Namco Bandai’s remarkably subtle and slow “What Will You Fight For?” viral videos for Tekken 6 get a lot less subtle the second time around.

Women in their underwear fighting over shoes…there is absolutely no way I could comment on the contents of this video without being accused of being a sexist pervert, and I am slightly tired of such accusations, so instead I will pose a question. What the hell is that red thing the second set of combatants is swinging around? It’s driving me insane. Please send help.

This week’s Famitsu has an interview with Hideo Kojima and Metal Gear Solid Touch producer Yasuyo Watanabe. The headline for the story is very careful to accentuate that Watanabe is female. How careful, you ask?

So careful that, literally, the headline reads: “Interview with Metal Gear Solid Touch creators Hideo Kojima and its first-timer FEMALE producer”.

The red font is not just our emphasis. Look at that photo. Those two kanji, in red, are “josei“, meaning “female”.

Let’s back up and go over this again: the Cliff’s Notes version of the title of the article is basically “New Game Made by a Man Named Hideo Kojima and a Woman Whose Name We Will Mention in the Story Itself, Though Not in this Title”.

Is this the, uhh, nicest way to report this? Probably not. Maybe they could approach it a bit differently, say “Interview with Hideo Kojima and Some n00b Producer”, and then in the article, it could just come out naturally that she’s a woman. I mean, there’s a photo of her in there, and everything.

Famitsu is typically read by schoolboys in convenient stores before school on Friday. Is this kind of nigh-subliminal sexism really the kind of thing we should be exposing them to? And thus open a thousand avenues to discussion of Japanese society.

[via Famitsu]

Female gamers separate into two groups, Chelsea says, that are pretty easy to understand. “Girl gamers” do it for the attention — “a feeling of security and control from her social circle” — while “female gamers” just want to have friends who share an interest in games. “Since these “gamer girls” get their self-esteem from the praise and adoration of men who play video games, they become dependent on video games as something far more than entertainment.”

How does it get to that point?

Well, it’s a problem that many people suffer from that is completely unrelated to gaming: low self-esteem. These girls want to be part of what they see as an exclusive boy’s club. It is true that women are currently a minority in the gaming industry, which is why gaming men find girls who play video games more desirable. Girls who feel the need to be loved try to sneak their way into this “boy’s club” using video games as a pretense to say that they’re a “tomboy” or “just one of the guys.” But the reality is that it is not really for the “equality” that they constantly complain is absent, but for the feeling of superiority over other girls coupled with the adoration of the male gaming community.

And that’s where it gets catty.

“Gamer girls” hate on each other because they feel threatened by each other. Another female in this “boy’s club” diffuses the overall attention that a girl will get. Therefore a “gamer girl” will rip into another female gamer to protect her status as the most important girl in this male-dominated social circle. This is not unique to the video game industry, I’ve seen it happen in other predominantly male territories such as tech schools and the local rock climbing gym I used to frequent.

How can dudes help? She doesn’t say, and I don’t want to get all womyn’s-studies on you here. But I’d say that treating everyone who picks up a controller, male or female, like a gamer first is a good start.
Patronizing, condescending or leering behaviour would definitely discourages an interest in gaming as a fun activity, and if they continue it’ll be for the other reasons Chelsea described — attention seeking, social superiority, etc.

I know I foment a lot of the “OMG hot girls who game” stuff, but when you look at them — Jo Garcia and Grace Kim are demonstrably serious about what they do, and the cosplayers are definitely informed about the games they like. To me, that’s even hotter, and you see it when you game with them seriously.

Boys’ Club to Girls’ Clique [Negative Gamer]

Conference-goers can take a break and get some exercise with Wii Fit, jam to some of their favourite tunes with Wii Music or learn some new recipes and great cooking tips with the new Personal Trainer: Cooking.

A cooking game? Really? Yes ladies, you too can be a powerful instrument of social change, after Nintendo teaches you how to make delicious sammiches. Mmmmm. Hit the jump for more details on what’s sure to be an epic event. They’ve even got Bono!

Nintendo Shows Women the Power of Fun at 5th Annual Women’s Conference in Southern California

California First Lady Maria Shriver and 14,000 Attendees Will Have the Opportunity to Try Out the Newest Games That Will Engage, Enrich and Entertain Their Mind, Body and Spirit

—(BUSINESS WIRE)— Nintendo will join a community of 14,000 women gathering for The Women’s Conference, an annual event hosted by California First Lady Maria Shriver that celebrates the power of women and inspires them to become architects of change in their communities.

Research shows that 40 percent of video game players are women, and that women 18 and older are one of the industry’s fastest growing demographics. At this year’s Women’s Conference, Nintendo will showcase a number of dynamic games that are increasingly popular with women, and that demonstrate Nintendo’s commitment to creating engaging, enriching, and entertaining games that the entire family can enjoy. Conference-goers can take a break and get some exercise with Wii Fit, jam to some of their favourite tunes with Wii Music or learn some new recipes and great cooking tips with the new Personal Trainer: Cooking. Many games for both the Wii console and portable Nintendo DS will be exhibited at the event.

The Women’s Conference is the largest gathering of women in the nation, and unites more than 60 internationally acclaimed leaders with 14,000 women in one arena, plus thousands more virtually. In addition to Maria Shriver, speakers slated to appear include California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, musician and activist Bono of U2, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and author Gloria Steinem, among others.

WHO: 14,000 Attendees of The Women’s Conference

WHEN: Tuesday, Oct. 21: 5 – 9 p.m.
Wednesday, Oct. 22: 7 a.m. – 7 p.m.

WHERE: Long Beach Convention Center
Booth #2049
300 East Ocean Boulevard
Long Beach, CA 90802
http://www.californiawomen.org

Playing Wii Fit by yourself is lonely. But here, playing along with a maid makes exercising enjoyable.

That’s a good point, and we’re now slightly shocked Nintendo didn’t bundle the game with maids. If Wii Fit is not your thing, Refresh Club runs other services like ear cleaning, foot massages and yoga — make that, maid yoga.

Refresh Club [Candy Fruit via Akiba Keizai via alafista]

Editors fly to Japan fairly regularly to visit Japanese game studios. And those studios and their respective publishers will usually entertain these editors — dinner, drinks…the usual. But I guess flying into strange, alien lands deserves high-end hospitality, so Tecmo in the past has treated their American journalist guests to evenings out at Japanese hostess bars, watering holes where women are paid to keep customers company (not necessarily in a “me so horny!” way…it’s more of a “let me keep filling your drinks and you are so funny and handsome and wonderful and let me hang on to your every word!” male-insecurities-nuking thing). Maybe that in itself is nothing shocking, but this part might be: Tecmo has literally spent thousands of dollars giving a very small handful of American editors some lady companionship for one night. Thousands. That’s some pricey conversating.

I know what you’re thinking here. “Fahey, why aren’t you going to the Tokyo Game Show? Free ladies!” First off, BlizzCon, murlocs. Secondly, there is no such thing as free ladies. I’m not just talking about game companies trying to woo journalists either. There is a price. There is always a price.

Here at Kotaku Tower, only one of our editors is regularly in the company of a Japanese woman, and I hardly think what Mrs. Ashcraft does can be considered wooing. More like tolerating with the patience of a saint. The man is lucky he’s cute.

Behind the Scenes: Gaming Journalism (Part 5) [Sore Thumbs]

Editor’s note: It is against Kotaku’s policy to accept free travel. We do disclose when we go to events paid for by publishers or developers.

Hit the jump for more results from the E for All / PoshMama survey. Just keep one thing in mind – this is a poll from a women’s exclusive website, meaning at least 50% of the respondents are men claiming to be women who think men are icky and want to experience a more feminine touch.

Study Reveals Women Choose Video Games Instead of Sleep

E for All and PoshMama.com survey investigates the untold video game habits of women

E for All 2008
FRAMINGHAM, Mass.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Results from a survey recently fielded by Entertainment for All® Expo (E for All®), the consumer video game expo held October 3-5, 2008, in Los Angeles, and PoshMama.com, an online community exclusive to women around the world, indicate some surprising trends relating to women and video games. Front and center: many women would rather play video games than catch up on sleep, according to the new survey which polled more than 120 PoshMama members on their video game habits. Responses were gleaned from the high percentage of female respondents (71%) who said that they play video games.

According to the E for All / PoshMama survey, more than one-third of those surveyed say that they play video games when they should be sleeping. Women in the survey also say they play video games in other unusual circumstances, including: while on the phone (32%); while at work/in a meeting (20%); and, while preparing for work (12%). When it comes to spare time, nearly twice as many women say that, if given an extra hour of free time at home, they would rather play video games than catch up on sleep.

“Playing video games is becoming an increasingly popular pastime for women, which isn’t surprising given that it’s a great way to spend time with family and friends, have some fun and even blow off some steam,” said Heather Weaver, Technology Contributor at PoshMama.com and author of GeekMomMashup.com, who helped create the survey. “The surprising element, as revealed in our survey, is that it is actually keeping women up at night. This and the other results reveal that the traditional video game industry has fundamentally changed–and will continue to evolve–as more and more women take over the video game controls.”

“Video games are truly entertainment for all — from busy women to hard core game players — and E for All reflects that both in name and in its wide array of products, tournaments, appearances, and other exciting events,” said Mary Dolaher, Chief Executive Officer of IDG World Expo, which owns and operates E for All. “This survey shows that many women place great value and high priority on video games in their lives, and E for All will be the place for them, their families, and gamers of all types to be this October.”

Other results from the E for All / PoshMama survey include:

Better late than never: More than half of respondents (53%) reveal that playing video games has made them late for meeting up with friends and family. In addition, almost one-fifth (18.5%) say video games have made them late for work or a meeting, and the same number (18.5%) report that playing has made them tardy for a personal appointment, such as a visit to the dentist or doctor.
Refrigeration not needed: If given extra spending money, women in our survey reveal that they would rather buy a new video game system for their family over a home appliance, or even accessory for their car (i.e. spoiler, sound system, etc).
Simply put, it’s fun for the family: Almost two-thirds of respondents (64%) say they play video games because they either enjoy it or they want to spend time with friends and family.
The survey was conducted in September 2008.

Image Discovered Via Crunchyroll

Women in Games: The Gamasutra 20 [Gamasutra] [Pic: Game Informer]

In the last console generation, Nintendo’s GameCube appeared to lag behind as Sony and Microsoft battled it out for the twenty-to-thirtysomething male demographic – but time has shown that Nintendo’s patience in luring a more casual audience has brought in ladies’ loyalties, as well, with the cute lil’ DS as strategic lynchpin:

Actually, at this time Nintendo, although failing to effectively compete with the adult male-centered home consoles, was already delivering on a strategy to increase kids’ spending on games through its handheld devices. While Sony and Microsoft started a front battling for the ‘core’ gamer, Nintendo maintained a link to its early consoles and new generations of young gamers through its handheld devices.

However, as the article continues, Nintendo can’t take all the credit for birthing a new generation of young females interested in games. The boom of gender-neutral or girl-friendly MMOs targeted at young teens and ‘tweens means that most young girls are eager to get online and play with virtual pets and dolls:

Since the early 2000s there has been a steady introduction of sites, including Habbo (formerly Habbo Hotel), Neopets and Club Penguin, that cater to young gamers.

While in traditional MMOGs users are predominantly male, in these social-networking-driven communities the male to female ratio is normally pretty equal, or even sometimes weighted towards the girl gamer. All three of these sites have been hugely popular and also financially successful – so much so in the case of Club Penguin that Disney was prompted to splash $US 350m in cash acquiring the site (with the contingency for a further $US 350m based on future earnings) to add to its portfolio of kid-targeted online games and sites.

So today’s 8-12 year olds see a higher percentage of their female peers involved in some form of PC, console and handheld gaming – but does this mean that a decade from now, those young girls will be beating our hindquarters at traditionally male-focused hardcore gaming? Probably not so much, but it’s reasonable to expect that in the years to come, the entire video game industry will be looking at ways to keep this expanded demographic involved as they grow up, to ensure that all these eager Nintendogs-petters and Webkinz-hoarders don’t simply leave their game habits behind the way they’ll ditch their dolls.

ANALYSIS: Here Come the Girls [Next-Gen]

In Oz, female gamers represent the largest growing sector of the population, although that’s to be expected considering boys’ long long history with games and the fact so many titles are written with male players in mind.

The story says that this comes mostly on the back of singing/music games, Wii titles, the Sims (EA says 60 percent of players are female) and games where violence and action is either nonexistent or not realistic. But for games there really isn’t much that’s comparable to the chick-flick segment in film.

Will that change? As the generation of girls who grew up with games gets older, will we see them eventually making the majority of entertainment choices in a relationship, much as they do with movies or rentals?

Game Girls [Sydney Morning Herald]