Feminist Frequency shares the promising gaming trends of 2016
It was a good year for in-game diversity, but female protagonists are still lagging behind.
Since 2009, Feminist Frequency has been tracking harmful representations of women in gaming. During this year's CES, Feminist Frequency's Executive Director Anita Sarkeesian and Managing Editor Carolyn Petit joined us on the Engadget stage to discuss something a little different: some 2016 gaming trends that showed the industry is moving beyond typical stereotypes and tropes and starting to think more differently.
For starters, Petit and Sarkeesian shared thoughts about more empathetic and complex approaches to relationships with non-player characters like The Last Guardian's Trico, confrontations of real-world structural racism in Watch Dogs 2 and the tricky interactions in a risqué indie game called One Night Stand. Although there are some promising trends here, and 2016 was "a huge improvement" when it came to representations of men of color in gaming, Sarkeesian and Petit say there's still a ways to go before female protagonists start seeing equal playing time.
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