@ Aislinn:
This is not meant to offend any other persons in this threat, but my thinking on the Thane-mance-fail is this:
We need more women playing video games.And we need more guys who appreciate women playing video games - and writing them, and strong women characters (like femshep) in the games themselves. The industry may not like it, but the shift is happening: more women are gaming, more older women are gaming, more women are BUYING games for themselves, more women are engaging and contributing to the fandoms. and more women are making games, thank god. Yes, just having women on a writing team would not necessarily mean that something like the thane-fumble wouldn't have happened, but here's my thinking: the bioware store Thane t-shirt? it was made only in men's sizes. what's up with that? i ask you. thane dying like he did? TOTALLY for the bromance. it's the thane t-shirt equivalent of the plot. it's made by men, for men, to make men feel happy about this one man that was manly. the fact that thane mattered to certain women, that he was a romance for their characters and a person they engaged on a deeper level than simply 'fist-bump, yo, let's kill sh*t', seems to have
completely fallen off the radar. and i think it happened because the female fans and their interests and desires were totally forgotten and/or ignored in favor of 'the real plot' - translation: what guys would want to see. I often feel that women in gaming are still viewed as an interesting curiousity - sort of a 'we'll make some content for them' as if it were a side note that could be gotten around to when the 'real' work is done - namely, the content for the guys. (as if women and men didn't both want strong plot and to blowing stuff up with big guns. i mean, come on. even guys can appreciate it diminishes the role-play value to kill off thane. what's the point of making an alt for him?).
but here's the thing i guess i'm trying to say:
I *really* hope you don't give up over this. I mean, maybe you'll give up on BioWare, and I would totally not blame you for that. I think a lot of people are in that camp, atm. But I hope whatever you end up doing, that you keep representing in your own way - especially with those awesome videos of yours.
And, um, I thought of sending this to you in a PM, but I'm gonna leave it here as an 'open' letter/post because I kind of think this is something all of us should do: represent for women in games, whether we're women or men who want women playing games.
I mean, as a thread, we got FemShep a TRAILER! It happened because the fans requested it - en masse. I am still astonished that this thread and people on it pulled that off. And a lot of folks didn't like that, because it shook them up and pushed for alternate storylines and suggested their favorite characters might have a different purpose than they thought (the woman can be a strong sister-in-arms instead of a sexy-time girl; the war-buddy might be a sexy-time man). But if we don't ask, it won't happen. And if we don't continue to engage geekdom, then our voices don't get heard. I totally understand and sympathize with your frustration, and I hope you use that frustration to push back against the kind of dismissive mentality that i think gave rise to it.
So, yeah. that's what i wanted to say to you. Fight the good fight, girl. I'm rooting for you.
Modifié par sagequeen, 28 mars 2012 - 11:47 .
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