Genderplay in Videogames

thenovacrisis writes "Game Girl Advance has an interesting article about the various female characters in videogames. She talks about the important balance between alienation and identification, the Aesthetics of Sexy Girls, and various MMORPGs. An interesting read for all." A lot of games are compared, and issues raised. Good food for thought for character design.

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"Arcade Games with Female Protagonists"

[slashdotstrawberry]

from http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=110866 8&lastnode_id=0"

"Killing time at the airport the other day, I got that whisper of a question in my head -- that whisper I'm sure we've all heard... the one that says:

"Hey... just how many coin-operated arcade games were there that had a female protagonist?"

Now, I'm talking about arcade games where the only possible protagonist was female (unlike games where you could choose a different character one of which was female Gauntlet, or games where you were female for just one particular part Return of the Jedi, or games where player one was female, but player two was male Aliens). I'm also not talking about games where the gender could have been either Space Invaders, Asteroids, PONG.

Searching my little mind I could come up with only the following:

• Black Widow - Atari, 1982 - a vector graphics game, you played a spider endowed with the ability to shoot. Gameplay was controlled via two joysticks ala Robotron. From your web you had to shoot approaching bugs before they touch you. Once killed, the bugs turned into "$" symbols which you could then collect. One wonders how exactly an arachnid would dispose of said monetary income...
  I'm pretty sure this was a female spider because I think it had the "hourglass" mark (which I believe the male lacks).
• Granny and the Gators - Bally-Midway, 1983 - one of those combination arcade/pinball games (like Baby Pac Man) that never really seemed to catch on. I never played the game myself, but it alternated between the pinball portion and the arcade portion -- the latter having you paddle down a river avoiding alligators.
• Kangaroo - Sun Electronics (Atari license), 1982 - in this game you played a mother kangaroo whose child is kidnapped (by monkeys?) and taken high into some trees. Luckily you happen to be wearing a pair of boxing gloves. No question what a mother needs to do -- save that baby by climbing ladders and jumping from branch to branch while protecting yourself from (by punching) thrown coconuts.
• Ladybug - Universal, 1981 - a Pac Man-like game that went a step further as most of the walls could be turned like the hidden wall in Young Frankenstein ("pt duh cndl beck!"). This made for gameplay that wasn't as black and white as Pac -- a quick escape by turning a wall might save you from one baddie only to put you into the hands of another. Although ladybugs come in both genders (see A Bug's Life), I think from the side art, this one was meant to be female.
• Ms. Pac Man - Midway, 1981 - of course. This was a spruced up version of Pac Man. You'll still see it every once in a while in the corner of some restaurant in a town you're passing through. If I recall, she had lipstick, a mole, and a hair ribbon (yet no hair).
• Ms. Pac Man Plus - Midway, 1981 - same gameplay, same characters, same everythi... wait a second, different mazes. See gamemaker, see gamemaker with a hit on it's hands, see gamemaker milk theme for all it's worth -- I'm still waiting for Ms. Super Pac Man Junior Plus Plus Deluxe myself...
• Pooyan - Konami, 1982 - you played a mother pig trying to keep her wee piglets safe from the clutches of little wolves. You piloted a little elevator (powered by two of your offspring) up and down, shooting arrows at the wolves who glided up and/or down on balloons. I don't think you could actually shoot the wolves -- they would raise a hairy arm and deflect the arrow (that's some tough skin!) -- you had to shoot their balloons. It had cute cartoon-looking graphics.

Here are games that I have been /msg'ed about:

• Rod-Land - Jaleco, 1990 - Clone tells me that in this game,