Reloading: Women, Gaming, and the Future of Entertainment

(Planned on this releasing sooner. Got delayed because raisins. Enjoy!)

This has no relation to any recent topics covered on either Majestic 12 or BulletPoints, but I want to take a minute to discuss it now because what I’m going to bring up is a prediction of how your entertainment will change in the coming year or two and certainly for the better. Up until recent years your games, movies, comics, and films have been LARGELY focused on targeting a young-male demographic with big-bulky tough guys and scantily-clad, over-sexualized women. And while these traits aren’t 100% bad all the time, these trends have gone on for FAR too long and things are about to change… here’s why, how, and what we can expect.

Fact #1 – Women now apparently make up the largest demographic of the videogames industry. Despite the bullshit that was gamer’s gate (thoughts on that subject can be found HERE) and despite the general attitude towards female developers and what publishers think of female protagonists in games, women now apparently are the largest part of the games market. This can mean a lot of different things, but fact is that it’s no longer the young adolescent boys who have the most pull in what games will be made and how they’re marketed. And as a formerly young adolescent boy now a young adult male, I am grateful for that because some of the ads marketed towards that demographic are fucking atrocious. Look at ANY EA marketing campaign (Dead Space in particular) to see what I’m referring to.

Fact #2 – Some of the top grossing movies in recent years have been female-led and also have received critical acclaim (or at least mostly positive or interesting responses). It shouldn’t a surprise that Disney’s Frozen is, by and large, the absolute BEST example of this shift in what’s popular right now. As sick as I am of hearing Let It Go everywhere I go, you can’t argue the fact that the movie is insanely popular as it even broke into the TOP FIVE grossing movies of ALL TIME right behind Avatar, Titanic, and Avengers. But let’s not forget the other big success that is the fucking Hunger Games, which is skyrocketing Jennifer Lawrence’s career along with her role as the Mystique centric X-Men Days of Future Past. And more recent hits like Gone Girl, Malificent, and Gravity show that the once male-dominated industry is slowly becoming more diverse and women are getting bigger better roles is moves earning bigger chunks of box-office cash.

Fact #3 – Marvel is riding this trend as while it’s still on the upswing. They’ve begun diversifying their Avengers cast within the comics by making Captain America black, adding new female characters, and even going so far as to make the Prince of Thunder, THOR, into a woman. There’s no confirmation as to whether or not these changes will bleed into the movies, but if the response and criticism is positive, then we can certainly expect to see the Lady of Thunder as well as Sam Wilson’s Captain America in the films at some point. And with the films, comics, and TV shows they currently have, Marvel is really driving the entertainment industry in ways we never would have expected back in 2008 when the first Iron Man movie was released. If they turn this trend into a money-making machine like they did with the main Avengers film concept, you can bet your ass their competition will jump on the trend as well and see what they can imitate.

Fact #4 – A lot of your best TV shows right now have very strong female leads and these are also some of the highest rated shows or most critically acclaimed shows. While Legend of Korra doesn’t have the audience Nickelodeon wants, it still has a fairly sizeable audience for an animated series on a dying cable network. Agents of SHIELD (Marvel, again I know) started making waves and it has three strong female characters each bringing something unique and interesting to the table. Modern Family has a couple of different female characters who certainly have their run of things. Once Upon a Time doesn’t need me to explain that the bulk of the cast is female and they are the main focus of the entire show (heroes and villains). I could keep on listing various shows with strong female characters like Good Wife, American Horror Story, and even Gotham (the villain Fish Mooney).

Fact #5 – Even Nintendo, a Japanese company, is pushing the pro-female agenda (probably a poor choice of words). Just look at their Smash Bros line up and how many more women there are in this game than there have been in ANY of their previous games. They are the ones FUNDING BAYONETTA 2. Say what you will about Nintendo or Japanese culture, these guys actually have done something right and it has turned out BEAUTIFUL.

Okay, so enough listing off the big facts. What’s all this equate to? In recent years (prior to 2013) most companies would tell you female-led ANYTHING in entertainment was too risky to make or develop. They said the audience wasn’t there or they weren’t interested. They’d supposedly market test their games, movies, or whatever else and determine that female-led entertainment wasn’t worth making and that it wouldn’t be successful. Thus, no money to be had.

This is why films like Wonder Woman have failed for SO LONG to get off the ground. Big CEOs at companies like EA, Warner Bros, Fox, and everywhere else were under the impression that the only audience for action-films, games, and comics were men. They assumed men didn’t want to see strong and empowered women and, if they did, they certainly didn’t want to see said women being stronger than men and saving said men. If this was never explicitly said, it was HEAVILY implied, as they failed to figure out how to translate ideas like Wonder Woman saving her boyfriend, Steve Trevor because women saving men from danger just didn’t translate. This was evident in the original Wonder Woman TV show.

What happened? What changed? When Legend of Korra was market tested, Nickelodeon was worried their target demographic (young boys) wouldn’t like a female-led action series. When the results came back, it turns out said young boys didn’t care if she was a girl because she was still awesome. A popular web-series that is RWBY (an all-female led cast) became a big hit for RoosterTeeth. Games like Bioshock Infinite and Last of Us were made with strong female leads (not playable protagonists, but still prominent figures). Not only that, but Naughty Dog fought TOOTH AND NAIL to make sure their female character was prominent on the cover, regardless of what the publisher thought would sell better. And Naughty Dog not only one, but were completely right on that decision.

The tipping point was when Frozen became an international success. It’s not just that it was a good movie. It wasn’t just because it made a lot of money (though that helped). It’s because it sent a very positive message to young women everywhere. The female leads solved their problems without needing to pair-up with a male-character. They saved themselves by helping each other. And the surprising thing is that DISNEY of all companies, where the ones that made this movie. A movie that has young-female characters marry total strangers in almost every one of their movies changes the game completely and makes it an absolutely gigantic financial success. And now that the concept has been proven financially viable, they are repeating the process with things like Malificent and other companies are also planning on jumping on this new trend.

I predict within the next year, you’ll see a much larger portion of your films with female-leads. Within the next two years, I predict more playable females in video games or, at the very least, more options to play as a female-version of the protagonist. And while you might think these kinds of things aren’t that big a deal, you’re wrong. Consider who consumes these forms of entertainment the most… children. By having more positive female characters in more forms of entertainment and media, you help teach young men to respect women and help teach young women to be more independent while still being able to respect and be with men. You help encourage agency in young women and show they don’t always need to be saved or chosen by a man, but they can rise to the occasion and make their own decisions. Yes, these are things perfectly capable of being taught, but having good examples in their stories and entertainment will go a long way rather than having large-breasted female characters with no intelligence being the only influence they have on TV, films and games.

And, hell, this is already coming to fruition. Recent announcements of Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) from both DC and Marvel have shown we'll be seeing this trend continue into the coming years! WB is even looking for a female director for Wonder Woman (which I've mixed feelings on, but mostly because I think it's a cynical attempt by WB to appeal to the female audience). But these are two of the most powerful women in comics, soon to take center stage on the silver screen before 2020. Say what you will, that's pretty damn awesome. 

I’m looking forward to seeing how this way of thinking can improve culture and entertainment and you should be excited too. There’s a lot of good that can come from this and we’re really on the forefront of some big changes in entertainment. See ya next time.