Minecraft suddenly decided to distribute female characters, why is that?

A game played by young and old friends all over the world "Mine Craft"Only Steve characters with male appearance could be selected at the beginning of the game, and users had to download skins to play with other appearances such as female characters. However, finally Minecraft decided to distribute female skins with updates. Why the distribution of female skins suddenly decided, there seems to be a gender problem surrounding the game behind it.

New skins! Achievements! Music!
https://mojang.com/2015/04/new-skins-achievements-music/

Mojang, the developer of Minecraft, announced the addition of a female skin that can be selected from the beginning of the game with an update for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One scheduled for April 29, 2015. In the Maincraft before the update, there was no choice for the player only the character who took the appearance of a man named Steve, but now that the player has become able to choose the one from male and female characters is.

ByJoannamkay

Actually, only Minecraft did not suddenly announced the addition of female characters. Smartphone game "Temple Run 2It is the developer ofImangi Studios, We changed it so that we can add free of female character "Scarlett Fox" which we could only pick with paid or coin unlock at the beginning.

There is a reason why each game vendor suddenly added a female character like this. Actually, it was posted on the Washington Post on March 4articleAt 12 - year - old girl criticized critically that the female character can not play in the endless run game represented by Temple Run 2. The girl noticed the small number of female characters in the game of the endless run system, and downloaded the top 50 of the game of the genre himself and carried out a survey. As a result, 98% of the games in which characters capable of recognizing sex appeared are male characters , And it became clear that 46% of the female characters had been adopted.


In addition, it was also found that 90% of games released male characters for free, while 15% of games that released female characters for free saw them. The average amount of female characters distributed for a fee is 7.53 dollars (about 900 yen) and it is higher than the main body of the game.

The girl says, "Less of female characters seems to suggest to young girl players like me that" men and women are not equal. "I am a woman and I want to choose female characters in games I do not want to pay money to become a lady in the game, "criticizing the response to the sex of the game character of the mobile game industry.

The article called ripples and was posted on various media, and Touch Arcade released itarticleofcommentKeith Shepherd, founder of Imangi Studios, developer of Temple Run 2, said, "The girls' contribution to the article contributed to the Washington Post was legitimate and raised gender issues in the game I will appreciate it in the future, I plan to free the female characters that are being distributed for a fee and add more free female characters. "


Because of this circumstance, Imangi Studios released the female character 's Scarlett Fox, so Mojang' s addition of a female character is considered to be a response to a girl 's article.

In the game industry, gender issues such as this time are often taken up and criticism that the female character appearing in the game as an object of sex is criticized as in the following article, such as gender equality in the game It is one of the very sensitive agendas.

How is the female character appearing in the game drawn as an object of gender? - GIGAZINE


Furthermore, Marcus Perrson Notch, who founded Mojang as the creator of Minecraft,Official blog published in 2012All characters appearing in Minecraft in Gender Neutral are revealed that the hero Steve also has no sex. Mr. Perrson left Mojang in September 2014 and seems not to be involved in the development of Minecraft as of April 2015.