Women and Video Games
Mar. 8th, 2013 12:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skull_bearerIf you've been active in the gamer community recently you'll have heard about the insane batshit mess that surrounded Feminist Frequency's kickstarter for her 'Tropes vs Women in video games' series. I won't go into that much, ebcause far better people already have and this topic has been kicked to death worse than puppies by Spider Jerusalem.
What I do want to say is to point out my experience that yes, these things do matter and have an active impact on the world around us.
The example that really sticks out in my mind was on a comments section of a newspaper website (can't remember which) which was talking about the US bill allowing women in combat situations. Given that it was not a gaming blog I was really surprised that there were a lot of comments making the same joke: "Well, it worked at the battle of Hoover dam."
If you get this reference then yay, we play the same games. For those who don't, it's a reference to the game Fallout New Vegas in which there is a battle between the pretty much villianous Ceasar's Legion, and the pretty much good New California Republic (or NCR for short) over Hoover dam. The makers of the game, Obsidian, had included a lot of female soldiers in the NCR, and the game had generally good female representation all around. Not absolutely stellar, but pretty good.
And as a result, quite a few people were (jokingly) using that as a reason that in real life women should be allowed in front line combat.
These things matter. Kudos for Obsidian for making the effort.
What I do want to say is to point out my experience that yes, these things do matter and have an active impact on the world around us.
The example that really sticks out in my mind was on a comments section of a newspaper website (can't remember which) which was talking about the US bill allowing women in combat situations. Given that it was not a gaming blog I was really surprised that there were a lot of comments making the same joke: "Well, it worked at the battle of Hoover dam."
If you get this reference then yay, we play the same games. For those who don't, it's a reference to the game Fallout New Vegas in which there is a battle between the pretty much villianous Ceasar's Legion, and the pretty much good New California Republic (or NCR for short) over Hoover dam. The makers of the game, Obsidian, had included a lot of female soldiers in the NCR, and the game had generally good female representation all around. Not absolutely stellar, but pretty good.
And as a result, quite a few people were (jokingly) using that as a reason that in real life women should be allowed in front line combat.
These things matter. Kudos for Obsidian for making the effort.
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Date: 2013-03-08 05:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-03-08 06:39 pm (UTC)