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The Videogame That Finally Made Me Feel Like a Human Being

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Re: The Videogame That Finally Made Me Feel Like a Human Being

#51

Post by facepalm »

kylemaxwell wrote: post #43
facepalm wrote: post #3

"Boys got action figures, not dolls. Boys got to have watergun fights, not play dress-up. Much like their videogame counterparts, boys got to do things, and I wanted to do things too" Find the error... If you want to do things, don't buy stuff, do things. If you feel you need to buy stuff to do things, you have already lost.

Accidentally upvoted. So to counteract: TFA is talking about children . You know, impressionable and malleable young minds that don't yet have the benefit of wisdom and experience. Your post is Shit HN Says material.

She's claiming girls can't do things because they don't get action figurines. That's "Shit Feminists Say" material...

I feel sorry for her if she really didn't get to do water battles. I wonder where she grew up, some ultraconservative Victorian household?

I sent my niece 4 water guns for her birthday and the whole family had a blast. It never occurred to me that girls wouldn't do water battles. The author is probably just extremely unlucky with her family.

Re: The Videogame That Finally Made Me Feel Like a Human Being

#52

Post by Perdition »

egypturnash wrote: post #50
Perdition wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It's not that we can't enjoy works starring a different gender. It's that in video games, we are pretty much given no other option. Look at your collection, pick up all the games that force you into a particular character's shoes. How many of them are about being a guy? How many are about being a girl? You'll probably be able to count the latter on the fingers of one hand. Again, how does that stop women enjoying ga…

How does this stop women enjoying games? See this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7317484

>It's not pretending to be the opposite sex for one game that's the problem. It's pretending to be the opposite sex for almost EVERY game. It's pretty fucking wearying.

Sorry, that seems like a personal hang-up to me.

For most games I don't pretend to be the character, I play the game. The character is usually too discordant with my own self-image for identification or is just a mute pawn (eg Gordon Freeman/Chell).

For games like decent RPGs where I can actually make the character I want I regularly play female characters.

And seeking role models in games seems just bizarre to me. Lots of game characters are "bad ass" but exceedingly few are decent role models (Lara Croft is an awful person for damaging archaeological evidence and stealing other cultures relics).

Re: The Videogame That Finally Made Me Feel Like a Human Being

#53

Post by facepalm »

beloch wrote: post #24

There are some great games out there with female protagonists and quality interaction (e.g. The Dreamfall series). There are also many games that bend over backwards to be gender (and sexual orientation) neutral, such as the Mass Effect series. However I have to agree with the poster that adolescent males are far more frequently targeted by any sort of game that actually has a plot. While some might argue that most f…

Sticking to the beer example, what is the possible solution? Why don't the women simply drink beer that is good? So they won't drink beer that is simply good, but they won't drink girly beer either. Yet they claim to be avid beer drinkers? Is there some magic wonder beer from fairy land that they would finally drink?

Should there be more games about prostate problems?

I think it fundamentally doesn't make sense to claim that games should be different. If anything, you could ask for more other games, where nobody seems to know what they should like.

Note the irony that the author complains about a girlish upbringing and then revels in a game that finally lets her do girlish things.

Re: The Videogame That Finally Made Me Feel Like a Human Being

#54

Post by dfxm12 »

facepalm wrote: post #53
beloch wrote: post #24

There are some great games out there with female protagonists and quality interaction (e.g. The Dreamfall series). There are also many games that bend over backwards to be gender (and sexual orientation) neutral, such as the Mass Effect series. However I have to agree with the poster that adolescent males are far more frequently targeted by any sort of game that actually has a plot. While some might argue that most f…

Sticking to the beer example, what is the possible solution? Why don't the women simply drink beer that is good? So they won't drink beer that is simply good, but they won't drink girly beer either. Yet they claim to be avid beer drinkers? Is there some magic wonder beer from fairy land that they would finally drink? Should there be more games about prostate problems? I think it fundamentally doesn't make sense to cl…

Women who drink beer do drink good beer.

The author is saying that too many "good videogames" mistreat women.

The point is good beer doesn't have a history of marginalizing women they way popular videogames tend to.

On a more general note, videosgames aren't much different from music or movies. Just like bubble-gum pop singles & mindless action movies there are tired AAA videogame titles, all with dubious critical value, but enough appeal to sell to the global lowest common denominator. However, if you really care, there are niches out there doing some incredible stuff.

Re: The Videogame That Finally Made Me Feel Like a Human Being

#55

Post by bsder »

egypturnash wrote: post #47
bsder wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (You would destroy me in a high-speed deathmatch because my 'put cursor on dude' skills are minimal - largely because almost every single 'put cursor on dude' game requires me to inhabit the grey/brown shoes of Mancho McGruntsalot, so I really don't feel like playing them.) Excuse me, but most males would get destroyed in a deathmatch because most of us are not 14 year olds with nothing to do but play videogames 8…

And us ladies saying WE ARE LADIES WHO GREW UP GAMES, WE ARE "HARDCORE" TOO get dismissed. Even though there's a fuckton of us.

And I'm saying that those gaming companies know the exact number that you describe as "fuckton" is. And they have decided that your "fuckton" ... well ... isn't.

I have the same issue AND I AM MALE. I like adventure games. I like RTS games that aren't clicky-twitch-fests (see Total Annihilation/Supreme Commander). I like turn-based strategy. How many like you and me are there?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_PC_games

Looking at that list, it looks like there are roughly about one million of us--male AND female. There is the occasional hit that crosses that (Portal, The Sims), but it looks like the best a company can count on is about a million. Okami (which is absolutely awesome), sold about 600,000 units, so that's also a good cross check.

Now compare that to even mediocre FPS that gets panned and note that their numbers break a million without working hard.

See, that's the problem. There aren't a "fuckton" of us.

Re: The Videogame That Finally Made Me Feel Like a Human Being

#56

Post by dfxm12 »

blah32497 wrote: post #27
egypturnash wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi! I'm a female video gamer. I grew up playing video games. I have played, and still play, a lot of games involving shooting things, punching and kicking things, and colorful explosions. I got hooked on the medium with Williams' "Defender". I don't play FPSs because they are, with very few exceptions, coded as Games For Guys. I've had a great time playing Portal, System Shock 2, Antichamber, and a few other first pe…

I don't really play a lot of videogames anymore, but I have a lot of trouble empathizing with this. When the gender roles are reversed it seems silly to me. "most every single 'put cursor on dude' game requires me to inhabit the grey/brown shoes of Mancho McGruntsalot, so I really don't feel like playing them" As a male, I don't think I've ever had an issue following a feminine video game character. In fact, I've nev…

>As a male, I don't think I've ever had an issue following a feminine video game character.

That's because lead female characters are (almost always) sexualized.

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