Representation of women in sports video games

 

 

Women’s representation in popular football video games is very underwhelming. Considering we’re now in the year 2020 you’d expect that the developers of games such as FIFA or PES would include a full game mode with women’s teams and leagues, like the men’s game however this is not the case. Whilst I was working on a project focusing on women’s football in FIFA it really made me notice how neglected this area of the game is.

 

Firstly, there are no domestic women’s leagues. The only women’s teams on the game are selected nations. This means there also are only a handful of women players on the game at all. When customising women players the game starts to glitch out and parts of players shirts go missing (Example below.)

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This seems unacceptable. Women’s football saw a huge increase in popularity over the course of the 2015 Women’s World Cup. The tournament held in Canada did exceptionally well at including everyone and attracted many new viewers. The popularity surge put pressure on FIFA to include women’s nations in their FIFA 16 game and also included a story line featuring Kim Hunter in their game mode “The Journey.” Fast-forward to FIFA 20 and there has been no progression to the women’s game section in FIFA. This is a shame as young women can’t play as their idols and could feel unwanted in such a welcoming sport.

 

Arguably the biggest star in women’s football currently is the USA’s Megan Rapinoe. In the 2019 France World Cup she was the standout player and helped her side retain the trophy. A petition was started by her fans to get her on the cover of FIFA. This petition was signed by 37,144 people however was unsurprisingly ignored by FIFA who opted for Real Madrid’s Eden Hazard instead.

 

FIFA 20 is currently under fire from all angles about every single aspect of the game, being branded “the worst FIFA game EA have ever produced by lots of gamers. Even user Msdossary7 who is a FIFA world champion commented that “this year the game is not fun.” It’s clear that EA Sports need to start over when it comes to FIFA 21 and hopefully we will see the introduction of a women’s league in the game.

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By Lewis Worley.

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