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

[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.