I recently started Mass Effect 1 and I wasn’t very far through it when my brother came in, looked at the screen and said: “Why is your Shepard a man?” to which I replied, “Isn’t everyone’s Shepard a man?” He looked at me like I was thick and sneeringly said, “Were you even awake when you put the disk in the machine? You could choose their gender and customise them too. You’re an idiot.”
I was surprised to say the least. I’d assumed that everyone got a male Commander Shepard and I hadn’t even registered that there was an element of choice. I pointed to the box cover art like a dying woman pointing out water, “But look Harry! My Commander Shepard is on the box! He must be the right one!” He shook his head pityingly and left to the shout of, “Read the back!” CURSES |
It’s not that Commander Shepard: The Generic Man, isn’t spiffy, because I like him a lot but it did make me stop and think: why had I assumed I’d have to be a man? It isn’t completely the fault of video games; there’s nothing wrong with having a man as a protagonist. After all, you’ve only got 2 options to pick from. But the role of females in games seems to be something I assume is set in stone, which is a bit tragic really. Judging by the female netizen’s reaction to Mass Effect and it’s impressive customisability (that I have no idea about), the gender choice should be implemented wherever it is feasible to do so, because it’s amazing how it can draw in female gamers (and of course some guys, who merely enjoying looking at digital ass for twenty hours).
On the customisation side of things; in my opinion, developers haven’t quite got there in terms of making normal looking women. Fable 2 is the game I would cite for being one of the worst offenders. Their levelling up system failed women completely and made us look like steroid pumping she-males. But strength was important to me as a melee user so I kept using the heavy ass swords and watching her thighs grow until she could have given Chun Li a run for her money. When I held my new baby, it looked like a bridge troll accepting an infant sacrifice. When I coerced my strangely unenthusiastic husband to join me in the marital bed, I realised his apprehension was due to the fact that I was imminently about to crush him under my gigantic muscled bulk. It wasn’t my best look. I was going for ‘Tomb Raider’ but all I got was ‘Fridge Raider’.
And it was the same when I remember watching the Assassin’s Creed 2 trailer (http://bit.ly/166cC0). After I’d managed to collect the exploded parts of my cerebral cortex off the walls and retrieve my jaw from somewhere near the earth’s outer mantle, I found it amusing how the only part of it that didn’t look completely perfect was the courtesans, particularly their faces. My brother and I joked that it was because none of the developers had ever seen a women, which of course is *terribly* mean but it does seem to fit in line with my theory that the largely male game developer community haven’t quite nailed ‘the female’ (I did not intend for that to sound as sexual as it did. My subconscious needs to get out of the gutter.)
In games, women are all too often super sexy, with ridiculously impractical clothing. There’s nothing wrong with sexiness but women can be sexy for a multitude of reasons, not just because they have a skirt that shows off the curve of both arse cheeks. Developers have yet to grasp the many facets of female desirability. Proportions are always a bit out, boobs are always a bit too big and heels seem to be worn in ridiculous situations (Bear in mind that in real life, heels are always ridiculous.)
I’d like to play more characters that are realistic looking women and maybe, if there were more options in more games, I wouldn’t be assuming you had to be a man. Basically, I think developers need to employ me as their onsite Female Advisor, where I can sit back and bark orders on how most women don’t have lips like Jolie and how we’d never wear armour that makes our most vital organs easily accessible to any passing pointy object. I’d go freelance; tour the world; save millions of female gamers from annoying girl characters with whiny voices and perfectly coiffed hair after every battle.
But in the mean time, I’m going to go and play Mass Effect, and start wooing some chicks with Male Shepard. Using his manly brawn and my feminine insight, they’ll be putty in my hands in no time.
Nice comment box, I agree that devs seem to favour the male gender, Metal Gear Online for example if you pick the female gender the choices available seem to be half that of the male counterparts.
ReplyDeleteDevelopers need to be more gender friendly, although the way they see it mostly men play these games hence filling them with mainly male characters and options.
@Philious
ReplyDeleteThank you, I think I probably mashed the HTML as I installed it but it's here and nothing's exploded, so all is well!
It does stand to reason to a certain extent, as males still are the majority share consumers, but, that doesn't mean catering to the minority should be an afterthought because I think developers should always aim to entice new consumers, simply on a financial basis. If they went the Mass Effect route as often as possible, with sensible female leads and fairness between both gender choices in terms of customisation and gameplay, then you could keep everyone happy! Especially the guys who enjoy digital ass :D
The worst gender offender by a long shot is Halo Reach. The only difference when you choose a female spartan is fractionally slimmer arms and legs. Everything else is identical.
ReplyDelete*becomes putty* Take me. Take me now!
ReplyDeleteI've totally borked my HTML, it only lets me manually reply to the first comment! CURSES.
ReplyDeleteWhich means you'll probably never see this reply, but thank you both for your comments.
@Digital Gigolo You could interpret it the other way though with Halo, and say that the very small differences between both sexes are indicative of equality, because they haven't placed emphasis on it. I haven't played Halo so sadly, I'm not able to comment fully! I'll come back to you on that one once I've finished it :D
@digital eccentric. I'm afraid it only applies to alien women of the Mass Effect world :D Unless you too would like to be woo'd by Man Shepard!
Who wouldn't want to be woo'd by that steaming hunk o' Shepard? If was gay, I totally would...
ReplyDeleteAnyway - RE: Halo Reach - I don't think that's entirely a fair comment. For one, it's a first person shooter, so gender identity is not really high on its priority list, but the whole trick behind Halo (which they hammed up to the max with Reach), was the fact that the protagonist could be you, so it was in their interest to keep any obvious identity markers down to a minimum.
From a lore perspective, the Spartans are meant to be super-human killing machines. I doubt a suit that shows off their buxom chests and shapely legs is the first thing they look for in combat armour.
I NEVER play as a male when given an option! I am not a man, why would I want to play one? In fact, I have been put off my some games simply because I did not like the main character (for example I just never felt like playing God of War [I beat it, but only because my boyfriend thought it was amazing I was good at it] but I loved Heavenly Sword)
ReplyDeleteI think you need to get over this little feeling! Dragon Age and Mass Effect (1 and 2 for each) have GREAT customization options and all of my females are gorgeous and strong at the same time. Plus they look beast in armor.
Stop letting the patriarchy corrupt your mind my sister! ;-)
@Sarahtherebel
ReplyDeleteI know! You're very very right, I'm slowly re-learning; it just became a force of habit. In Dragon Age, I did go for a woman though, that wasn't a problem, the customisation was great and how else would I have managed to woo the studly/awfully incoherent Alistair!?
But yeah, Mass Effect, I was really suprised at myself for how speedily I breezed past all the customisation options just because I had an idea that Shepard was mean't to be a bloke (I blame the box art) but when I play through again, I will most certainly pick a girl. I actually like trying both sexes to see what other options become available to me, I like to see how the story changes or how other characters change in response to me.
Thank you for commenting :D
@Minnie
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear it! And yes I am (sadly) considering playing Dragon Age 2 as a male next because my character got called a "bitch" so much that I'm curious to see what the male gets called LOL