On the podcast Spawn On Me’s 100th episode, the new indie game Firewatch was briefly discussed. This is a fantastic game in the woefully-titled “walking simulator” genre. It tells the story of a middle-aged man who takes a job in the Wyoming wilderness to get away from a challenging life. While wandering around the forest, the player is able to talk to another firewatcher named Delilah through a walkie talkie.
One of the hosts or the guest mentioned the fact that the mechanics of the game allow the player to interrupt Delilah to speak, which can actually cut her off from sharing interesting things that the player may never end up hearing.
The game does a good job of introducing this concept that you are not required to speak at every opportunity and that there can be a give-and-take in the communication.
What I didn’t connect together until hearing this was that this game, at times, punishes you for cutting a woman off in conversation. Admittedly that punishment is missing small anecdotes or parts of a story or explanation, which is not of equal value for everyone, but the audience for this game is likely playing for a rich narrative experience.
I find it important to recognize how this mechanic combines with the maybe-coincidental, maybe-intended combo of man protagonist and woman companion.
Men have been demonstrated to dominate conversations compared to women, and this isn’t a trivial observation. It’s a symptom of a larger problem playing out through remnants of gender roles and social expectation. A game that quietly allows the player to make that choice and suffer small consequence is one that is subverting a dominant paradigm in gaming of expecting the world of the game to bend to the player’s will. I like this a lot; not every game should be a power fantasy, and Firewatch certainly isn’t.
Now if the player cuts off Delilah because they find her sarcasm annoying, for example, that could be a different story. It’s still worth considering, though, that women are penalized more harshly for being aggressive or “shrill” compared to men, as well.
That’s not to say that in order to be a Feminist you must patiently listen to every word that comes out of Delilah’s mouth and through your radio. Ultimately, this is all a sample size of one voice actor, character, and game. Nothing in what I’m saying here is about telling people what to do or ascribing labels based on how they played Firewatch.
It is about reflecting on one’s own behavior in a game that allows a new kind of expression, which is what this Spawn On Me episode did. If you played it, are you comfortable with how you balanced the conversation in Firewatch?
http://spawnon.me/spawn-episode-100-keepin-100/
