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The Samus Mystique
Gamers with Jobs contributor KatarinLHC has an interesting piece looking at what she calls 'The Samus Mystique', the need for more female characters in games with the chutzpah and level-headedness of Metroid-killer Samus Aran. From the article: "Her independent streak is legendary: Samus always works alone. She explores caves, shoots enemies, and investigates secret passages, all on her own initiative. Her story does not revolve around her being kidnapped or needing rescue. Instead, she is a proactive force in a dynamic world; she does not react to her circumstances but instead interacts with them. She demonstrates a lesson not often taught to young girls, which is that working by yourself can be powerful, gratifying, even joyous."
...in heroine attire.
Does the world need more female main characters in games? Maybe, maybe not.
If they're going to be heroines who both look an act like women, then yeah, I'll take that. But if they're going to be men with tits then I'd rather just have a male avatar.
While I agree with the author that more realistic renditions of females as people as opposed to objects needs to be done, I hardly consider Samus to be representative of this as her sex is completely arbitrary to the gameplay and in fact is only revealed in the very end of Super Metroid in a 'look whos inside' type of way. In fact, I would argue that No One Lives Forever, even with Cait Archer wearing her sexy jumpsuits, makes for a better female role than Samus as she actually speaks and makes her personality known throughout the game. While shes still representative of the sexual-object female spy, its done purposefully tongue-in-cheek the entire time, and her lines do not lend towards her being a 'dumb broad with guns'.
Another and better example is Alyx from Half-Life 2: Shes dressed sensibly and while cute, is not super-hot or a walking example of anatomical disproportion. Her lines are ones you'd expect from an intelligent person in her situation and shes more than capable of fending for herself as she does many times in the games, sometimes it seemed better than yourself as Gordon. Other than Alyx, its hard to name a female character that is like her in her sensibilities and generally realistic interactions; she was a person. Even Cait Archer is a purposeful stereotype for all her interactions & cleverness.
I look forward for the day that females in games are representated as people and not simply as women.
"What can a thoughtful man hope for mankind on Earth, given the experience of the past million years? Nothing." -Bokonon
You should go read the comments on that site about the article. It's like everyone forgot that the women's movement ended a long time ago. Girls - you get to vote now. You can be CEOs. You (think) you can be perfect moms *and* professional independant career women all at the same time. Really, you don't have to sit around the house all day bemoaning the fate of women characters in videogames in your blog. You're free now. You can actually go DO stuff.
I'm all for people being equal (though that does NOT mean at all that they are same because clearly they are not and never will be). However, the best way to lose credibility in a discussion or "article" is to begin it with "I'm a feminist".
For one thing, the term has completely lost all meaning since the "all sex is rape" crowd and others got in the mix.
By reducing other people to things
Umm... People are things. So are trees. So are rocks. So are pieces of paper, houses, shingles on the roof of a house, shingles still in stacks at the hardware store, and boobies. And when I say boobies, I mean... well, about 4 or 5 different things. Red-footed, blue-footed, masked, udders, teats, and a HUGE RACK.
Things are things. See also: Noun.
This is why I hate people that gripe about objectifying other people. Our brains perceive everything as an object, including other people! That's just the way we as humans work. We even have names for objects that represent groups of objects. Words like "traffic" or "galaxy". We have names for objects that represent groups of people, like "race" and "nationality". Our brains identify, clarify, and categorize everything around us.
And then someone gets all touchy-feely and has a fit because they don't like how they're being treated by someone. Here's my advice to that person: walk away. Just walk away and ignore it. They're either clueless or they're baiting you. If you throw a fit, more people will notice, then there will be larger doses of people baiting you, while the rest of everyone who still doesn't give a rat's ass about your problem will begin finding ways to hate you. And the more the baiters get you to gripe, the more people hate you, and the haters' numbers will grow. And then you'll whine and cry and bitch and piss and moan until everyone hates your guts and/or pokes you with a stick to get you to make more fuss. And then (hopefully) someone will shoot you and put you out of our misery. Yes, that's your choice: walk away and shut the hell up or die a miserable death.
Erm... sorry. I got a little carried away there.