Joyce. “Women Join the Arcade Revolution.” Electronic Games Magazine May 1982: n. pag. Archive. Web. 17 Dec. 2013.

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