There's no crying in baseball!

 You won't find me buying sports games brand new off the shelf every year like most people, but I like to have a game or two in my possession at any given time. It's all about imagination for me. Being able to experience the biggest moments in sports from the comfort of my living room has a lot to do with it, but influencing those moments is what sells it. It's not enough to just slap a league license onto a title and call it good, no matter how realistic that game may be. We're talking about video games, here, where anything is possible. So why are there no women in these games?

 It all sounds a bit random at first, because with games like FIFA 10 and MLB: The Show '10 out, I can see why some people may think I'm nuts for complaining. So hear me out. 

 I picked up a copy of NBA 07 at Wal-Mart for $1. That's right, a dollar. Why? Well, my first thought is that a game with Kobe on the front is clearly a worthless piece of crap. My second thought was that selling an '07 version of any sports game is stupid to have lying on shelves in the first place. It made sense. I picked it up anyway since it was less than a Coke, and it would give me the opportunity to see what the Sony NBA line had to offer. With NBA2K and NBA Live taking the crown each year, I wonder if Sony could even hold a candle. 

 Much to my surprise, I found out that there was no create-a-player option. The first thing that I do in any game is create a player for fun, just to see what's possible and how easy it is to accomplish. Some games are way too complicated but heavy on detail, and some are way too simple and never respond quite the way you'd like them to. Realism is a completely different story, but I look for that, too. Nothing was to be found in this game, as far as I could tell, that would let me create a player. If there is, I'd love to know, because there's almost no way I'm going to bother playing the game without the option.

 Yet, what bothered me the most was that after thinking long and hard about it, I don't remember a game that lets you create a woman to play the sport. I may be wrong here about EVERY game ignoring the gender entirely, but the vast majority don't allow it. That's....stupid. 

 I feel that I'm completely allowed to nitpick, because I'm not really nitpicking. Sure, no woman has ever played in the MLB, NBA, NHL, NFL, or EPL. If realism is the goal, then yes, shutting women out is realistic.  However, making an 8 footer and maxing out all the stats pretty much makes for an impossible player in any league, doesn't it? We're in the world of video games, and while video games are starting to pride themselves in their realism, they seem to forget that that they are still video games. Video games are meant to be fantastical in some ways. Even if MLB: The Show '11 came out and was picture perfect, comparable to a TV broadcast (it isn't out of the question, either)...it would still miss some of the point. 

 What message is this sending to women who love sports? If you have a 7 year old daughter that is crazy about sports and follows a team religiously, why are we not sending a better message with our games? Even if there will never be a woman that can play the sport as well as the men (and I do not believe this at all), why are we not allowed to put that imagination into our games to allow for something to happen that otherwise wouldn't? I'm not 8 foot, nor do I sink 3-pointers 90% of the time, but I am allowed that fantasy in my video games. Why can't a woman get the same feeling? 

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