Gaming Lounge

[GrooveMan.exe]

Ah; before this gets potentially buried in a "NO ARGUING ABOUT CONTENTIOUS TOPICS GUYS" post-cleanse, let me make a few things clear. (Some of this is a repeat of what I've said elsewhere, so forgive me if it sounds like I'm repeating myself).

Firstly, no one is calling posters ITT a sexist. In circumstances like these, it's a "what you said" discussion, not a "what you are" discussion. Save the "what you are" accusations (both offensively and defensively) for more concrete evidence. There's a great video by Ill Doctrine that talks about this (from the point of view of Racism, but the concept still stands)


What discussing minority issues with people of those minorities (or those researched in the theory) achieves is to pinpoint attitudes and ideas of what's problematic, and getting people to realise that it's problematic and why. This is a two-way game - it's not the 'duty' to minorities to explain to others why things are/are not problematic, and people outside of a minority are well advised to hold the opinions of said minority with a little more weight; since they're actually talking about something they directly experience.

What people are taking issue with in this thread (I obviously can't speak for anonymous internet posters the world over) are two things:
- That because a woman character in a game has revealing clothing, that it's not sexist if they're compromised because 'the game's designed that way'
- That the new Tomb Raider isn't sexist because 'she's in the same position as other male characters'.

Right, the skirts issue first:
These characters are designed by people, and people design things with reasons in mind. While from a 'Death of the Author' point of view, it may seem like a revealing clothing on women characters is justified within its own setting - bear in mind that the setting was still created by someone. (Let me also say, that 'Death of the Author' is NEVER the only way to look at a work, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise)

In the case of Lollipop Chainsaw, someone designed the character to be a cheerleader in a short skirt who fights using cheerleader-style moves. They also decided to give her a more air-headed personality than her equally athletically-competent sisters, and detailed circumstances where the player could try to intentionally look up her skirt - and what the game does in response (unique dialogue and an achievement what the fuck).

For another example, try Bayonetta. In solely the context of the game, Bayonetta feels empowering - she's very sexual, yes, but it's entirely on her own terms, and she actively combats people who try to put her down.

But if you read up a little about the games designers and director - it's stated that Bayonetta's design is generated from the design team pooling their kinks together; and Bayonetta's aggressiveness is generated from the director believing that womanhood/femininity is inherently competitive and sexual. Now Bayonetta's design becomes a lot less cool (I was actually sort of upset when I found that out. =c )

This kind of 'design justification' is sexist. And in the case of it being a design generated from the designer's own opinion of women, that arguably makes them sexist.

Right, now for Tomb Raider:
The complaints here are again partially down to Author Intent. On paper, this is a game where a woman protagonist is exploring and shooting dudes, in a manner akin to Nathan Drake (it's a bit amusing to make that comparison, when a few years ago, Nathan Drake was exploring and shooting in a manner similar to Lara Croft). However, the gameplay trailer last year, where Lara had to escape entrapment while moaning a lot from various injuries felt a little off. To some (many?) the moans sounded more sexual than pained, and the grabbing, shadowy figures reminded a little too much of a sexual abuse parallel.

This would all just be conjecture; until this year when a statement was made by the director that Lara was written in a way where the player is prompted to want to 'protect' her. Not be her; as would be the case for more or less any other action game where your actions are part of a power fantasy; but an intentional distancing. Why? Why wouldn't you want be Lara Croft? Well if you craft a story where the protagonist has her friend kidnapped, her plans destroyed, and her getting kidnapped herself, then you're engineering a situation like that.

The director also made a statement about having sexual abuse be part of the game (and since backpedalled); but even without an overt reference to rape; it's clear that this Tomb Raider reboot is not functioning on the same level as other action games in regard to its characterisation.

So, these games are sexist. Does that make them bad games?
No, not necessarily! There are plenty of instances across all media types that are well made; but are problematic in a way (or multiple ways!). Lollipop Chainsaw is looking kinda average for reasons outside of its sexism; but Tomb Raider may still turn out to be an accomplished game despite its creepy undertones.

But what's REALLY IMPORTANT to process is that just because a game is good, doesn't mean that any problematic features it has are absolved. Part of enjoying a piece is properly accepting its flaws and shortcomings. If you personally can enjoy a game, or any kind of media while still recognising its problems then all the power to ya. What's shitty is denying or excusing something's flaws just because you like the game as a whole.

As a bonus aside to Feminist Frequency
That project's actually pretty cool; and all the shitty internet backlash it's gotten makes me like it even more. She's not the best person ever existing to talk about these issues (nor am I for that matter); but the fact that she's willing to discuss it, put time and money into researching and discussing both the good and bad representations of women characters in games is admirable, and I wish her all the best. Apparently because of the large amount of money she's gotten; part of the project will be creating class materials and doing talks; which is really cool!

The damsel in distress thing may be an old - mythological even - archetype; but that doesn't mean it's not a sexist one. That story archetype could be done with any combination of genders. The Fighting FuckToy archetype would be characters that are SUPER AGGRESSIVE MASTER FIGHTERS but are also designed to be super sexy, and sometimes if it calls for it, emotionally vulnerable. Nina from Tekken is a great example. Funnily enough, she also has sexual-sounding moans when she's hurt.

Men can fall into these archetypes, but the thing is, this isn't a discussion about men. To go "what about the men" in a discussion specifically about representation of women is a derail; and a way to common one at that. Y'know how ridiculous it is when people complain that gay marriage will somehow affect the sanctity of all straight marriages? Same kind of derail (with roughly the same amount of meaningful input, too).

So yeah. That's out lesson on feminist theory in video games for the day. Tune in next week where I'll talk about how few black characters there are; and how the ones that exist are largely Dumb Muscle.

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I also recently decided that retired staff should no longer see the happenings of the admin board because it is none of their business how the site is conducting itself when they have no direct involvement. Meta doesn't like that, likely because it means that because it might be seen as me prevent Grooveman and Alpha Six seeing the discussions held in there which have nothing to do with these debates. But when the time comes around that they decide to peek their heads out and argue their point, they should have the advantage of seeing my discussion with the rest of the staff. Cool stuff.

Unrelated thought, but this is really amusing. Please don't shit the bed just because we don't see eye-to-eye on minority issues.