Courtesy of the GDC Vault is another free session video from GDC Online 2012.
In this lecture, notable industry critics Mattie Brice (San Francisco State University), Jenn Frank (Infinite Lives), and Leigh Alexander (Gamasutra) address gender in games. The subtopics include gender assumptions, alienating game experiences, minorities in games, and how games handle love interests.
Speaker(s): Mattie Brice, Jenn Frank, Leigh Alexander
Company Name(s): San Francisco State University, Infinite Lives, Gamasutra
Track / Format: Game Narrative Summit
Overview: The knell for broader representations of gender in games grows ever louder and more insistent, but games are slow to embrace new voices on gender and sexuality. This is in part because of a lack of diversity on dev teams and the challenge of speaking from experiences outside your own. What are the factors in this challenge, and how can thoughtful interactive storytellers move forward? In this discussion-oriented session, three outspoken women in game criticism share views, experiences and ideas.
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Interesting, how it kinda drifts off to into the debate the idea that you either have a blank slate, or you make a really specific character, but not half-half.
Ultimately it just comes back to writing characters that are real
Also this whole thing about being "afraid" of getting it wrong when writing about diverse characters is bs. Novel writers have to do it all the time. They just get someone to beta-read their story and if the beta readers say it's not realistic (and why), the writer can change it
I don't agree really. Novels have already reached a level of diversity where people aren't going to scrutinize every detail of your non-white, non-male characters. Whereas I'm sure almost every major female game character in history has at least one article analysing her and what she means for "females in gaming".
Gaming has dug itself into this hole to the point where every female character is taken as either cheap sex appeal or a personified socio-political statement. It's very hard to just write a character that happens to be female and have people accept that.
Perhaps there is too much emphasis or focus on the character (ie. a female protagonist) rather than the world around her or the world in general. In this case the only games that manage to pull off such story are MMOs; where everyone and no one is special.
Ultimately it just comes back to writing characters that are real
Also this whole thing about being "afraid" of getting it wrong when writing about diverse characters is bs. Novel writers have to do it all the time. They just get someone to beta-read their story and if the beta readers say it's not realistic (and why), the writer can change it
Gaming has dug itself into this hole to the point where every female character is taken as either cheap sex appeal or a personified socio-political statement. It's very hard to just write a character that happens to be female and have people accept that.