Comments on: Found Feminism: Portal 2 and Saints Row 2 (but not Brink) /2011/06/13/found-feminism-portal-2-and-saints-row-2-but-not-brink/ A feminist pop culture adventure Mon, 13 Jun 2011 21:24:33 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.6 By: wererogue /2011/06/13/found-feminism-portal-2-and-saints-row-2-but-not-brink/#comment-1438 Mon, 13 Jun 2011 21:24:33 +0000 http://www.badreputation.org.uk/?p=5604#comment-1438 Ah, 3 games close to my heart.

I loved Saint’s Row 2 – I especially liked how they recorded different VO/cutscenes depending on your gender, without ever making the female avatar less hardcore (as far as I could tell.) I changed genders toward the end of a game, and I loved that the other characters noticed. I also liked the little nod to character customization at the beginning; you meet Johnny Gat, your #2, and his reaction is “You look different… did you get a haircut?”

Saints Row 3 is coming out soon, and I’m just hoping that it deals with gender half as well.

I was bought Brink before I knew that it wouldn’t be including female characters, and I was bitterly disappointed when the news broke. The game is really quite good, but the failure to include women makes me disappointed the entire time that I play. It ties in with my constant disappointment in Team Fortress 2’s lack of gender diversity – which bothered me less before they started doubling down with the “Mann Co” store, further reinforcing the “men only” messages that the game is full of. There’s a great article by ChemicalAlia on making women for TF2 here:
http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/854/the_aesthetics_of_unique_video_.php?page=1
And her female TF2 skins are available here:
http://www.gamebanana.com/members/845166

I hope we eventually get a solution for Brink. If you want a very clever shooter/murder game that does have excellent gender representation, I heartily recommend The Ship – it’s a little dated, but I still hop on to a server from time to time:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/2400

And Portal 2, is Portal 2, and is generally excellent :V

Oh, and a recent study tips the numbers on gender proportion even further to the female:
http://www.theesa.com/newsroom/release_detail.asp?releaseID=147

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By: Russell /2011/06/13/found-feminism-portal-2-and-saints-row-2-but-not-brink/#comment-1437 Mon, 13 Jun 2011 08:43:21 +0000 http://www.badreputation.org.uk/?p=5604#comment-1437 I think it’s worth noting that in Saint’s Row 2, while you choose your sex right at the beginning of the creation process, the actual appearance of your character as a man or woman is dictated by those sliders. Which probably makes it one of the few trans*-inclusive games around.

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