Opinion: Nintendo, women, and the 52% misconception

In spite of the fact that females aren't the market force studies would have you believe, Nintendo has been one of the most female friendly publishers ever. In just this generation (Wii U/3DS) alone they've had exclusive games featuring tons of new female characters: Linkle, Lana/Cia, Lin Lee Koo, Elma, Agnes Oblige, Edea Lee, Magnolia Arch, Fem Robin, Fem Corrin, Lucina, Tsubasa Oribe, Kiria Kurono, Pikachu Libre, and more are main character/party members of note. That's not even touching their female legacy characters and Bayonetta, or awesome side characters. The Squid Sisters have become legitimate idols, with their own, real life concerts.

On top of that, Nintendo has been tied to several large, exclusive games and franchises with female character options: Monster Hunter, Pokemon, Yokai Watch, Fire Emblem, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Devil's Third Onli-hahaha, Smash/Mario Kart 8 Mii characters, ZombiU, Fantasy Life, Animal Crossing, and the absolute domination of the Inkling Girl in Splatoon. If create-a-characters aren't your thing, you can look into their popular Nintendo spinoffs. 27% of the latest Smash roster slots, 34% of Mario Kart 8's options, and 50% of Hyrule Warriors' characters are female. Those numbers can increase depending on how you want to count non-gendered characters.

Nintendo has even reformed their older characters like Princess Peach and Zelda. When's the last time a mainline Zelda was completely helpless? Almost two freaking decades ago she became a ninja, started blasting Ganondorf with magical arrows, and became the captain of a pirate ship. Mario related titles where Princess Peach is relegated to the role of doling out kisses and cake for her hero at the end of the game are now in the minority. Peach goes to all the parties, is a better racer than Danica Patrick, is a multi-discipline, Olympic level athlete, can throw down in hand-to-hand combat, and recently helped save the Sprixie Kingdom from Bowser with her platforming skills. All without giving up her classic femininity.

I still can't figure this one out.

Another point of contest that really grinds my gears, is when someone discounts an awesome female character because “they're sexualized.” As if all female characters must be sexless, white bread Kryptonians that never show weakness, or an ounce of sexuality that appeals to the male scourge. If you believe sexualization is a one-sided aspect, then this is going to be a bitter pill for you to swallow, but the reality is there are more people in the world than your narrow-minded self.

I can guarantee you there are witchcraft practicing dominatrices in the world that play video games. Should they be excluded from representation? Oh no, perennial badass Samus Aran looks sexy in her zero suit or gym clothes! Believe it or not, sometimes badass women want to be sexuality attractive, just ask Serena Williams. Are you going to chastise Serena Williams for wearing skimpy outfits or even going nude for a magazine cover? I somehow doubt it.

It's almost like some strong women want to be sexy.

Everyone knows it's popular to piss and moan about everything related to feminism these days, but Nintendo has done more for females, of all sensibilities, than any other gaming company. Link isn't a female this time? So what? It's weird how this is something people only expect of Nintendo, where's the outcry about no female Kratos in the new God of War? What really strikes me though, is how this gender-bending street of desire is exclusively one way. Could you imagine the blood curdling, fish-faced screams in the gaming community if the next Metroid Prime game featured a male Samus Aran?

“But it's different!” No it's not, you hypocritical, sexist ass.

Today, I'm tackling an issue of perception that Nintendo is currently afflicted with, the recently formed belief that “Nintendo doesn't do enough to promote females in gaming.” I'm sure everyone that follows gaming has seen the backlash Nintendo has received from a string of poor assumptions made by consumers and vocal communities. Part of this is media bias at work, fueling the outrage machine and convenient narratives for those easy clicks: Alison Rapp, Shufflegate, and now claims of not enough female protagonists. The rest is ignorance.

Eiji Aonuma said that he wanted to make Link more approachable by making him more androgynous. Of course, that makes Mr. Aonuma the devil, because fans ran away with assumption that Link was potentially female after the initial trailer for Breath of the Wild, an idea that spread like wild fire as people like Emily Rogers fanned those flames for attention. How dare Nintendo not go the full distance and outright change the gender of their second most important leading man! Don't they know that women now make up 52% of the gaming population? It's time to pander to them instead of cis white males! Right?

Not really. We need to tackle this ever expanding myth before we continue on. People are applying this 52% figure to all game companies when that number is massively over inflated by mobile games, bad methodology, and a lack of understanding from the media and general public when it comes to studies like this.

Playing a few hours of Candy Crush doesn't mean most women want to drop $300+ on gaming hardware.

I want to stress that the methodology of the linked study is horribly flawed. For starters, they count online gambling as video games, as well as digital sudoku/word searches. When trying to establish that females play “real” games, i.e. retail caliber titles, the study doesn't take into account playing times, situations, and ownership. That means if a mom has played a single round of Mario Kart 8 with her child in the last six months, she is now a gamer according to this study, and Nintendo needs to pander to her. All this study has shown is that less than a quarter of the sample female population has even touched a retail quality video game, a far cry from the claims that females now make up the majority of all gamers, and developers should cater to them.

If you want to see how much of the female demographic overlaps with the Nintendo/Sony/Xbox core audience, here's an idea: Ask women how many non-mobile platforms or games they have bought for themselves, not their significant others or children, in the last six months. Suddenly, women wouldn't be seen as the market force people make them out to be. Again, if female gamers were as relevant to retail gaming as these number-warping sophists would have you believe, there would be more companies pandering to them. Ultimately, these companies go where the money is.