sexism
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The Soapbox: Yes, Virginia, sexism still exists
About two years ago (two decades in internet years), I wrote a piece about sexism as it pertains to MMOs. I didn't write anything about it for a long while afterward because I would just be reiterating points that were stated in the first article, something I'm not fond of doing. But when I wrote another article praising a game for mostly getting equality right, well... I'm not fond of rehashing old points. But I'm also not fond of the idea that people have evolved from saying "it's not sexist" to "oh, there's no sexism here in the first place." As I said two years ago, there's a lot that MMOs get right that gaming in general still gets wrong. But there's also a lot that MMOs get wrong still. So I want to look at the issue, look at some of the common attempts to pretend it's not really an issue, and possibly provide some links of relevant interest. There are a lot of those.
The Mog Log: Final Fantasy and sexism
Passive sexism is a big deal to me. If it isn't a big one for you, it should be, because at some point high heels and metal bikinis became something passively accepted in games as a whole and that's not all right. MMORPGs on a whole do better than single-player titles, but you still have games like TERA that stick every female character into gravity-defying heels and the legal minimum required for clothing, or Scarlet Blade and its outfits made entirely out of electrical tape and fishnet. Some games are better or worse about this than others. The Secret World allows you to dress up either gender to be as sexy or as casual as you like, and Guild Wars made a point of keeping skimpy armor as skimpy armor for both genders in most cases. (Although not hardly all.) But the question that's actually relevant to this column is how Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV stack up, and the answer is that they acquit themselves remarkably well. So much so that they're among the most even-handed games I've seen, if not at the top of the list.
Female avatars are likely to be more exposed than their male counterparts
You really needed to be told this, right? You may not have been sure whether a lady-type avatar was more likely to be closer to naked than a manly-type avatar. If you were dying to know and really had no idea, there's an actual study now to get you all informed. Anna M. Lomanowska and Matthieu J. Guitton went into Second Life and examined 404 (192 male and 212 female) avatars of the humanoid-but-not-furry type. They found that 57% of lady-type avatars had less than half of their skin covered, compared to only 10% of masculine-type avatars being similarly exposed. Lomanowska and Guitton were not privy to the actual sex of the folks controlling the avatars. Do you feel enlightened?
Halo 4 gets tough on sexist players
343 Industries wants to make it clear: It will brook no further discrimination of any kind in Halo 4. Executive producer Kiki Wolfkill and studio head Bonnie Ross say that sexist discrimination of any kind will be met with a lifetime ban from both the game and the Xbox Live network.Ross says that "most people look at a franchise like Halo, and automatically assume it's run by a guy," but this particular franchise is run by a few ladies, and they're not having any discriminatory nonsense in their latest sequel.We agree with the sentiment, and hope that the harsh penalties make sure that the losers who make sexist and other offensive comments get shown the door for good. The ideal should be to make sure all forms of this offensive discrimination are squashed as far and wide as possible, no matter who's running the show.
What women want: Fujitsu's Floral Kiss Ultrabook with pre-installed horoscope app
Fujitsu has just revealed its Windows 8 lineup for the Japanese market, and top billing goes to the new "Floral Kiss" Ultrabook, which the manufacturer claims was built "under the direction" of its female employees in order to entice an equally female audience. At heart, it's just a regular Core i5 notebook with a 500GB hard drive, but the womanliness is all in the presentation. There are subtle color schemes like "feminine pink" and "luxury brown" to choose from and every laptop comes with pre-installed Windows 8 apps including a digital scrapbook for collecting website bookmarks, a diary and a daily horoscope checker. This almost oppressively enticing bundle will hit stores on November 2nd, with some sort of premium designer version arriving a few weeks later. As for the exact price, that'll be determined by retailers in Japan and by how good your husband is at haggling.
Choose My Adventure: At the end of TERA
All good things must come to an end, including my run of Choose My Adventure. There have been high points and low points, good parts and bad, but there's only so much time to cover the game. And so I leave TERA, confident that while I may have missed points, at least I have a broad sense of the game. That's certainly less... straightforward than previous installments of this column have been for me. My impressions of TERA have really been all over the map. There are things I absolutely love about the game, but a lot of them are minor touches. There's one part that I think is absolutely brilliant, and a lot that's absolutely juvenile. The game has a lot of systems that are essentially filling space without adding anything. And as a result, it's really hard to classify the whole game as being good or bad or neutral.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Is League of Legends sexist?
The portrayal of female characters is a popular topic on the League of Legends official forums. People are very enthusiastic about their opinions of the League's female champions, most of whom are drawn to emphasize their sex appeal. Rather than focus on that, though, I'd like to home in on whether the League is an equal-opportunity workplace. Are women fairly represented in all roles, or is there a gender bias? This week, we'll look at the various roles that can be played in both gametypes and ask the important question: Are men and women fairly represented?
Ji Firepaw's beta dialog gets a rewrite
Folks closely following the Mists of Pandaria beta may recall that Ji Firepaw had some problematic interactions with player characters. Without getting too deep into the controversy, Ji praised male characters for their strength but praised female characters for their appearance. Sharp-eyed Alewen reports that interaction has been changed. Ji now simply greets characters by saying, "You seem poised and ready. I can tell we are going to be good friends." This means Ji is no longer concerned about physical attractiveness; Ji remarks only on all characters' readiness for battle.
Why is Blizzard still OK with gender inequality in World of Warcraft?
Editor's Note: Comments on this post have now been disabled. It's getting late and we'd like to let our comment moderators get some sleep tonight. In most games I play, from World of Warcraft to Star Wars: The Old Republic, I make an effort to play mainly female characters. Unlike other males who play female characters, this isn't for cosmetic reasons; I'm not one of those dudes who can't bear to stare at his male character's butt for multiple hours a day. (How this is ever an argument that makes sense to people, I don't know.) This was a conscious decision on my part a few years ago, when I started to become aware of the discrimination faced by female characters. See, when you make the decision to make a female character, you're intentionally and unintentionally signing up for a number of things. First, you are intentionally signing up to play a female character. This could be because you identify as female, because you prefer the look of female characters, or any number of other reasons (including the butt one). What you're unintentionally signing up for goes further. You're unintentionally signing up for jokes made at your expense in a raid, like when my priest hit 85 and did BH in leveling gear, and my low HPS was mocked because I was a girl playing WoW. You're unintentionally signing up for harassment, for the catcalls and people begging you to talk in Vent, like you're a rare species of bird they'll only be able to hear once. You're unintentionally signing up to be victimized by other players because you dared roll something other than male at level 1, and you didn't know there'd be consequences for that choice.
Prime World charges women less to play, 'protects' them in mixed groups [Updated]
It's ladies night at Prime World, and drinks are on the house. The upcoming MOBA is offering unique incentives to rope in real-world women to play, including discounted heroes and special buffs if girls team up with guys. The game is connected to players' Facebook accounts, so women looking for special treatment need to actually be a member of that gender. Nival's Creative Producer Larisa Nuretdinova hopes this will expand Prime World's potential audience: "The idea is to introduce the MOBA genre not only to hardcore players who already love it, but to their friends who might be more casual, and of course to their sisters and girlfriends who may not be as hardcore." To encourage both sexes to group up together, Nival has devised a special defensive buff that is only activated when a woman playing a female character is part of the team. According to Prime World's About page, "this bonus helps encourage beginning female players, who feel more helpful when fighting in a mixed group." Prime World offers six heroes for free, three of each gender; additional heroes can be purchased with actual money. It's here, too, that real-world women have an advantage, as Nival is offering a discount for the ladies who go shopping in the game. [Update: Kotaku reports that Nival later clarified that it is offering discounts for both genders purchasing the same gendered character.]
The Daily Grind: Are MMO players tired of beefcake?
A few months ago, The Mary Sue published an intriguing article about why men play female characters in MMOs, and the answer might surprise you. While some men surveyed wanted to play lady toons for immersion reasons or eyecandy reasons, many of them had a much simpler motive: They were sick of beefcake. They were willing to play men, but they just couldn't relate to big hulking dudes with huge muscles and tiny heads, and those are often the types of male characters offered in video games. MMOs like Star Wars: The Old Republic and Guild Wars and City of Heroes offer "huge" male characters as options, while World of Warcraft is a serial offender. We usually focus on gender issues as they pertain to the portrayal of women in MMOs, so today I want to turn the tables and ask you about the portrayal of men. Are you annoyed when male characters MMOs look like they're hitting the steroids a bit too hard, and do you find such characters relatable or offensive? In other words, are you tired of beefcake in MMOs? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Game Archaeologist spins A Tale in the Desert: The highlights
Readers of the ever-so-humble Game Archaeologist will recall that earlier this year I had the opportunity to exchange informative words with Dr. Richard Bartle, the creator of MUD. Since he was -- and is -- a highly opinionated designer, I asked him what he thought was the most innovative MMO from the last decade. The answer was short and succinct. "A Tale in the Desert, he replied, then added: "Note that 'innovative' doesn't necessarily mean 'successful.'" Right there is the crux of ATITD's unique position in the MMO industry. Instead of storming down a path well-traveled, it took a machete and made its own trail -- a trail down which few have followed. As Jef recently noted in Some Assembly Required, it is an "odd duck" of a game, skewing as far away from combat as possible to focus on two often-neglected aspects of MMOs: crafting and politics. Even though its population has pegged it as an eternally niche game, it's proven that constant fighting isn't the only thing that can draw an online community together. This week we're going to look at some of the more unique features of this innovative yet diminutive MMO, which began telling its tale back in 2003.
The Guild Counsel: A color-blind world
A couple of interesting points came out of last week's review of The Raid, and I'm going to use them as a springboard for this week's column. There were two topics that dominated the discussion: one was Edward Castronova's analogy of raiding as sport and the downing of the Lich King as a World Cup Championship victory. The other was about the use of inappropriate language in game, including some racist and sexist remarks. In this week's Guild Counsel, we'll look at soccer and sexism, and we'll see why Castronova was worth hearing out and why there's a big difference between what players say and what they do.
Samsung's AF315 All-in-One 3D PC targets the sophisticated woman and those who aspire to be one
Say what you will about Samsung's questionable chaebol business practices and KIRFy ways, at least the company's got the stones to openly target a specific demographic with its marketing pitches. This time Sammy's new AF315 All-in-One PC is targeting stylish and sophisticated women who've moved on from their pink peddle pusher ways. The most notable features are that big 23-inch LCD coupled with Samsung's switchable active shutter 2D / 3D technology and narrow 11-mm bezel. Otherwise, we're looking at a Core i5 CPU, 1TB 7200RPM hard disk, USB 3.0, TV receiver, Blu-ray player, remote control, 3D glasses, and a wireless keyboard and mouse combo in the box when this thing ships in South Korea starting tomorrow for 2.19 million won or just a tad less than $2,000.
Drama Mamas: Sexist jerk or personality conflict?
Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of the checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your realm. Lisa and I had different reactions to this week's letter, which is always more fun than when we agree -- don't you think? Dear Mamas, My husband and I hopped servers in November and joined a new raiding guild. We were really unhappy with our old server and have found the new one quite wonderful. We thoroughly enjoy our new guild and have been with them for a number of months. We progress with a light raid schedule, doing heroics and keeping a 25 man raiding guild alive. Unfortunately there is one member who has made things quite inhospitable. I'll refer to him as X. X came in on a server transfer, someone the officers and long standing guild members had known and played with for a while. Coming in I thought he was a great player, did everything his class was supposed to do. Then he spoke. And wrote. And trolled our forums. And the more he spoke the more he got under my skin. Mainly the constant bashing of women in general, but also of the women in our guild.
The Soapbox: The unfairer sex
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. Talking about the representation of women in video games is usually an exercise in depression. You don't have to search very hard for negative examples; consider The Witcher, in which sleeping with women is treated essentially as some sort of ersatz Pokémon variant. Or take a look at Grand Theft Auto III, hailed as a groundbreaking game, which featured a grand total of three female characters in the story, all of whom were painted as some combination of promiscuous, stupid, or untrustworthy. Comparatively speaking, MMOs deserve a medal for being remarkably open to both players and characters of both genders. And yet that's damning with faint praise in the worst way. MMOs still leave a lot to be desired when it comes to how they handle women, in ways both subtle and searingly obvious. Female characters are generally expected to be in a state of perpetual undress, more often than not without a significant role in the storyline -- and precisely because the genre is so far ahead of its contemporaries, complaints are often met with eye-rolling and derision.
Ubisoft's 'We Dare' to ruin parties for PS3/Wii owners
Finally, a Wii and PS3 game that encourages absolutely reprehensible behavior. If you've been looking for a way to make your parties way more uncomfortable and insulting, Ubisoft has just the product for you. We Dare is a collection of "dare" minigames, including (based on the trailer after the break) spanking, "kissing" the controller, and, um, more. Like, apparently, being driven to spontaneous passion behind the couch while two dudes watch, apparently. It's worth noting that the game is primarily shown in the trailer to make women at a party "perform" in a way they don't want to -- and that's the trailer. That's the "ideal" situation presented. In real life, thankfully, it's more likely people would just leave when you broke out the "naughty" minigame collection. As far as we can tell, We Dare is a European exclusive, so American partygoers are safe for the time being.
Samsung Galaxy S Femme bundles sexism in with your smartphone purchase
You know what really bugs us about this Samsung Galaxy S Femme handset? No, it's not that it once again trudges out the tired cliché that women must love pink -- it's that it presumes gents can't appreciate the benefits of Aveda's Damage Remedy and Hand Relief creams. We totally can! And we'd love to spend some quality time with the Aveda advisor app, which comes bundled on a 4GB MicroSD card, letting it identify for us the particular products we need to buy to keep our skin and hair looking their best. But, according to the packaging, this 4-inch, Gorilla Glass-bearing smartphone isn't for us. Sigh.
GLAAD fights homophobia in online communities like WoW
We've talked here on the site before about this issue -- the anonymity in online communities like World of Warcraft often leads to people throwing out offensive statements that they usually wouldn't in normal company. Most people shrug these off as just what happens in online games ("kids will be kids, and idiots will be idiots"), but this type of undercurrent behavior still signifies and perpetuates prejudices and hatreds that affect society at large. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) has recently started up a campaign to try and stamp out hatred and homophobia in communities like World of Warcraft, and they've published an op-ed on exactly why this is such a problem and what we can do to stop it. They don't mention WoW specifically, but we're one of the biggest online communities out there, and if nothing else, here's a chance to show just how tolerant we as a community can be.The good news is that as the practice of online gaming grows, both players and policymakers are becoming more and more aware of the problem -- Microsoft met earlier this year with representatives from GLAAD to determine how better to combat offensive statements on Xbox Live, and the organization held a panel recently to discuss exactly this issue.Thanks, Joshua!
Are female characters really penalized in Age of Conan?
There's an unpleasant rumor gathering strength in the Age of Conan community. It seems to have begun with this eight-page review, which (despite delivering a relatively healthy overall score of 76) is uncompromising in its criticism of those parts of the game that, in the reviewer's opinion, fall very short of what was advertised. The bombshell comes on page 7, where the reviewer states outright that '... Age of Conan's weapon swing time depends on the duration of the visual swing animation, and female characters swing their weapons about 25% slower than males - so every female melee character does 25% less damage over time!'
