IncendiarySheep wrote...
I suggest that the reason some 'straight male' gamers feel so alienated is that we are simply not used to seeing equal billing of active female or gay characters in any media. Comparisons of numbers don't matter - it's a perception issue. Perception is a powerful thing. I get that having an equal split is going to be confronting to those gamers who are more use to having majority straight males and the token woman or gay person. I wouldn't be surprised if some people decide that the game is not for them on that basis. However, I'm personally very grateful to Bioware for making games I - a female gamer geek since she got the red-booked basic D&D set for a birthday in 1984 - can so readily feel a part of.
Until recently, female characters have generally held passive or support roles in stories. Around the late 70s, you began to get the odd active female protagonist, but she would be deliberately exceptional. She never, for example, had female friends. Moreover, her life was almost invaribly tired to the central male character's, usually as the love interest. As a fangirl and lover of sci fi, I grew up surrounded by the message that most women don't count, and to be anyone of valuable you needed to be perfect and beautiful enough to attract the dominant male.
Growing up, I simply accepted that if I wanted to roleplay on the computer, I had to play a man. Space Quest, Police Quest, Ultima, Wing Commander - the list goes on. I never minded, because I didn't have any option. I do remember my incredible excitement when one of the King's Quests finally had a plyable female lead. But I also remember how crushed I was when my brother - my partner in gaming - refused to play because he "was no girl". I was devastated, but I accepted it was more proof of the old maxim that women will read books about men and women, but men will only read books about men. In such circumstances, it makes commercial sense to publish books about men. And to do the same with movies.
However, the side-effect of this is that many women are simply not going to be very interested in yet another medium that offers nothing more than subsidiary status. No wonder there are so few girl computer rpgers! Indeed, I'd suggest some women who are inclined toward the roleplaying feel positively alienated by many games out there. I mean, I liked the Witcher as a game, but I actually felt like I wasn't ... well, welcome, playing it. It is a game for men. That's cool - if the designers want to limit their market then that's their choice (and undoubtedly a wise one, given their limited resources). But I thank Bioware for being one of the leaders in making a game that I can also comfortably play. The fact that I can play as someone who has some connection to my real self (albeit a very tenuous one) means I will invest a huge amount of time and money in this world. Probably a disproportionate amount of money, as I don't have the huge pile of alternative games that most male gamers do.
(I should note, too, that I don't get the same feeling of alienation playing, sat, the Call of Duty games, or Halo and Deep Space. But these games were never about roleplaying or choice - they are about a central character who happens (for story and commercial reasons) to be male).
In saying that, I can accept that some men would feel alienated by a 50/50 male/female character split and the inclusion of gay characters. It is confronting because it is different, and many people don't like difference (heck, look at the debate over the system changes for DAO to DA2 for proof of that!). But men (and women) who genuinely do not want to play with female companions, or gay companions have a huge variety of games to choose from. I have Bioware games (and a few others). And my love and loyalty knows no bounds as a result.
Thank you very much of this posting, was interesting reading.
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