Gamerisms

sanityscraps:

fangirl-it-right:

UGH THIS SLUT-SHAMING NEEDS TO END. Just a few points, because it’s gone 2 AM and fuck writing the same essay another time:

• “Slut” is a meaningless, misogynistic slur meant to shame women and only women for their sex lives, which are none of your business.
• The nerd community is rife with misogyny.
• This is a bullshit pseudo-standard only applied to female gamers, never to men.
• Why can’t a girl who plays video games both like to deprive themselves of sleep to save Hyrule AND make sexy pictures with controllers if they choose? God forbid a woman like being sexy or have multiple facets to her personality. Oh the humanity. /s
• It shouldn’t surprise anyone that some women wanting to fit into the nerd community sexualize themselves, considering how oversexualized women generally are in games, anime, and comics. Especially now that science has proven that all people regardless of gender view women in sexy outfits as objects and not people.
• Even if a woman is just a “poser” of a gamer or whatever, it is not your goddamn problem. 

The idea of the “gamer girl” and “not a gamer girl” is a false and ridiculous dichotomy that allows men to dictate what a gamer “is” and “isn’t” to women. In this dichotomy, cis men are allowed to be casual gamers and hardcore gamers without being reprimanded of the quality of their gaming, while cis women can only be hardcore gamers and are chastised for being casual gamers because they are then accused of having ulterior motives to game other than just enjoying gaming. Of course, even when women are hardcore gamers, they still are likely to experience gaming harassment from men despite their skills or interests.

- Aria

capnraccoon:

I Just Came…: Where are the Female Aliens in Mass Effect 3?

throwinsixes:

capnraccoon:

gamerisms:

Mass Effect 3 came with a lot of expectations, but one of the more subtle expectations to increase the diversity in the already-rich universe.

However, it wasn’t until playing through the game subsequent times however, that I noticed despite diversity in areas such as…

Stop it. Stop it now Tumblr.

It’s stated in Mass Effect that Krogan females are rare, you also see more than one female Krogan, back on Tuchanka in ME2, there’s also a dead one that Mordin inspects on his loyalty mission.

I believe it’s stated that Vorcha are asexual and don’t require genders (They breed like germs basically)

Hanar could quite possibly be gender neutral as they are essentially space jelly fish…

Volus are little creatures in suits, what is there to say the females don’t look and sound similar? I mean, they require breathing apparatus I’m sure you can find some scientific fact about the breathing density of what they breathe perhaps? Voice pitch, etc? Even without that, you have to remember these are aliens, they aren’t bound to human biology, i.e - voice pitch =/= gender.

There’s been two canon Drell throughout the games; with mention of a female (Thane’s wife) - You haven’t got enough on Drell as a whole to dissemble the female populace.

Nothing states that the Elcor you’ve spoken to aren’t female, once more, human biology being related to giant elephant like creatures from space, they don’t even have voice pitches and their genitals don’t hang out - nor does it state any where that all alien creatures require mammary glands.

You’ve only ever met one Yaag officially; and one that ran through a wall, can’t really base a proper assumption on that..

I realise it would have been nice to have a few more options of character customisation within the multiplayer, but please - don’t pull the equality card on BioWare, they’re probably the biggest game developer on your side, stop making up excuses to be offended for fuck’s sake.

As for your comments on sexy framed females within the game; you have to remember that EDI is the way she is for satirical reasons If anything - She’s a computer that Joker fell in love with - the entire fan base called out for a romance between them and were granted their wish when she abducted a human model, she had to be the way she was for Joker’s charm to work; it’s what everyone wanted.

And Miranda’s face was obviously based off of Yvonne Strahovski - someone who frankly has a similar build to Miranda too. Miranda is a genetically modified super human, she even says the way she looks is to give her an upper hand against the sheer stupidity of people who are fooled by sex - how can you give them stick for something that’s both genius and logical? She’s essentially Black Widow of the Avengers franchise, someone who has received oodles of praise for being a sexy woman that’s smart, quick thinking and even fools the god of mischief, Miranda is essentially the same archetype, with even a dark background akin to Black Widow.

Sexy blue aliens? Really? It’s stated that Asari are a romance driven race; not for pleasure per say, but they live a long time, who wants to be lonely? No one - and whilst pretty much all Pole Dancers are Asari, they’re also the smartest, wisest race within the entire Universe essentially - To claim that they’re simply sexy blue aliens is the most ignorant thing I think I’ve heard. Not only did they find the Citadel as a race, but individually they prove their worth - Can you tell me when you see Liara you don’t think she’s wise, cunning - brilliant? You think “sexy blue aliens” - and when you see Aria, you think “Sexy blue aliens” instead of thinking of how intelligent and downright ruthless she is? I think the problem is you’ve tried to assess this on a level of intelligence by dissembling aspects of the game that most people wouldn’t touch, but you’ve gone with the common fool’s vision of it - next time rethink the series as a whole and don’t simply white wash a universe because some dick on Twitter once said “YEA, YOU GET TO SEE BLUE TITTIES”

I respect where you want to come from, but as a whole you’ve used the wrong angle, the game entirely respects those things you’ve criticized and I hope for your sake you go back, look at the series and learn to understand the choices they’ve made and see the true meaning behind it all - You’re really off the mark by saying BioWare aren’t being progressive here.

Fair enough I agree more with Chris on this point, but I just would have liked to have seen more females or at least had it pointed out/explained why. Like I can except the Krogans because it explains as to why there aren’t many females, but as with the Salarians I would have liked to have seen more females, or at least seen one female Turian. I can see why they may have glazed over the other species such but I would have at least liked to be able to have seen females of those two Races. Even a Drell could have been cool, but seeing as how rare it is for them to be away from their home world (so much so that the the first Drell you meet is a deadly assassin which is a profession you would expect to be travelling a lot for xD) it’s kinda understandable.

Oh I entirely agree, I would have liked to see a few more female Salarians, I believe there’s a few dotted throughout the game as Mercs and such - but I can’t say it’s some sort of social injustice like the article sort of implied.

Okay, so I refrained from getting too technical and geeky in my original post, but in order to address your points properly, I will have to reveal just how deeply well-read I am in the Mass Effect universe (I’m so sorry!), so let’s get all technical here:

Salarian females are the rare ones as only 10% of them are female and they mainly stay on the home planet to do politics, so there are actually none in ME1 or 2 in merc groups or anywhere else. There’s no information on how many krogran females there are, but again, according to the codex they mainly stay on Tuchanka to focus on breeding and don’t mention if they are rare. And the krogan females you saw in ME2 were dead and covered in sheets to indicate their dead-ness, so we never actually saw one completely.

Every one of the possible reasons you listed for why there aren’t vorcha, elcor, and volus are hypothetical. No vorcha, elcor, volus or batarian or drell for that matter you see are referred to as “she,” it’s always “he.” (Plus, if you want to get REALLY technical and geeky, and don’t mind if I do, if you listen carefully in ME2, there are advertisements that depict a female elcor citing a line from Hamlet as Ophelia, and a female elcor’s voice in an advertisement for Blasto 6, and their voices are definitely of a higher pitch than the male elcors that we see in the game. Damn, I play this game too much) And imma get all hypothetical too: Even if any of these races appeared not to be male, why present them with clear indicators such as their body-type and voice pitch that are supposed to indicate maleness? Why not mix it up? Why don’t any of their codex entries mention the possibilities that they have different indicators for being female?

You actually see two yaag: the Shadow Broker and the one at the STG facility. But as both of them are male, the point that we see no female yaag still stands.

Of course the games mention female races. We hear about female drell, turians, we even hear from a female elcor. But if we don’t see them, then they aren’t really present. This is about the visual representation of the female races as an expression of their role in the galaxy. I’m not suggesting that female aliens don’t exist, I’m saying that it’s odd that there aren’t more female races walking around and being a part of the story despite the fact that we know they exist.

In the actual Art of Mass Effect book, they describe that EDI’s body needed to be “sexy, chrome, and robotic.” No sense of satire from the creators, no indication that it was even influenced by the fans’ continuous shipping of Joker and EDI - though I wouldn’t be surprised!. Miranda again, though completely awesome and complex in her own way, is definitely designed to be eye candy. But really, I don’t want to get too deep into talking about them, as my mentioning of Miranda and EDI is to point out that so much effort is put into making the women of Mass Effect attractive - although not their intention, did you notice that they practically gave Ashley a complete makeover and “prettied” her up? - but that same care does not translate into creating female characters whose intentions are not to be attractive to the (human) male gaze.

The asari is the fantasy race of an all-female race. The Art of Mass Effect goes into detail about trying to make the asari as sexy as possible, including the blue appendages on their head to resemble “a woman coming out of water with her hair swooped back.” I talk about this is my original post on sex and gender in Mass Effect, but the asari are the most sexualized and exoticized race in the entire galaxy, praised for their beauty. Any place with strippers, exotic dancers, and prostitutes is going to have asari as the main eye candy. They do have amazing skills in diplomacy, military, and are awesome (I am very proud to share my name with Aria T’Loak!) but I think that despite their incredibly redeeming qualities, it’s very obvious that the asari are definitely intended to be sexy and sexualized since they are the “all-female” race.

And you know, this is not me being offended, this is me being, if anything, miffed. I still love Bioware and everything it stands to achieve. I mean, the introduction of Traynor and Cortez as gay-only romance options? The HUGE amount of racial diversity in humans in the series? THAT’S AWESOME! It amazes me! Bioware is undoubtedly the most progressive big gaming company out there, and for that I deeply love it! But outside of that sphere, it just makes me wonder why a galaxy characterized with such an expansive diversity is also quite narrow in this facet, that nearly every race is presented as being practically all-male.

- Aria

Where are the Female Aliens in Mass Effect 3?

Mass Effect 3 came with a lot of expectations, but one of the more subtle expectations was to increase the diversity in the already-rich universe.

However, it wasn’t until playing through the game subsequent times, that I noticed despite diversity in areas such as sexuality, there was still a stark lack of diversity in the realm of sex and gender.

The last time we talked about sex and gender in Mass Effect, we noted that there were still female aliens missing, but that in ME3, it seemed like with the inclusion of Palavan and a return to Tuchanka, that we would be presented with more female aliens.

However, upon returning to the galaxy of Mass Effect 3, the sex make-up of the universe has remained largely unchanged. But there were a couple of new additions. Literally a couple of new females of different races. There was one example of a salarian female, and one example of the krogan female, and that was the extent of the gender diversity in ME3.

Salarian - The delatrass:

Krogan - Urdnot Bakara (“Eve”):

Though there are no female turians in the game, there was an image of one in the comics.

However, this image received negative reception from fans, who said that they were disappointed she looked “ugly,” which of course is ridiculous, considering that no one chastises any of the male aliens for not being “handsome” enough and yet the unattractiveness of female aliens, which again are ALIENS and therefore shouldn’t even be subjected to human standards of attractiveness, elicit “disappointment” from fans.

So let’s have a count:

We have seen female humans, quarians, and rachni. We have one representation of female krogans, salarians, (both of which are presented as indistinguishable from their male counterparts anyway) and turians (not in the game, in the comics). And there’s the “all-female” race of asari.

And all of the batarians, volus, drell, hanar, elcor, vorcha, and yaag we see are male.

Unfortunately, in Mass Effect, male still continues to be the default. We see plenty of male versions of every single race, the only exception is the asari, but that’s only because they are “all-female” (which again, I kind of resent. If they are mono-gendered, why do they have to fit into the binary “all-female” label instead of just saying that they are a non-binary race?) Yet there is never “room” for female counterparts. We don’t even get to see images of female versions of most of the other races. Within the context of time and money, it doesn’t give me outrage, but it does disappoint me, as it seems odd that there was room for a sexy robot fantasy character in EDI’s body - as if the sexy genetically modified Miranda or an entire race of sexy blue aliens wasn’t enough - but no room at all to show the full face/body of multiple female salarians, krogan, turians, or any other race that did not have the intention or suggestion of being salacious or eye candy.

For some races, it is also very illogical. It is said over and over that all turians live in a deeply-ingrained military culture, so how does it make sense that we don’t even see one female turian fighting on the moon of the turian homeworld? Or anywhere else at all?

One of the themes in Mass Effect is how diversity, and cooperatively working with that diversity, ultimately shapes a better universe. And yet, in terms of gender, the universe remains in many ways, quite sparse in terms of diversity. We waited for the full front of the diversity that this galaxy had to offer, and yet at the end of the day, there is just more that could have been, but wasn’t.

- Aria

Prototype 2 Review

First off, this game contains blood and gore, so if you’re triggered by either, you should avoid it.

You play Sergeant James Heller, a recently reinstated military officer on a hunt for Alex Mercer, the protagonist of Prototype 1.

Graphics: 7/10. The graphics in cinematic cutscenes are of course extremely good, but graphics in non-cinematic cutscenes (i.e. in the game world) are bothered by issues such as clipping (character models moving through each other where there should be resistance, a particular pet peeve of mine) and delayed rendering. One time, Heller was performing a Devastator, and the tentacles that are supposed to appear didn’t until about three seconds after they were supposed to. The blood effects are also very shaky at times.

Gameplay: 8/10. The controls are very intuitive, and in some ways surpass Prototype 1’s controls in that it’s far easier to switch between powers and you can have two powers active at the same time. However, this game subscribes to the notion that if something’s worth doing once, it’s worth doing a hundred times. Many of the side missions repeat, and even then mostly follow the same path - go to an area, stomp out about 50 guys, then stomp out a couple bigger guys. The fights don’t become harder, they just throw more people at you, which I guess increases the difficulty, but most enemies are vulnerable to attacks from the air as well as the claws on the ground, so by the end I just wound up stunlocking enemies with the claws and then jumping away and throwing the whipfist at their head until they stopped moving.

Story: 9/10. I actually really enjoyed the story - it was a nice follow-on to Prototype 1. Heller’s family has been killed by Mercer (making Mercer a strong presence in the world’s biggest douchebag competition), and he’s seeking revenge by going on suicide missions to find Mercer. Mercer, impressed by this, injects Heller with his personal strain of the virus (and thus makes Heller a player in the aforementioned competition), and Heller mutates into the same type of Infected Mercer is. It’s a fairly straightforward plot, but near the end it becomes very interesting as to what actually will happen at the end. There are a few sections when Heller basically just massacres everybody because he doesn’t like their faces, and that provides an interesting (read: silly) comparison to how he actually sees himself: as a defender of the people trying to take down an evil PMC.

Difficulty: 5/10. Some of the vehicle sections are tricky (mainly because vehicles don’t regenerate health), a couple of the extra missions are downright impossible if you haven’t gotten certain upgrades yet, and the final boss fight is a pain in the ass. That said, I had more problems with the controls freaking out on me than with the final boss. Plus, with the right combination of upgrades (specifically, the one that nullifies all damage from small-arms fire and the one that reduces all damage taken by 25%) you can essentially break the difficulty curve over your knee.

Miscellaneous Comments: 

 - It’s fun to pick up soldiers, throw them against walls, then pick them up before their corpse stops ragdoll-izing and essentially revive them - they start trying to get out of your hold even though you just threw them against a concrete wall at 200 mph

 - Radical’s introducing new missions as time goes on, so I guess I’ll have to go back and play them

 - It took me about two hours in New Game+ mode on Hard difficulty to get through 50% of the game. That being said, I did go in with all upgrades unlocked.

Ism Rating: 5/10. Radical did really well at first - Heller just happens to be black, there’s no fanfare made about it, and I’m not sure I ever heard a racial slur used against him. Some of the Evolved Infected you fight are women, and (I think) there are women in the Blackwatch organization in the game world. But then. They introduce a female character who is wearing a skintight suit and in the first cutscene she appears in she bends to an impossible degree over a desk (think comic book pose style where her spine would almost snap in half) and flirts with Heller for no discernible reason. He then proceeds to call her a bitch multiple times over the game, other people call her a bitch, and there’s even an achievement called “What A Bitch” that’s unlocked due to actions she takes in the story campaign. Sigh.

Overall Score: 7/10. If you liked the first Prototype game, you’ll like this one. If you’re looking for some repetitive but high-action fun with a few intriguing plot points to tie it together, you’ll probably like this game. If you’re looking for a well-written story with engaging and varied gameplay, this is not the game for you.

 - Taylor