Dear gaming companies,
If you’re going go around putting women in our video games, they should at least be really dumb and have their periods.
Yours truly,
Men on the Internet
That about sums up the sentiments brewing at a forum post entitled ” WTF is with empowered women in video games now?” Here are some excerpts.
I am starting this thread because I see a new trend in the video/computer game world and that is the increase in strong playable female characters.
Now, I am no hardcore gamer but I do play computer games often and the recent one I have been playing recently is Shogun 2 total war. Now for those who don’t know what this game is, it is a strategy game based on the military of feudal Japan. I recently bought an upgrade for the game the other day and guess what one of the strongest military units was? Nuns. I shit you not. The nuns had an attack 20% -40% higher than most units in the game. Somehow I doubt that in real life a nun would have swung a sword or used a spear faster and harder than a feudal warlord, and this game was based on history.
I think I have the right to ask steam and other gaming companies: WTF with the subliminal brainwashing? What now when I buy or play a game women will be doing all the ass kicking? I seen some similar patterns on the game advertisements on television and the internet recently and want to know if anyone else is seeing the pattern?
I call bullshit on this subject. Video games are the last place for guys to hang out and now women are taking over. Why not just save us the trouble and instead of eliminating our fantasy world just throw us in work camp to provide for their bastard children (literally speaking) while they shit all over us…wait they already do that.
In the most long-winded oxymoron ever, this purist demands perfectly accurate historical depictions of women, and then refers to video games as a “fantasy world.”
Because aside from spear-wielding nuns, most games are super realistic.
I’ve noticed this too, and it drives me insane. Was co-oping Gears 3 last month and there’s a point where 2nd player has to take over a female character. Almost ruined the game for me. It may seem minor, but once you’re aware of this type of brainwashing it’s impossible to ignore. There’s no way a slim female could keep up with the massive battle-hardened male Gears in that kind of environment. They would be a liability as they are in real life combat.
Gosh, it must have been really rough for him to be forced to play a character whose gender he doesn’t identify with, thereby decreasing his ability to feel engaged in the fantasy. I wonder what that feels like. Oh wait, no I don’t.
You’ll see the same thing in most stat-based role-playing games as well, where you have the option of a female player character – like Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, D&D, etc. The women never have any strength or intelligence penalties compared to the males – the only difference being female looks and occasional dialogue alterations. They want to give the impression that people of any race, gender, and sexual-orientation are interchangeable – that there are no differences in ability between them, and that only a bigot could think otherwise. I’m sick of it too.
That solves it, then. Female RPG characters will get -15 to strength and -10 to intelligence. But, don’t worry ladies, you’ll be able to take way more damage than male characters, because everyone knows women are fabulous at enduring pain!
It would be hilarious to portray the female characters realistically. If you chose the female character in your FPS she would have to move very slowly, dragging the gun around. You could build in some extra shake to the crosshairs to represent hopeless accuracy. Every time you needed to reload your gun, instead of just pressing a button, you’d have to find a male character and go through some flirting dialogue options to persuade him to do it for you. One out of every four missions the game would tell you that you were sitting out this one due to ‘women’s issues’.
Now this guy gets women. I mean, he really gets us. Like Mel Gibson at the end of What Women Want. One out of every four missions? So apt! I take off one quarter of all my scheduled work days off to deal with Aunt Flo. Not that I’m much use when I do show up around the office. I have to flirt with like five guys just to get my computer started.
via Destructoid
Tags: women in games
Wow, just… I have to laugh at this, otherwise I start to worry for society and then I just want to stay in bed and play videogames with strong female characters in them and then I know I’m only adding to the problem. [/sarcasm]
Also, whenever I play a videogame and can choose my character’s gender, I always pick female. Because strong females are fantastic.
That can’t be the sentiment of the majority of male gamers….can it? Clearly the dudes you’ve quoted are nothin’ but scrubs.
That can’t be the sentiment of the majority of male gamers….can it?? Clearly the dudes above are nothin’ but scrubs. In regards to the guy speaking about women in fps games, I’d love to see a female in the military savagely beat him with an automatic rifle…just sayin’
Wow. Penalty to intelligence, really? Gotta love sexism
. And video games are not a boys-only club. This guy makes it sound like he wants his own treehouse with a “No Girls Allowed” sign on it.
I bet this guy has no problems with the unrealistic proportions and body shapes of females in these “fantasy” games though, right?
I love the argument for realism.
As if, in real life, these dudes would be unstoppable in combat and could slay dragons and heal their gun-shot wounds with first-aid kits. That’s perfectly realistic to them. But a woman doing those things? Suddenly, they can no longer suspend their disbelief! Someone has to take a stand against this malarky!
No, most definitely not. At least not in my experience. Pretty much all the male gamers I know are awesome.
But a whole bunch of them, who are very vocal from behind a username, buy into this shit so hard. It’s this special type of angry, entitled nerd.
Also, yeah, that guy seems to actually not know about women soldiers. Like, I think he thinks they don’t exist . Personally, I’d rather have a woman soldier around in a combat situation than a man whose experience is limited to first-person shooters.
I know a lot of guys who do that. Why is that? I always want to play a female character if I can.
To explain that double comment…. I wrote the first comment on my tablet while laying in bed. After hitting submit it didn’t show up. I thought something went whacked so I commented again. I swear i’m not a scrub. Also, I have a handful of female toons on my WoW account (Blood Elf hunter – she’s hot as balls). I don’t know if any of you are WoW players but people have almost 0 patience and tolerance for mistakes. I’ve found that when playing my female toons, I can actually get away with not paying much attention. Not many will yell at someone they perceive to be an actual female. This may be a singular experience, though.
Bit of a late post but these are the same people who blow up the forums of a beta game because they aren’t happy with female chest customization options or the skimpiness of female attire. SO many men ELECT to play female characters, especially in MMOs, but if they are “forced” to play a female character or if an ACTUAL WOMAN is playing a female character they feel like they are being wronged on a deep level. Just pathetic.