How can I stop making sexist games?
Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 10:47 am
Hey,
sometimes, strange coincidents happen. Only a few days ago, we had this other thread about women not feeling safe any more in gaming culture, and when I joined that discussion by saying that the threat level probably wasn't as high as the OP feared, I almost immediately received backlash in the form of a PM telling me that I had no idea what women were really going through, and that I made assumptions I couldn't make because, as a man, I had privileges women hadn't. The PM was very outspoken, very sincere and full of disappointment that I, as one of the admins of this site, had so little regard for these topics.
Apparently, though, there are a great many more things I should have considered, especially regarding my writing, because yesterday, I received an e-mail through my developer blog account. It's a little too long to quote in full here, but the gist of it was that in all my games - all of them! - I provided male power fantasies, showed women in a degrading way or a negative light and generally showed a lack of concern for gender-relevant issues. I don't know whether the e-mail came from the same person who wrote me the PM (I suspect it didn't; the language was different), but that didn't matter much. What mattered was how this person saw my games:
- Metropolitan Blues was "essentially a stalker fantasy": "An invisible protagonist with the power to spy on woman (sic) and watch her naked in the shower does exactly that, with no concern for her privacy...". He "later decides to invade her life", in turn "rescuing her from writer's block because - lo and behold - his sadness and emotions are so profound that by writing about them, the nameless woman writer finds more interesting material than in her own life". The conclusion is even more stunning: "I was hoping that the true resolution of the story was somehow revealing the fact that the protagonist had been a stalker in his real life whose punishment after death had been to be forced into remaining a powerless beholder for all eternity. Unfortunately, the true ending reveals that the narrator of the story had been a god all along, and a male god too, and the first thing this male god does as soon as he is able to procure a body for himself is to sleep with his female worshipper. And then leave her."
- The Loyal Kinsman was "a somewhat amusing murder mystery, accentuated by the fact that everybody of relevance in the story is male, the plot revolves around a man murdering another man to please a woman, and said woman is easily the character the protagonist of the story hates most - an old, ugly crone who has nothing but contempt for him, seemingly without reason." In conclusion: "If your only likable female character in the entire story is a porcelain-doll-type teenage girl whose entire motivation in life revolves around being an obedient daughter, what picture of femininity does this transport?"
- Daemonophilia apparently revolves around "the life of a loser who's probably supposed to act as a self-portrait of the average gamer" and who is "obsessed with having sex - of course, without ever doing ANYTHING that would give him a chance at that, such as meeting women. Instead, "fate provides a willing slut for him". The twist? "The loser protagonist actually doesn't want to sleep with her because he would go to hell for it. So apparently, women who take the initiative can only come from one place: Hell." - "Eventually, our hero has to rescue this girl too, by the power of his penis. Yeah, that's a healthy relationship if I've ever seen one."
- Adrift "has a protagonist whose task is to literally control everybody's lives" and includes "women...only in a single role: as hindrances to your task": "No matter if they're aggressive, manipulative, nerdy or just plain insane, you only win the game by abusing them and not allowing them to play you." And what's worse: "Even the computers of this virtual dollhouse follow the same formula: If they have a male personality, they are helpful, or at least useful workmachines. If they have a female persona, expect them to murder you, hinder you on your path or, at the very list, wildly misinterpret your intentions."
- Romance is Dead is a "story about a young black woman who is so backwards in her views on love and romance that her entire concept of both can only be fulfilled by men who represent the romantic ideals of the 1950s, the 1920s or the 1800s". "Maddie... is the antithesis of the modern, self-empowered woman; she does everything to help and further the ambitions of the men in this story", and the fact that these "men are depicted in such loving detail while Maddie... remains pretty much a blank slate" reveals that "once again, the only positive things about a woman are what she can do for a man."
While I agree that all of these above are perfectly valid interpretations of my VNs, well, to say that I feel a little misrepresented would be a gross understatement. Apparently, my works, at least to some, make me look at least subconsciously sexist.
And I want that to stop.
So for my next game, I want to do things right. I want to write positive women characters. I want to avoid tropes that degrade women and instead actively make a point FOR women, not against them.
What I need is help, and this is why I'm now addressing women on this forum.
- What do you want to see more of in my stories?
- What would be traits that make a female protagonist likable to you?
- What would be traits that make female side characters likable to you?
- Can you give me existing examples of positive women role models in gaming?
Please, serious discussion only. I'm genuinely looking for advice here.
sometimes, strange coincidents happen. Only a few days ago, we had this other thread about women not feeling safe any more in gaming culture, and when I joined that discussion by saying that the threat level probably wasn't as high as the OP feared, I almost immediately received backlash in the form of a PM telling me that I had no idea what women were really going through, and that I made assumptions I couldn't make because, as a man, I had privileges women hadn't. The PM was very outspoken, very sincere and full of disappointment that I, as one of the admins of this site, had so little regard for these topics.
Apparently, though, there are a great many more things I should have considered, especially regarding my writing, because yesterday, I received an e-mail through my developer blog account. It's a little too long to quote in full here, but the gist of it was that in all my games - all of them! - I provided male power fantasies, showed women in a degrading way or a negative light and generally showed a lack of concern for gender-relevant issues. I don't know whether the e-mail came from the same person who wrote me the PM (I suspect it didn't; the language was different), but that didn't matter much. What mattered was how this person saw my games:
- Metropolitan Blues was "essentially a stalker fantasy": "An invisible protagonist with the power to spy on woman (sic) and watch her naked in the shower does exactly that, with no concern for her privacy...". He "later decides to invade her life", in turn "rescuing her from writer's block because - lo and behold - his sadness and emotions are so profound that by writing about them, the nameless woman writer finds more interesting material than in her own life". The conclusion is even more stunning: "I was hoping that the true resolution of the story was somehow revealing the fact that the protagonist had been a stalker in his real life whose punishment after death had been to be forced into remaining a powerless beholder for all eternity. Unfortunately, the true ending reveals that the narrator of the story had been a god all along, and a male god too, and the first thing this male god does as soon as he is able to procure a body for himself is to sleep with his female worshipper. And then leave her."
- The Loyal Kinsman was "a somewhat amusing murder mystery, accentuated by the fact that everybody of relevance in the story is male, the plot revolves around a man murdering another man to please a woman, and said woman is easily the character the protagonist of the story hates most - an old, ugly crone who has nothing but contempt for him, seemingly without reason." In conclusion: "If your only likable female character in the entire story is a porcelain-doll-type teenage girl whose entire motivation in life revolves around being an obedient daughter, what picture of femininity does this transport?"
- Daemonophilia apparently revolves around "the life of a loser who's probably supposed to act as a self-portrait of the average gamer" and who is "obsessed with having sex - of course, without ever doing ANYTHING that would give him a chance at that, such as meeting women. Instead, "fate provides a willing slut for him". The twist? "The loser protagonist actually doesn't want to sleep with her because he would go to hell for it. So apparently, women who take the initiative can only come from one place: Hell." - "Eventually, our hero has to rescue this girl too, by the power of his penis. Yeah, that's a healthy relationship if I've ever seen one."
- Adrift "has a protagonist whose task is to literally control everybody's lives" and includes "women...only in a single role: as hindrances to your task": "No matter if they're aggressive, manipulative, nerdy or just plain insane, you only win the game by abusing them and not allowing them to play you." And what's worse: "Even the computers of this virtual dollhouse follow the same formula: If they have a male personality, they are helpful, or at least useful workmachines. If they have a female persona, expect them to murder you, hinder you on your path or, at the very list, wildly misinterpret your intentions."
- Romance is Dead is a "story about a young black woman who is so backwards in her views on love and romance that her entire concept of both can only be fulfilled by men who represent the romantic ideals of the 1950s, the 1920s or the 1800s". "Maddie... is the antithesis of the modern, self-empowered woman; she does everything to help and further the ambitions of the men in this story", and the fact that these "men are depicted in such loving detail while Maddie... remains pretty much a blank slate" reveals that "once again, the only positive things about a woman are what she can do for a man."
While I agree that all of these above are perfectly valid interpretations of my VNs, well, to say that I feel a little misrepresented would be a gross understatement. Apparently, my works, at least to some, make me look at least subconsciously sexist.
And I want that to stop.
So for my next game, I want to do things right. I want to write positive women characters. I want to avoid tropes that degrade women and instead actively make a point FOR women, not against them.
What I need is help, and this is why I'm now addressing women on this forum.
- What do you want to see more of in my stories?
- What would be traits that make a female protagonist likable to you?
- What would be traits that make female side characters likable to you?
- Can you give me existing examples of positive women role models in gaming?
Please, serious discussion only. I'm genuinely looking for advice here.