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Dec. 9th, 2003 01:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
changelingThis is a really interesting article about how gender constructs in characters of video games affects their playability and so forth. It's a really good, thought-provoking article, and I can't recommend it enough.
*snerks* I so want to play Arcanum:
One of my favorite PC Role-playing games is Arcanum. What I like about it is that the gender you choose for your character affects the paths open to you as you play. [...] One of the quests in the game involves gaining entrance into a gentleman's club. In this steam-punk Industrial Revolution world, attitudes are still very sexist. The doorman at the gentleman's club won't let my female elf in. But I have a special letter from the owner. At that point the unhappy doorman allows the lowly female into the club, although he cautions me to make my business quick.
I got that letter, incidentally, by sleeping with the slimy and lascivious owner of the club. I had the choice to beat him up for it, but my character was too weak to take him on, so I chose the sexual way out. Brilliant!
I thought this was also interesting, and echoed my (unspoken) minor dissatisfaction with Diablo II:
One word of caution: don't design characters whose attributes are tied too closely to gender. There's a danger of stereotyping, for one - why are females always archers, elves, and thieves? Part of the fun of a game, as I'll talk about in the next section, is being able to play with gender stereotypes.
[...]
Justin adventured with me as a massive troll shamaness. "You don't see female dwarves or trolls in Tolkien," he says. "All the trolls are genderless, which is to say, they are male."
*snerks* I so want to play Arcanum:
One of my favorite PC Role-playing games is Arcanum. What I like about it is that the gender you choose for your character affects the paths open to you as you play. [...] One of the quests in the game involves gaining entrance into a gentleman's club. In this steam-punk Industrial Revolution world, attitudes are still very sexist. The doorman at the gentleman's club won't let my female elf in. But I have a special letter from the owner. At that point the unhappy doorman allows the lowly female into the club, although he cautions me to make my business quick.
I got that letter, incidentally, by sleeping with the slimy and lascivious owner of the club. I had the choice to beat him up for it, but my character was too weak to take him on, so I chose the sexual way out. Brilliant!
I thought this was also interesting, and echoed my (unspoken) minor dissatisfaction with Diablo II:
One word of caution: don't design characters whose attributes are tied too closely to gender. There's a danger of stereotyping, for one - why are females always archers, elves, and thieves? Part of the fun of a game, as I'll talk about in the next section, is being able to play with gender stereotypes.
[...]
Justin adventured with me as a massive troll shamaness. "You don't see female dwarves or trolls in Tolkien," he says. "All the trolls are genderless, which is to say, they are male."
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Date: 2003-12-08 01:08 pm (UTC)You're welcome to borrow it if you're going to have time to play it now.
I may want it back in a few weeks if I get some time off over Christmas though ;-)
It may be possible to install it and get a no-cd key though . . .
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Date: 2003-12-08 05:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-09 03:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-09 04:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-08 10:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-08 11:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-09 12:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-09 01:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-09 05:52 am (UTC)Either Yunsung or Raphael would be nice.
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Date: 2003-12-09 07:11 am (UTC)Also, if you'd prefer different text for either, let me know and I'll make one with that.
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Date: 2003-12-09 08:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-09 08:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-10 06:05 am (UTC)I've been playing Soul Calibur 2 recently. It's owned by a friend of mine, called Chris. He likes to play Astaroth, this big, hulking, could-beat-up-a-wrestler type guy (and also Ivy, a girl, but that's neither here nor there), and I've developed a preference for characters like Cervantes, who are similarly large and slow.
Suddenly Nat starts playing, and she plays all the quick, fast girls. I can't get a single move in before she beats me, sometimes. This is frustrating, because I then have to change the type of character I play in order to be in with a chance.
...and I've just lapsed into gamerdom. Sorry 'bout that...