There's been a big ol' wave of hate for 'feminists'. . . and we'll get back to that word in a moment. . . because of the recent reveal that there's a woman in an (arguably) almost competent role in the new Assassin's Creed. Now, a few things about this. And I'm well aware that most of the people who read this journal will likely be male, considering my fan-base, but I have to assume that being furries, most of you understand what it is to be part of a nerd minority, and will be able to look at this objectively.
#1 - The leading character is, once again, like 90% of their other games, a man. So, you guys won out there. Again. And I don't believe the bullshit that it was too much work to program a female assassin, because if they could re-use the work they did on previous male assassins, they could certainly re-use the work they did for characters like Ziio and Mary. (Two vastly under-appreciated female characters in the series, btw)
#2 - The definition 'feminist' here, and the ever-popular 'feminazi', seems to be used to represent, as far as I can tell, female gamers who want to play a female character, for once. I'm here to tell you I AM a feminist, (and no I don't think that's a dirty word) and there is a marked difference. I know this might be hard for some folks whose gut response to hearing women in the gaming community speak up at ALL is to shout 'feminist!' at the top of your lungs and guzzle some more Mountain Dew while you jack off on your Doritos, but here we go: Being a woman and wanting to play a female character in a franchise you enjoy does not make you a fucking feminist. It makes you a woman, who feels they could connect more with a female character. I'm pretty sure men feel that way too, or the games industry wouldn't be CRAWLING with main male leads. Which it, of course, is. Turn the tables for a year of game development. I promise you, a few men are going to speak out and say 'why don't we get to play characters that are our gender?' And then I guess we can call you guys male-inists? I don't fucking know. Just stop, and try for a second to imagine living in the world without a penis. Equality is not a thing we have yet.
#3 - Co-Op mode has three other characters. And guess what? Yep. ALL men.
#4 - And did I mention this? THE MAIN CHARACTER IS STILL A MAN. You get your leading penis! Chill the fuck out!
I think the point here is that every stride made for gender equality in the gaming world, no matter how small, is just going to prove why there's such a problem to begin with. The vast majority of the gamer world these days is not what it used to be. It is not basement-dwelling nerds playing Final Fantasy and humming the chocobo theme to themselves, it is not social misfits playing these games anymore, it is a much wider swath of the population. And while basement-dwelling nerds certainly aren't immune to sexism, I feel like it used to be a more level playing field when the tiny minority of us female gamers only had to contend with the tiny minority of men who were willing to deal with the black mark that came with being a gamer. Now that it's more acceptable, the assholes have flooded in in droves. And it's not just making it harder for developers to include female characters in their games, it's making it harder for them to include WELL-WRITTEN female characters in their games.
These days if you have a vagina and you're in a game, you'd better have some ample T&A to balance it out, and the role you play in the game is fuck-all important in comparison to that, because all those assholes are just going to groan, roll their eyes, and yell about feminists screwing up their perfect testosterone-infused world. And while I'm not personally opposed to smokin' hot female AND male characters, it gets obnoxious when that's all we ever see. As a woman, and as a person. I'd imagine even you menfolk turn up your nose at having to play pretty boy after pretty boy, with his perfect pecs and sculpted jaw. Especially in all these super-real games, like the AC series (said somewhat sarcastically, because y'know. . . it's about as real as the show Ancient Aliens at this point).
What's more, the only role we ever DO seem to fall into, and this isn't new, is the damsel in distress. Even in AC5, the reveal trailer they have foreshadowing that there's actually a woman, and ho! she can use a SWORD like a big girl. . . is prefaced by the main male lead rescuing her. This is a trope as old as time, and while it has its place, I am so fucking sick of it by now I could puke. Would it have hurt the storyline at all if, say, she had been the one rescuing him? Or hell, screw that, you want to argue the player is playing the male lead, and they need to feel they have something to do? Fine. How about he makes it to her, clearing out guards, but she's managed to slip her bonds and is in the process of freeing herself? And THEN they fight their way out. There you go, Ubisoft. You still get your male lead, all the gamer bros still get to feel they weren't emasculated by playing a female character, and we ladies get to feel that we aren't always the useless doe to the big strong male buck who has to come rescue us from Bows. . . uh. . . the French. Yes.
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