I played a female in Mass Effect because I tried a male character but HATED the voice acting, whereas the Female Commander Shepard sounded perfect.Gahars said:
Gender in Gaming: Part 1 of 3.
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Sexism thick enough to cut with a knife, on both sides.
You also make far too many assumptions. I'd like to see many more references and less unqualified, outright ignorant statements like
For example, instead of the expansion of video games to allow a generation of closet metrosexuals, there is much more evidence that current trends in male "preening" are a reflection of a broadening middle class with much more disposable income and free time. This "preening" has always existed, but class distinctions tended to govern their enactment, not fear of ridicule. If you had the money to wear make up and fancy clothes, you did. These practices being REGARDED as an expression of femininity are more the change in modern society, not the existence of said practices. Was your common patrician who wore perfume metrosexual? No. Gay? Probably, but thats because of the relation with their catamite, not because they wanted to smell like lavender.
Anyway, I'm running on. But the point I want to make here is that I think you're wandering into a throughly studied territory without the proper tools and research to sustain a credible argument. Then again, I don't think you plan to professionally publish this article, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't help to provide a stricter level of criticism. I think this is a good area to study, but I would like to see more care and depth put into your assertions.
You also make far too many assumptions. I'd like to see many more references and less unqualified, outright ignorant statements like
...that suggest disposable media in a genre with an often lukewarm reception is as tantamount to the female experience as menstruation. Following with the suggestion that male "preening" is somehow a new concept facilitated by modern advancements in society and technology, leaves some major questions about your research.wilsonscrazybed said:
For example, instead of the expansion of video games to allow a generation of closet metrosexuals, there is much more evidence that current trends in male "preening" are a reflection of a broadening middle class with much more disposable income and free time. This "preening" has always existed, but class distinctions tended to govern their enactment, not fear of ridicule. If you had the money to wear make up and fancy clothes, you did. These practices being REGARDED as an expression of femininity are more the change in modern society, not the existence of said practices. Was your common patrician who wore perfume metrosexual? No. Gay? Probably, but thats because of the relation with their catamite, not because they wanted to smell like lavender.
Anyway, I'm running on. But the point I want to make here is that I think you're wandering into a throughly studied territory without the proper tools and research to sustain a credible argument. Then again, I don't think you plan to professionally publish this article, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't help to provide a stricter level of criticism. I think this is a good area to study, but I would like to see more care and depth put into your assertions.
Now, in the old days, I used to play female characters for several reasons. The top ones however are simple.
A: Nice to look at.
B: Tricking myself into protective instincts.
Yes, it's chavunist. I try to trick my mind into giving me that extra burst of protective urge to make my character not die a horrible, horrible death by invoking whatever caveman part of my mind makes me want to stand before a grizzly bear to save the big-chested wide-hipped childbearing-y girl. It's hard-coded into me, and for once, I could take advantage of IT instead of the other way around!
Nowadays, cause the wife gets much too angry if I dare play a female character, I stick to males.
There. The entirety of my reason for gender choice in games. T&A factor, and tricking myself into trying to do better at the game.
And nowadays, a long chewing-out if I dare play a female, ever, if males are available as choices in games unless the female character has a clear benefit over males (Jennifer Mui in Mercenaries comes to mind, the added sneak-ability sure makes things easier in some missions)
A: Nice to look at.
B: Tricking myself into protective instincts.
Yes, it's chavunist. I try to trick my mind into giving me that extra burst of protective urge to make my character not die a horrible, horrible death by invoking whatever caveman part of my mind makes me want to stand before a grizzly bear to save the big-chested wide-hipped childbearing-y girl. It's hard-coded into me, and for once, I could take advantage of IT instead of the other way around!
Nowadays, cause the wife gets much too angry if I dare play a female character, I stick to males.
There. The entirety of my reason for gender choice in games. T&A factor, and tricking myself into trying to do better at the game.
And nowadays, a long chewing-out if I dare play a female, ever, if males are available as choices in games unless the female character has a clear benefit over males (Jennifer Mui in Mercenaries comes to mind, the added sneak-ability sure makes things easier in some missions)
I'm not ashamed of enjoying a nice, if fantastical, female form on a screen and if that means choosing female characters, wll I'm not ashamed of that either. Having said that, I put in effort to roleplay my ME infiltrator gal as a realistic human being rather than me with boobs and she never bonked either option.
I play female characters occasionally and usually only in MMOs. In regular single-player games, I almost always choose to play as a male because I feel that I'm more connected to the story and character.
I'll only choose them in MMOs because
A) they are something different
B) it's something nice to look at when you are grinding
I also will "play dress-up" with both my male and female characters. I usually go for badass when dressing my male characters and sexy when dressing my female characters.
I'll only choose them in MMOs because
A) they are something different
B) it's something nice to look at when you are grinding
I also will "play dress-up" with both my male and female characters. I usually go for badass when dressing my male characters and sexy when dressing my female characters.
Thanks for the well thought out criticism. You bring up some great points. I believe the issues you have with the piece are probably the same issues many people have with op/ed articles. There is much more opinion in an article like this than say, a college thesis. The purpose of the article isn't itself to be 100% accurate. Rather, that it inspires some sort of dialog between the people reading it.
Anyway, I appreciate the counterpoints and welcome to the Escapist.
as a girl gamer, i ONLY play as female chars if i can help it. to me, playing as a male avi would be like breaking some forbidden rule! lightning would crash and i would be "smited"!!! ahhh! lol. while online, i do see the advantages of being a female char, but i try to avoid free gifts and money. although i've met many guys as girl characters raking in the free rewards. i guess another reason i only play as girls is i want to picture myself as them. i want to play the game and while im controlling the character, i become the character. now im no fatty nerdy gamer girl, i've got my charm, but i dont mind pretending to be a slender purple haired ninja every once in awhile. i cant wait to read the rest of this forum!
Very good point. There's that little bit of you that reacts far faster to a scream rather than a grunt. Why do you think little girls are used as 'warnings'?propertyofcobra said:
I'd also suggest that any female gamer tries playing as a male character. The few I know who've tried it have been quite shocked at the pro/cons of doing it.
Like Root I will try and hold my opinions to the end but I will say this.
Gaming is designed to take you from your house or the arcade and put you in a world you have never visited, a role you will never take and a character you share no similarities with. Gaming is Escapism, all games do this in at least one way, maybe many ways. Therefore is it that surprising that players want to take this Escapism to a new level? Is it surprising that people want to explore Azeroth, a place they will never visit anyway else, play as a Madge despite the fact they cannot cast magic, create a character that they share nothing in common with, and have that character female?
Gamers play to do things they cannot do, one of these is be a women.
Gaming is designed to take you from your house or the arcade and put you in a world you have never visited, a role you will never take and a character you share no similarities with. Gaming is Escapism, all games do this in at least one way, maybe many ways. Therefore is it that surprising that players want to take this Escapism to a new level? Is it surprising that people want to explore Azeroth, a place they will never visit anyway else, play as a Madge despite the fact they cannot cast magic, create a character that they share nothing in common with, and have that character female?
Gamers play to do things they cannot do, one of these is be a women.
Also, you create a low level female character and give them the filthiest costume possible, stand around a hub, and desperate horny nerds will give you in-game money and gear, which you can then transfer over to a proper character.Joeshie said:
#1 low level money making scam.
About the article:
I fail to see the relevance for a man to play dress-up with virtual girls. Unless you're planning to become a clothes designer, this can hardly be considered a valuable social skill. I can see how doing it with a male avatar would make some sense compared to real life, but this has nothing to do with the basic premise of the article.
If you don't intend to merge the articles into one, this one seems to lack a conclusion and veers off a little towards the end. Otherwise, just ignore this.
Some of the writing would sound better spoken than read. Try to focus the writing a bit, cut words where they are not needed and be less "talkey". (Sorry, I'm not very good at expressing this in English.)
Perhaps also remove things like "we men". It makes it seem less objective if you're declaring that you're a man and that this is based on your own experiences.
About playing female characters:
When presented with the choice, I almost always choose a male avatar (if there is no choice, like say Tomb Raider, there is no point in discussing gender identity. It is forced on you.)
I guess this is mostly based on identification. I'm not a woman so I identify with a male avatar more easily. The only time I remember actively choosing a female avatar was playing the evil path in Jedi Academy. All the male avatars looked like either Jedi or imperial rejects and one female avatar was decked out in black leather. Which, as we all know means EVIL!
While the article deals with the most common explanation given for playing a female character (I LIEK B00BS!), you seem to be neglecting what to me seems like an important part of the explanation: A lot of men are not comfortable looking at other men for an extended period of time. Many men still suffer from the misconception that being gay is tied to your behavior and not to your sexuality. To them, looking at men is gay. Looking at women is not. They obviously also distance themselves from the game through this, because identifying with a woman is obviously gay as well.
I realize that this is only part of the study, and if you intend to address these issues later, once again: Ignore this bit
Great article btw, I think it's an intriguing subject. Perhaps the Escapist could do a theme about gender identity in gaming at one point?
I fail to see the relevance for a man to play dress-up with virtual girls. Unless you're planning to become a clothes designer, this can hardly be considered a valuable social skill. I can see how doing it with a male avatar would make some sense compared to real life, but this has nothing to do with the basic premise of the article.
If you don't intend to merge the articles into one, this one seems to lack a conclusion and veers off a little towards the end. Otherwise, just ignore this.
Some of the writing would sound better spoken than read. Try to focus the writing a bit, cut words where they are not needed and be less "talkey". (Sorry, I'm not very good at expressing this in English.)
Perhaps also remove things like "we men". It makes it seem less objective if you're declaring that you're a man and that this is based on your own experiences.
About playing female characters:
When presented with the choice, I almost always choose a male avatar (if there is no choice, like say Tomb Raider, there is no point in discussing gender identity. It is forced on you.)
I guess this is mostly based on identification. I'm not a woman so I identify with a male avatar more easily. The only time I remember actively choosing a female avatar was playing the evil path in Jedi Academy. All the male avatars looked like either Jedi or imperial rejects and one female avatar was decked out in black leather. Which, as we all know means EVIL!
While the article deals with the most common explanation given for playing a female character (I LIEK B00BS!), you seem to be neglecting what to me seems like an important part of the explanation: A lot of men are not comfortable looking at other men for an extended period of time. Many men still suffer from the misconception that being gay is tied to your behavior and not to your sexuality. To them, looking at men is gay. Looking at women is not. They obviously also distance themselves from the game through this, because identifying with a woman is obviously gay as well.
I realize that this is only part of the study, and if you intend to address these issues later, once again: Ignore this bit
Great article btw, I think it's an intriguing subject. Perhaps the Escapist could do a theme about gender identity in gaming at one point?
See, that may be true, but I play as a man because I thoroughly believe that it is my avatar on whatever game I am playing, and as such after the first ten minutes of gameplay, I'm sucked into playing as myself; I don't even notice (or care) what I look like in-game, because (although it sounds a tad stupid) its almost as if I become one with that character. People say 'if I'm going to stare at an arse for 18 hours a day, it might as well be a good looking one', well doesn't that ruin immersion a little, too? As Pole' just said: I can identify much easier with the male gender and am never paranoid - or have that insecurity about looking at another man (heck, its one made out of pixels) for long periods.mwhite67 said:
The article also touches upon the fact that 'undesired womanly processes' are never included in videogames, making men feel they can connect with them more. I also agree with this sentiment, too - albeit not from a personal viewpoint. It is why videogame romances are as shallow and petty (and easy to come by) as clicking through a few dialogue sequences. A while back The Escapist itself featured an article about sexism in gaming. I e-mailed the guy who wrote it and we had a short discussion about why romance is a dead concept to designers - men do not want 'romance' when it is traditional; long and drawn out - because often the real reason they play games is to escape from such situations in real life - an alien concept. Thus, designers cater to this criteria and make everything short and bitter-sweet.
Good article, although I agree that is a bit strange to encourage people 'exploring the female form' by dressing up as them in-game, but whatever!
My very first experience with playing as a female occured when I was about nine. I'd just gotten my very first edition of Ultima Online, due mostly thanks to constant nagging on my parents, and I figured that, hey, it WOULD be fun to play as a girl for once.
After a bit of brainstorming, My first toon had a name and a proffesion, and I happily entered the game.
Not having played anything from the ultima series earlier, and having only fleetingly read about the game in an edition of pcgamer sweden, I didn't really know what to expec. All I knew was that it sounded FUN.
I had already played Fallout, and a bunch of (swedish) text based rpg's, but that was it. I'd never played an online game before, let alone an online rpg.
Anyways. Happily ignoring the tooltips and the tutorial, I swung into minoc, and headed out into the general direction of the mines. It didn't take too longt of figure out how to swing the pick, and pretty soon I had a stash of ores. I went back to the town, and on my way to the bank (in lack of a better idea of what to actually DO with the ore) I encountered a player standing in the middle of a circle of candles, mumbling something about keeping the dark away.
What followed was my first semi-romantic experience. It was no deep stuff. He apparently needed a 'wife' for some event, and I playing as a female. Having neither revealed my true gender or age, I accepted, and he ported me to a tower of his. He made my toon a dress, and just when things started to get interessting, my parents decided that it was time for a trip to the countryhouse. I excused myself and logged out.
As I went through my first session in my head, I realised that yes, playing as a female WAS fun. It was all so very very new. Maybe it was the fact that it was my first time doing so, or that it was my first actual online experience.
For some time afterwards, I couldn't make myself log back onto that toon. I don't know why. I guess that I felt guilty for ditching the player in question. I created a fisherman and that's what I kept playing for until my parents stopped paying for the game.
A few years ago I reopened my account again, having recived a 14 days free "come back" thingie on the mail. I figured it was time to see what was going on with my first toon, and logged in. I'm hazy on the details, but I think that houses dissapear if you don't pay upkeep or somesush, so it was obvious that the player was still playing, since my toon logged in at the same place it had logged out.
I moved about a bit, got a feel for the game, and then logged out again, buried my nose in the manual, logged back in and made a watch. I got bored and rerolled as a female wizard, and there was much rejoycing.
I don't really know where I was going with this. xD
After a bit of brainstorming, My first toon had a name and a proffesion, and I happily entered the game.
Not having played anything from the ultima series earlier, and having only fleetingly read about the game in an edition of pcgamer sweden, I didn't really know what to expec. All I knew was that it sounded FUN.
I had already played Fallout, and a bunch of (swedish) text based rpg's, but that was it. I'd never played an online game before, let alone an online rpg.
Anyways. Happily ignoring the tooltips and the tutorial, I swung into minoc, and headed out into the general direction of the mines. It didn't take too longt of figure out how to swing the pick, and pretty soon I had a stash of ores. I went back to the town, and on my way to the bank (in lack of a better idea of what to actually DO with the ore) I encountered a player standing in the middle of a circle of candles, mumbling something about keeping the dark away.
What followed was my first semi-romantic experience. It was no deep stuff. He apparently needed a 'wife' for some event, and I playing as a female. Having neither revealed my true gender or age, I accepted, and he ported me to a tower of his. He made my toon a dress, and just when things started to get interessting, my parents decided that it was time for a trip to the countryhouse. I excused myself and logged out.
As I went through my first session in my head, I realised that yes, playing as a female WAS fun. It was all so very very new. Maybe it was the fact that it was my first time doing so, or that it was my first actual online experience.
For some time afterwards, I couldn't make myself log back onto that toon. I don't know why. I guess that I felt guilty for ditching the player in question. I created a fisherman and that's what I kept playing for until my parents stopped paying for the game.
A few years ago I reopened my account again, having recived a 14 days free "come back" thingie on the mail. I figured it was time to see what was going on with my first toon, and logged in. I'm hazy on the details, but I think that houses dissapear if you don't pay upkeep or somesush, so it was obvious that the player was still playing, since my toon logged in at the same place it had logged out.
I moved about a bit, got a feel for the game, and then logged out again, buried my nose in the manual, logged back in and made a watch. I got bored and rerolled as a female wizard, and there was much rejoycing.
I don't really know where I was going with this. xD
I generally identify strongly with characters I'm controlling as well, but it doesn't matter what gender they are.Melaisis said:
Whilst that's certainly true, they're really omitted because they're inconvenient to gameplay in the vast majority of instances. (Really, the only game I can think of where gender comparitive biology might play a useful gameplay role is The Sims.) Just the same as every other biological process is omitted. Even in RPGs nerdcore enough to make the characters need to eat, they never have to shit.
I would say that the reason gamers don't want romances "long and drawn out" is because, well, games really aren't that long. The actual story content of them is rarely more than a few hours, even in a JRPG, and the timescale they cover is likewise restricted. There simply isn't enough time in the story to develop an actual real romance, so we get a hollywood one instead.
That is not chauvinism. Chauvinism is the belief that women are incapable of doing something (Barring the contraction of prostate cancer). Wishing to protect women is, as you say, genetically encoded into our DNA to ensure the survival of the species. Besides, it usually reaps rewards in the long-term (unless you actually do try to fight a cave bear, in which case there are no rewards and certainly no long-term.)propertyofcobra said:
In the words of Chambers- -'extravagent attachment to any group, place, cause etc.'Blayze said:
In the words of a friend of mine- same shit, different smell. Stop splitting hairs.
I don't think you can so easily discount choosing to play as a female character as nothing to do with identifying with a female, or vice versa. The whole point of RPG's is to lose yourself in the game, to become the character; that's what the best games do, anyway.
Think of novels that read from a female perspective, it's always going to be slightly alien. I totally don't get Bridget Jones' Diary, but that's mainly because it's shit. So too, in a computer game that has different reactions to your gender, be it Mass Effect in single player or being female in a MMORPG, there is always going to be an element of female experience.
Think of novels that read from a female perspective, it's always going to be slightly alien. I totally don't get Bridget Jones' Diary, but that's mainly because it's shit. So too, in a computer game that has different reactions to your gender, be it Mass Effect in single player or being female in a MMORPG, there is always going to be an element of female experience.