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Women in Video Gaming by Diana Sherman, Guest Editor

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Women in Video Gaming by Diana Sherman, Guest Editor The Cascadia Subd uction A LITERARY Z QUARTERLY on October 2014 X Vol. 4. No. 4 e S pecial Focus on Women and the Gaming World ESSAYS Asking the Right Questions in Games by Fred Zeleny The Women of Dragon Age by Marie Brennan Change is Coming ( Change is Coming The Othering of Women in Gaming by L. Wagner STORY The Old Testacles IN THIS ISSUE by Anna Tambour CLAN GRANDMOTHER MAGMA ) The Legend of Kit Reed X by Marc Laidlaw ealm Lovejoy R REVIEWS Chicks Dig Gaming edited by Jennifer Brozek, Robert Smith?, and Lars Pearson Mass Effect Trilogy by BioWare Long Live the Queen by Hanako Games Tropes Vs. Women in Video Games by Anita Sarkeesian “Since its launch in 2011 The Cascadia Subduction Zone has emerged as one of the FEATURED ARTIST best critical journals the field has to offer.” Realm Lovejoy h Jonathan McCalmont, February 18, 2013, Hugo Ballot Nomination $5.00 Managing Editor Lew Gilchrist VOL. 4 NO. 4 — OCTOBER 2014 Reviews Editor INTRODUCTION Nisi Shawl Women in Video Gaming h Features Editor by Diana Sherman, Guest Editor 1 L. Timmel Duchamp ESSAYS Arts Editor Asking the Right Questions in Games Kath Wilham by Fred Zeleny h 2 $5.00 The Women of Dragon Age by Marie Brennan h 5 The Othering of Women in Gaming by L. Wagner h 10 GRANDMOTHER MAGMA The Legend of Kit Reed by Marc Laidlaw h 14 REVIEWS Chicks Dig Gaming, edited by Jennifer Brozek, Robert Smith?, and Lars Pearson by Victoria Elisabeth Garcia h 16 Mass Effect Trilogy, by BioWare by Rachel Blackman h 17 Long Live the Queen, by Hanako Games by Linsey Duncan h 19 Tropes Vs. Women in Video Games by Anita Sarkeesian, Feminist Frequency by Arinn Dembo h 20 STORY The Old Testacles by Anna Tambour h 22 FEATURED ARTIST Realm Lovejoy h 24 Subscriptions and single issues online at: To order by check, payable to: www.thecsz.com Aqueduct Press Print subscription: $16/yr; P.O. Box 95787 Print single issue: $5 Seattle, WA 98145-2787 Electronic Subscription (PDF format): [Washington State Residents $10 per year add 9.5% sales tax.] Electronic single issue: $3 In This Issue Cover banner collagraph of the Cascadia subduction zone by Marilyn Liden Bode y INTRODUCTION: Women in Video Gaming by Diana Sherman, Guest Editor When I first started writing this intro- sumption of games, since women are al- duction, it was going to be a different crea- ready half of the gaming audience. ture entirely. It was going to contextualize We are underrepresented in the indus- the changes in gaming over the last five try, which has been, like many industries years in terms of women’s roles both in before it, primarily a boys’ club. There are games and in the industry. It was going to female designers, but we are definitely the be critical but optimistic. I was going to talk minority. Often women are shunted into about all the strides we’ve made — and we’ve management or production, and out of Games not only tell stories, made many — and how hopeful that makes design. Often we’re questioned and forced they also teach persistence me. But it wasn’t going to include anger. to prove our geek cred when instead we …by presenting players That was before prominent feminist should be heard. challenges just beyond video game critic Anita Sarkeesian was It has been slowly getting better, but their abilities and requiring them to continue driven out of her home with death and we’re coming up to a watershed moment. It trying in order to progress. rape threats for daring to point out how may have happened last August, with the outrage provoked by the dual harassment Games put agency into women are treated in video games. That their players’ hands. They of Sarkeesian and Quinn. It may have be- was before Zoe Quinn, indie game de- empower, they enlighten, gun in 2012 with the advent of the #1rea- signer of the award winning Depression they enliven. Quest, was slut-shamed online because a sonwhy meme on twitter, when a gamer community of bigoted gamers refused to asked why there weren’t more women in allow her respect or dignity. the video game industry. The women in the Looking at such events, we should feel industry answered — in a flood of tweets anger. and blog posts. Many of us had never spo- Games are hardly the only medium in ken openly about the sexism or harassment which women are objectified, but they are we had experienced: to do so could well i a new and dynamic medium. Just as televi- have meant the end of our careers. There is resistance to women in gaming. sion and film were the art form(s) of the 1 last century, video games have the poten- We do get harassed, threatened, insulted, tial of being the art form of this one. We and ignored. But there is also reason for haven’t even begun to explore their full hope. Increasingly, male game developers potential. Games not only tell stories, they have been acknowledging and speaking also teach persistence (when many aca- up in defense of their female counterparts. Video games came into demic institutions do not) by presenting Marketing departments are beginning existence in a world that to realize women are playing games, too. players challenges just beyond their abili- had already experienced The Game Developers Choice Awards ties and requiring them to continue trying the feminist movement. gave Anita Sarkeesian recognition for the They are the first new in order to progress. Games put agency amazing work she’s done critiquing the artform in that time and into their players’ hands. They empower, representation of women in games. More as such, far too good an they enlighten, they enliven. They give us and more young women are going into the opportunity to waste. models outside of our daily lives in the game industry, having grown up playing same way books and movies do, but they video games. Game companies like Bio- use different pathways. ware have created complex female player Video games came into existence in a characters and non-player characters, as world that had already experienced the well as providing representations of varied feminist movement. They are the first new sexual orientations. Diana Sherman has been artform in that time and as such, far too working in the video game We shouldn’t let go of the anger. We good an opportunity to waste. Women industry as a writer and also shouldn’t let it blind or discourage us. narrative designer since must get involved in gaming if we want Very little ever changes without anger, pas- to influence future generations. Women, 2008. She has worked on The sion, and determination driving the effort. Bureau: XCOM Declassified, people of color, and those who are trans- KingsRoad, Star Trek Online, gender must get involved in the creation and Champions Online— and critique of video games if we want thereby proving you can do those games to reflect us. Note I don’t say something with a Master’s in we need to get more involved in the con- Playwriting. n y Asking the Right Questions in Games couldn’t risk diverging from the traditional by Fred Zeleny formula of bare skin and fantasy clothing. My friends and I lost that fight, but we “A girl in the lead? I don’t buy it. How won others. Sometimes it was as easy as am I supposed to relate?” asking, “What if the player isn’t a straight, That was one coworker’s response when white guy?” In the games industry, where I asked him what I thought was a simple most developers are straight, white guys question: “What if the lead character is who grew up playing games that catered female?” My first response was bewilder- primarily to straight, white guys, it’s all “Can’t we give her some ment. Then I very nearly threw my chair too rare for anyone to recognize and raise pants? Or a dress? Or at him. these issues in the first place. anything more than Perhaps I should back up: a few years If games are going to improve, we need strategically-placed belts?” ago, I had the pleasure of working on a ma- more people who will ask these questions. jor video game. I was working with many We need more perspectives, better repre- friends I respected, exploring themes I sentation, and more people who are willing cared about, and writing characters who to fight for them. were dear to me. The most exciting chal- lenge was writing for the female lead; as a Why Is This Important? major character in the game’s setting and Some are quick to dismiss video games advertising, she would be under tremen- as mindless children’s entertainment, and dous scrutiny. After many revisions and there’s no denying that some games have with feedback from many sources, she de- no higher aspirations than pure entertain- veloped into a compelling character with With a multi-million-dollar ment and profitability — like some books, her own agenda, an uncertain ally who movies, songs, or the rest. But games are game, if we wanted to sell challenged the players even as they slowly an increasing part of our media landscape, enough copies to keep the earned her respect. On paper, she was one studio alive, we had to with over half of American adults and of my favorite characters. But whenever I appeal to our audience.
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