Choose Your Character!

A blog on the importance of the playable character.

[feministgamingmatters]

I am really struggling to write academically about this trend of developers making up bad excuses for not including women because what I really want to say is that it sucks and it’s adding insult to injury and could you please just be honest and say you don’t wanna.

[dare-to-dm]

Oh yeah, I’m sick of it too.  And it feels like it just keeps happening and it’s insulting to our intelligence.  Like

Ubisoft: We can’t have a female protagonist because they’re too hard to animate!

Logical Retort: What about all those female characters you already animated?

What they should have admitted: We didn’t want to make a woman protagonist.  

~~~~~

Konami: Quiet can’t wear clothes because she’s infected by a parasite that makes her breathe through her skin and she’d suffocate!

Logical Retort: Well then how come that other guy with the same parasite was covered head to toe?

What they should have admitted: We wanted her to be eye candy.

~~~~~

Bungie: Cortana is rendered without any clothes because it gives her a psychological advantage over her opponents!

Logical Retort: Then how come the “male” AIs are rendered with clothing?

What they should have admitted: We wanted her to be eye candy.

~~~~~

Nintendo: Link can’t be a woman because no one would relate to them!

Logical Retort: 48% of gamers would probably love to see a character like them.  And much of the other 52% may appreciate the novelty.

What they should have admitted: We really like making the exact same concept over and over.

Stop.  Your BS excuses are honestly almost more insulting than the truth.

[smashsurvey-blog]

Now think of how many of those female characters and protagonists are oversexed, created for the male gaze, or put in an inactive damsel role for the plot of the game. Representation matters. A Study last year proved that exposure to tv shows increased the self esteem of young white boys and markedly decreased the confidence and self esteem of girls across the board (and we haven’t even started on the representation of characters of color and the effect it has on children’s self perception). 

Video games are a different media, and even more concerning if representation metrics are changing how our kids think of themselves. Especially knowing that 67% of American Households have video game consoles and 91% of Children play video games regularly, how do you think the portrayal (and lack of portrayals) of women and girls in these games is affecting little girls – or influencing how little boys view their importance and/or influence over them? 

— Comics. Movies. Lit. Pop Culture. The Smash Survey is an upcoming podcast project that will critically explore the representation of race, gender, and queer identity in media and pop culture in a fun and engaging format. 

[wizardshark]

WHOA

[cariology]

A clip from TGN's analysis of Skyrim's character creation interface, particularly showcasing the improved races and gender differences. 

[hchomgoblin-deactivated20160610]

And as an addendum to the previous post, I was pretty much just rehashing this old drawing. The first two characters resemble my Hawkes, from Dragon Age 2. 

[cariology]

Super Smash Bros. Character Selection Screen

[lvl40]

[neogohann]

[cariology]

Wii Fit Trainer Super Smash Bros. E3 Trailer 

[cariology]

As the science of the mind and behaviour (or literally 'the study of the soul'), understanding more about the player, what they want from the game and the various ways they may approach the game allows developers to focus their efforts on mechanics and storylines that will pique the player's interests and allow them to feel engaged and invested in their character and goals.

Tegan Harris' "Psychology, Character Creation and Avatars – Representation in Virtual Worlds." 

[cariology]

The playable character should make believable decisions and have some factors that make them likeable and a good fit for a main character. These things are “necessary to support the processes (recognition, alignment, allegiance) of identification with character and engagement with the narrative.”

Bizzocchi and Tanenbaum's "Mass Effect 2:A Case Study in the Design of Game Narrative" for the Bulletin of Science Technology Society.

[pedestrianverse]

[cariology]

Dara O'Briain Live at the Apollo-I Love Video Games

[cariology]

Clip from Matthewmatosis’s Metal Gear Solid 2 Review on the player disconnect from the Solid Snake/Raiden character switch. 

[cariology]

Quite simply, everyone deserves to feel cool…We all need heroes to look up to, even as adults. We need someone to look at who makes us say, “Yeah, I could do that.” But if all the heroes you want to identify with don’t share any of your attributes, that identification is a lot harder to reach.

Eliot Lefebvre’s “Why Inclusion Matters in Games” for Massively’s The Soapbox. 

[cariology]

It wasn't us saying, 'How can we attract women to [our game]?' Executive Producer Rubin said in an interview with Polygon. "That's not going to do it and that wasn't our goal. What we wanted to do was acknowledge the fan base that already existed. We have a lot of different kinds of people who play [Call of Duty] and we want them to be represented when we do character creation…It was about trying to get multiple races, genders, having it be something where you could actually feel like 'That's me. That represents me.' in a way we haven't been able to in the past.

[cariology]

Entertainment Software Association (ESA) 

[cariology]

Research on the game Second Life has shown that 4% of females chose to play a male character and 14% of men chose a female character. 82% of users remained with their real world gender.”

Trepte's "Avatar Creation and Video Game Enjoyment" from the Journal of Media Psychology

[cariology]

League of Legends: Get Jinxed

"Despite it's chaotic appearance the video has been cleverly designed to appeal to the largest segment of viewers possible. You don't even have to be remotely familiar with League of Legends to enjoy it. First of all the music is catchy, additionally there are very few in-jokes and the content might appeal to a younger, more rebellious, audience. There're no swords, no lore and most importantly no confusing gameplay. If this is your first experience with League of Legends it paints an entertaining picture while highlighting character traits that would otherwise take hours to become accustomed with...It's an advertising ploy plain & simple."- Nerdluster

[cariology]

Despite their constant importance across media, the very immersive quality of video games is part of what puts so much emphasis on characters in video games, making the character choice one of the defining characteristics of the medium and an important part of the appeal of games.