You probably don’t know that women aren’t usually portrayed very well in video games. I know, shocking. Do you need a minute?

To be fair, sexism in the video game industry is getting better. Booth babes are slowly being phased out of trade shows and conventions, developers are hiring more women, and Lara Croft no longer looks like she needs a back brace. Progress!

But then I’m reminded of characters like Catwoman from “Batman: Arkham City,” saying things like “I’m sorry I’ve been a bad kitty” in a moaning porn star voice, or games like “Dead Or Alive,” who seem to measure their lady fighters’ prowess by their cup size. 85% of playable characters in games are dudes. Out of the 15% that are female, I can think of four off the top of my head that aren’t hyper sexualized (Jade from “Beyond Good & Evil,” Commander Shepard from “Mass Effect,” Samus from “Metroid” and Chell from “Portal,” for those of you who were curious).

We haven’t even started talking about female non-playable characters (NPCs). While playing as FemShep (the female Commander Shepard) in Mass Effect 2, I couldn’t help but notice that every time I had a conversation with the voluptuous Miranda, her butt found its way into the foreground. I’m just saying, having the camera trained on her assets makes it hard to pay attention to her sad tale of woe and running away from home. But maybe that’s just me.

Other developers are better. Valve has Chell, Zoe, Rochelle, and Alyx. Chell deserves special mention; she is in a role that is usually male. Zoe and Rochelle are the token women in their merry bands of zombie apocalypse survivors (In “Left 4 Dead” and “Left 4 Dead 2,” respectively). Alyx is the heart of “Half Life 2,” a role that, let’s be honest, is usually female. Chell is the silent vessel for the player. Players don’t even know she’s female until they catch a glimpse of her in a portal.

So, developers that aren’t Valve, what’s the deal? When you guys see the statistics that almost 50% of gamers are female, do you just shrug your shoulders? Do you think that toning down the sexiness is going to ruin gaming forever? I’m not asking you to reduce the ladies to ugly, shapeless polygons. I just want to be able to pick up an otherwise awesome game (like “Batman: Arkham City”) and not feel like your focus group consisted entirely of 13-year-old boys.

Is that too much to ask?