Often, popular media does not do an adequate job of representing all persons as equal. Specifically, the gender dichotomy between men and women is constantly perpetuated. Research shows that women in Western nations, Africa, Asia, and Latin America all suffer from the emphasis on females as domesticated and as sexual objects in media. These same representations have been just as pervasive within video games as other popular media. Women are shown to be passive sexual objects, or prizes for male characters at the end of a quest.

T. L. Taylor is a critical communication author who specializes in online game culture. In her book Play Between Worlds: Exploring Online Game Culture, Taylor explores this question in one of her chapters “Where are the women?” By answering this question, Taylor purports that there are a ton of women within gaming communities, but that they are constantly ostracized. This rejection can range from the game lacking female characters, adequate clothing for female characters, or being brutally chastised by their male counterparts in online games.

This is all very startling, especially considering that women are starting to outpace men in terms of players in online video games. Towards the end of the chapter Taylor make the argument that Pink games-- video games supposedly tailored for female audiences-- were a response to concerns about women in video games, but unfortunately these games would further perpetuate these negative stereotypes of women. These games were ones that would contain mostly pink colors and would involve domesticated roles like cleaning the house, but never involved traditional games like First Person Shooters or Role Playing Games.

Finally, eleven years later, we got the answer to this issue in Horizon Zero Dawn. Horizon Zero Dawn is a PlayStation 4 exclusive game that was released in February of 2017. In this game, the protagonist, Aloy, is an all-around badass. She, along with the other women in the game, are represented very positively and have a significant amount of control. Horizon Zero Dawn is a response to the lack of positive representations of women in video games. It breaks down gender norms by portraying women in powerful positions, showing women in active roles, not sexualizing women, and by showing women to be logical actors. All of this culminates in a new style of game, which takes a feminist approach to game design and narrative development. All of this is important, because this game has garnered international attention and will likely be the model for developing similar progressive games in the future.