Peter V. Brett, a fantasy novelist and dad, got a superhero board game for 6-year-old daughter Cassie. As he wrote on his blog, he was gobsmacked to learn that in a children’s game about DC superheroes and supervillains, made by the established game company Wonder Forge, there were ZERO female characters. Not even Wonder Woman.

“What girl can I be?” Cassie asked, digging through the game pieces.

“I don’t think there are any girls, sweetie,” I said, anger building in me. Cause really, DC & Wonderforge? WTF? You know it’s 2014, right?

Cassie put down the game pieces. “I don’t want to play this, then.” She turned and moved to leave the room, and it broke my heart.

Brett found that another gamer (one married to a member of that apparently elusive breed of women who like superheroes) had had a similar BUH reaction, and had gone so far as to create printer-friendly female game pieces and character descriptions for this very game. (Go, nerds.) Brett made the new pieces, and his daughter was thrilled, and his blog is filled with adorable pictures of Cassie in various female superhero costumes (which she wore for hours while playing the game) that you should coo over. But GEEZ.

Meanwhile in Gotham, Brett’s blog post about his experience was picked up by the geek site The Mary Sue, increasing its visibility, and shortly thereafter, Brett received an apology from the game company. The Mary Sue reprinted the letter; you can read Brett’s reaction to it on his blog.

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

This is an excellent apology. It names the offense, takes ownership, shows that the writer understands the impact of the offense, expresses empathy, offers reparations (a free game featuring female characters) and shows how the company will make an effort to insure that the offense never happens again.

However. There’s still work to do.

One of Brett’s commenters points out that while there are three female superheroes in the new game, none appear on the box, which sends the visual message to buyers that this game is for boys. A commenter on The Mary Sue further points out that in the new game, 18 of the superheroes are male, which makes those whopping three female superheroes seem less impressive. Another Mary Sue commenter points out that sexism leaves money on the table:

You know, it also occurs to me that these companies are missing a big marketing opportunity to introduce lesser-known characters to the mainstream fan base, and thereby increasing sales. For example, I was given a Marvel card-matching game as a kid in the 70s that of course featured headliners (Thor, The Invisible Woman, Iron Man, Cap, and Doctor Doom), but also included characters I’d never heard of (Scarlet Witch, Black Panther, The Falcon)–Thus, I had the opportunity to expand my experience (and spend more of my parents’ money on) with the Marvel universe.

I am reminded of the crappy apology we parsed on SorryWatch’s FB page (home for our shorter bursts of crabbiness) from the retailer Children’s Place, written after parents complained that the company’s Guardians of the Galaxy shirts were missing the key (female) character of Gamora.

AWFUL, dismissive non-apology. (Sorry you’re bummed, you feminist harridan, not sorry we screwed up, ’cause we didn’t, ’cause this is a BOY’S SHIRT, and what BOY wouldn’t want to edit out Gamora, you dimwit.) Wrong. Boys need to see girls as powerful heroes, as much as girls do. When boys grow up to make pop culture that excludes, objectifies and demeans women, it hurts women, men, boys and girls. Gamers especially need help — sexism runs absolutely rampant in the industry and in the games themselves, and when an internal critic talks reasonably about the problem, she gets death threats. So kudos to Wonder Forge for at least acknowledging the problem openly and apologizing well. That’s one step in the right direction. Now let’s take a few more.

A dad wanted to share his love of superheroes with his kid. A little girl wanted to wear a Guardians of the Galaxy shirt that one might reasonably expect to NOT HAVE ONE OF THE GUARDIANS EXCISED FROM IT. Women are actually the majority of gamers, not that you’d know it (because the games women and girls like most aren’t REAL games) and you know that when companies are willing to AVOID MAKING MONEY by marketing to the majority of customers…well, to paraphrase one villain, the sexism is strong with this one.

RETAILERS AND CULTURE MAKERS: LET US ENRICH YOU, YOU IDIOTS.

Local nerd family enjoys cosplay, daughters