Fugitivus Discussion Forum

From this other thread:

Yeah, can we? I think it would be nice to have a thread here for games that are actually pretty okay.

I submit Spiderweb Software's computer RPGs. I first played these games when I was much younger, before I was actively into feminism, and only looking back on them tells me that they were exceptional. The Exile and Avernum series are, quite simply, set in a world where there is no expectation against a woman becoming a military commander or a blacksmith or any other profession. The games also dabble in anti-racism with their fantasy races - for instance, a lot of characters hate the Nephilim and think they're always bandits, but it is quite clear to the player that this is not true. I can't say that they're faultless (is anything?), but they're certainly a relief from the crap in the "mainstream" gaming world.

What computer/video games have the rest of you played (or heard of) that buck the trend?

Portal.

It's a first-person shooter, but if you look closely, you can see that your avatar is a woman wearing practical orange coveralls.

Metroid almost makes it, but there's the "best" ending for the game, where Samus appears in a swimsuit. Other than that...

I second Portal. I love that it's a female avatar in a problem-solving game, too.

If you're into MMORPGs, (hee, I love saying that) Guild Wars is pretty good, with the exception of the 'reasonable clothing' part. Far too much of the female armor falls into the 'elaborate swimsuit' category, although not to the 'avatar collided with the reject bin behind a fetish shop' degree. In terms of storyline content it mostly manages to avoid being problematic (women aren't portrayed as useless victims, female leadership isn't the exception, etc). Mind you, this can be reversed in a heartbeat by the people actually playing, so...

Dragon Age was a bit clumsy about it, and like most RPGS with character creators, it had a white male at startup, but I feel like it did a reasonable job of presenting sexist and racist societies through a decently egalitarian lens. It was a bit ham-fisted in the manner that it addressed women's and elf's rights, (Oh, hello! I see that you are a female elf! This is how I feel about females and elves!) but I don't think they generalized any character traits to a particular race or gender.

Mass Effect, as far as I've played the first one, seems pretty good about that, too. I don't think any sexism was even brought up, and even though there's a ton of prejudice from individual characters toward particular species, it is, again, shown through an egalitarian lens.

I could be totally missing stuff because I haven't played the games in a while, but BioWare is generally not cringe-inducing.

I think it's pretty telling of the gaming industry's standard that I am totally excited that FFXIII has A FEMALE MAIN CHARACTER and OH MY GOD SHE WEARS SHORTS AND NOT A COMPLETELY IMPRACTICAL MINISKIRT.

One game I would really recommend is Beyond Good and Evil. In the words of wikipedia, "Beyond Good & Evil is an action-adventure video game developed and published by Ubisoft and released in late 2003 for the GameCube, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, and Xbox platforms. The story follows the adventures of Jade, a female investigative reporter and martial artist, who works with a resistance movement to reveal a planet-wide alien conspiracy. Players control Jade and allies, solving puzzles, fighting enemies, and obtaining photographic evidence."

It's so sad that this is even something I actually feel awed by but get this, it's an action-adventure game where the female lead actually wears practical clothes like pants and a jacket. PANTS. When a battle comes up, the battle cries doesn't sound like they were mixed up with the audio of a porno. The supporting cast treats her like a competent person, often relying on her to fill traditional, male bread-winner roles (make enough money to get electricity going again, for example). In short, she is treated like most male main characters are in similar games, and so far (because I haven't finished the game because I rarely do finish games for some reason) there has been a refreshing lack of sickening grunches. No "you silly girl/you're just a girl" comments, no particular gendering that made me flinch. And on top of that I think the gameplay and the story are good and interesting, the graphics are (considering when it was made) good and stands the test of time fairly well and the battle controls are easy to handle, even for people like me who aren't particularly fond of Real-time battles in games.

I would also recommend the game Psychonauts for the Xbox and PS2. Once again, in the words of wikipedia, "Psychonauts is based on the exploits of Raz, a young boy gifted with psychic abilities who runs away from the circus to try to sneak into a summer camp for those with similar powers in order to become a "Psychonaut". He finds that there is a sinister plot occurring at the camp that only he can stop from happening. The game is centered on the widely strange and imaginative minds of various characters that Raz enters as a Psychonaut-in-training in order to help them overcome their fears or memories of their past, so as to gain their help and progress in the game. Raz gains use of several psychic abilities during the game that are used for both attacking foes and solving puzzles."

While there is some gender stereotyping that I dislike in the game (female characters as well as male are very stereotypical in their looks and behaviour a lot of the time) it has so far not gotten into the category of wincing or I-have-to-stop-playing-this-or-I-will-puke. So that's always something! I think though that a lot of denizens of this forum might like the game because it's centered on the mind, virtually everything that happens in the game happens within people's minds (some of them sane, most of them don't). It deals a lot with people's traumas, phobias, fears and whatnot and is of course, filled with literal puns. People have emotional baggage, in the actual form of miserable little bags who are missing their luggage tags. You can collect spiderweb in people's minds to access new areas as well as Figments of Imagination etc. The sheer twistedness of the game is something I greatly enjoy.

Anyway, those were my two cents.

Oh, Psychonauts. I love it dearly. It has a few problems, but I do like how when the giant lungfish first appeared by the lake, Hopefully the subsequent rather stereotypical plotline will be resolved in a satisfying way; I wouldn't put it past a game like this to pull a feminist twist out of thin air at the last minute.

Welcome to the boards, by the way, Roux!

I'm pretty fond of Fable II. You can choose to play as either a male or female character, and the clothing choices are varied -- also, you can shop from both the men's and women's clothing store, and choose hairstyles, facial hair, etc., without regard to gender. And you can choose your sexual orientation, have sex with men or women or both, which is a nice change. Not to say there isn't any sexism (or anything else problematic) about the game, but in general it does pretty well. Refreshing compared to most games that are out.

Being a female gamer, especially a feminist one, is frustrating.

I just finished playing through ME1 for the first time, and oh my god, it is amazing in so many ways, both feminist-related and otherwise.

I thought it was kinda hilarious to hear in the beginning that women were on the same social scale as men. But then, when you make a female character, here come all these snide little remarks...interesting. So, definitely agree with you. I still loved that game though, story-line rocked

Necro time!

I've recently been watching a bunch of "Let's Plays" - videos people post on YouTube of themselves playing games and talking about them. (As a side note, I was pleasantly surprised at how many female Let's Players I found.) In the last few days, I've had the pleasure of seeing a full playthrough of the game Mirror's Edge.

Mirror's Edge is a first-person platform game where you run around using ridiculously awesome parkour skills to get from place to place and defeat a bunch of people with guns who are trying to kill you. And ultimately to protect your city from the corrupt authorities who are trying to destroy its soul. (Metaphorically. It's not THAT kind of story. )

Oh, and you're a woman of color. And your clothing and hairstyle is completely practical and in keeping with what you're doing in the game.