Fourteen-year-old Lexi Peters "will be the first female" in EA Sports' virtual hockey roster when the video game publisher "releases the latest edition" of its NHL series today, according to Michelle Simick of the GLOBE & MAIL. Peters said, "I asked my dad, 'Why aren't there girls in the NHL video game?' And he said, 'I don't know, write a letter.' So, I did." Peters sent a "typewritten letter to the executives of one of the largest video game makers in the world, asking them to add women players." Peters: "I heard back a few weeks later and they told me it couldn't happen because it has to go through the NHL." However, Simick noted the letter was forwarded to EA's David Littman, the "lead producer of the company's NHL game." Littman 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." Simick noted Littman found the budget to build Peters into "NHL 12" and got "permission from the NHL and EA's legal department." EA Sports then told Peters it was not only "adding a female character, but they wanted Lexi to play the part of the 'default' female player that gamers would then be able to customize." Users can "tailor the female character by changing hair, eye colour and the name on the jersey if they want, just as with male players" (GLOBE & MAIL, 9/12). Littman said, "We've never had the ability to create a female player. We had a girl whose picture and her name (were in the game) but the character was male. We didn't have the ability to create female characters. It's 100 percent true this is the first time you can put a woman in the game" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 9/12).
