NHL 2012: Women Will Be Playable, Thanks To One Female Hockey Player

Tooth-loosening simulator NHL 12 comes out today, and you hockey-heads out there may notice a sublte but interesting additition to the franchise. For the first time ever, you can create female hockey players and use them in the game. The story behind the inclusion of skating chicks is pretty interesting. You can thank 14-year-old Lexi Peters for it.

Peters, a diehard hockey player, told Britains's Globe and Mail, “My younger brother got to create a character that looked just like him. I had never been able to experience that." 

Rather than simply complain on the internet like most people, Peters wrote a letter to EA asking them to add female players, writing, "It is unfair to women and girl hockey players around the world, many of them who play and enjoy your game. I have created a character of myself, except I have to be represented by a male and that’s not fun.”

EA listened. David Littman, the lead producer of the game, said,“Lexi’s letter was a wake-up call... Here’s a growing audience playing our NHL game and we hadn’t done anything to capture them.”

In response, EA added both the ability to create female hockey players and even included Peters herself as a playable character, right out of the box.

“It’s a big change and it’s exciting to see, because so many girls pay hockey now,” said Manon Rhéaume, the only woman to ever play in the real-world NHL.

Source: Globe and Mail