Part of me wants to be able to put up a wall between creators and the products they create. Does it matter to me that the artist of the comic, the coder on the game, or the writer of the book I’m trying to read can sometimes be an asshole on Twitter? Not if I don’t notice! But as soon as I notice, that’s going to put me off. And that happened this week.
People are talking a lot about “playable female characters” right now—something I always find important, but is in the spotlight particularly after the people behind Assassin’s Creed said at E3 that they couldn’t add a lady because it would have “doubled the work” on the game, something that simply isn’t true, and lazy, in the face of a pretty important subject.* So it seemed pretty reasonable when someone on Twitter asked developer Garry Newman whether there would be a female avatar in his game Rust, a game I’ve been looking forward to.
Sure, he’s probably trying to be funny—but not all of this is a joke. He probably isn’t going to put a female avatar in Rust. Is that because women are silly? Or because he’s lazy and including 50 percent of the world’s population just isn’t important to him? I don’t really want to go off on Newman in particular, because seriously, he’s just a guy, a guy with an opinion, and my problem isn’t him—it’s that this opinion is popular, the sentiment is systemic, and it’s followed by the fomenting bowl of hate that is the internet. For every popular videogame developer who says something “only a little bit sexist” as a joke, there are tens of thousands of fanboys of that guy who are looking for an opportunity to pick up a banner and fight for what they believe in (sexism). If Newman just let the art speak for itself? I’d probably play Rust. But because he’s out there unwittingly leading an army, I’m not interested.
There’s an interesting video going around the internet right now about Phil Fish—the Fez developer (and outspoken not-super-nice-guy) whom people love to hate. It says a lot about the nature of fame and the internet, but one of the points I found interesting is that people—media, developers, and people who played his games—were mad at Fish because the public made him famous. They enjoyed his game and spread the word about it… and then, once he had notoriety, he turned out to be not the kind of person they had assumed he was to start with.
So here’s what I’m doing. I feel sick when I feel betrayed by the creators of the media I consume. I don’t want to care, but I do. And that’s okay. So before I play something, I’m just gonna ask. The developers are right there on Twitter, why not? If I find out they want to outwardly state their opinion, then I’m gonna make my decision based on that.
For example, in a fit of internet abbreviations, I had a chat with developer Chris Chung, who is Kickstarting his game “Catlateral Damage” right now.
See? I feel better already. I’m shedding one of those responsibilities women in games feel—we think we have to play popular games because if we don’t, we’re “fake” and we don’t have a right to participate. But I honestly don’t give a crap. If you actively want to make my life worse, I’m not going to give you money. And there are lots of games made by people who care about women, about minorities, about making game culture one that moves forward instead of reflecting the worst of society—like Portland’s own Fullbright Company, of course, and Logan Bonner, a writer on the tabletop Pathfinder games at Paizo Publishing.
And that? That just makes me want to play Pathfinder.
Yes, this may mean I’m playing fewer games. And no, I don’t think my stance is going to make people change anyone’s minds. But it will make me feel better. And I’m spending too much time at my man-hating feminist meetings to play everything anyway.
*I don’t want to go off too hard on why having lady characters is important—because a lot has already been said, like they create role models, and teach boys that women are more than fleshbags with sex holes. And yes, while we’re at it: videogames are an art form, and yes, they do have a responsibility to diversify. Even if creators don’t think there’s a female audience, and even if they just want to “make games.” Creators who’re fighting this, please shut up: You’re making a piece of media that is going to be consumed longer than a movie or a TV episode, and you have a responsibility to move our culture forward, and honestly, it’s not that hard. Especially if you decide not to do jiggle physics. (And yes, I know there are no female characters in Minecraft.)
I guess what you are really trying to say is that it is too bad that women aren’t capable of making video games so the only way one could have a female charecter is if they can convince a man to do it for them… Seems like it would be easier to just learn to code, but whatever floats your boat.
45 percent of gamers are female, so voting with your dollars seems pretty reasonable to me.
Excellent post Angela. Excellent.
I’m frequently torn up about enjoying pop culture vs supporting creators who don’t care about me. But I think educated consumption is important. And your proposition is easy. We enjoy all the games, don’t have time for them all anyway. May as well put the time into enjoying games that are making a difference and pro-human.
I hope everyone, of both genders, consider how to spend their dollars responsibly.
Hi Mr. Econoline, I’d like to refer you to my post called “More Women Making Videogames, Please.”
http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/Blogto…
Thanks, babe!
Adults wasting their lives on interactive cartoons. At least skaters do something. I waste my free time having sex, which is a feminist action because it always includes 50-66% female participants.
The game in question, Rust, starts every character COMPLETELY NAKED by design, which makes the inclusion of female avatars somewhat loaded. It makes Rust an awkward rallying point for this important effort.
This article (erm, blog post? What’s the correct term? Gaaah, out of date with the lingo) highlighted something that never really clicked with me before – the human element behind games. I mean, I understood that lots – lots and lots and LOTS – of work goes into even the “simplest” game, and that there were real people behind those work-hours, but the idea of those creators getting out there in a public, social-media way never occurred to me before. It makes me excited, and a little nervous, to go looking for the people who helped craft some of my favorite games. I hope I don’t find anything too slimy.
Bradwerth can you explain to me why it is ok for a game to contain a fully naked male character but not a fully naked female character? Am I to understand that it’s ok for a male to be nude, but it’s somehow wrong or overly sexual for a female character?
I think if you go back and look at what Bradwerth wrote, you’ll find that’s not what he/she/whatever said. It said, matter o’ fact, that the game itself is problematic.
Now everybody else go back to talking about this: I don’t fucking play video games. Just a weird cultural blind spot I’m totally fine with having.
Thadeus Cooper: just that a game with a playable nude female avatars would likely be criticized for being provocative in a way that it wouldn’t by limiting to nude male avatars. Female avatars in Rust could trigger a backlash that would set back this effort. I’m saying we should focus on getting clothed female avatars in every other game before agitating for (nude) gender equality in Rust.
The “Sunset” Kickstarter is still active (ending Jul. 17th) and both has a female main character and one of the developers is female, if you’re interested in shout-outs.
Rust is a 1st person game where every character (albeit male) looks exactly the same. There is no character creation, its not laziness but there is no reason to implement character customization like that. Its a fucking game not real life – video game creators should just start making gender neutral characters
While I agree with everything you said about having more female game characters, saying a development team is lazy for not including a female character displays lack of understanding for how games are developed. They can’t just transpose everything to a female character model, it would require re-animating almost everything, with a new character model you may have to re-adjust hit/hurt boxes, record new voice overs, and change interactions and quest text. On top of all those changes you now have to pay testers to re-test every aspect of the game with a new model and make the appropriate fixes from the new bugs that arise. It actually can end up doubling the production time and cost of the game.
All that being said, the best option is to vote with your money. Buy games from companies who make strong female leads and supporting characters in their games and force other game companies to start spending money on games with them.
please make a blog dedicated to games i can feel good about playing!