3 posts tagged “female”

A lot of people have been decrying Resident Evil/Biohazard 5's mass slaughter of black "people." I say "people" because they're no longer human in the game. They're zombies; they were people that were exposed to a horrible virus by sinister means. The black people in the game are victims of a sci-fi version of Darfur. I think Africa needs more focus. Have more games take place there. Get more people to pay attention to the horrible goings on as well as the good. I wonder if outrage over Resident Evil 5 can get directed towards the inaction concerning Darfur?

What's racist to me is the stereotypical depiction of black people as "gangstas" or criminals dressed in a certain rap star wanna-be manner. Want to do something good for black folks in video games? Have a big fat tall black man as your Summoner. Have well rounded black women manage all the libraries in your game world.

Fat Princess has stirred up a lot of ire as well. It's capture the flag where the flag is a young woman you can overfeed. The fatter the Princess gets, the harder she'll be to carry over to your side. First, images of women get blasted for being unnervingly skinny only to have tremendous mounds of lard mounted on their chests. A majority of video game females range between campy with no sex appeal to bodies that super models' photoshop wranglers aspire to. Fat Princess is hardly the breakdown in stereotypical female character appearance I'd hope for, but I could laugh it off. I agree with one of Mighty Ponygirl's alternative suggestions. Namely, replacing the fat lady with a fat stash of gold. You could even make a game of lightening the load when mobility matters then re-collect the gold later. I would definitely NOT laugh at Fat Princess if players beat her up to expel weight.

Or what the heck, go with a sci-fi theme. Use a magnetic meteor. These meteors are fuel of the future. Get meteors to your base and build a larger space fleet. You could attack the meteor directly to lighten loads or reduce others' rewards.

Next, "Good character designer, have some pie."  Good, non-sexist character designs.

I looked at Gamasutra's list of their top 20 influential women and I was disappointed. The list was mostly of female executives; while I am happy to see that these women are climbing to high positions such as "executive VP of global marketing" and all, I was hoping for a list of amazing women who worked like crazy in the development trenches creating and innovating awesome games. The women were instrumental in the creation of original IP and exciting experiences. Here it is, in order of me coming up with their names.

1. Reiko Kodama. She was one of the co-creators of the Phantasy Star series of role playing games for the Sega Master System and producer for Skies of Arcadia. It seems like she does everything from design games, create pixel art to managing the production of a game. Considering how much I loved Phantasy Star as a kid, I consider her to be an idol of sorts. I dream to meet her some day.
   
2. Mieko Ishikawa. A composer and now producer at Nihon Falcom. She was one of the original composers for Ys, an action RPG franchise known for having some of the greatest music ever in a video game. Mieko continues to take part in shaping Falcom's products. Falcom is a special company for sure, making a good deal of money on live concerts of their music(I'm pretty sure arrangements of Mieko's original pieces still persist) and arrangements of their music that weren't in their games.
   
3. Minae Matsukawa. Producer of the Phoenix Wright series. She's worked office jobs, a security guard job and just wanted to get into games. She did so with great success and I admire her for it.
   
4. Rika Suzuki did game design for Hotel Dusk: Room 215, Trace Memory and the first 3 Dragon Quest/Dragon Warrior games.
   
5. Kim Swift. Right from graduate to Game of the Year winning pro is a leap many envy. She was one of the members of a group of students that made a project that became Portal, one of the greatest gaming phenomenon of recent times. Props to her and the other members of the student team that Valve snapped up in a jiffy.
   
6. Amy Hennig. Directed Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver. I enjoyed this game on the Sega Dreamcast, and thought is was pretty darn groovy that a woman directed it. Props to her!
7. Rhianna Pratchett. Writer and story designer for Overlord, that amusing game of causing mayhem through a combo of action and real time strategy. Thank you for making lines worth reading.

That's it for now, if I think of any more, I will add them to the list.

When people start off questions about my gaming career with "as a woman..." I really don't know what to do.
Really. I don't. Sure, my sex genotype is XX, but the whole "woman" and "girl" thing is primarily a societal construct to me.  Societal constructs I never really particpated in.

Girls(all children, to be fair) are getting onto computers at progressively earlier ages. However, giving girls video games or game consoles seems practically unheard of.   Heck, cell phone games were touted as a way to tap into women and girl gamers since cell phones are one of the few peripherals males will take over and say "let me show you how it's done."

I was given consoles. I was told to share with my friends but no one dared rip the controller out of another's hands.  Aren't people taught basic respect anymore?  That's another rant.

Either way, my gender hasn't had a major impact in my life in general.  Furthermore, games are a very talent-oriented industry.  Companies need talented artists, programmers, designers, composers, and so forth, not men or women specifically.

I honestly abhor the thought of designing a game specifically for women.   During a "how to design games for women" John Romero talked about avoiding blood and guts.  That'd abhorr your average NASCAR Dad as well as a Soccer Mom.  I on the other hand, absolutely love Blood Death and Destruction when combined with compelling game play. I enjoyed Killer 7 for the Game Cube. 

I hope that advanced to where I am because I'm a creative individual, not because I'm a woman.
I'd feel very disappointed and insecure if I found out my gender or sex was factored in.