The Two Biggest Problems I Have With the Gaming Community Part II

In his book titled, The Evolution of Fantasy Role-playing Games, Michael Tresca states that there is a gender disparity when it comes to RPG's in any form:

The Wizards of the Coast survey indicated that just 19 percent of female gamers played on a monthly basis (2000). [...] Studies of children (Child and Child 1973) aged 12 and younger found that girls have more interest in imaginative play than do boys. Role-playing involves many of the attributes that are common in other female-youth-oriented games [...] So why aren't there more women involved in role-playing games? Source

Tresca believes that it comes from a variety of reasons, but the three most critical being duration of play, males' imaginative play lasts longer and requires more people than females require. However, MMORPG's are far more popular among women because they take less time and require fewer people, and the results are far more tangible than the abstractness of tabletop RPG's. Secondly as Tresca notes, and Allison Perry also reinforces, that the cyclical nature of any male dominated industry is a deterring factor for female players. This means, for Tresca that the quantity of males playing, and the fact that they often play to get away from their wives and children sometimes creates a chauvinistic and sexist atmosphere. Perry, also agrees saying that women don't see other female gamers very often, so they don't want to contribute to the hobby either.

A lot of the reasoning behind women's lack of participation in video games originates from the circular and self-defeating logic of “I don't see other women playing video games, so I will not play video games either.” From advertisements to Facebook posts, from editorials to everyday gossip, the out-dated yet “popular perception of gamers [as] either pimply-faced teenaged boys or 30-something males living in their parents' basements” discourages many women from wanting to participate in the gaming phenomenon (Shields). And if this archetype was not discouraging enough, the “[ridiculous] testosterone-swollen, iron-chested men” that stand front row center on many of the games' covers may “remind [potential female gamers] that [the games] were not really designed for [them]” (Edmonds). Source

Perry also states that there are other reasons including trash talk and the sexism of other players. I would like to think that it doesn't happen but it does as evidenced here:

If you don't have the stomach to watch the video that's fine, but here is a quick summary. Cross Assault is an online reality show sponsored by Capcom. There are two teams of 5 - one of Street fighter players and another of Tekken players - who are competing for a cash prize. One of the players on Team Tekken, Miranda Pakozdi, is being verbally assaulted by her team Captain, Aris Bakhtanians - on day one of the week long competition. Over the course of these awkward 14 minutes, Bakhtanians asks Pakozdi for her bra size, proposes that she and another female player engage in a mud wrestling contest, calls her a bitch innumerable times, makes fun of her for not being mean enough and finally complains about the lack of a video camera in the female bathroom. Justifiably so, Pakozdi leaves the competition shorty thereafter. 

While this may not totally have as much to do with what I want to say about RPG's perse; it does shine a light on why there is a lack of female gamers and role-players today. Don't get me wrong, there are still a tremendous amount of "girl-gamers" who know how to hold their own against rude, immature and sexually frustrated teens. However, it is much different when you are playing RPG's, especially tabletop pen and paper ones. 

More often than not, when you play games like Dungeons and Dragons you are not playing with some "internet randos" you are playing with your friends. They are right there in the room with you and there is no giant megaphone to hide behind. From my experience there is significantly less blatant sexism in tabletop RPG's than there is elsewhere. That is entirely possible that the game lies in the collective imagination of the players, and the art that is fostered by the game creators is often in stark contrast to other, more visceral games:

Pathfinder vs World of Warcraft

As can be seen here, there is still armor with breasts in it, but at least the character is wearing armor. I have always said that role-playing games are one of the greatest things that we can get young people into. They teach a variety of skills: basic math, imagination, cooperation, social skills, and public speaking - as well as having a good time without electronics - things that are more and more important in the digital age. If, as was stated earlier, women have more aptitude for imaginary play than men - I think there is a definite place for more female RPG'ers. I think that if the cycle can be broken we can see more and more immersion of both genders in some of our favorite pastimes.

There are many factors that affect how we see and play these games, and why we play them. I think that the industry as a whole still has work to do, but is making strides to change - or so I feel. I think games like Halo: Reach are great examples, as Perry shows, of women who can cosplay and not appear to be "booth babes": Source

Not only does the armor make sense this time, but it also is true to form and displays a level of commitment beyond most men. LARPing is also, technically, part of RPG's and I think as long as everyone can participate and not feel like they are sex objects; or lowlifes who crawled from their parents' basements, I think that the hobby as a whole will flourish. The next, and final installment; miniatures and how they fit into this puzzle. 

Part I Part III

The Two Biggest Problems I Have With The Gaming Community Part I

Are right here:

Alright, now that I have your attention -  for better or for worse here are my thoughts on the State of Gaming Summer 2012. The above image is from a piece of  in process art from the enormously popular free to play game, League of Legends which debuted in 2009 and was one of the, now several successors to the popular Warcraft III: Frozen Throne mod and map called Defense of the Ancients commonly known as DotA. The full piece of completed art can be found here:

The issue that I have here is that this character is all about "fanservice", a term originating from manga and anime, but can easily be used here. It signifies the creators of the game/manga/character are "giving their fans what they want", and a majority of the time that means that there is, as Wikipedia put it so nicely "gratuitous titillation" that occurs. That is because a majority of the gaming community is less than 25 years of age, and overwhelmingly male. According to a study done in Brazil about RPG's, 49.1% of RPG gamers fall between the ages of 18 and 25. Source While this may not be true of the community as a whole, it does show that the demographic that companies pander to are young, male, and most likely high school educated; if not more so. Now, back to the above character, not only does she physically do fanservice to the player, meaning she looks like every heterosexual male's wet dream, but she has flavor text that does the same. Her /joke when played is: "Yes, it's true. For only $2.95 a minute, I will leave you breathless." Now, I am for clever puns and witty phrases. Her character and abilities are based around air; so not only is this a double entendre, but it also has a double meaning. Which is part of the problem with the gaming community. I feel that game creators spend so much time pandering to the lowest common denominator that they detract from other fan bases as a whole. For example, within the same game, there are 99 champions of which 31 are female - and the are not really limited by role. They are warriors, casters, supports, ranged damage and tanks. Source With that in mind, I would like to issue the following comparison of two tank characters with similar equipment:

The first being Taric, the Gem Knight

The second being Leona, Radiant Dawn

Now, for all practical purposes they these two characters play the same role, they are tanks - they get in harms way and protect the other players. When comparing the two, they both are kitted out roughly the same way, with armor, shield and a hand weapon. I was really pleased with Leona as a champion (despite the breasted breastplate), she was the first female tank I had ever seen in any RPG, and she wasn't hyper-sexual like the other example I showed. However, I noticed something about her attire that still bothers me, despite being a defender of the weak and those who deal more damage than you, she is still wearing heels. Yes. The warrior woman is wearing two inch metal plated heels. I don't know where that appeared to be a good idea, but that is what happened. 

League of Legends is one of the many games that have a problem with over sexualizing their characters, both male and female. Most if not all of the human male characters that are playable are broad shouldered with deep voices, the paragon of masculinity. While I find this much less offensive than what happens to their female counterparts, I still think that as a gaming community we have some work to do. I will admit it, it could be that a majority of the gaming community is male, and that no self respecting company is going to turn down profit from its biggest source. Despite this, games like League of Legends do listen to their communities. The following is a post by Morello, a lead champion designer addressing the issue of the hyper sexual nature of the character's in League of Legends and he argues that they do have variety, which is true.

1 of 18 Riot Posts
05-01-2012, 10:54 PM
I think the variety-vs-demand is really good here; while it's easy to focus on the ones you're not fond of, I think we've provided some non-exposing skins for female champs overall;
For every Bunny Girl Riven or Nurse Akali, there's plenty of fantasy-rooted, dark, or different takes on female characters available. Fiora and her launch skins were also pretty classy. While we do have Miss Fortune, we have Leona, Riven, Fiora, Lulu and other non-sexualized female characters.
The key here is as you mention; variety. I just don't think I agree that we haven't met that mark.
+146 

My aim here was to not bash a game that I spend a lot of time playing and turn fans away; no. What I wanted to do here was highlight the fact that the gaming community still suffers from baseless pandering. I would like to point out here though that any gaming company is still a company, they do contribute to the market, but are still a part of supply and demand. So until the community will stop buying games that contain these kind of aspects, we will continue to see them. I think that we can voice our opinions and companies will listen to them; that is a reoccurring theme I have seen over the past twelve months is that companies and designers make use of feedback tools like Facebook and forums. Gamers can enact change, it just takes time and volume. I will be continuing this train of thought, translating to miniatures and RPG's in the next post.

Part II Part III

The Jungle Welcomes You!

Welcome to the Blogosphere!

Alright, so this is a big step for me. Many of the people that know me well, often find their ears and patience tried by my curmudgeonly attitude towards newfangled gadgets. However, after reading a blog post here, I realized that not everything on the internet has to be without meaning. I was under the assumption that blogs only ever talked about nothing or things that only pertained to themselves. Now, there is no need to throw things. I understand the error of my ways now! That being said, the purpose of this blog is to relay my thoughts on a variety of topics; for my first blog I don't really want to limit myself too much - I just need to be writing. I will endeavor to write as scholarly, and with sources, as often as I can or when I find something of interest.

So I've given you my rationale for writing, but I have only hinted at what this blog is about. I'm going to preface the rest of this post with the following: I'm a giant nerd. This blog is about the four things that I find most important in life, as illustrated in the title of the blog. WHAT?! you say, but there are only three things listed at the top! That is not so, possibly the most important thing up there is the word valknut.

Valknut is a word of Norse origin which, as I was told and discovered, means a variety of different things. It is most commonly associated with fate and the nine worlds that composed Norse mythology. Additionally, because it is associated with Odin, the All-father, it also means strength of spirit and resolve - and a little bit of warrior's code. Unfortunately it has also come into use in white-supremacy groups in both Europe and the US, but that is not a reason why I chose this. The valknut for the purposes of this blog is a uniting force - the fate of all things brings us together, and the fact that it represents some of the core values I hold dear make it a perfect way to describe what I want to say. Under this heading I will be talking about morals, values, sometimes fate and  fantastic tales that I hear. Source

The second, and possibly the most important part of this blog is about life: the pursuit of and the trials thereof. This section will cover things like relationships - if that ever comes up - experiences and I would also like to lump in stories from my life or others that don't fit into any of the other categories. Life is full of stories and interesting facts, we can't ignore them or forget them. What is most evident from this section would be that there is always something new to do, or something new to learn  every day - don't squander it.

Thirdly is gaming. As you may have guess from my bio and the other posts you see here, I am a huge nerd. That being said, I am very particular and sometimes very vocal about what I like and don't like: so I am putting all of the cool stuff that I find and that I want to talk about here. I am an avid tabletop gamer; both for wargames and for RPG's so you will find references to those quite often. I also do a fair amount of computer gaming and some console as well - and these references can be found here.

Finally we come to the world: this is where you will hear me gripe a lot. Everything that happens in politics I will put here, so anything that I find that is worth praising or ranting about will go here. I can be very vocal and visceral with my reactions to things; so don't expect a whole lot of minced phrases here. To preface this section, and save some people a headache, I am a liberal. I'm not a commie pinko by any means - but I definitely don't vote conservatively. But, politics are not the only things that happen in the world; there are also innovations in technology or media and as a foreign language nut I will have interesting things to be found here. Also, any traveling I do will be found here.

I hope that this gives you a solid idea of what to find here on my blog. If you have and questions or you really want to gripe at me my email is posted on the blog. Thanks for reading and I hope you find something interesting.