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Those of you who play video games are probably all too familiar with the struggle of having to play as male characters, with very few cool, strong female characters available. In fact, most of the ladies you do see in your fave games have stereotypically “hot” bods and not much personality. We’ve always figured this is because game companies are trying to appeal primarily to teen boys—but rad new research shows that substanceless eye candy's not what boys want, either. 

Researchers Rosalind Wiseman and Ashley Burch found that 55% of gaming teen guys would like to see more female heroes. Plus, 61% of high school boys and 47% of middle school boys are tired of seeing girls objectified in their games. They play the games for the action, not for the “sexy” images companies think they want to see. The researchers even found that boys don’t really care about the gender of the character they’re playing, while girls often do. So there’s def no downside for companies to feature more femme fatales.

In fact, gaming companies should really be paying attention to what girls want anyway, since over half (52%) of video game players are actually female! So buh-bye to stereotypes about girls and games—they’re so not true. And we think it’s high time our games better reflected that.

Do you play video games? Has your experience with them ever been different because you’re a girl?

Credit to: Fast Company 

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