Subotron-Vortrag zum Thema Gender Diversity und sexuelle Identität in Spielen

[Posting in German since the talk, which was recorded and is available below, was held in German.]

Rene Schallegger beim subotron Vortrag zum Thema sexuelle Identität. Credit: Verena Riedl, http://www.in-ga.me/subotron-arcademy-nicht-sexy-betrachtungen-zu-geschlechterrollen-sexualitaet-und-sexueller-diversitaet-im-videospiel/
Rene Schallegger beim subotron Vortrag. Credit: Verena Riedl, in-ga.me

Am 25. Oktober fand im Raum D des MQ Wien ein Subotron Vortrag mit dem Titel “Nicht sexy! – Betrachtungen zu Geschlechterrollen, Sexualität und sexueller Diversität im Videospiel” statt. Natürlich musste ich hin. Ich bin seit Jahren Stammgast bei der Vortragsreihe zu Theorie und Praxis von Computerspielen und war lange Zeit auch die einzige Frau, die sich regelmäßig dorthin “verirrte”, was mir seitens Veranstalter Jogi Neufeld auch den scherzhaften Ehrentitel “Quotenfrau” eintrug. Ich muss auch gestehen, dass ich damals manchmal Sorge hatte, man würde mich nicht ernst nehmen. Aber mit der Zeit haben sich einige Freundschaften und viele Online-Kontakte ergeben, und mit Freude stelle ich fest, wieviele Frauen inzwischen regelmäßig im Publikum sitzen.

Und bei meinem Thema war ich gleichermaßen begeistert und skeptisch, was und wie da vorgetragen und vor allem diskutiert werden würde. Der Vortrag wurde gehalten von René Schallegger von der Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt und befasste sich mal mit der Geschichte von Sex in Computerspielen. Diese Abhandlung kann man nur als rudimentär bezeichnen, aber da würde man einen eigenen Vortragsabend brauchen. Man kann ja sogar Bücher drüber schreiben wie Brenda Brathwaite (“Sex in Video Games” – ich hab’s allerdings noch nicht gelesen).

Insgesamt fand ich den Vortrag super spannend, aber eigentlich ging es in erster Linie um sexuelle Orientierung, nicht Geschlechterrollen oder sexuelle Identität. Ich hätte mir ein bisschen mehr dazu erwartet, weil es im Titel ja vorkam – andererseits ist das ja mein Steckenpferd, also wäre ich eher gespannt auf die Methodik gewesen, als die Inhalte. Und vielleicht … kann man da ja mal … ein bisschen mehr in die Tiefe gehen? 😉

Sexuelle Identität in Mass Effect – das Best Practice Beispiel

Als Best Practice wurde mehrfach Mass Effect genannt, und das mag in Bezug auf Homosexualität zum Teil stimmen, aber viel davon ist in erster Linie für den männlichen Betrachter (“male gaze”) gemacht, das zeigt auch der starke Überhang von lesbischen Beziehungsoptionen gegenüber schwulen. So sehr ich die Reihe liebe, ich kritisiere auch nach wie vor die übersexualisierten Charaktere, die manchmal geradezu voyeuristische Kameraführung und die zum Teil lächerlichen Erklärungen, warum man auf jedem zweiten Planeten Asari-Femmes fatales antrifft aber z.B. nirgendwo Turianerinnen. (Der Character Designer meinte, er wüsste nicht, wie er weibliche erstellen sollte, ob Lippenstift passend wäre.)

Hier ist der Mitschnitt von “Nicht Sexy” (nur Audio!)

 

Und zu Verenas Review geht’s hier: In-ga.me Review von subotron arcademy: “Nicht Sexy”

Big, Bad… Boobs!

Yes, this is a shameless attempt to catch your attention! Did it work?

[Spoiler warning for the entire Mass Effect and Dragon Age series]

[Trigger warning for mentions of rape and mutilation.]

Recently, I’ve seen more and more people discuss oversexualization of female characters in games in articles, on Twitter, and real life. And it’s not just us girl gamers who are annoyed, but also the guys who are tired of being treated like teenage boys. And, as Brenna Hillier (whose Twitter is @draqul and you should insta-follow her) put it so nicely in an article on vg24/7:

“The industry’s reliance on over-sexualised, impossible female design is somewhat insulting to those who’ve grown past the point of getting erections from passing bra stores.”

I also remember that the Liara collectible for ME3 was subjected to breast size reduction surgery before going into production. Unfortunately for Liara, this means that she won’t ever become a leader of Asari society (regardless of any ME3-related galactic travel problems), because Asari leaders are recognizeable by their enormous melon-sized breasts (says deviantartist Epantiras in her funny-as-hell parody cartoon “Mess Perfect”).

In general, this discussion is a step in the right direction, I hope it will gain momentum and find its way into the brains of the game developers! [Yes I’m an optimist. I couldn’t bear blogging about gender & games if I weren’t.] I could go on about this and try to retrieve all the other links on character designs, armors and whatnot. (There are AWESOME blogs about this springing up like mushrooms after the rain.) But right now, I have something more insidious and immensely literal in mind: Big, bad, boobs.

Continue reading Big, Bad… Boobs!

A Little Byte of Romance

In the last few months, I played through Dragon Age: Origins and its expansion Awakening and Mass Effect (all BioWare’s works) and started playing The Witcher, which was developed by Polish CDProjekt. Currently I’m following up with Mass Effect 2. All good games, no doubt there. But I’m not going to discuss the games’ quality per se… if you allow the pun, it will rather be "per sex". Be warned though, some character development spoilers will follow, but no major plot spoilers.

DA:O and the Witcher are considered "adult", while ME has a rating of 12, and ME2 of 15. The reasons for these ratings are the typical cursing (aka "strong language" haha), violence, blood and of course… naked skin!!! Very scary, if you’re American! ^_^

DA:O and both Mass Effect games allow you to pick your avatar’s gender, and be straight or gay. Need I even repeat that The Witcher was developed in Poland, while BioWare is Canadian? Hm. Figures. 😉 Granted, I play for the plot and gameplay etc., but I am a fan of well-written game romance, because it adds character depth.

The eponymous, and male by default, Witcher Geralt sometimes can decide between a traditional roleyplaying reward such as cash, or a night with the damsel in distress he just rescued. The resulting cutscenes are, well, foggy… and you collect a pin-up card to remind you of your conquests (some of that artwork is rather gross in my humble opinion – and no, I wouldn’t judge bloodied and disfigured male pin-ups differently). His dialogue choices on the way there are mostly either "not interested" or sexist, which led to me playing a rather ascetic Witcher. (I’m not far into the plot, so this is only a tentative opinion, no final judgement. It seems there is a more long-term love interest in store for Geralt, so I’ll see how "he will act".)

In DA:O, your avatar can pursue romances with certain party members, though you have to play much nicer to get anywhere. When you succeed, you are treated to totally non-foggy cutscenes with both of you wearing the infamous, but obviously popular with game devs, "grandma undies". (I think that wonderful quote is from Bethesda’s Morrowind forum back in the day, but I am uncertain. In any case, there was a Morrowind nudity mod mode [sic!] called "pubescent boy mode", which showed women naked and men in their underwear… which I found hilarious, but I digress). Similar to DA:O, you have to be nice to your romantic interest in ME, yet still can tease them, which led to a few superb dialogs. (If you want an example and don’t mind spoilers, look up "Alistair’s rose" in youtube; I haven’t yet tried to find some of ME’s wittiest Shepard – Kaidan dialogs but I bet they’re up there to). Another good example for game romances to mention would be, again of BioWare’s doing, Knights of the Old Republic (I played only Part 1, since 2 doesn’t run on my computer for some #@$&%! reason).

Unlike past times, when even BioWare treated us girlgamers to the ever boring paladin-type lovers (Anomen in BG2, Casavir in NWN2) and nobody would give us a male Viconia (a bitchy dark elf in BG2, who you eventually could convince to become good – if you were male and romanced her, that is) it seems we’re starting to be of concern to developers (not Polish ones, sadly – a female Witcher could make for a kickass heroine).

But I really wonder if there is a even just one woman writing romance dialogs for them!? I am betting money on a storybook male nerd making guesses about what GIRLS want, while forgetting that it’s mostly NERD GIRLS who will play their games. I’m exaggerating? Perhaps… prove me wrong next time, all you devs out there!  😉

As always, looking forward to comments from you! Also, did I miss any major RPG that has romances?