Comments on: Yes, I Will Always Play Zoey

By: Fearsclave

Fearsclave — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 13:36:16 +0000

@Thefremen: Louis’ wardrobe is actually a reference to the hilarious British zombie romantic comedy Shaun of the Dead. Louis’ wardrobe is identical to the lead character in that movie.

For zombie movie fans, L4D is chock full of subtle genre references, not the least of which is setting; George A. Romero’s first zombie flicks were all set in the Pittsburgh area, just for starters. And then there are the news helicopters (a tip of the hat to Dawn of The Dead), the zombie soliders in ACUs (a nod to 28 Weeks Later), and I could go on…

As for character selection in L4D, none of the Survivors are any different from each other in terms of capabilities. As an aside, the age diversity in L4D characters is also interesting; my 73-year-old father took to L4D like a duck to water as a first-time FPS player. For some reason he prefers to play Bill.

By: Robyrt

Robyrt — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:45:47 +0000

Having a larger, more diverse set of female characters in games is good for concrete reasons, too.

Often, the easiest character to play in a game is the big, dumb white male. But women, in my experience, always want to try out the female character first, who is usually the “weak but tricky” or “weak but fast” character. This is frustrating, and needlessly raises the learning curve.

I’m another man who always picks female characters, either because they have more personality or they fit my preferred support role better. I really appreciate having the choice of genders, though, and more importantly the choice to pick someone of my gender who isn’t a total sex object. Go Zoey!

By: The dilemma of character versus gameplay | The Border House

The dilemma of character versus gameplay | The Border House — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:39:20 +0000

[...] week on the blog we ran a cool piece by Jadelyn on playing female characters in games and it got me thinking. I ended up going on a thinking trip [...]

By: Twyst

Twyst — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:13:09 +0000

On PS3 i think i would have 2. Mirror’s Edge and Folklore. Maybe LittleBigPlanet.

By: Thefremen

Thefremen — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:47:56 +0000

Louis is in no way the “token black man”. He is the most fully realized and deep character in all of gaming. I say this as a fellow fan of white dress shirts and poly blend red ties.

(btw, we need more female characters in gaming, my daughter for one will not touch something without female avatars, hence why her habits are limited to Dora and KOF11. Of course she’s also 5.)

By: Laurentius

Laurentius — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 20:39:49 +0000

I certainly agree that there is the serious issue with unrepresentation of women as protagonists in games, i can’t help thinking that there are is more then just gender sterotypes in action. There is some issue (definietly connected with sterotypes) with media itself, generally speaking protagonists and characters in most games are terrible written, as was mentioned : white males – boring and dull. So in fact if someone breaks through this cliche eg. Mirror’s edge and make a protagonists a female is often indicator that creator at least try to do something interesting. So all in all i would definietly want to see more female characters in games as it would in my opinions bring more well written stories in games.

By: Angrboda Carcharoth

Angrboda Carcharoth — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:59:59 +0000

I think this post properly identifies the issue I had recently while playing the game Heroes of Newerth (a DOTA clone). I was surprised when I found that there were no female characters at all in the Strength category of the hero selection. Both female and male characters showed up in the Agility and Intelligence sections, but it seemed only male characters were allowed in the Strength category. This really bothered me. I could think of no reason why they would be excluded from being identified with the Strength stat. The developers even patched in a Valkyrie character later and threw her in Agility, which is rather absurd considering the lore surrounding them. I just stopped playing, even though I was enjoying the game up until that point. I wanted to try playing with a Strength build but didn’t like that I was being force to play a man.

By: Bittercup

Bittercup — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:18:00 +0000

Go here: http://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/

You shouldn’t be in a debate about feminism when you refuse to even question your assumptions about gender. I’d also urge you to go here so you can claim your bingo prize:

http://hoydenabouttown.com/20070414.431/anti-feminist-bingo-a-master-class-in-sexual-entitlement/

By: Hot Tramp

Hot Tramp — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:01:44 +0000

You’re not a feminist blog until someone accuses you of hating men and flounces in a huff. We have ARRIVED!

By: Brinstar

Brinstar — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 23:56:48 +0000

eye-shuh: I think you may need to do a little 101-level self-education about anti-oppression and feminism to understand why they reacted the way they did to Mantheos.

The commenters here were posting in good faith, and going out of their way to try and clarify why certain perceptions you had were problematic and discriminatory. Obviously, it’s difficult to be faced with multiple people telling you these things. I understand that. But your experience would have been more productive and you would have gotten a lot more out of it if you had been willing to question your own perceptions a bit more and if you had been more open to having your positions challenged.

Thanks for visiting.