If you don't want feminist rage, don't read it.

[iliachenvaar]

So, I've been playing Mass Effect 2 some recently, and watching Mike play it (muted) a lot more. And it's a really good game. The mood's rather different from the first game, but it also fixes some of the more irritating things from the first game

Comments

[suncatnin]

You know, I did a whole research project on this back during my sophomore year at UR. Basically in video games, you either get the damsel in distress or the hot kickass/eyecandy female (Sometimes all of the above, it seems). So yeah, rage on!

Only females I can think of immediately that aren't objectified like this are Metroid and Okami, but that's because you can't even tell their gender from the display.

[iliachenvaar]

Yeah, I remember that. This made me think of it, actually.

And it sucks even more because ME2 is actually a really good game, and I still want to play it. It's just that every time I think about/see the female characters, I want to smack someone. Blegh.

[sharyna]

Aw, and I was looking forward to playing ME2 once I get the chance. Which probably isn't gonna be soon, but eh.

I think that, as you said, the fact that ME1 was so good about not doing that makes the fact that 2 is doing it so much worse. ^^

[iliachenvaar]

Yeah, definitely. It was so awesome the first time around that when you lose it the second time around, it's much more disappointing than it might be in another game because you got your expectations up.

[sharyna]

Actually, I don't think I noticed it at the time, is how good it was in ME1. ^^; But when you mentioned it, I could see what you meant, and now there's probably no way I'll be able to play ME2 without thinking about it. ^^ Although given your description of the outfits, I'm pretty sure I'd notice it anyway, sooner or later. ^^

At least, if the character creation system is still as good as last time and I do a female character, *she'll* probably be dressed decently. Esp. if I can carry over my ME1 char. Addison Shepard has a face like an axe and will KICK YOUR BUTT. XD

[iliachenvaar]

Oops, sorry. Though yeah, I'm pretty sure you'd have noticed it. I'll grant you, it may seem slightly worse to me because I don't play the games that are really egregious for this kind of thing, but it's quite bad enough, I think.

You can import your character from ME1. In fact, that's what both Mike and I did, so I have no idea what the character creation system is like. ^^ Though I've heard it's quite good, even better than ME1. And yeah, you still get to wear armor. It's actually more customizable this time around, which is pretty cool.

Hee. My female Shepard (I made one male and one female character) is actually fairly attractive, but then, I wanted her to be. The one thing I didn't like that much about her was the fact that all the facial scars are much less pronounced on the women. I actually kind of wanted her to have a serious scar. I chose the biggest one available for women - the one that goes all the way across your face - and you can still barely see it. Sigh. Ah, well.

[sharyna]

That's true, I do play games like Soul Calibur and such, so...Although ME is definitely different enough from that that, at the very least, I'd probably be able to tell that *something* was different...

I made one male and two female Shepards in ME1, but Addison was the best. The male one was just okay, and the second female one was never anything more than a joke (I named her Candi Shepard, so uh...yeah <.<). Addison wasn't hideous, she was just attractive in the hardened battleaxe sense--and yeah, I know what you mean about the scars. I think I got her the eye scar, which really sold it (my male friends all agreed she looked totally badass and awesome XD).