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betterway
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Video games

Post by betterway » Mon Jul 01, 2019 7:04 pm

Polygon recently selected 21 games as the "Best Nintendo Switch Games." All the games on the list were created by men. (Polygon frequently covers gender politics in gaming, including a glowing review Hbomberguy's Mermaids fundraiser livestream :oops: )

What video games do you all play? Any made by women you would recommend?

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Z6IIAB
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Re: Video games

Post by Z6IIAB » Mon Jul 01, 2019 11:00 pm

I don't have switch or any devices besides pc, so the games I play are limited
now games made by women? well.... I really can't say I know any. I would like to know too. I've played indie games like undertale, deltarune and hiveswap, but that's it.

I mostly play casual games. Like bubble withch, pet cthulu, the sims freeplay, that kind of nonsense.
Call me Celina. This forum still have a long way to go until it gets filled with its intended public. And I'll do my best to help us reach that goal. I'm a battleaxe, and when you hear my voice it'll be as loud as a thunder and as clear as a blue sky.

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Akinesis
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Re: Video games

Post by Akinesis » Thu Aug 01, 2019 4:19 am

Hello,

I play and how a lot of video games (like, way too much for a single human being) and I can't think of any made by a woman (or with a woman in charge of the project). This is vastly due of course that who made the game is rarely relevant, especially for large triple A games. This does not mean that it doesn't exist thought.

But as someone who work in the IT and have been involved in the development of a few games I can say that the problem come from the fact that women are not encouraged to go in IT (or sciences in general) carriers chose.
More of that is the fact that society regard video game as a man thing (Amy right now made an interesting video about working in a video game shop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1CIpAjATuc).

So to answer to you now I don't know any game made by a woman or lead by one, but often the artistic side a teams involve in the video game industry (3D artists, level designers etc....) has better women to men ratio.

Some initiative exists to remedy to this problem (I'm thinking of some women game jam for example) but there is still way too few to balance the vast majority of men in the making of the video game.

P.S.: having plaed all the game on the list you share, i can tell you that those are pretty good choises. Don't forget that a game is (almost) never a one persone project and often include a lot of people, women too.

betterway
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Re: Video games

Post by betterway » Thu Aug 01, 2019 12:06 pm

Totally. I'm a fan of lots of the games in the article
but it's depressing the lack of self-consciousness in such an industry. These progressive game sites have an endless tap of feminist posturing and all-woman podcasts but rarely feature women speaking out against gender socialization or material efforts like getting women into programming. It's too fraught, it's uncool, it'll fix itself, is the feeling I get from them. (Game dev in the industry is hell anyway. Important to remember how entertainment industries under capitalism will never be on a satisfactory path...)

I think a woman co-created this game, which is pretty short but I found it worth a play: https://www.glorioustrainwrecks.com/node/10403

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Akinesis
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Re: Video games

Post by Akinesis » Fri Aug 02, 2019 1:07 am

Hi !

I'v thought a little and two names come into my mind :
* The maybe abandoned maybe not abandone (it's a meme at this point) game Cubeworld https://picroma.com/cubeworld Which is made by a team of two people that are married. The husband made all the coding part and the wife mad... everything else, including a software to help here create more of the 3D assets of the game. It's still not entirely made by a woman, but on a team of two, one half is a woman :P

* The gaming Studio Coffee stained https://www.coffeestainstudios.com while not having a vast majority of woman in it, t's a good example for a baseline that the gaming industry should tend in regard of inclusion (also maybe in a more liberal sense...). Plus some of the women in there are in charge a big chunk of the game that are developed by the team.

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Re: Video games

Post by broman617 » Fri Aug 02, 2019 9:28 pm

all i can think about is this https://youtu.be/HGBB_uSRADc?t=203

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Re: Video games

Post by broman617 » Fri Aug 02, 2019 9:33 pm

as for me i don't have a preference of games...i just enjoy the shit out of them because they are fun.

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Re: Video games

Post by broman617 » Fri Aug 02, 2019 9:33 pm

like the warhammer 40k games

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Akinesis
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Re: Video games

Post by Akinesis » Sat Aug 03, 2019 1:27 pm

broman617 wrote:
Fri Aug 02, 2019 9:33 pm
like the warhammer 40k games
Sooooo ... The ones where men only super soldier pump with steroid go fight naked multi boobs demons of lust ?

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Z6IIAB
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Re: Video games

Post by Z6IIAB » Sun Aug 04, 2019 6:31 am

Akinesis wrote:
Sat Aug 03, 2019 1:27 pm
broman617 wrote:
Fri Aug 02, 2019 9:33 pm
like the warhammer 40k games
Sooooo ... The ones where men only super soldier pump with steroid go fight naked multi boobs demons of lust ?
lol why are brodudes alwats like this smh
Call me Celina. This forum still have a long way to go until it gets filled with its intended public. And I'll do my best to help us reach that goal. I'm a battleaxe, and when you hear my voice it'll be as loud as a thunder and as clear as a blue sky.

pingupingu
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Re: Video games

Post by pingupingu » Sun Aug 04, 2019 10:25 pm

Z6IIAB wrote:
Sun Aug 04, 2019 6:31 am
Akinesis wrote:
Sat Aug 03, 2019 1:27 pm
broman617 wrote:
Fri Aug 02, 2019 9:33 pm
like the warhammer 40k games
Sooooo ... The ones where men only super soldier pump with steroid go fight naked multi boobs demons of lust ?
lol why are brodudes alwats like this smh
Well... there are the Eldar, and the Sisters of Battle, and the Imperial Guard are an equal opportunity army. There are in-universe justifications for why Space Marines (Adeptus Astartes) are all male super soldiers - but they do sound rather like meta-excuses. For example, since the great war commenced the technology to make new gene-seeds has been lost, so they have to use the ones they have that were created from the Primarchs, who were all male. The process is one of implantation into a compatible and robust host child - female children are not compatible with the gene-seeds that remain. Then of course you have the gothic imperium setting, which is heavily patriarchal by nature.

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Akinesis
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Re: Video games

Post by Akinesis » Mon Aug 05, 2019 4:10 am

I was a little bit cocky in my answer I must admit it. But still the whole concept of the Imperium is here to appeal to stereotypical male fantasy. Beside as you said it, all the Primarchs from before the great heresy were male.

As for the Eldar, may I point out that it's their corruption, depravation and lust that created Slaanesh which is... in the official imagery at least the queen of lust.

For the sisters of Battle I must admit it is a bit better, but it's also one of the least popular armies and one that is almost totally forgotten by Games Workshop (although I might have read somewhere that there were thinking of a re-edition).

And there is the Imperial Guard, which in its lore doesn't give a damn about gender or sex, but in the figurines, it's almost male only.

pingupingu
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Re: Video games

Post by pingupingu » Mon Aug 05, 2019 5:13 am

Well, if you dig deeper, you have to realize that the idea of individual human value is a relatively recent notion. Women, who can bear children, were a resource, a necessity to ensure the continuity of civilization and to support the growth and expansion of everything from a household to a fully fledged sovereign nation state. Men, who cannot, were fodder for war and grist for the labor mill.

To put it another way: manpower can be replenished through procreation, and the bearing of children by women. Men, on the other hand, cannot replenish women, except by conquest.

Thus armies are historically male; Men being not only physically stronger and possessing more stamina on average, but being more expendable. And since men are primarily good for conquest in this context, war and violence and the power fantasy of the indomitable warriors is glorified.

Even today we revere idols of powerful male figures exerting their brawn to conquer and overcome (Superman, Captain America, The Hulk, Thor etc). Even today, or perhaps even more so, men lust over weapons of war and murder. If the value of a man is in how large his muscles are, and how deadly his capacity and prowess, then war games will reflect those ideals.

Incidentally, this is why the Imperial Guard is ostensibly gender neutral - they aren't deadly, they don't have indomitable strength and prowess. They fight by will and numbers. Whether the soldier holding the lasgun is male or female is completely irrelevant when they are likely to die 30 seconds into a combat anyway.

Space Marines 40k is both a power fantasy and a reflection of war and survival.

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Akinesis
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Re: Video games

Post by Akinesis » Mon Aug 05, 2019 6:32 am

I found your comment very true and accurate.

But the point that Game workshop isn't doing very much to include women as people that can be true fighter and leader is pretty obvious. Most of the women friendly(er) lore seems more like concession of the company (something along the line of "sure what ever, Astra Militarum can have women too. but we will not release any figurine depicting one").

It would not have been that hard to change lore so that space marines (without a doubt the most badass and powerful army of humankind) could be women too. But since the lore forbid it, (and it's still not completely unfeasible on the lore, as the space marine making process c is just "much harder" with women) it's just can be a thing.

And in the world of the 40k, women are as plentiful and expendable as men (as you said yourself) so having a female figure appealing to power fantasy (as I assume power fantasy are not exclusive to men) should be possible and lire friendly.

And before you say "Sisters of Battle" again, may I remind that there are over zealous, borderline crazy with stric hierarchy and are ourely hate fueld. Not the best representation of warriors :p

pingupingu
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Re: Video games

Post by pingupingu » Mon Aug 05, 2019 11:49 pm

I completely agree. I'm not defending Games Workshop, or White Wolf. They have had every chance to evolve their offerings.

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