I was curious to know why men play women in games. Firstly, because I myself have been known to play female characters in games when given a choice, and also because I am fascinated about how people react to men playing women in games. I did a lot of reading and I interviewed many gamers on the subject. I?ve talked to men who never play women; I talked to men who always play women, and I talked to men who use games as an outlet for their gender identity. My findings surprised me and through the course of my interviews my opinions changed significantly about gender and games.
This piece is broken into three parts. This is part one; in which I discuss aesthetic gender selection and metrosexuality?s impact on gaming. Part two explores the cyber-prostitution and men who use gender as a tool for making money or gaining favor in online games. Part three is look at sexual orientation and gender identity in gaming. All three parts are essentially done but the last two need some editing which I don?t have time for right now So, knowing that reading the next two parts of this article may be prolonged, I give you:
Part one: I like your pants.
The biggest misconception that I used to have about men choosing to play a woman in a game was that it somehow reflected an inner desire to have a female experience. The thing I?ve realized about myself while talking to other men is most of us will play a female game character for aesthetic reasons. If you look at television and movies you will come to know that men do indeed like to look at beautiful women. This behavior is often the center piece of feminist debate surrounding the media and its negative effects on women. Do television and movies harm women?s self perception? How about games? All of this is subject to countless debate, but the one thing that is clear is that women are often objectified in games. That is evidenced by the countless titles featuring busty tarts in nothing but a chain-mail bra and matching knickers. This way of portraying women is so ingrained in the industry that when you are presented with a less than attractive character you automatically dismiss her as unimportant to the story. Even characters touted for their ?plain looks? such as Alex Vance in Halflife 2 or Jade in Beyond Good and Evil are still quite dashing in most respects. Only the most cynical of us men would write off either of these game characters as homely.
We know that most of the celebrated women in games are really no more than a pair of breasts with guns, swords, or other assorted weaponry. Franchises such as Tomb Raider have staked their claim in games mostly based on a buxom but otherwise uninteresting British gal by the name of Lara Croft. Never mind that she?s built like Dolly Parton and Spiderman had an implausibly athletic baby. Or, that over the course of twelve years Lara went from a C cup to a DDD. It is clear that the female form in games is meant to stimulate the part of men's brains that causes us to do stupid things like spend fifty dollars on a game about pushing blocks into holes and climbing vines, or playing volleyball? but I digress.
I feel it is probably safe to say that most men do not play women to get perspective about what it must be like to be a woman. This is much the same way that I don?t play Frogger to understand what sort abject terror a frog must feel when trying to navigate a packed freeway and a river filled with alligators. Or, as a more serious example, I?ve never played a shooter to know what it feels like to kill someone and watch him bleed to death.
So, when we are presented with the feminine issues such as pregnancy, rape, menstrual cycles, and sexism, most men will avoid having to experience the things that make women, well? ?women.? Most men don?t like to be burdened by the idea of having to deal with difficult, almost alien issues in an entertainment setting. The idea of romance movies can often seem a little strange to most straight men like me, and I don?t think it?s a secret that men aren?t the target audience for this genre of entertainment. Sure we get suckered in to watch a romantic comedy featuring Will Smith from time to time, but most men just don't go out of their way to watch those movies because they don't identify with the experience. It?s not very often that I am curious about what it would feel like to bleed from my nether-region once a month, be vulnerable to rape, or ride bareback with Jude Law across some Scottish heath. That?s not to say that men don?t care about these issues outside of games, rather, that when men play games, this sort of intellectual territory isn?t anywhere we want to tread.
The other reason that we men sometimes play female characters in games is that many men want to participate in an age old ritual as simple as cutting out clothes for paper dolls. If you?ve never played with dolls let me qualify that statement for you. As recently as sixty years ago, societies in affluent western countries were largely rural farming communities. As more cities grew and education became more accessible to lower class citizens the idea of most men being Hunter/Gatherers has changed dramatically. Society has become more focused on skills that have less to do with surviving and more to do with winning a mate and influencing social groups. We see more and more men changing their tactics to find a partner. A hundred years ago, finding a wife meant being able to provide a place to live and food to put on the table. You did that by toiling on the land, and the courtship rituals generally consisted of giving some livestock to your favorite girl?s dad as some sort of compensation for all the children she was going to provide you with. As the idea that you must be able to pull your weight in the fields to provide for your spouse wanes, men turn more to the rituals that women have perfected over centuries.
A lot of young girls learn their first lessons about preening from playing with dolls. Girls learn how to dress themselves while little boys are outside doing things like spitting at passing cars and giving each other bruises. For many men, playing a game where they can learn some of these recently appropriate skills is an opportunity that has been monopolized by wee lasses for centuries. Now men can be have a comfortable playground without the normal scorn and ever-looming wedgies they would have to endure if they played with their sister?s dolls.
Some people call this trend for men to preen ?metrosexual.? A term coined in the nineties to describe young urban professionals with disposable incomes, a penchant for shopping, and fashion. For men who aren?t ready to wear ruffled pink poet?s shirts and moisturize daily, games offer a safe and relatively easy way to experiment with this kind of preening in an environment that doesn?t beat you up for being a sissy.
I think we?ll see a lot more men turning to games which provide them with the opportunity to coordinate their wardrobe and explore fashion as well as allowing them to enjoy the female form. In many ways developers may have been unwittingly fueling these trends. Who knew unlocking new outfits for your skater in Tony Hawk would have been so widely received so many years ago. These days it?s rare to find a game you don?t have a very wide choice of outfits, a ?hot Asian babe? and a lot of opportunities to combine the two in some way.
Continued in part two: My milkshake?
This piece is broken into three parts. This is part one; in which I discuss aesthetic gender selection and metrosexuality?s impact on gaming. Part two explores the cyber-prostitution and men who use gender as a tool for making money or gaining favor in online games. Part three is look at sexual orientation and gender identity in gaming. All three parts are essentially done but the last two need some editing which I don?t have time for right now So, knowing that reading the next two parts of this article may be prolonged, I give you:
Part one: I like your pants.
The biggest misconception that I used to have about men choosing to play a woman in a game was that it somehow reflected an inner desire to have a female experience. The thing I?ve realized about myself while talking to other men is most of us will play a female game character for aesthetic reasons. If you look at television and movies you will come to know that men do indeed like to look at beautiful women. This behavior is often the center piece of feminist debate surrounding the media and its negative effects on women. Do television and movies harm women?s self perception? How about games? All of this is subject to countless debate, but the one thing that is clear is that women are often objectified in games. That is evidenced by the countless titles featuring busty tarts in nothing but a chain-mail bra and matching knickers. This way of portraying women is so ingrained in the industry that when you are presented with a less than attractive character you automatically dismiss her as unimportant to the story. Even characters touted for their ?plain looks? such as Alex Vance in Halflife 2 or Jade in Beyond Good and Evil are still quite dashing in most respects. Only the most cynical of us men would write off either of these game characters as homely.
We know that most of the celebrated women in games are really no more than a pair of breasts with guns, swords, or other assorted weaponry. Franchises such as Tomb Raider have staked their claim in games mostly based on a buxom but otherwise uninteresting British gal by the name of Lara Croft. Never mind that she?s built like Dolly Parton and Spiderman had an implausibly athletic baby. Or, that over the course of twelve years Lara went from a C cup to a DDD. It is clear that the female form in games is meant to stimulate the part of men's brains that causes us to do stupid things like spend fifty dollars on a game about pushing blocks into holes and climbing vines, or playing volleyball? but I digress.
I feel it is probably safe to say that most men do not play women to get perspective about what it must be like to be a woman. This is much the same way that I don?t play Frogger to understand what sort abject terror a frog must feel when trying to navigate a packed freeway and a river filled with alligators. Or, as a more serious example, I?ve never played a shooter to know what it feels like to kill someone and watch him bleed to death.
So, when we are presented with the feminine issues such as pregnancy, rape, menstrual cycles, and sexism, most men will avoid having to experience the things that make women, well? ?women.? Most men don?t like to be burdened by the idea of having to deal with difficult, almost alien issues in an entertainment setting. The idea of romance movies can often seem a little strange to most straight men like me, and I don?t think it?s a secret that men aren?t the target audience for this genre of entertainment. Sure we get suckered in to watch a romantic comedy featuring Will Smith from time to time, but most men just don't go out of their way to watch those movies because they don't identify with the experience. It?s not very often that I am curious about what it would feel like to bleed from my nether-region once a month, be vulnerable to rape, or ride bareback with Jude Law across some Scottish heath. That?s not to say that men don?t care about these issues outside of games, rather, that when men play games, this sort of intellectual territory isn?t anywhere we want to tread.
The other reason that we men sometimes play female characters in games is that many men want to participate in an age old ritual as simple as cutting out clothes for paper dolls. If you?ve never played with dolls let me qualify that statement for you. As recently as sixty years ago, societies in affluent western countries were largely rural farming communities. As more cities grew and education became more accessible to lower class citizens the idea of most men being Hunter/Gatherers has changed dramatically. Society has become more focused on skills that have less to do with surviving and more to do with winning a mate and influencing social groups. We see more and more men changing their tactics to find a partner. A hundred years ago, finding a wife meant being able to provide a place to live and food to put on the table. You did that by toiling on the land, and the courtship rituals generally consisted of giving some livestock to your favorite girl?s dad as some sort of compensation for all the children she was going to provide you with. As the idea that you must be able to pull your weight in the fields to provide for your spouse wanes, men turn more to the rituals that women have perfected over centuries.
A lot of young girls learn their first lessons about preening from playing with dolls. Girls learn how to dress themselves while little boys are outside doing things like spitting at passing cars and giving each other bruises. For many men, playing a game where they can learn some of these recently appropriate skills is an opportunity that has been monopolized by wee lasses for centuries. Now men can be have a comfortable playground without the normal scorn and ever-looming wedgies they would have to endure if they played with their sister?s dolls.
Some people call this trend for men to preen ?metrosexual.? A term coined in the nineties to describe young urban professionals with disposable incomes, a penchant for shopping, and fashion. For men who aren?t ready to wear ruffled pink poet?s shirts and moisturize daily, games offer a safe and relatively easy way to experiment with this kind of preening in an environment that doesn?t beat you up for being a sissy.
I think we?ll see a lot more men turning to games which provide them with the opportunity to coordinate their wardrobe and explore fashion as well as allowing them to enjoy the female form. In many ways developers may have been unwittingly fueling these trends. Who knew unlocking new outfits for your skater in Tony Hawk would have been so widely received so many years ago. These days it?s rare to find a game you don?t have a very wide choice of outfits, a ?hot Asian babe? and a lot of opportunities to combine the two in some way.
Continued in part two: My milkshake?
