an open letter to video game designers
hi my name is hunter and I would like to let you in on a little secret: not every male is big and hairy and not every female is small and curvy. for that matter, not everyone fits into the categories of male and female at all!
I, for example, am a short skinny male-leaning adrogyne who most people tend to think “looks” like a girl whatever the hell that means. I have friends who use pronouns like ze and ey and friends who are tall and short and skinny and fat and robust and fragile and flat and curvy and pointy and male and female and genderqueer and androgynous and agender and genderfluid and all other sorts of things I haven’t thought of yet.
guess what! all of these people play video games. chances are, most of them have played one of your games. and chances are, they had to play a character that looked nothing like them, that felt all wrong, that didn’t use the right pronouns. they had to choose between a character that was all wrong and a character that was even more wrong.
I know technology is limited in what it can do right now, but don’t try to tell me this level of customization is impossible. that’s ridiculous. if you can let me adjust the bone structure of my character’s face I think you can squeeze in a handful of body type sliders.
just once I would like to play a video game where I don’t have to choose between being a tall muscular flat-chested man or a short skinny hourglass-shaped woman. I don’t fit either of those categories and I am really not interested in trying to, even in a game.
no love,
hunter
![TW: mentions of violence, racism, sexualization
[image description: A poster for Max Payne 3. At the foreground on the right is Max Payne, a white cis man with a beard, holding a whiskey a glass and wiping his mouth. In the background to the left is a dark-skinned cis man with most his face covered, holding an automatic weapon in one hand. To his right is a white cis woman with her hands behind her back, writhing in pain]
This is the newest cover art for the game Max Payne 3.
Let’s ignore Max Payne himself. Let’s ignore the game’s content, message, previous incarnations, et cetera. This post is just about the advertisement poster, and I do realize I am largely taking it out of the context of whatever kind of game Max Payne is. This cover art displays some very racialized, sexualized images that I’m actually surprised a game company would actually use.
Let’s start with the woman. Looking at her in the background is very discomforting. Although she appears to be held captive against her will, her post is almost model-esque, just teetering on the edge of looking like she’s in pain or in pleasure. It evokes both violence and sexualization at the time, a rarity, but not unheard of, in advertisements and posters and covers featuring women.
Now, let’s look at the dark-skinned man to the left of her. Max Payne 3 appears to be set in Brazil, so of course there are going to be brown people around. However, even without the context of the game, just take a look at that image. A dark-skinned, evil looking man taking hostage of a beautiful white, or at least light-skinned, woman. This is something I think we see all too often.
We can look at the presentation of the woman and the presentation of the dark-skinned man, but when you put them both together onto one cover art with Max, who many unfamiliar with the game will probably assume is the protagonist, at the foreground of the picture, how can anyone look at it and not see a sexualized, racialized image?
- Aria](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lrbxsmlNTO1qj4pwlo1_500.jpg)
