An Open Letter to the Game Industry (Forwarded)

[roseembolism]

Over at the 20 Sided Women's Project, there is An Open Letter to the Gaming Industry, where a group of gamers make some complaints about how their gender is depicted and treated in the hobby. It's made a bit of a stir, here and there.

My thoughts? Things have improved in the last decade or so, but there is still huge room for improvement, especially in the way that women are depicted, both in game, and especially in art. The trope of "sexy useless female armor' for example, is pretty much a cliche, and has been for years.  And the discussions over this letter have revealed that there's still a large mix of misogyny and general cluelessness out there.

But what do you all think?

Comments

[baronlaw.livejournal.com]

I've always thought that the female "costumes" portrayed in the game books went a bit too far. Yes I am an admirer of the female form, but really when you depict the "male thief" all in black leather and cloaked and well armed and right next to it you show a "female thief" with tons of exposed flesh you are assuming that players are idiots.

An Open Letter to the Game Industry (Forwarded)

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

Those are what I call "clubbing armor". Armor that exposes cleavage and the belly. It might be one thing for mages, but plate bikinis?

It's an area where there's been some really unfortunate cross- fertilization between MMORPGs and RPGs, with each hobby picking up the worst traits of the other.

[palecur.livejournal.com]

Props where due: the art direction for 4E features a lot fewer chainmail bikinis, though the breastplates are still occasionally molded for display more than for protection.

An Open Letter to the Game Industry (Forwarded)

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

There's still a lot of clubbing armor, but its better than 3rd. Edition.

A lot of what they're talking about comes from online gaming of course, There's a huge amount of sexism in portrayals, even in the better MMORPGs. Things like the exact same armor being bulky and intimidating for men, and turning into belly exposing, cleavage enhancing wear for women.

And then there's the Evony ad, which may actually be not as bad as the MMORPG ad that features a scantilly clad woman chained to a tree. There's exhibit 'A' for how far the industry has to go.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

I was very impressed with much of WOTC's D&D 3.5 material wrt art, especially wrt to having female characters wear armor and not fetish gear. I think that this change had a major impact on RPG art. This trend thankfully seems to have continued with 4E.

[(Anonymous)]

One homebrew world had a chain mail bikini that was magically empowered to give a really good armour class and also various protections taken from story tropes.