Can the sexism in these types of games stop?

[Elmatpe]

I was about to state my opinion on the matter as a woman but amnesiaPUZZLES already said what I was thinking

Can a female please state her opinion on this?

I am a female, and I love the FG games. AAMFP is a story of a person, who was a 19th century industrialist—a man was much more likely to be one at that time.

If FG (or TCR, in this case) feel that it was easier for them to create a male protagonist, in order to make him convincing, I'm perfectly fine with it. I'd prefer to play as a believable male protagonist, than an unreliable and weak portrayal of a female. (At this point, I must mention that Justine was a very interesting, yet terrifying character to relate to, and you guys certainly did not fail. )

As a player, I love the aspect of being put in a fictitious character's shoes. Both males, females, their different gender roles and personalities. I knew what the game was gonna be all about, if I hadn't liked it, I would've never bought it.

And hey, wasn't the character in the original Slender (the 8 pages) also a woman? At least she/he did breathe in a way that made him/her sound like a woman. BUT OF COURSE it doesn't count because it was a ridiculously short game and it didn't matter what the gender of the player was right???

[Artyom]

Oh dear... It's a video game dammit...

[MyRedNeptune]

But to be fair focusing on the gaming industry is to avoid the real issue. Discrimination is still a big problem around the world but its getting better.

I'm going to disagree that the gaming industry is insignificant. I think the media is extremely significant. Children grow up on games, movies and books. Role-play and identification with fictional characters is a huge part of kids' lives.

[RigorM]

Do none of you find it wrong that there hundreds of video games out there with male playable characters and practically only three or four with female playable characters? And the fact that has gotten worse in the past few years....

I can see your point, but I don't really think it has anything to do with sexism. It's just that developers tend to create main characters that are of the same gender as they are. Most people can relate better to the motivations of a character that's the same sex. I'm a 42 year old man and would find it a bit difficult to portray a 25 year old female character. I couldn't even do that when I was 25.

Although the ranks of women in the industry are steadily getting larger, most developers are stilll by and large... dudes.

I know they're old, but I always liked the "No One Lives Forever" games. I thought those had a strong female protagonist.

[MyRedNeptune]

Do none of you find it wrong that there hundreds of video games out there with male playable characters and practically only three or four with female playable characters? And the fact that has gotten worse in the past few years....

I can see your point, but I don't really think it has anything to do with sexism. It's just that developers tend to create main characters that are of the same gender as they are. Most people can relate better to the motivations of a character that's the same sex. I'm a 42 year old man and would find it a bit difficult to portray a 25 year old female character. I couldn't even do that when I was 25.

I honestly think that is a a weak argument; as a woman I have absolutely no problem creating male characters, I've been creating tons of them since I was a kid. I personally think this is simply because we are exposed to male characters much more often than female ones.

There is also not that much of a difference between men and women. Personality is the number 1 thing that makes people different. If you, the possessor of only one personality of many, are able to depict a variety of personalities, you are probably more than able to depict the relatively insignificant quirks that come with gender.

[Tiger]

Why did this thread blow up this much? It's an obvious troll.

[Istrebitel]

I am not a troll, and a lot of you are misunderstanding what I am saying and over-thinking it.

I am not JUST talking about Amnesia, there is no General Gaming section of this forum so I didn't know where to put it.

I am talking about the entire video game industry with a focus on horror.

A lot of people are mentioning, "Oh, why don't you look a DECADE ago and play Eternal Darkness."

That pretty much proves my point that female protagonists are dying in this industry.

But I can pretty much say that after Eternal Darkness we had another 200 games with male protagonists, and then the odd female here and there.

Do none of you find it wrong that there hundreds of video games out there with male playable characters and practically only three or four with female playable characters? And the fact that has gotten worse in the past few years....

There is nothing bad about it! How isn't it obvious to you?

It doesn't matter how many of the the protagonists are men or women, if the media is not outright insulting to people, it has a right to be. A story/game/whatever having male protagonist does not insult women in any shape or form.

I mean, you could direct your hate towards games like Duke Nukem: Forever which portray women as, basically, objects and tools. I understood if you'd hate that. But what's the problem if some company does horror games mostly about men?

I mean, if some photographer is really specializing himself in mostly male/female portraits, will you hate him too for the fact he's sexist?

Do you get upset when a particular writer writes books for women, and so a protagonist is always a woman? That should be sexist too in your book.

This is creative freedom, and you can't take it away from people and you can't try to hide or ban someone's creations unless they are severely out of order. If people want to make horror games about men, FORCING them to make those about women will not do a thing!

I mean, I continue to type this, and try to come up with examples and reasons, and it feels more and more ridiculous to even try to, because it is just so stupid to argue that someone making horror stories about male protagonists only is a sexist.

Okay here's the fun one: is the fact that there are way more brothels for men, featuring women prostitutes a case of sexism? Why aren't there equal number of brothels for people of both gender (and prostitutes of both gender)? See how ridiculous this is?

Is the fact that amongst workers that load heavy trucks, almost everybody is a man? Is their employer guilty of sexism?

[amnesiapuzzles]

And hey, wasn't the character in the original Slender (the 8 pages) also a woman? At least she/he did breathe in a way that made him/her sound like a woman. BUT OF COURSE it doesn't count because it was a ridiculously short game and it didn't matter what the gender of the player was right???

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was a girl

[Babomancer]

A lot of people are mentioning, "Oh, why don't you look a DECADE ago and play Eternal Darkness."

That pretty much proves my point that female protagonists are dying in this industry.

But I can pretty much say that after Eternal Darkness we had another 200 games with male protagonists, and then the odd female here and there.

Pretty sure I'm the only person who mentioned Eternal Darkness, and I only brought it up in the context of great survival horror games, of which I can't even count on one hand off the top of my head. So for a handful of the greatest games of all time in this specific genre, I'd say having one representative from a certain group is not that bad.

I am having a hard time believing you are not trolling.

[cronuss]

As a male, I find it insulting that the protagonist is always a male going mad and doing terrible things. Why isn't it ever a female that gets depicted as a murderous lunatic? Yeesh.