Peter Brett and his six-year old daughter were perplexed to find that no female heroes were shown in the DC comics board game, Justice League: Axis of Villains, distributed by kids game designer, Wonder Forge. For whatever reason, the creators of the game chose to exclude Wonder Woman and any other female characters. Brett argued that this made girls, like his daughter, feel left out and could not involve themselves with superheroes. Brett decided to vent his frustration on this matter online, on social media. Given the amount of attention he received, his post eventually caught the eyes of the game designer, who responded as follows:
“Hi Peter,
We read your post about the Axis of Villains game and wanted to write back.
First off, let me just say that we screwed up, and everyone here knows it. It’s an internal regret for our team that we did not include female super heroes in the game. And it’s a personal regret because so many of us are parents of daughters, who understand firsthand the importance of developing playthings that are inclusive and convey to girls a sense that they can do or be anything. I myself am a mom of 3- and 4-year-old girls and I share your views 100%.
In any case, I wanted to let you know that as a company we really learned the lesson. For our next game, DC Super Friends Matching, we included 3 female super heroes: Wonder Woman, Batgirl, and Hawkgirl. This game is a better example of our work. (I’d love to send you a copy if you think your daughter might enjoy it.) If we ever do another run of the Axis game, we will revise it to include female characters.
I appreciate that you called us on this and held us accountable. I have shared your post with our product development team, as well as our licensing and senior management teams. It has inspired good internal dialogue on the subject and a renewed commitment to featuring female characters in our super hero games. Thanks for keeping us honest, and we hope that our future offerings will be more to your liking.
Best regards,
Kimberley Pierce on behalf of Wonder Forge team”
The game creators have listened and young girls don’t have to feel afraid to be a part of the world of superheroes.
Source: themarysue.com
