November 25th, 2007
My little contribution to the sexism-in-gaming canon
I like to play computer games. It’s long been established, however, that I’m not cool, so of course I play the wrong games. I’ve never played World of Warcraft, and my days in the MUDs or multiuser dungeons of the late 1980s mainframe computers are long over.
I like arcade-style games. They’re cheap, simple, mindless, and I’ve learned how to manage them so that they don’t eat my life (which would be much harder for me with a game like World of Warcraft).
Unfortunately, when it comes to their graphics and backstory, they also take as givens some of the worst values and assumptions of mainstream white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. My latest find, “Heroes of Hellas,” is a beautiful case in point. Here’s a screenshot of the main game screen:
It’s a testosterone festival! The idea here is that you play through the levels and one by one uncover the “heroes” who then help you in your “quest” to find Zeus’ lost scepter of power. I know, it’s totally cheesy, and it’s even worse when you’re actually playing. Even so, though, I guess it was too much to ask that the game creators could have included even one of the several goddesses of ancient Greece–Aphrodite, Artemis, Athena, Demeter, Hera, and Hestia.
Where do the women appear, you might ask? Well–they hold things.
Yes, that is a person with breasts there on the right. If only the entire game were as gender balanced as this one screen.
And on this screen we have woman-as-column, holding a bowl that holds all the coins and gems that you collect during the game. Doesn’t it count that you look at her on every gameboard screen? I don’t think so.
When you complete a level, you are given access to the myth about the relevant hero followed by some “art” which is a depiction of this myth. My particular favorite (not) was Perseus. Here’s the painting illustrating Perseus’ myth:
The Perseus myth according to this game:
“Perseus tried to find the island of the Gorgons for a long time. Finally, he went to the Graeae, three old women with one eye and a single tooth between them. Following the advice of Hermes, Perseus snatched the eye while they were passing it between them and didn’t return it until they gave him directions to the Gorgons.”
So let me get this straight. This guy basically terrorized and tortured old women, taking away something they needed for survival until they gave up the info on how to find some other women whom he presumably wanted to torture and kill? And I’m supposed to think he’s a hero? Oh, but it’s okay, look, because the women are old, ugly, and unfuckable, and, if you weren’t a hero, they might even be kinda scary. So that’s all right then.
And to top it all off, when you finish all the levels, you get your own myth:
Apparently, though, the boy programmers couldn’t fathom that a girl (euw!) might play this game, because they didn’t bother writing the myth using gender neutral language that might have a hope of matching the name at the top of the screen!
Dumbasses.
And as a parting shot, can I just point out that, from the above myth, it’s clear that Tantalus was the villain of this game? And yet, if you scroll back to the first screenshot, his big ol’ manly pecs are front and center on the screen of “heroes.” What’s the subtle message there?
But because I’m an ever-helpful well-socialized female, I’ll give the boys a bit of help. I know they’re constantly beset by my sisters who want to enjoy computer games, comic books, and other media which tend to, well, represent women less than fairly. Here, dudes, is one way to draw a female warrior who’s neither Barbie, prey, nor nonexistent.
She’s skinny, but she has reasonably-sized breasts for her frame and they’re covered, along with the rest of her; she’s wearing realistic gear and has reasonable weapons, and she looks strong if pensive. This was even drawn by a man, Charles Keegan! So you see that ovaries are not necessary to the task of creating media that include realistic, strong, interesting female characters. Women spend a bunch of money on computer games–wouldn’t it be great if there were some we could feel good about buying, and playing?
