Women and Video Games: We're STILL talking about this?

If anyone has read anything on my blog (which I doubt), I haven't updated it in a while for 3 reasons.

1. I'm generally too scared to actually voice my opinions.

2. I've been going through a lot of shit regarding college.

3. I ran out of things to talk about that weren't me ranting on how fucked up forums are.

Well, I guess the atrocity of online communication has given me other topic to rail on for an hour about. Yep, it's time for yet another "Women in Video Games" debate. Honestly, I feel like it'd be a crime not to say anything after this shit here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8I0Wy58adM

Look at the comments section. Yep, there really is THAT much of a fuss over the shear idea of challenging female tropes in video games. This happens every time someone "threatens" video games too and I'm simply sick of it. I could go on for hours about shit I don't like about the gaming community but, let's focus on female game characters and whither or not it's a real issue.

For starters, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to tell you where these complaints stem from. I'm sure we've all played enough video games to know what the stereotypes are. If you need a refresher, just play DOA for 5 minutes to get up to speed. The real question here is, how do we change this and why? Women are often used as either a motive for the male character's action or eye candy for the male players themselves. There aren't that many games when women take center stage or are given important roles so it's easy to see why some women feel undermined in video games. The problem here is...well it's not their problem. Yeah, I hate to say it but, until game sales are effected by this, no one in the industry has a good reason to give a damn. This is made worse by the fact that most gamers are male so it's not like women are "supposed" to be playing video games anyway even if they want to. I honestly think this is stupid because when I see women who want to play games, I see people who are willing to buy a product and outright ignoring potential consumers is simply bad business. I understand why companies don't want to take the risk but, women and their wallets are something that should be kept in consideration.

Well, what has gaming done to address this? Aren't there already "strong female characters" already? Hell if I know. "Strong female character" is such a vague term that writers make up their own definition for it or end up playing a guessing game of what women want to see without anyone actually telling them what this ridiculous phrase is about and that usually ends with the writer in question making women who act like dudes because apparently making a character too "female" is yet another "stereotype". If I'm coming off as disgruntled, it's because this assertion kind of annoys me. Let's get one thing straight here. Men are men and women are women. No, this isn't me saying that all women belong in the kicthen. I'm simply saying that if being a woman is irrelevant to a character in terms of design or personality, the character isn't really female. You know what the worst part is, every one's favorite "strong female character" is a perfect example of a woman who isn't a woman and apparently should never try to be. I'm talking about Samus Aran.

In the original Metroid NES instruction booklet, there is a "typo" that refers to Samus as male. Samus appears in the game in full body armor (which makes perfect sense given her occupation) and in no way can you really tell Samus is a woman. We all just assumed she was a he until we got the ending.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQppamJoDqc

Woah, hold up! Samus is a chick! That was pretty much every one's reaction to this bait and switch. What's worse is that Samus reveals herself in a two-piece in the Famicom version. See, the shitty thing about this is that the game basically tricks you into playing as woman. Well, I suppose it was a different time back then. If Samus was up in every one's face about her gender, all the boys may have rejected it. Kind of like in the movie She's the Man. OK, I'll let if slide. So now that we all know Samus is a woman, let's look at how later Metroid games handle this. Well, in Metroid 2, Samus kills all the metroids save for one newborn that mistakes Samus as its mother. I heard people argue that this was somewhat of an insult to Samus as a character because as a woman, this implies that Samus has built in maternal instincts. I always thought of this as one her best moments because it's one of the very few times Samus seems to have a personality. She shows compassion and mercy to the baby metroid by giving it to researchers rather than outright killing it. OK, so in Super Metroid, that same baby is kidnapped and cloned resulting in more bloodshed but, the no-longer-a-baby metroid sacrifices itself to save Samus so it's not like her compassion was misplaced. It's not her fault that the Space Pirates are asswipes.

You'd think with a history like that, Samus would be the perfect example of good female character design. She's brave, heroic, and passionate. The problem is that the games never went anywhere with it and it's pretty damn obvious from the context that the games never truly embrace Samus as being female outside of her stripping off her clothes in the first 3 games. The Metroid Prime trilogy is the biggest offender. Aside from an obviously feminine death scream, Samus never speaks, makes andrognynious gestures (she barely makes any gestures at all), and is always covered in body armor. You know until you beat the game and strips into her skin tight zero suit which looks like this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1ZjyWma4P8

Notice the iconic "Boobs and Butt" posture that most action heroines have in their pin-up art. See, this is why could never take Samus seriously even though, I really want to. When she isn't rubbing her vagina in our faces, she's running around playing masquerade. I'll be honest, my first encounter with Samus was in Super Smash Bros. for the N64. She made a bunch muffled robot sounds and I just assumed she was a robot. Then my cousins tell me Samus is female and I honestly couldn't tell because Samus looks and acts like a machine. When she's not doing that, she's doing the "Badass Girl" stereotype. I find it hilarious that people were complaining about the insulting portrayal of Samus in Other M. Don't get me wrong, Other M's characterization of Samus sucks but, that isn't saying much because herself sucks. She had the potential to be something truly inspiring amongst female characters but, she barely qualifies as having a personality. To put it bluntly, she's Batman with a cunt. Not to mention Samus have been active in fan-service way before Other M came out. Take note of the pic in the previous video and compare it to her fully dressed "I'm going to shoot you in the face" pose.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MRznLSFGFQ&feature=relmfu

Pretend you don't know Samus is a woman. Can you tell if she is even human in that picture because I couldn't when I was 10 and I doubt anyone unfamiliar with Samus could tell either. I think that was the joke regarding her to begin with. "Let's put a chick in a suit and troll all the boys". Yeah, well it would of been nice if she had more personality than Captain "Unfunny Meme" Falcon. Yes, Samus sucks that much. Chelle from Portal is the same faceless female type and you gotta love how Portal 2 had those two robots whose animations add more character to them than Chelle could hope to have. The fucking robots have more of a personality than the one human female in that serious. I know GLaDOS is technically female but, she is also a robot. I don't know if that counts or not.

I don't know about you but, when I think "strong female character" I just want woman with an important role in the plot who has a personality that can't summed up in one word. That's the problem with both men and women in video games. The writing is shallow. You can call it sexist but, bad writing is bad writing no matter what the fuck it's supposed to be. Really, take good look at some of these "plots" and you'll see what I'm talking about. Now, this doesn't change the fact that women aren't really represented in video games and when they are, it's usually exploitative. I never understood why Ivy would walk into battle in a thong swinging a whip-blade around while Nightmare would charge into battle in a suit of armor wielding a veiny, pulsating, one-eyed sword. Er...forget I said that. Anyway, I get the point. We want women in games that don't have to show you their panties every time they bend over. You know what, I'm gonna plays Devil Advocate and argue that those characters already exist, we just ignore them. As long as we except that women are women, there are quite a few characters that fit. Since I'm this post is already too long, I'll leave you to do research on these characters and form opinions on them but, I'll list a few here.

Kya (Kya: Dark Lineage) - Your average teenage girl who has to save her brother from her evil alien father.

Jill Valentine (Resident Evil) - Before her ridiculous blonde-brainwashed babe phase, she was the main character of REs 1 and 3. She shared all the responsibilities of here male compainions and she wasn't the only woman on the team either. She was obviously female and shooting the shit out of zombies.

Aile/Ash (Megaman ZX/ZX:Advent) - Aile is the female version of the male character Vent. Hence, she has the same background story and is equal to him in representation. Ash has her own story aside from Grey's and in no way is she sexualized. She shows a whole range of emotions and is the heroine of her story.

Tron Bonne (Misadventures of Tron Bonne) - A 14 year-old genius mechanic who builds and pilots various machines. She also created 40 servbots that assist her in various tasks. She is very stubborn and impulsive but, is she is still a confident and effective leader. She develops a crush on the protagonist of the Megaman Legends series, Megaman Volnutt, and her poor attempts at winning him over is due to her inexperience in love. Her entire character is based on her personality.

Jade (Beyond Good & Evil) - A reporter and martial artist who uses her skills to uncover a human (well, not entirely human) trafficking conspiracy. She is the lead character in her adventure.

Blaze the Cat (Sonic Rush) - A princess who guards the Sol Emeralds from those who would abuse them. With the help of Sonic the Hedgehog, she is able to stop Eggman Nega (her world's version of Dr. Eggman) from talking over the world. When the 2 Eggmans team up for a final showdown, both Sonic and Blaze turn super to defeat them. She is just as important to the story as Sonic.

I'm sure you can find some other candidates. Also, all because the character is sexualized doesn't automatically make the character bad. That's something to consider when talking about sexualization. That doesn't change the fact that sexualization is usually used as pure eye candy so I understand why people have a problem with it but, sex sells and as much as I wish that wasn't the case, it is what is. That's why Fat Chick with Acme: The Video Game isn't on anybody's wishlist. Remember what I said about graphics? Yeah, it's the same reason why almost all fictional characters are made to be attractive. Now, some would argue that only ugly "feminazis" give a damn about this. I honestly don't think so. The idea that women can be just as good as men at slaying demons and shit should be old news at this point. I'd argue those who don't see this maybe sexist if I wasn't familiar with the kind of shit people are capable of. Point being that all hatred regarding things like "Tropes vs Women in Video Games" has more to do with trolling and shit social skills than outright hatred towards women. Those kinds of people will attack anybody for anything. Not only that but, the idea that women are being victimized by these stereotypes is, quite frankly, horseshit.

The reason why women in mainstream video games are shit is because mainstream games have shit story lines. This effects minorities and homosexuals too. Yet, we're focusing mainly on women which actively ignores why those female tropes exist in the first place and dare I say some stereotypes are accurate. I met plenty of women in real life that fit some of the stereotypes in video games. This is because stereotypes are based on generalizations, not pure make believe. There are reasons why most porn stars are women. I may not know why that is but, I'm sure oppression isn't one of them. Gender relations are a result of culture. If you want that relationship to change, the culture has to change. How does the culture change? Well, that's not an easy question. People will have to open their minds to different ways of thinking and throw out old gender stereotypes. You know what would help though? If more people bothered to actively become apart of the solution rather than complaining about the problem. I'm sorry but, we've known there was a problem for over a decade now. You can only bring up so much awareness until people have to actually start doing something. For the record, "I'm not a game designer" isn't an excuse. Sure, you don't have to be a game designer but, the game designers are the ones expected to fix this and they don't have to do shit.

That's right, they don't. It's not your work. You don't decide what it's about. You can decide to buy it or not but, you can't decide what it is. It's no one's responsibility to pander to you. Developers will pander to those who will give them the most money. Maybe you can convince more people not to buy games that objectify women but, that's there decision. If you aren't a game designer, you can always try to become one. Then you can say you tried to make a difference. Hell, you don't even need to be a game designer. You can just write the story. It's better than nothing. That's not saying that projects like "Tropes vs Women in Video Games" are automatically bad and worthless but, I know for a fact that this and anything like it won't change anything. It never does. Only actions change shit like this.

What's funny is that women working in the gaming industry (yes, women make games too) must not be doing enough to change this. The stories and characters haven't changed. You know, those horrible female stereotypes are voiced by women, right? Hell, some of those breast physics were animated by women. It's not like women aren't apart of the problem. I guess they just don't care enough like those women dancing in those rap videos. Are they doing that shit at gun point? It's pretty clear that women can play games, talk smack over XBOX Live, and objectify themselves and men just as much as men can. "Can't" isn't the issue. "Won't" is the problem. That "won't" part is the product of culture. Women have generally different interest then men do and it just so happens that video games aren't on most women's radar (though, it should be because those are more consumers). So if you happen to be woman and you're reading this, don't think being a woman stops you from getting into the gaming industry. Anyone that says that is shitting you. Women can do it to and we know this because women have done it already.

Ultimately, I see what the problem is here but, we're addressing it the wrong way. The females stereotypes aren't sexist, they're just shallow. Trolls aren't sexist, they're just ignorant. There is no doubt that gaming is male dominated but, all that means is we need more women involved in the industry. It reminds me about that time in High School and these group of girls kept making sexual remarks to me. One of them even said she "liked my rolls" (yeah, I'm really some fat guy with too much time on his hands). Of course, no one, not even my own mother, took that seriously because a woman can't sexually harass a man. Seriously, fuck that shit. Now if you excuse me, I have to play as no-tits Talim and smack Sophita right up the ass with twin blades then beat my score on Water Palace with Blaze. If you have a problem with that, I suggest you make your own damn games. That's what I'm going to college for.