As I said in my last entry, I'm going to continue talking about the stages of my relationship with D that led up to this project - and really my ability to claim even semi "gamer" status. But first, I'd like to share a few things.
I should probably quickly mention, though, that despite the fact that it's been some time since my last post - this blog has been on my mind a lot. I see a lot every day that I want to post or talk about and I somehow never make my way here to do it. I've never kept a blog or a diary or a journal of any kind before, and D has me convinced that's why I'm struggling with this: I'm not very good at talking about myself. And, if I'm going to be blogging about my relationship, then talking about myself is inevitable. Perhaps that's why I've been avoiding it...
I have been collecting articles to share on here and I will start with a couple that peaked my interest early on in this project, so as not to just link-dump all over this entry.
The following two articles (additional links to supporting information are littered throughout, but my main focus is on the two articles discussed in this paragraph) are about the game Dead Island, with which I have been slightly interested in since seeing some early promos online (probably on IGN, but I could be wrong), and, to be completely honest, am still kind of interested in despite this. Basically, according to Eykemans' article, someone got the game, ripped into the source code a found that a skill called "Feminist Whore" previously existed for one of the female characters. There's really no additional information other than it could have evolved into something called "Gender Wars" which gives that same female character a 15% damage bonus against men (Eykemans). However, according to Crecente, "Feminist Whore" was indeed the original name for the female character's existing skill "Gender Wars". A brand manager with the development company called the code "highly inappropriate", said that it was "inexcusably overlooked", that it was "considered a private joke" by the programmer, and apologized several times (Crecente). As usual, the real meat (and incredible sexism) is in the comments' sections of both articles. Plenty of "this is hilarious", "now I want the game more", "women/feminists/bitches/whores need to stop complaining and get back to the kitchen" to go around. I like the Kotaku.com article the most, I think, because there is one commenter trying to genuinely have a discussion about an underlying issue and no one will take them seriously.
A couple images and some background:
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| http://www.examiner.com/console-games-in-tampa-bay/dead-island-photo |
This is the coverart (above) for the PS3 version (although, I'm pretty sure this is the cover art for every version) and a promotional still (below). The game itself is about basically what you would think from looking at it: zombies... and an island. Four characters on a fictional paradise-like island have to survive an apocalyptic zombie attack of which they seem to be the only non-infected/non-afflicted/non-dead (DeadIslandgame). I've never actually played the game and have only seen promos and game stills, but it looks pretty interesting... If you're into that sort of thing. Which I am. A trailer the DeadIslandgame YouTube Channel is below.
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| http://www.wildgamerz.com/tag/dead-island-pc/i |
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| http://deadislandfans.com/2011/06/dead-island-character-traits-may-have-been-revealed/ |
As stated above, there are four playable characters in this game - two of which are female, two of which are male. They're pictured above, back-to-back, in the middle of an assault. Starting with the female character in white (also pictured in the promotional still above) is Xian Mei - originally from China, she is an employee at the fictional resort on the fictional island, and described as "a fast learner, intelligent, and... quick on her feet" (DeadIslandgame). While this hero is not quite dressed to kill (zombies) she's at least slightly more clothed than a lot of female video game characters I've seen (which, I suppose, is something). All of the following character images (except Alice) come directly from the DeadIslandgame Character pages.
The male character next to her in the original character photo above is Sam B. Described as a "one-hit-wonder rap star of fading fame", this hero character was also an employee of the fictional resort (for one gig, at least) (DeadIslandgame). From his appearance and character bio, this character, in my opinion, is the embodiment of a stereotype - from the gold "B" chain to the low-rise jeans to the "history of drug and alcohol abuse" (DeadIslandgame). I'm hoping there's much more to his character than that...
Next to Sam B, is the second female hero character, and the one discussed in both of the articles that inspired this post, Purna. Purna was previously a police officer in Sydney who was fired for killing a wealthy and connected child molester (very SVU) and then became a bodyguard for VIPs (DeadIslandgame). It doesn't say who she was protecting, but I'm going to venture to say it was a guest at the fictional resort. I loved her character description immediately, not so much her attire (however, her accessories do make her look pretty badass, and she's finally not violating my very picky shoe rule*. She also looks strikingly similar to Alice from the first Resident Evil movie).
*Shoe Rule: No woman (read: NO! NONE! NEVER!) would ever run or battle zombies or aliens or monsters or freaking Decepticons (You hear me, Michael Bay??) in high heels or platform heels or spike-heeled boots or anything similar. It's completely impractical, illogical, irrational... and a total safety hazard. Nothing about women in action roles bothers me more than that. Which is what I like most about Purna (above) and Alice (below). Totally appropriate for ass kicking.
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| http://residentevil.wikia.com/Alice_Abernathy |
The final hero character, the second male, is Logan. He's described as a "former American football star" who's spoiled and egotistical, but also bitter and in despair after a reckless car accident that ended both his football career and the life of his female passenger (DeadIslandgame). He is a guest at the fictional resort, trying to relax. I find his appearance the least offensive of them all, as I could conceivably see a person wanting to be more in this type of zombie-fighting attire than any other pictured above.
So, what's the point of this post? Well, this is partially to give me an opportunity to work through my feelings about the game, the characters, and that tiny piece of code. Since, again, I have not played it, and with the understanding that many first-person action/adventure games have great stories with a lot of character development, I cannot completely dismiss these characters for their face value. While they each embody an obvious stereotype, that could very well be the point... And, while the code was very offensive and absolutely does speak to the way in which women are viewed, treated, and dismissed every day. I have to say that I do see both sides of the issue.
The first being how offensive these female (and male!) characters appear to be and how ridiculously awful it is that "Feminist Whore" could ever be considered a "private joke" that was not only mentioned (surely) but actually written into a game. And also how insanely offensive many of the comments are to both articles - which only supports the argument about the treatment of women. The second that the company apologized and claimed to be holding the programmer responsible "for violating the professional standards and beliefs" of the company (Crecente). In addition to that, I'm actually just totally blown away by the fact that there are two playable female heroes built into the game. I've seen a lot of highly promoted games where the "heroes" are all male, or at least the default ones featured in the trailers and stills are. This game was compared to one in the Fallout by an IGN reviewer, who literally called it "Fallout 3 with zombies" (Miller). And, while I enjoy this franchise (almost exclusively from a spectator's perspective), for the most part it is promoted as if played only by a male character. You can, in fact, play as a female character and you often interact with strong female non-playable characters (NPC) - but you wouldn't really know that without owning (or renting or borrowing, etc.) the game and actually playing it. So, the highly publicized female characters from Dead Island excite me and make me want to play the game, more than some a-hole programmer's idea of "humor" makes me want to boycott it.
But, hey, I could be alone in that - any thoughts?
