How Do You Feel About This Video?

[McChoclatey]

This is about video games Teen and up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PJ0JPLg_-8&list=UU7Edgk9RxP7Fm7vjQ1d-cDA&index=7&feature=plcp

Do you think it's true? False?

What's your opinion?

Oh yeah, and beware of language...

[paksetti]

I think that woman's obnoxious.

[StarboardParoxysm]

I don't get why there's clips from Star Trek Online in there. I played the hell out of that game - there's really very little to no sexism in it at all; you get to customize your character however you want, and the only "sexy" stuff are a couple outfits that are completely optional (and mostly stuff like the original series miniskirt uniforms for women). If you want a completely sensible outfit for your female character and a no-nonsense, professional, non-sexy look for her, you can easily do that too.

[Nvenya]

I noticed Assassin's Creed 1 & 2 were in the vid. Um, how do you avoid being sexist in games that are based during the time of the Crusades and 15-16th centuries? It wasn't that long ago that women were pretty much property. Historically accurate games typically get a free pass.

[maxon]

Historically accurate??? <boggles> A computer game is historically accurate? Yeah sure.

<mutter> hysterically accurate perhaps.</mutter>

I'm confused - are they saying there are too many men in video games? mmmm - you know I'm not so bothered about that and more bothered about how female characters are treated like crap/they're some other species/wimpy incompetents. Men make up more than half the population and rather more of the game-playing population. I like playing women characters so I don't see why the Others shouldn't be able to play male characters if they so want, though this was pointed out in another thread: you can define MMORPGs as
MMORPG = Many Men Online Role Playing Girls :D
So I don't know. Maybe there are too many dicks.

[Nvenya]

Historically accurate??? <boggles> A computer game is historically accurate? Yeah sure.

<mutter> hysterically accurate perhaps.</mutter>



Yes, there actually are historically accurate video games. Some of the WWII games can be pretty accurate.

What the uploader is saying is in the comments under the vid.

I just don't follow her argument. She doesn't like violent games, but doesn't like that normal women aren't starring in them? She uses an example of a woman she does like, the one from Portal, but we are talking about two different genres of games. She also mentions Faith from Mirror's Edge, but that is also not an FPS.

She also doesn't seem to like that women in these violent games act macho, but are dressed like hookers. I can get behind that argument.

Her last argument is that there are still too many men in the gaming industry, thus too many dicks on the dance floor.

[iCad]

I've never played any of these games because I'm really not a game person, aside from this obsession I have with TS2, but...Well, uh, isn't it true that that particular kind of game that she's mostly talking about is still usually played more by people who possess Y chromosomes than by those who don't? Assuming that's true, then it's no surprise that women are portrayed in such a way. Just like how the women in porn videos all tend to look similar. The women in question tend to fit that "standard male fantasy" look. That isn't to say that that's how men really want women to look/be/act IRL (although some probably do, I'm sure); it's just catering to a fantasy image that heterosexual men, at least, have in their heads, for whatever reason.

And maybe I'm just not enough of a feminist, but I don't think that's anything to get all worked up about because it isn't as if it isn't a two-way street. Women have fantasy images for men that get catered to an awful lot, as well. Just watch any romance-oriented "chick flick."

[paksetti]

But no, you guys. Fantasy can't be portrayed in the media because it's harmful to us to convey anything other than absolute realism and truth. You guys, no. You guys. Seriously. It's harmful you guys, you guys come on.

Seriously guys, think of the women. :'(((

[SeeMyu]

:blink: Oh.. interesting.. uhm. I don't know how I feel about the video..

[Whiterudder]

Eh. FPS are the game equivalent of action films, and yeah, they both tend to star male characters of the nearly-popped-sausage variety, because that's what most of us tend to think of when we think violence. Yes, even the female characters are pretty butch, because it's an FPS - it's tricky to write a halfway believable character who combines gun-toting and brawling with not being butch. Not impossible, but very difficult.

Really, it seems like this person just doesn't like FPS games, which I can totally sympathise with. (And yeah, I get the thing about hypersexualised female characters, and also about the male characters being ugly as sin, which is a little unfair on those gamers who like men.) Then she has the examples of two games which, in her own words, break the mould - neither of which are FPS. Well, yeah. I like non-FPS games too. So I play non-FPS games and don't play FPS games. Problem solved.
There are, ofc, a few games in that montage which aren't FPS - such as STO and AC; seems a little odd to me to blame a dev company if the players in an MMO collectively make more male avatars than female ones... but, hey, there's nothing wrong with her disliking some non-FPS games too, and I don't think that's indicative of a general problem with the industry. Now, I'm off to watch my lady toon's fully clothed backside run around Aurora in Fable 3.

[SuicidiaParasidia]

well, i know some guys IRL who like to play female toons, so i wouldnt assume that if its a male playing the video game, he must want to only play a male avatar. so yeah, in that respect, i can see how a lot of games pigeon-hole you into playing male characters. i generally dont play a game if i cant play as a female, which tends to work out more often than not, since those games also tend to have the highest amount of sexist BS in them (half naked, brain-dead wenches? count me out).
but i tend to play MMORPGs and sims, which always have options for either genders.
i think more women would play first person shooters and the like, if they had female avatars that were more...uh...how do i put this... multidimensional. it is possible to be feminine, modest, and still enjoy the occasional exploding zombie head.