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So, I've been reading a bit of what's swirling around the producer of Assassin's Creed, who happens to be an attractive female, which leads both 'professional' publications and an unfortunate number of gamers to a) act like she's their personal porn star, b) suggest that she doesn't actually have any skills and slept her way to the position, or c) both. It's an unfortunate encapsulation of one of the reasons that gaming is still considered a straight, white, male hobby, despite the number of other people who play, but play 'under the radar', so to speak. (I could also talk about the casual racism in many gaming communities and groups, not to mention homophobia, but I suspect members of those groups could better address the true extent of it than I.)
I'm actually going to focus on something a little to the side of the central issue, but that still highlights it well: I'm going to compare the reaction of gamers to Final Fantasy X to that of Final Fantasy X-2. If you've ever tried to talk about X-2 in a group of gamers, then you're likely to know of the reaction...FFX-2 /ruined/ X! It turned Yuna into a body-baring slut! It's a hideous pretty-pretty princess dress up game! Hatehatekillkill. Anyone who plays X-2 is obviously not interested in real gaming, and why don't they just buy one of those Barbie games and leave Final Fantasy alone? Etc.
Well, let's examine that. First, a number of people have complained about the game starting with the main character singing at a pop concert (and indulging in special effects that shred her old costume from the last game, and by implication, her old persona). But...is that really so much different than X?
X opens with our boy Tidus going to greet his legions of adoring fans. He's handsome, young, a sports star, and we're treated to his schmoozing, preparing, and then playing a game in front of the screaming stadium, while ominous things go on in the background. The competition is interrupted part of the way through, and buttkicking commences.
X-2 opens with our girl Yuna on a floating platform in a blitzball stadium, greeting her legions of adoring fans. She's attractive, young, a celebrity, and we're treated to her stage show and singing before the screaming stadium, while ominous things go on in the background. The performance is interrupted part of the way through, and buttkicking commences.
And yet, I have not heard of anyone complaining about X opening with a sports game, but I've heard several complaints and outright mocking of X-2 opening with a pop concert.
Second, the dresspheres. Dresspheres are nothing but a new implementation of a very old Final Fantasy staple: Job changing. It allows you to change the character's Job in the middle of a battle, accompanied by an entirely optional cutscene (you can easily shorten or turn off the cutscenes in the menu) of the costume changing. No more attention is paid to the job-changing than was ever paid to the aeon summoning sequences, and in fact, it's a lot /less/ "pretty-pretty princess dressup" than, say, World of Warcraft. And yet, because the characters are female, and dresses are occassionally involved, an excellent mechanic is easily derided by too many gamers. In fact, I've heard people outright refuse to play the game because of the dressphere system, not because of any tactical flaws it has, but just because they can't stand the idea.
Third, the idea that the character of Yuna was 'ruined', and that she's somehow become a 'slut' now because of her new standard outfit. Yeah, it's short, and it's strange. But then, this is Spira, where /everyone/ wears clothes that look like they were designed by sugar-high three year old with unlimited access to primary colors. It's hard to criticize /any/ of the outfits in Spira just because they're all so bizarre. Except LeBlanc's dress. Criticize away, because man, what. Yuna's personality has changed...but not as much as you might think. If anything, /X/ was the unnatural Yuna...a Yuna who had been raised from birth expecting to die horribly so that others could live. A Yuna who had been taught to conceal her feelings, to always think of others first, to be dignified and cheerful even when her heart was breaking...in other words, trained to be the perfect, passive, sacrificial mother for Spira. But in X-2, she has a reprieve. For the first time in her life, she can look /forward/ to a life, she can express herself, she can have fun and do her own thing without worrying that she's going to doom her people. So, yes, she's very different in some ways...but in others, you can clearly see hints of what Yuna /could/ be in X, if she wasn't always watching herself carefully. The Yuna in X-2 is simultaneously more mature in her expectations, and more giddily teenaged than the Yuna in X. This is not a bad thing.
Finally, there are no male playable characters in X-2. I was terribly surprised to have a conversation with another female gamer where she outright refused to play X-2 because she couldn't play a guy, and "girl characters always suck". Sadly, that's not the first conversation with both guy and girl gamers along those lines...most didn't outright refuse, but were notably unenthusiastic about not having a chance to make a party that excluded the girls, despite the fact that most of the usual objections to female characters (they were shoehorned into idiotic romances, they were weak healer types, they died off just to make the male character do something) absolutely did not apply to X-2. You had three characters you could build any way you wanted, who kicked all kind of ass, who weren't dependent on romance for meaning...and yet, because they were all girls, there was less interest.
I'm actually going to focus on something a little to the side of the central issue, but that still highlights it well: I'm going to compare the reaction of gamers to Final Fantasy X to that of Final Fantasy X-2. If you've ever tried to talk about X-2 in a group of gamers, then you're likely to know of the reaction...FFX-2 /ruined/ X! It turned Yuna into a body-baring slut! It's a hideous pretty-pretty princess dress up game! Hatehatekillkill. Anyone who plays X-2 is obviously not interested in real gaming, and why don't they just buy one of those Barbie games and leave Final Fantasy alone? Etc.
Well, let's examine that. First, a number of people have complained about the game starting with the main character singing at a pop concert (and indulging in special effects that shred her old costume from the last game, and by implication, her old persona). But...is that really so much different than X?
X opens with our boy Tidus going to greet his legions of adoring fans. He's handsome, young, a sports star, and we're treated to his schmoozing, preparing, and then playing a game in front of the screaming stadium, while ominous things go on in the background. The competition is interrupted part of the way through, and buttkicking commences.
X-2 opens with our girl Yuna on a floating platform in a blitzball stadium, greeting her legions of adoring fans. She's attractive, young, a celebrity, and we're treated to her stage show and singing before the screaming stadium, while ominous things go on in the background. The performance is interrupted part of the way through, and buttkicking commences.
And yet, I have not heard of anyone complaining about X opening with a sports game, but I've heard several complaints and outright mocking of X-2 opening with a pop concert.
Second, the dresspheres. Dresspheres are nothing but a new implementation of a very old Final Fantasy staple: Job changing. It allows you to change the character's Job in the middle of a battle, accompanied by an entirely optional cutscene (you can easily shorten or turn off the cutscenes in the menu) of the costume changing. No more attention is paid to the job-changing than was ever paid to the aeon summoning sequences, and in fact, it's a lot /less/ "pretty-pretty princess dressup" than, say, World of Warcraft. And yet, because the characters are female, and dresses are occassionally involved, an excellent mechanic is easily derided by too many gamers. In fact, I've heard people outright refuse to play the game because of the dressphere system, not because of any tactical flaws it has, but just because they can't stand the idea.
Third, the idea that the character of Yuna was 'ruined', and that she's somehow become a 'slut' now because of her new standard outfit. Yeah, it's short, and it's strange. But then, this is Spira, where /everyone/ wears clothes that look like they were designed by sugar-high three year old with unlimited access to primary colors. It's hard to criticize /any/ of the outfits in Spira just because they're all so bizarre. Except LeBlanc's dress. Criticize away, because man, what. Yuna's personality has changed...but not as much as you might think. If anything, /X/ was the unnatural Yuna...a Yuna who had been raised from birth expecting to die horribly so that others could live. A Yuna who had been taught to conceal her feelings, to always think of others first, to be dignified and cheerful even when her heart was breaking...in other words, trained to be the perfect, passive, sacrificial mother for Spira. But in X-2, she has a reprieve. For the first time in her life, she can look /forward/ to a life, she can express herself, she can have fun and do her own thing without worrying that she's going to doom her people. So, yes, she's very different in some ways...but in others, you can clearly see hints of what Yuna /could/ be in X, if she wasn't always watching herself carefully. The Yuna in X-2 is simultaneously more mature in her expectations, and more giddily teenaged than the Yuna in X. This is not a bad thing.
Finally, there are no male playable characters in X-2. I was terribly surprised to have a conversation with another female gamer where she outright refused to play X-2 because she couldn't play a guy, and "girl characters always suck". Sadly, that's not the first conversation with both guy and girl gamers along those lines...most didn't outright refuse, but were notably unenthusiastic about not having a chance to make a party that excluded the girls, despite the fact that most of the usual objections to female characters (they were shoehorned into idiotic romances, they were weak healer types, they died off just to make the male character do something) absolutely did not apply to X-2. You had three characters you could build any way you wanted, who kicked all kind of ass, who weren't dependent on romance for meaning...and yet, because they were all girls, there was less interest.