that's why god made escort agencies

jackthecb:

kirstysays:

Gaming has been always something of a male dominant hobby, there’s no denying it. With many males being the main characters of games and even more males playing the games conversely, we’re seeing more females enter the ranks now in both players and characters and, are starting to form a league of their own. In this article I will be discussing the rise of female video game characters and consider both the male and female gaming communities thoughts of the way these female characters are portrayed.

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I always find that when gender arises in discussions regarding video games, it’s always about female gamers and not female characters which has always been the focus of much of my attention and interest. As a guy who grew up with three elder sisters, reading comic books, watching Buffy and films such as Alien and Terminator and, yes, playing Tomb Raider, I’m under the belief that strong women are fucking awesome.

I find that men can go either one of three ways on the subject: 1) They hate female playable characters and avoid them at all costs because “why would (they) want to play as a chick?” (really a testament to their insecurities surrounding their sexuality, but that’s an entirely different kettle of fish) 2) They love female characters but only because they’re hot and cool, or 3) They love female characters because they’re experiencing someone completely different to themselves. I fall into the third category. As you stated, video games are about escapism and experiencing the alternate. So why not embrace the idea of playing as a female? We all read books and watch films coming from different perspectives (be that of gender, race, class, sexuality, etc), what’s different about video games?

See, here’s the thing. It’s because you play video games. You experience them and you essentially become that character for how many hours. You can watch a film, or read a book and still stay relatively isolated. You’re being invited into the story, but you’re not becoming a part of it. With games, you are. So that’s where I feel most men become uncomfortable when approached with the idea of playing as a woman.

It’s a shame. As I said, I love female characters. How can you not like the likes of Jen from Primal, Jade from Beyond Good & Evil, Faith Connors from Mirror’s Edge, Chloe Frazer (not playable, but still) from the Uncharted series, etc.

Now then there’s Chell from Portal, who is a very odd exception. Guys are fine playing as her because she has no voice, no character, and the fact that she isn’t forced upon the player. She’s literally an avatar for the player.

Which is an intruiging statement on how guys view playing as females; when there isn’t a distinct reminder of their character’s sexuality (e.g. third person view, gendered dialogue or gender-specific items), they seem to be fine. This links back in to the fact that they can project their own characteristics onto the character, leading to immersion (if the game is good) and effectively ending any sense of them playing explicitly as a female.

Thankfully, those cases are rare (I can’t actually think of any besides Chell and Faith and, even then, you’re able to see yourself through portals/in cutscenes). I wonder about the stereotypical mindset of placing females into ‘support’ roles in RPGs for example, whether there’s a strong tendency to view them as predominantly spellcasters/mages/archers/etc and have males as the physical attackers among male gamer culture. I’d be interested to see some research…

I hope that, as a tentative first step, guys would be more comfortable playing the ‘badass’ woman… ultimately, though, it’s an extremely small-minded and petty concern if you can’t play a female character without feeling insecure. Plus, there is a wide depth of emotion experienced in male characters, although it is often reduced in complexity and significance by taking place under the guise of ‘healthy’ bromoeroticism or stereotypically male responses (e.g. family is killed, go on a rampage and wreak havoc on the perpetrators).

I mean fuck; if you think a fictional character made entirely out of pixels and your own imagination can threaten your masculinity, you’re pretty much screwed out there in the big bad world full of real-life women who will be extremely unimpressed with your cavalier attitude towards them.

Grow the fuck up, dudes. Seriously.