FemShep, Deconstructing Samus, and women in video games

[orangerful]

Bioware posted a link to this blog post on their Mass Effect Facebook page. lostacanthus, I'm sure there is a lot both you and I could add to this discussion. One of the things that drew me into Mass Effect, DragonAge, and the Knights of the Old Republic series before that, was the ability to create my character and have her be...well, a HER!

The article reminded me of something writer Jane Espenson (Buffy/Angel/Firefly/BSG) has said many times when asked about writing strong female characters. She says to write the story with a male protagonist, and when you're all done, go back and switch the pronouns.

This feels like it's a large part of Morgan Webb's gripe with the new Metroid game "Other M" which is supposed to give us backstory on the mysterious Samus. Instead of having her be, gee, I dunno, a lone survivor of an attack, the writers just shove her story full of daddy and boyfriend issues. Morgan is infuriated by this - and what female gamer wouldn't be? Would anyone write a story where a MALE character mopes over the loss of his mom? I doubt it. (Lucas came close with the horrible Jango Fett story in the prequels and you know how that made you feel, right? Awesome character is now a whiny little brat).

This all goes back to Lara Croft for me. I know that part of the reason I am such a big gamer today was because of Lara Croft. At the core, she was a female Indiana Jones. She was a badass hottie who knew her way around ancient relics and weaponry. Oh, I'd played Wolfenstein before, I'd run through Heretic and Doom...but Lara was the first character that I thought about outside of the game itself. And the fact that they are STILL making Tomb Raider games says something about the staying power of this character. Even a bad movie with Angelina Jolie could not destroy the franchise!

As with most things that have to do with gender, I think many of us ladies just grin and bear it. Oh look, another story with a princes that needs to be rescued? Oh, the unplayable side-kick is a girl? Well, at least she is there. So when we have the opportunity to play as a female, we seize upon it.

And i'm sure just as many guys try playing as the female Shepard just for a bit of voyeurism. Sure, we could just say they do it for the lesbian sex scene in ME1 (which was SO tame, you see more skin on Gossip Girl) but I think that's just a cover. I think the chance for them to experience the world as a chick, even for a little bit, interests them. Of course, it's really not a very good representation. Shepard is treated with a lot of respect and it's more like the Battlestar Galactica universe than our current gender climate. But you get the idea.

Gotta go - Commander Griddie Shepard just took charge of the Normandy and we're heading to the Citadel to see what state the Council is in.

Comments

[faeriesfolly.livejournal.com]

There should be more games where it isn't--"Your princess is in another castle."

They should all be, "Your princess is behind you with a knife to your throat/gun to your head. Give her all your loots."

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

OMG THAT NEEDS TO BE A T-SHIRT!

[dragonbloodink.livejournal.com]

SO true! Come to think of it, all of my favorite games are ones that allow a female protagonist. And it's really, really good storytelling, too. The DA:O stories for females are even more poignant than the ones for males, in some cases.

Have fun with ME2, it rocks!

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

And just to add to this, we saw Resident Evil:Afterlife tonight (it's tradition for us to see them in the theater opening weekend) and I was thinking about how Alice, the kick-ass hero of the movies, is not actually in the game. It's funny that, even though they had their choice between a male and female character from the game, they created a FEMALE to be the poster-child for the movies...I know Milla's hotness factor had something to do with it, but still...

[faeriesfolly.livejournal.com]

On the front -- "Your princess is NOT in another castle."

"Your princess is currently pwnin' n00bs and gettin' lewtz."

[vertigozooropa.livejournal.com]

Are we still having this discussion?

You're right, though. You'd think that competent writers would just eschew things like, "daddy issues," and such as overdone, and move onto something more interesting.

My character in Fallout 3 is female. It doesn't really come up much in the storyline, except to give some incidental texture to the proceedings. It is interesting that there's a woman wandering the wasteland with a big fuck-off gatling laser, mowing down raiders and mutants, much like it was interesting when Sigourney Weaver did it on a moonbase 24 years ago. We weren't expecting it from a woman, but why not? That is the nature of story, you'll note: "Why not?"

I don't really care about Samus' personal life. I care more about adding texture to the story of how she ended up fighting Mother Brain, and maybe I'd like to know what she did before she started fighting Metroids.

It never mattered to anybody whether Ellen Ripley had boyfriend issues. She was basically a male character in a female body, like Jane Espenson would write. She was, in fact, a person doing a job, and she survived the experience. Later, we'd learn she'd been a mother, but due to circumstances had outlived her daughter. That led to a perfectly reasonable storyline in which a young girl needs a replacement mother, but nobody ever watched Aliens and said Ripley seemed weak. "Get away from her, you bitch," indeed.

I enjoyed The Long Kiss Goodnight and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I didn't stop to ask whether a woman could kick ass because clearly, here were some who were doing so. I'm less interested in gender equality than I am in good writing, and I think the traditional weak female characters are a little worn, if not dated. By all means, show women in all their emotional complexity. Women have that sort of strength. But do it right.

From the review, the game seems like a massive dose of, "tell, don't show." Watch Aliens and The Long Kiss Goodnight. Here are two tough women with emotional depth. Neither makes introspective monologues. The very fact that a little girl's life is in the balance is enough to show us what we need to know.

Though, one might object to that on the grounds of, "damsel in distress," but your mileage may vary.

[toothlesshag.livejournal.com]

Paul just played through the Metroid game. He says it SUCKS.

He did not like the way Samus was treated as a character. Before, Samus just happened to be a girl and it was a non issue. The new game is all about how hard it is to be female in the Marines. Maybe that story would have made sense 20 years ago, but now it is not the case.

Somebody just posted this - thought it went with your post.

[toothlesshag.livejournal.com]

EMBED-Geek and Gamer Girls Song - Watch more free videos

Right on or too easy?

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

That was pretty much Morgan Webb's gripe about the game too, just so insulting to women and female gamers too. Just unnecessary to reduce her to a G.I. Jane stereotype.

Re: Somebody just posted this - thought it went with your post.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

I saw this too, but I was first distracted by Seth Green, then by Katee Sackhoff, then by the one girl who guest starred on 'The Guild' but I couldn't remember so it drove me CRAZY!

Right on and too easy. I'm sure there are plenty of guys out there watching the video that STILL don't believe we exist. Felicia Day was saying yesterday that the biggest pet peeve/insult she gets from online trolls are the accusations of her not being a real gamer. That it's all an act. Ridiculous.

I've avoided hearing the real version of this song and now it's my goal never to hear it because even when it's parodied, it's not a very good song. This was cute though. And I think at least one of those girls is a gamer so it's all good (and Katee is just adorable in person).

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

We are still having this discussion because, for some reason, it still amazes some gamers (especially male gamers) that a strong, smart female character can be an enjoyable thing to play/watch. I mean, it helps that they are hot, but FemShepard (oh what a horrible term) is so much more than a pin-up girl (and when I was a kid, a little part of me died when I saw the Lara-as-a-pinup artwork).

I think I'm having this discussion because it still amazes me that people need to talk about it. That game developers don't think we'll buy games with strong women, even though Tomb Raider is over 10 years old, just boggles. But, then again, Buffy was on TV for 7 season, yet television producers still seem to be struggling with the "they want to watch an intelligent show with characters that grow each episode? really? How about if they DANCE with famous people while completing a crazy task in 60 seconds for a chance to win a million dollars instead?"

Re: Somebody just posted this - thought it went with your post.

[toothlesshag.livejournal.com]

Well, I think I can understand "Prove youre a girl" because a lot of men do go online and pretend to be girls when they are not. At least that was the case years ago, before WOW.

[toothlesshag.livejournal.com]

Icon envy.

[faeriesfolly.livejournal.com]

Molotov is the best. :) You can snag either if you want em. I didn't make, but I've got the name of whoever did on my userpics page.