(no subject)
I do not wish to spark off a Bayonette-style gender debate but I am kind of angry (in a quiet kind of way) that Splash Damage have decided not to put in any female character models in their post-apocalyptic FPS game 'Brink'. I know female character models are less of a focus in the FPS genre than in RPG games, but Bethesda, who are collaborating with them, have always been pretty good with the gender politics of their games, and one of the major focuses of the game is on character customisation. I mean, one of the selling points is the 'near-limitless possibilities' of the character customisation system. Well, they're cutting out around half the possibilities as well as imposing a severe limit on the player by not including female character models, so I'm going to call foul on that one. They're already catching flak for it, and have responded by saying that it was a really difficult decision, but that due to the focus on character customisation, it would have led to severely limiting the options available for the characters (fair, given as the character models are all big, burly men with exaggerated chins). Still, what annoys me is that not having even 'token' representations of the female gender (or, as they described it in an interview, 'the second sex') is considered an acceptable loss in a trade for more customisable items.
The FPS genre has always been less worried about presenting female character types as options, partly because of the audience at which most FPS games are aimed and partly because they usually concern tough army guys doing macho things, especially in the army. Still an issue, but not as offensive as arbitrarily deciding not to provide the option to play women for the sake of more customisation.Worst thing is, they didn't even try and justify it with a flimsy excuse (which would make me angry, but not as angry). 'Brink' is set on a floating island designed to be self-sustainable. The population has boomed from the original 5000 intended to 50000 and they've lost contact with the mainland. Cue gang warfare and post-apocalypse. A good concept, some damn fine graphics and an interesting new approach to a free-roaming movement system, but there appears to be no in-universe justification for not including female characters. Admittedly, I've not played it, so maybe it's a plot point, but it seems weird unless the women all...I don't know...live somewhere else? Or have been wiped out by a plague? Or have been locked up for their own protection? For the island to be self-sustainable and have undergone the population boom it has, there either has to be big science involved or women. If there aren't any left, that gives a kind of poetically pointless fatalism to the skirmishes over land and survival. And surely if there's been a population boom that big, they don't need to stop women from fighting, as there will be plenty to survive to reproduce and sustain the population. In fact, the fighting is pretty much an evolutionary imperative to stop humanit from exhausting its limited resources on the island. Of course, all this is pure speculation. Maybe they have a really good in-universe reason for it, even though it is motivated by design issues.
I'm probably still going to play it, because I like the look of it and I'm interested by the idea, but it's definitely putting a downer on my enthusiasm. Not because I always play female character models - I don't. I'm just disappointed that they didn't pay as much attention to the gender issues as the design ones.
The FPS genre has always been less worried about presenting female character types as options, partly because of the audience at which most FPS games are aimed and partly because they usually concern tough army guys doing macho things, especially in the army. Still an issue, but not as offensive as arbitrarily deciding not to provide the option to play women for the sake of more customisation.Worst thing is, they didn't even try and justify it with a flimsy excuse (which would make me angry, but not as angry). 'Brink' is set on a floating island designed to be self-sustainable. The population has boomed from the original 5000 intended to 50000 and they've lost contact with the mainland. Cue gang warfare and post-apocalypse. A good concept, some damn fine graphics and an interesting new approach to a free-roaming movement system, but there appears to be no in-universe justification for not including female characters. Admittedly, I've not played it, so maybe it's a plot point, but it seems weird unless the women all...I don't know...live somewhere else? Or have been wiped out by a plague? Or have been locked up for their own protection? For the island to be self-sustainable and have undergone the population boom it has, there either has to be big science involved or women. If there aren't any left, that gives a kind of poetically pointless fatalism to the skirmishes over land and survival. And surely if there's been a population boom that big, they don't need to stop women from fighting, as there will be plenty to survive to reproduce and sustain the population. In fact, the fighting is pretty much an evolutionary imperative to stop humanit from exhausting its limited resources on the island. Of course, all this is pure speculation. Maybe they have a really good in-universe reason for it, even though it is motivated by design issues.
I'm probably still going to play it, because I like the look of it and I'm interested by the idea, but it's definitely putting a downer on my enthusiasm. Not because I always play female character models - I don't. I'm just disappointed that they didn't pay as much attention to the gender issues as the design ones.