Kickstarter "Tropes vs Women in Videogames"

[Forlorn Drifter]

Going with what I said earlier, I think something that would at least help all of this is getting more female developers and writers, who could maybe bring something to the table for storytelling and such. I'm scared this could go the way that homosexual characters have gone in games. For example, the newest mage released in relation to Dragon Age: Inquisition. What was the most used word in every thing I found related to him: gay. Not used in a negative way, but almost as advertising, like, "Hey, by the way, there's a gay guy, so we're paying attention to minorities, buy our stuff!". The developers also went out of the way to mention how he is put down by others for being "outside the norm" for his group.

It ends up creating stereotypical, token characters just thrown in. How many black men are big hulking athletic monsters in games? How many black women are there in games? (Few, coming from my memory.) And lets not even get started on how Hispanics tend to get displayed...

I've only watched portions of the videos, but I may have missed this, but has Anita covered positive examples of women in games? That is something that should really be looked at, to give examples of what is good. I've also noticed her picking up on some games that are obviously not meant to be seen as serious, and would fall under the "grindhouse" label if they were movies. Its really hard to look at those correctly, because they are intended for the lowest common denominator. Like grindhouse movies, they're all about sex, drugs, and violence, and not being good in social graces.

[Jmustang1968]

Going with what I said earlier, I think something that would at least help all of this is getting more female developers and writers, who could maybe bring something to the table for storytelling and such. I'm scared this could go the way that homosexual characters have gone in games. For example, the newest mage released in relation to Dragon Age: Inquisition. What was the most used word in every thing I found related to him: gay. Not used in a negative way, but almost as advertising, like, "Hey, by the way, there's a gay guy, so we're paying attention to minorities, buy our stuff!". The developers also went out of the way to mention how he is put down by others for being "outside the norm" for his group.

It ends up creating stereotypical, token characters just thrown in. How many black men are big hulking athletic monsters in games? How many black women are there in games? (Few, coming from my memory.) And lets not even get started on how Hispanics tend to get displayed...

I've only watched portions of the videos, but I may have missed this, but has Anita covered positive examples of women in games? That is something that should really be looked at, to give examples of what is good. I've also noticed her picking up on some games that are obviously not meant to be seen as serious, and would fall under the "grindhouse" label if they were movies. Its really hard to look at those correctly, because they are intended for the lowest common denominator. Like grindhouse movies, they're all about sex, drugs, and violence, and not being good in social graces.

Well, Bioware, and Dragon Age specifically, has male and female writers and I believe Gaider is very supportive of the gay community if he isn't himself. (I dont really pay much attention to others' sexual orientations). So they have a fairly diverse writing staff.

[MrPopo]

Going with what I said earlier, I think something that would at least help all of this is getting more female developers and writers, who could maybe bring something to the table for storytelling and such.

It really does boil down to this. People write what they know. Yes, they can stretch and do something they don't know, but it's not a natural tendency.

[dsheinem]

Going with what I said earlier, I think something that would at least help all of this is getting more female developers and writers, who could maybe bring something to the table for storytelling and such.

It really does boil down to this. People write what they know. Yes, they can stretch and do something they don't know, but it's not a natural tendency.

So we could have /thread on page 1 then?

http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... 32#p634532

[MrPopo]

Going with what I said earlier, I think something that would at least help all of this is getting more female developers and writers, who could maybe bring something to the table for storytelling and such.

It really does boil down to this. People write what they know. Yes, they can stretch and do something they don't know, but it's not a natural tendency.

So we could have /thread on page 1 then?

http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... 32#p634532

Correct.

[ZeroAX]

Is it impossible to imagine the reason we have so few female protagonists is because mainstream games are all action games? How many action films have female protagonists? Very few I can think of.

It probably has to do with the target demographics for action films/games, so for example adventure games have had way more female protagonists since the sex ratio of the audience was more balanced.

Of course tropes are also very important when it comes to this but I'm to lazy to go into something that everyone here pretty much knows about.

[Gunstar Green]

Is it impossible to imagine the reason we have so few female protagonists is because mainstream games are all action games? How many action films have female protagonists? Very few I can think of.

Are you kidding me? "Action girl" is one of Hollywood's most successful tropes. Two of the most famous action film protagonists of all time are Ellen Ripley and Sarah Connor (Though you can argue Arnold is the star there). Some of the only long-running video game to film franchises (Tomb Raider, Resident Evil) are mostly thanks to the fact that they have female protagonists.

Here is just one list of female action movie protagonists: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls003456810/

[ZeroAX]

Can't say I know most of them.

I'm thinking modern blockbusters. Then again since the genre is dominated by super hero movies it suffers from its source material lacking female protagonists.

I just feel the trope is that action film usually means a male protagonist (and a romantic film means a female protagonist) so it's the fault of popular culture in general, not just gaming.

[Jmustang1968]

Can't say I know most of them.

I'm thinking modern blockbusters. Then again since the genre is dominated by super hero movies it suffers from its source material lacking female protagonists.

I just feel the trope is that action film usually means a male protagonist (and a romantic film means a female protagonist) so it's the fault of popular culture in general, not just gaming.

Hmm romantic films usually have both a female and male lead...

[Gunstar Green]

Can't say I know most of them.

I'm thinking modern blockbusters. Then again since the genre is dominated by super hero movies it suffers from its source material lacking female protagonists.

I just feel the trope is that action film usually means a male protagonist (and a romantic film means a female protagonist) so it's the fault of popular culture in general, not just gaming.

Hmm romantic films usually have both a female and male lead...

Dammit Zero, lesbian porn doesn't fall under the genre of "romantic film."

In all seriousness though I think you're right about modern movies mostly due to the super hero domination. There is that film "Lucy" coming out with Scarlett Johansson but it looks kind of meh.