Anita Sarkeesian’s “Tropes vs. Women in Video Games” launched its Kickstarter campaign 10 years ago, and the media critic took the stage at the Game Developers Conference last week to reflect on the impact her series has had and how much — and how little — gaming has changed in the years since.
“We won.” In some ways, the talk was a victory lap for Sarkeesian, who told the crowd at GDC she feels feminist voices in gaming media and criticism succeeded in holding companies, developers and fans accountable for their behavior, while also ushering in meaningful changes to both how games are made and how women are presented in the medium.
- “If I tried to make any of these ‘Tropes’ videos today with only games from the last 10 years, it would be harder — not impossible, but harder,” Sarkeesian said. “There would be fewer examples and the patterns less egregious, and I think that that’s saying something.”
- Sarkeesian pointed to examples like Dishonored 2, Horizon Zero Dawn and The Last of Us that featured strong female protagonists that didn’t fall into many of the same traps her “Tropes” series highlighted in past games.
- But Sarkeesian said that there are still deep-rooted issues, both in the number of games willing to tell unique female stories and in the conditions in which these games are made. “In the cultural war that ensued for the heart of gaming, I think it’s fair to say that this talk is about winning. It’s about what we won. And more than that, it’s about how much more we have to do,” Sarkeesian said.
Gaming is still male dominated. Sarkeesian joked that the bestselling games when she started her “Tropes” series were Call of Duty, Halo and Madden, and that now the bestselling games of 2021 are … Call of Duty, Halo and Madden. She also said that many developers have skirted opportunities to tell female stories by creating live-service games and games without rich narratives.
- Studios at the center of the industry’s current reckoning around sexual harassment and discrimination are largely staffed by men. Women make up just 24% of employees at Activision Blizzard, for instance.
- A survey the organizers of GDC conducted with developers last year found that only 38% of respondents said their companies proactively reached out to talk about harassment, discrimination and sexism, and respondents felt those conversations fell short of expectations.
- “Our industry has been moving towards service games, where you choose from a roster of characters, or maybe even have character creators, and I think this has done two things simultaneously,” Sarkeesian said. “We now have more characters and more diversity of characters. More players get to see themselves reflected in games than ever before. But it’s kind of killed stories. We have less stories.”
- Sarkeesian pointed to the indie game Gone Home, which she called a “revelation” for centering a queer female narrative, as an example of the kinds of the games the industry needs more of to continue evolving.
The conversation has shifted. Sarkeesian pointed out how it’s no longer taboo to voice feminist critiques of video games and industry culture, the very things that made her a prime target for vicious harassment during the early days of Gamergate.
- But improving representation is just one step. Sarkeesian said it’s important now to recognize and combat sexism and harassment happening behind closed doors, at game studios large and small.
- “You probably do not see the suffering that is happening right now in your companies,” Sarkeesian said. “This industry is drowning in trauma, abuse and harassment. Workers are being mistreated. They’re being abused and harassed by people who hold power over them, by their communities and by their fans. As an industry, we are not OK and we haven’t been OK.”
- “Clearly, this industry is not yet prepared to truly reckon with these powerful men and the harm that they’ve caused. But that harm is not only happening at these massive companies, and it isn’t just perpetuated by extremely wealthy executives,” she added. “It’s happening at small studios, too, because this isn’t fundamentally a problem of money. It’s a problem of power.”
“I would very cautiously, extremely cautiously make the argument that at least [in] the West, games are overall less overtly and egregiously sexist,” Sarkeesian said, adding that she takes pride in the work she did and how it improved gaming culture. “I think that in this moment — in this talk, in this room, at this point in history — I have to say that ‘Tropes’ opened up a conversation that fundamentally changed the industry.”
