Thanks for making my final project actually interesting and for helping me get a great grade, BioWare!
Special mention to the 'Cassandra is too butch!' and 'don't BioWare even CARE about their MAIN audience anymore?!' commentators, couldn't have done it without you 
Well done! Always happy to help someones scholastic endeavors. (I may or may not have participated in any discussion on the subject of gender in Dragon Age)
Thanks for making my final project actually interesting and for helping me get a great grade, BioWare!
Special mention to the 'Cassandra is too butch!' and 'don't BioWare even CARE about their MAIN audience anymore?!' commentators, couldn't have done it without you
I think videogames should, indeed, serve people's fantasies. So "Cassandra is too butch" is a valid statement. As are all complaints from feminists, from the lightest to the heaviest. The solution is simple, to have all kinds of people making games. There should be black lesbian protagonists and also blond bimbo sex object protagonists. And also manly men, feminine men, straight men, gay men, fat men, bissexual men, agender men, and also manly women, feminine women, straight women, lesbian women, transexual women... and so on.
Regarding DAI and gender, it is a disappointment. Not because Cassandra is or it not too butch, but because everybody have the same body and clothing are still gender-differentiated so all men have broader shoulder, only women have beautiful clothing (well, not even women, but they got the littl amount of pretty clothing we have) and the game world itself still have very classic female roles. Like in GoT we have Brienne and stuff but all in all it is like 1% better than "real world" state. Women are still women, and men are still men, nothing really new.
But, well, that's all we get... Bioware is probably the best thing out there and a little "transgression" is better than nothing I guess
Well done! Always happy to help someones scholastic endeavors. (I may or may not have participated in any discussion on the subject of gender in Dragon Age)
Many thanks!
To video games! The cause of — and solution to — all of life's problems!
That's just what I needed to toast to tonight!
A degree in what, might I ask?
English Literature. I was very pleased to get away with a video game based dissertation, but I threw some literary theory into it and everyone was happy.
I think videogames should, indeed, serve people's fantasies. So "Cassandra is too butch" is a valid statement. As are all complaints from feminists, from the lightest to the heaviest. The solution is simple, to have all kinds of people making games. There should be black lesbian protagonists and also blond bimbo sex object protagonists. And also manly men, feminine men, straight men, gay men, fat men, bissexual men, agender men, and also manly women, feminine women, straight women, lesbian women, transexual women... and so on.
Regarding DAI and gender, it is a disappointment. Not because Cassandra is or it not too butch, but because everybody have the same body and clothing are still gender-differentiated so all men have broader shoulder, only women have beautiful clothing (well, not even women, but they got the littl amount of pretty clothing we have) and the game world itself still have very classic female roles. Like in GoT we have Brienne and stuff but all in all it is like 1% better than "real world" state. Women are still women, and men are still men, nothing really new.
But, well, that's all we get... Bioware is probably the best thing out there and a little "transgression" is better than nothing I guess
I've just done 10000 words on the subject so you'll forgive me if I don't enter into a debate on what BioWare did/did not get right with DAI at this moment. Now is the time for drinks. And cake. Frilly cakes.
Maker! I'd love to read that. Do you have any plans to publish it or otherwise make it available publicly? I couldn't help noticing the progression from DAO to DAI in LGBT-friendliness. A friend of mine recently wrote a book Jane Eyre's Sisters: How Women Live and Write the Heroine's Story, which is fascinating. FYI, I'm a 60 y.o. man and played all 3 games as a female character.
See also: Real Feelings for Virtual People. 
(I was one of the players who participated in the study.)
Congratulations! But why is the degree lousy?
Maker! I'd love to read that. Do you have any plans to publish it or otherwise make it available publicly? I couldn't help noticing the progression from DAO to DAI in LGBT-friendliness. A friend of mine recently wrote a book Jane Eyre's Sisters: How Women Live and Write the Heroine's Story, which is fascinating. FYI, I'm a 60 y.o. man and played all 3 games as a female character.
I was thinking one day, when I can face it again, I might go back to it and make it a little more accessible. It's a bit too dry and focussed on the theories of Judith Butler to be all that enjoyable to read at the moment. Perhaps I'll turn it into a discussion video and put it on youtube. I'm not sure. There's that whole 'woman voicing feminist thoughts on video games' risk factor to take into account. That book looks very interesting, I may have to add it to my reading list!
I love the progression I've witnessed in Dragon Age games, not just in terms of LGBT friendliness, but in the huge reduction in the amount of threat, objectification and hostility felt when playing as a woman. When I first played DAO I loved it and felt so included; like I was actually wanted as a player. But now that I look back on Origins, I can see just how much things have improved since then. I actually find quite a bit of Origins tiresome these days because I've been so thoroughly spoiled by Inquisition. I can't wait to see what comes next
Congrats!
(would also love to read it if you ever decide to make it available!)
Congratulations! But why is the degree lousy?
It's a figure of speech/joke, where there is text printed on a t-shirt that says:
"I did BLANK and all I got (for it) was this lousy t-shirt"
RedBowlingBall just modified that. Hope that helped!
Edit: Relevant:
It's a bit too dry and focussed on the theories of Judith Butler to be all that enjoyable to read at the moment. ...
I've read quite a bit of feminist theory, but mostly in the 80's and all Anglo writers (except for SDB) and I'd never heard of Judith Butler, so I read her Wikipedia page and see that her theories are more based on non-Anglo writers and more on literary analysis than the more politically and socially-oriented analysis that I read from Phyllis Chesler, Germaine Greer, Andrea Dworkin, Marilyn French, Betty Friedan and such. I really would like to read it some day and it sounds like others would as well. Congratulations, btw, on your achievement!
crumbs my english degree was a joint english art history degree on women portrayed in William Blake's work called 'The Hidden Harlot and the Female Will'.
guessing who had most fun .... 
congrats! 
Congrats! I'm hoping to have mine in a few years, though I can safely say I'll prefer history over english (my two areas of study).
I do know of people on our university who have, however, done a dissertation on modern roleplaying game protagonists... Wonder how it went.
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