Feminist design.
So I'm working on a video game that involves robots and will be available for all ages. We have one design finalized, but there's 4 more bosses to be decided.
My quandary, as I'm one of the few designers coming up with ideas for this is, should we try to gender the robots or leave them all neutral. And how does this affect our players?
One of the things that I loved playing games as a child was when there were female characters. After a while, I did get tired of the pink and the fan service, jumping more onto characters like Samus or whoever was put into REAL armour instead of leather thongs and slit skirts. Or just having to play half naked men to prove that I wasn't "girly" but genuinely wanted to play a light, fast character with a ranged weapon. These are the things that a lot of women in gaming deal with.
So I get to change the system now.
If I render all the robots in completely neutral terms, the idea still pops up that they're male robots because they fit into male stereotypical proportions (big, buff bots). If I start gendering them, then I do still have to figure out how to make a robot read as 'feminine' without resorting to pink, lipstick, bows and tits. Do I take away the woman pride of looking dainty but still obviously being able to kick ass? Or do I just make everything neutral and hope that it can read like that.
It has been something on my mind as I've been watching the first season of Farscape, which has the fun aspects of the main characters riding a living ship, who is female but doesn't fit into any traits of it because, uh, it's a spaceship. But Moya does give birth. Also the episode where there's a male actor and in the end it's revealed that the alien is actually a female species.
Would it be enough to give a neutral bodied robot a female name? Should I push for a character that is more obviously female?
I have no idea and would like some feedback.
My quandary, as I'm one of the few designers coming up with ideas for this is, should we try to gender the robots or leave them all neutral. And how does this affect our players?
One of the things that I loved playing games as a child was when there were female characters. After a while, I did get tired of the pink and the fan service, jumping more onto characters like Samus or whoever was put into REAL armour instead of leather thongs and slit skirts. Or just having to play half naked men to prove that I wasn't "girly" but genuinely wanted to play a light, fast character with a ranged weapon. These are the things that a lot of women in gaming deal with.
So I get to change the system now.
If I render all the robots in completely neutral terms, the idea still pops up that they're male robots because they fit into male stereotypical proportions (big, buff bots). If I start gendering them, then I do still have to figure out how to make a robot read as 'feminine' without resorting to pink, lipstick, bows and tits. Do I take away the woman pride of looking dainty but still obviously being able to kick ass? Or do I just make everything neutral and hope that it can read like that.
It has been something on my mind as I've been watching the first season of Farscape, which has the fun aspects of the main characters riding a living ship, who is female but doesn't fit into any traits of it because, uh, it's a spaceship. But Moya does give birth. Also the episode where there's a male actor and in the end it's revealed that the alien is actually a female species.
Would it be enough to give a neutral bodied robot a female name? Should I push for a character that is more obviously female?
I have no idea and would like some feedback.