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Tropes vs Women in Video Games

Started by Bludshot, December 06, 2012, 11:48:46 PM

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snabbott

Of course. Some people are less practiced at it than others, though.

Also, it occurred to me that if you listen to too much ZZ Top, you may find yourself believing that "Every girl's crazy about a sharp-dressed man." :P

Steve Abbott | Beta Tester | The Silver Lining

Lambonius

Quote from: snabbott on June 20, 2013, 04:00:18 PM
Also, it occurred to me that if you listen to too much ZZ Top, you may find yourself believing that "Every girl's crazy about a sharp-dressed man." :P

Excellent point.  I'd also argue that ZZ Top reinforces unrealistic beard stereotypes against men.

Blackthorne

Every girl IS crazy about a sharp dressed man.  Also, beards.


Bt
"You've got to keep one eye looking over your shoulder
you know it's going to get harder and harder as you
get older - but in the end you'll pack up, fly down south, hide your head in the sand.  Just another sad old man, all alone and dying of cancer." - Dogs, Pink Floyd.

Lambonius


LadyTerra

Definitely not that last one, though that assumes I'm a girl.
I have my cake and eat it too, until it's gone.  Then I can't do either.


Aww!  You have the Sword of Hugging +3!  All of your attacks deal affectionate damage!

Neonivek

Quote from: Blackthorne on June 21, 2013, 04:58:46 AM
Every girl IS crazy about a sharp dressed man.  Also, beards.


Bt

Also Men

Bludshot



Last of the videos about the damsel in distress trope.  Essentially a closing argument.
Deep Thoughts with Connor Mac Lyrr
"Alack! The heads do not die!"

Neonivek

I don't think I am ready for this... I mean she is pretty bad all things considered.

Numbers

I finally got around to watching her first video. She lost me after the first five minutes. I really don't know why I bothered.
I have no mouth, and I must scream.

Neonivek

Quote from: 929572 on August 03, 2013, 07:06:11 PM
I finally got around to watching her first video. She lost me after the first five minutes. I really don't know why I bothered.

Mostly I think it is three things
1) She generated hype for her videos. She isn't just some person with a youtube account, by all means she is "professional"
2) It is an important subject and deserves observation
and
3) It is something we all know about in very detailed way.

The problem ultimately is... she isn't very good. I've seen more thinking put into the videos that agree or disagree with her (And less thinking too... ugh)

Numbers

The thing is, this subject has already been done to death. And guess what? Nothing's changed. At all. And I can guarantee that it won't change as long as superficial people exist on this planet.

Besides, her presentation is just so bad. Everyone and their dog knows what a damsel in distress is, you don't need to give a condescending, long-winded explanation of what it is.
I have no mouth, and I must scream.

KatieHal

One of her stretch goals was developing a curriculum with the videos so that they could be used for educational purposes as well. Between that and defining your terms, which is often done in debates or presentations to be absolutely certain everyone is on the same page with what you're discussing, defining the term makes a lot of sense here.

Additionally, it makes sense with her overall goal--if you're aiming to deconstruct something to examine it closely, then yes, you need to be specific about what it is you're examining and deconstructing.

As before, I enjoyed the video and found it interesting. I liked the proposed non-damsel plot given at the end as well. :) And I appreciate that she didn't exclude indie games from the examples on either side--I mention that one because I saw someone on twitter saying something to the effect of not liking that she'd done that. But just because you're indie and not an AAA studio, or vice versa, doesn't somehow excuse you from criticisms or close examinations, etc. It was a strange comment, basically, or so I thought.

Katie Hallahan
~Designer, PR Director~

"Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix." Christina Baldwin

I have a blog!

stika

the heck? Braid? Really? Braid? Why did she name Braid? She does know there is no "princess" in Braid, right?

Also why did she name fist Puncher? Your hero can be anything in that game, a woman, a unicorn (yes, really, a unicorn.) anything! Why did she name those games? o.O

GrahamRocks!

I thought there was a princess in Braid, but she wasn't trying to be rescued by you?

Then again, I've never played Braid.

A... Unicorn? Wouldn't it be called Hoof Puncher then in that case?

stika

#434
There is no "main character" in fist puncher, your character is a sprite and your sprite can be anything, a man, a woman, a unicorn, really, anything. That's why her criticism doesn't make sense

but the real issue is Braid, naming Braid there is so bad I'd argue she never even played the game

[spoiler] There is no Princess, the game is all in Tim's mind, he was responsible for the creation of the Atom Bomb and the entire game is an allegory for Atomic warfare. So in reality there is no "princess", she's a metaphor and Tim is not a hero, he's a monster[/spoiler]

Fist Puncher I can kinda see what she's going for even if I don't agree with it. But Braid? Really?

KatieHal

I also haven't yet played Braid, but even if the whole story is an extended allegory, you DO still spend the whole game (or a significant chunk of it, since that's what all screenshots and videos of it show) playing a male character and chasing after a princess character.

Katie Hallahan
~Designer, PR Director~

"Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix." Christina Baldwin

I have a blog!

stika


Neonivek

Quote from: GrahamRocks! on August 05, 2013, 07:57:46 AM
I thought there was a princess in Braid, but she wasn't trying to be rescued by you?

Then again, I've never played Braid.

A... Unicorn? Wouldn't it be called Hoof Puncher then in that case?

Braid was a perhaps not a deconstruction but it didn't have a damsel.

It pretended to have a damsel but only for you the player to draw the parallels between what superficially was going on in the game and what was actually going on.

Quote from: KatieHal on August 05, 2013, 11:29:27 AM
I also haven't yet played Braid, but even if the whole story is an extended allegory, you DO still spend the whole game (or a significant chunk of it, since that's what all screenshots and videos of it show) playing a male character and chasing after a princess character.

Sort of... You are made to believe that is what you are doing.

If Anita actually used that as a pure example of that trope (which there is nooo way she could have... did she?) then maybe she should replay it.

Numbers

I haven't looked any further into it, but I have seen accusations that she doesn't understand games nearly as well as she thinks she does. Also, there seem to be multiple instances where she focuses exclusively on what she finds offensive, to the exclusion of other, more glaring problems with the source material. For example, on TV Tropes, under the Complaining About Shows You Don't Watch heading, is this paragraph:

"An egregious example is the video game Bayonetta. Even leaving aside the fact that the character can easily be interpreted as a satire of the adolescence pandering she accuses her to be (which even at worst, it would suffer the Truffaut Was Right problem. At worst), she gave away many hints that she actually didn't play the game much, if at all. The biggest one is when she says Bayonetta is a single mother, something that is just not true. Bayonetta does play the Action Mom trope, but only metaphorically (Sarkeesian portrays it in the video as if she is a literal single mom). And even that is a stretch considering the girl she takes care of [spoiler]is HERSELF from the past.[/spoiler] Made even worse by saying, even stressing, that that's her one and only positive character trait..."

Again, I have no idea whether she actually said this or not, as I haven't seen it myself, but if she did, then all I have to say is this:

I have no mouth, and I must scream.

Neonivek

QuoteMade even worse by saying, even stressing, that that's her one and only positive character trait...

What? WHAT!?!

She didn't play it much? More like she didn't play it at all.