I will try not to be too exclusive in my content here, so I’ll try to avoid anything that you won’t understand unless you’ve played the game, and I’ll be focussing on the game through a feminist lens. That’s what we’re trying to do over here, after all, right? One last thing to say is… SPOILERS.

"Through me, into the city full of woe; through me, the message of eternal pain; through me, the passage where the lost souls go." Yep, that's what happens if you don't heed the warning of the Spoiler Klaxon... "all hope abandon, ye who go through me."

Enough with the dramatics! To the game!

Technology, mechanics & gameplay

I thought I’d get this out of the way as I reckon there’s very little feminist critique one can offer on this side of things. I played on a PC, so some of my concerns won’t be shared with console gamers, most obviously the power required in your machine to play the game. As a PC gamer, you have keep your technology up to speed with new titles, but console versions come as-is to the standardised specifications of the machines. My computer isn’t the fastest, or the most hardworking – it’s actually just a dual-core with one graphics card, several series behind the most recent, not for lack of will but for lack of cash. Keeping a PC up to date is expensive.

My reason for telling you that is so I can tell you how well my absolutely-not-top-of-the-range PC handled a brand new, heavy-hitting title like Mass Effect 3. “Not too bad” is the answer. At times, faces looked a mite too angular, but I had no problems running the game at all.

The game mechanics are almost the same as the were in the previous instalment, and although they can be a bit frustrating to get used to for the first time, they work well within the context of the game. I have heard complaints on the overuse of the spacebar – that it is assigned to far too many actions – and although I had no issues with it, my partner did, so I suspect it’s a personally variable thing.

Combat has been streamlined slightly since Mass Effect 2, and you still have to learn how to fight with each different class you can choose for Shepard. For example, I played through first as an Adept, who enjoys a lot of long-range Biotic powers, so you don’t always need to leave cover and use guns; then I started in a different class and had problems adapting to the new style.

Some Femi-Relevant Content

As much as I could, I shouldn’t spend my entire word count talking about mechanics and gameplay here, so we’ll move on. While playing the game I had a little list of things to look out for that I could critique or criticise, and honestly, there wasn’t much I could pick out. You don’t get treated differently if you’re a male or a female character. The only notable difference I found was in a conversation with the female Krogan, Eve/Bakara, in which she says “we’ll show these men how to do things!” (or similar) if you’re a ‘FemShep’, but not if you’re male.

The only sexism we see comes from the Krogans; Urdnot Wreav claims that Eve is his and that she is obliged to father all his children as he rescued her. Eve, however, is having none of it. That’s good. Eve is awesome.

One issue many players had with Mass Effect 2 was the fact that if you wanted the ‘Romance’ achievement you had to initiate a heterosexual relationship. This has been addressed – you can now gain the ‘Paramour’ achievement through any (albeit still sexual) relationship. There are a more visibly present non-hetero characters too: at one point you console your shuttle pilot who is upset over the death of his husband. It’s never shown in a “LOOK OVER HERE! I’M GAY! HAPPY NOW?!” manner; it’s much more realistically handled in that a character may mention something that discloses their orientation, but ultimately all questions of the personal kind are of little consequence in the face of the impending problem of Total Annihilation Of All Life In The Universe.

I was very happy not to have any feminist niggles or femirage over the game – perhaps that does somewhat diminish my options for what to write for this, a feminist, blog! The best thing that I can say is that it is quite feminist-friendly and the only things I could suggest improving would be the inclusion of non-binary genders and equal cutscenes-for-sex with all races/species (I got no sexy cutscene for my (F)Human-(M)Turian coupling, but one trailer shows a (M)Human-(F)Human sexy cutscene).

The Ending

Before I conclude, I was content and pleased with the ending. Apparently, I may be in a minority there. My partner, for example, hated it. Basically – EPIC SPOILERS, look away now if you don’t want this detail! – pretty much everyone dies. BioWare went to town on the deus ex machina mechanism here. Yes, Shepard pretty much dies no matter what you do.

I was happy with that. I thought BioWare were very brave to stick behind such a potentially contentious ending, and they enacted it beautifully. Many on the interwebs were in uproar, and appeared to successfully bully BioWare into announcing that they’ll be producing alternative endings. I suppose it was difficult to respond to fan requests for a FemShep trailer, then stonewall on the Ending Issue, but it would’ve been nice if they’d held their ground and kept a smidge of artistic integrity.

But in some ways, it turns out now, they did. As the ‘Extended Cut DLC’ has been announced, BioWare has made a new statement that clarifies this will not be “…a re-imagining of the ending or a new ending.” HOORAY!

I fear the pressure of BioWare’s pact with the evil giant EA was involved in their decision to cave, however partially: after all, EA like money, and undoubtedly they can see the potential for Extra Content that a fervent fanbase will definitely pay for.

The Verdict

If we ignore the Ending Issue, I’ll give it a solid 9/10. I’d still give it that with the ending, because I liked it, but I understand how others might knock it down because of it, which is a shame – it’s a great, well-constructed and well-told story that happens to be a game.

I predict that this will not be the end of Mass Effect, as BioWare have stated, but it probably should be. Shepard died and saved the universe; that’s a good ending. The last thing you see and hear before the credits roll is a young child asking their grandfather if they can have ‘one more story’ about ‘The Shepard’. And Grandfather says that it’s getting late, but agrees to tell one more story…

Just one more story...

The Trailers

You may remember that when I first burst onto the pages of BadRep I was talking about RPG advertising and the distinct lack of women in these trailers, despite the games’ built-in capability for you to play as a female protagonist. I mentioned Mass Effect advertisements, and no sooner had I criticised them than they announced they’d make a ‘FemShep’ trailer and let the fans vote on what she’d look like. So I thought it’d only be right to address the marketing of ME3 before I tell you all about the game itself.

The first glimpses we saw of Mass Effect 3 didn’t show a female Shepard; actually, they barely showed a male Shepard either (but he was still there) – we were simply teased with the knowledge that the war was coming to Earth. Notably, the voiceover doesn’t say “if he doesn’t bring help” but just says “Shepard” to avoid any issue of gender. But then you see male Shepard… so, er, kinda redundant there.

When they first showed everyone FemShep, to me, the trailer didn’t have the same production quality that it could have had, but they made this up with later offerings, such as those below.

Next we have the Take Earth Back pair of trailers; one male and one female. These two did good. They’re the same, just with a different version of Shepard in each. There’s no making one look cooler, or more badass, than the other, and that’s great. The pity is, though, that TV channels didn’t really seem to pick up FemShep’s version – I only ever saw the male version being broadcast.

Then we get to launch day and they start pushing the ‘Launch Trailer’, and as far as I can discover, there’s only one version: Male Shepard (or BroShep)’s version. This might not be too bad; there’s a lot of female characters shown – Ashley, Liara, Jack, Miranda etc – and that’s more than a lot of games can say at the moment. The thing that ruins it, though, is the (totally unnecessary) sex snapshot of Shepard bedding Ashley, who is the woman fighting beside you in the T.E.B. trailers I linked above.

Of course, it could be argued that having that in the trailer shows how you can romance your team-mates if you so desire and that it’s an all-inclusive RPG experience. But it really isn’t necessary and is completely discordant with the rest of the trailer.

The Packaging

Here I can only talk about my box when it arrived, so there may have been people receiving differently presented games. When my game arrived the sleeve insert (that paper thing that slips under the plastic on the box) was displaying a proud BroShep on the front and back. I was a bit disappointed as I’ve never really thought much about Template BroShep’s appearance as part of my gaming experience.

It wasn’t until I had to insert Disc 2 while loading the game that I discovered FemShep hiding underneath the disc! The cover is reversible, so you can have FemShep on the front and on the back (though the screenshot inserts are still BroShep) if you take the insert out and flip it around. Obviously, I did this immediately so I didn’t have to look at his smug face anymore. The reversibility is great, but you have to realise it’s available and then you have to do it yourself.

Have they done well, then?

I think they have, but there’s a bit of improving yet to do – not for Mass Effect, as the trilogy is now complete, but for other titles following in its footsteps.

The male interpretation of an either/or, binary choice, RPG protagonist is still the default in marketing, it seems. There may well be more male gamers buying these titles, but that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t want to see all a game can offer.

I’m really very pleased that the marketing strategy has improved – at least for this game – and I’m hoping it’ll continue to do so for other releases this year and in the future. It is a real treat to see FemShep kicking some bottoms in that Take Earth Back trailer, and I hope we’ll see lots more awesome female protagonists to come.

—

As a side note: for those of you waiting to see a review, it’s coming – I’m just being extra thorough. And yes, I will talk about that ending and the ensuing furore.

It’s not unusual to display female avatars on boxes of computer games. What is unusual here, and what wins the Found Feminism for Mass Effect 3, is that the avatar is a fully clothed human who is not posing provocatively.

Isn’t she amazing? I want to be her…

… hey, advertising works!

But more importantly, someone in the marketing department decided that this would work. They looked at some genuine facts about who plays games, and why, and decided to use this image rather than, say, an exotic blue alien lady – and yes, I know there’s an entire species of exotic blue alien ladies in the gameworld, but they aren’t selling the game on that fact. They are selling the game on the fact that you can play as this woman.

This remarkably serious and capable-looking woman.

Which rather shoots a laser in the ass of half-baked theories about women and gaming. Such as “women don’t play computer games” – we do, and some of us are really serious about it. Yes, that means we buy the stuff, we are half the target market, and we’d like games that allow us to explore the full range of our imaginations.

The world of computer games is by no means a perfect gender equality paradise. The vast majority of female avatars are still beautiful and often have implausible breasts, even allowing for zero-G environments. But Found Feminism is about hi-fiving the positive, and this shows that the gaming universe is slowly, slowly starting to change its attitudes.

For an added bonus, here’s a chirpy list of ten good female avatars (including Shepard herself).

Got a Found Feminism hi-five you’d like us to shout about? Drop Sarah C a line via [email protected].

Game: Mass Effect

About a hundred years behind the rest of the entire internet, I’m playing Mass Effect 2, and I’m enjoying it so, so much. I want to book a week off work just to complete it, and game all day long.

You play Commander Shepard, who can be a man or woman, and it’s amazingly refreshing to be able to play a female war hero (either way, you’re pretty famous, after saving the galaxy in Mass Effect 1). It’s great to be able to play this female character who inspires so much respect in her colleagues, military and civilian – everywhere she goes, even big scary warlike aliens are afraid of her. My Shepard’s a not-very-physically-intimidating blonde, so it’s kind of fun.

I love the team-building aspects of the game, too. You have to persuade people to join you, and keep them happy and loyal throughout the game. You can play as a good guy or a bad guy, and some of the choices the game gives you (allow genocide to continue for the good of the galaxy?) are brilliant to play through. As writer and fellow Garrus fangirl Jennifer Williams said in her review:

Bioware seem to specialise in making the sort of games where you have to put the controller down for a bit and have a really good think about the consequences of your actions.

Several articles have been written on how feminist-friendly the game can be, some on this blog, so I won’t go into too much detail here except to add my name to the many reviewers recommending it. Even if you don’t play many games, you should try this one. I’m running it on my laptop; you can check here whether you can run it on your computer…

Mass Effect 3, out next summer, looks like it’ll be even better. They’re promising to use a female Shepard in the marketing drive, and although there were lesbian options² available for Shepard to romance in Mass Effect 1 and 2, in 3 male Shepard will be able to romance some of the guys, too. I’m not sure why these things weren’t done before, but I feel like Bioware is at least a company that listens to what its fans want. I’ll be checking out their Dragon Age II next (another game highly recommended by geeks and feminists!) while I wait impatiently for ME3…

Comic: Paul Cornell’s Demon Knights #1

I didn’t buy many of the comics that came out of the DC52, but I did have to pick up Paul Cornell’s Demon Knights, because I’ve enjoyed his Doctor Who episodes and his Captain Britain comics before.

As much as many DC52 comics have been a disappointment, (Harley Quinn loses half her costume! Catwoman wants to show you ALL HER BRAS. ALL OF THEM. Amanda Waller becomes skinny! Disabled character Oracle walks, becomes Batgirl! DC comics manage to become even less diverse!) I still have to say, this one looks promising.

Demon Knights is set in the Middle Ages, and Paul cites Dragon Age II and ‘the medieval Magnificent Seven’ as points of inspiration. Much like my old favourite Secret Six, (sadly, sadly, outrageously cancelled for the DC52,) it seems as though it will star protagonists who range from reluctant antiheroes who’d rather be at the pub, to absolute bastards who are just along for the fun of it, saving the day and arguing and falling in and out of bed with each other while they do it. My favourite kind of heroes.

Promisingly for the fans of this blog, it also looks as though not only will four of the seven ‘knights’ be of the female persuasion, but the main baddie, the Questing Queen, is also very much a lady.

Well, I say four ladies… Sir Ystin, a knight who self-introduces as ‘sir’, may turn out to be more nuanced than that. Earlier versions of the character, the Shining Knight, have been both a cissexual man, and a young girl disguised as a man in pursuit of her true love, Sir Gawain, but neither of those seem to fit here. Hints dropped by Paul, and Ystin’s insistence on the title ‘sir’ in this volume, however, despite the other characters’ doubt, makes me wonder whether we’re actually seeing the first gender variant character of the DC52…

It’s hard to judge an entirely new comic on just twenty pages, but this issue made me laugh, and made me want to know a lot more about all seven of the main characters, which is pretty much what I want in a first issue.

It’s also extremely quotable:

We find the source of the problem, and we throw dragons at it.

Blog: The Mary Sue

The Mary Sue is really awesome. It’s like BoingBoing for fangirls. They always have the news first. Trailers, casting decisions, I don’t know how they get there so fast.

Battlestar Galactica‘s Starbuck features on the logo above, but you get a different geeky lady character every time you refresh the site. You can read about their logo design and why they picked those characters here.

I’m enjoying the way they’ve named it after Mary Sues, as well. It feels like a challenge. That word that gets thrown at the woman in a fandom work who’s, y’know, not supposed to be there.

There’s slash references and feminism and science and fun things on Etsy and Hipster Harry Potter fanart and the gender-bent Justice League and lists like 10 Things That Could Happen If You Pretend to Be A God, 10 Couples Who Are Badass Together, and 10 Fictional Universes We’d Like to Live in Based on Food Alone…

It’s a bit addictive.

And finally, under “also awesome”:

My feminist-inclined friend Hannah, who, when recently invited to a ‘Tarts and Vicars’ party, dressed as a Bakewell Tart. Because, well, what is a ‘tart’ anyway?

• AwesomeWatch returns next month. Send Jen your own geeky picks – if she agrees with you, they might get a look-in.

1. Ed: “I may not have been entirely sober when I thought of this, but it’s too late now, we’re GOING WITH IT.”
2. I was going to let my Shepard have a lesbian romance, but, well, the Tank Girl lookalike on my team is straight as a very straight thing, and Space Batman alien Garrus has caught my eye. He was on Shepard’s team in Mass Effect 1, and their dialogue’s adorable in a kind of equals-and-comrades-under-fire kind of way. “There’s no one in the galaxy I respect more than you, Shepard.” Bless.

As a new addition to BadRep I thought it’d be a good idea to introduce myself a bit more thoroughly, seeing as I intend to keep popping up. I don’t mean in the typical sense of “Hi, my name’s Rai, I’m 23 and I like…” because most of that isn’t entirely pertinent. Instead I thought I’d talk about gaming and me.

I’ve been playing computer games for well over 15 years already; I started with Wolfenstein and DOOM when I was eight years old and before that played puzzle games and other now-‘retro’ games like Space Invadersor PacMan. Over the years my tastes haven’t varied too much, merely widened to encompass other styles, such as RPG and strategy games. Admittedly, I’m still a die-hard PC gamer, but I also own an Xbox 360 for some console action and an old PSP that rarely gets used.

The games that I invariably come back to time after time almost always have some element of the supernatural, sci-fi or fantasy in them and more often than not are shooters, though I have developed a healthy interest in ‘sandbox’ style games like Assassin’s Creed or Prototype. For your delectation and amusement I’ve included a quick snap of a few of my boxed games (I have many, many more on Steam and a few Xbox 360 games elsewhere).

Why am I telling you all this? So that I can ease slowly into a conversation about gender perceptions and stereotypes in gaming from my own experiences. Now that you know I like shooting aliens and occasionally wielding swords and casting magic spells, there is one more thing you need to know about me before we continue: I could be perceived by others to be, at least ostensibly, female.

Normally, this fact is utterly irrelevant but unfortunately it becomes relevant in the context of gaming and being known as a gamer. Why is it relevant in these circumstances? Because stereotypes are rampant, and I have had more than my fair share of encounters with them.

An excellent example of this is when a very close friend of mine, who had known me for years, was watching me play an FPS game on the computer. After I’d had a good few headshots and diligently eradicated the enemy, he declared, “You’re pretty good… for a girl.” Upon seeing my best ‘I am not impressed’ look (a mix of anger and despair) he back-pedalled and said, “No, not like that… just that girls aren’t usually good at shooting things.”

Needless to say, I remained rather irked, but in the interest of peace, love and friendship we decided to move on swiftly. So the problem I am trying to illustrate here is the assumption, which is ridiculously widespread, that if one is ostensibly female then one must play a certain type of game. Similarly, if one is ostensibly male then one must play a certain other type of game. Never the twain shall meet!

In practice (and in the most polite phrasing possible) this is naught but a rather large, steamy pile of manure. However, the stereotypes remain. I admit I may be at the extreme end of the spectrum when I play games like F.E.A.R., Crysis, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and DOOM, etc, but there are plenty of female gamers who play other shooters, like the RPG shooter Mass Effect for example. Equally, there are male gamers who play things other than C.O.D. or Battlefield and instead play games that don’t involve killing anything at all.

Other than the assumption of what female gamers “don’t” play, there are also the games we “can’t” play (because, apparently, our poor female brains aren’t smart enough). Puzzle games that rely heavily on a good sense of visual-spatial awareness and understanding of basic physics, like Portal, are supposedly too ‘difficult’ for us to figure out on our own. Not so. Strategy games that involve planning and forethought and tactical awareness, like Age of Empire, Command & Conquer or Red Alert, are also apparently too complicated. Not so. Even at the level of consoles, female gamers are presumed to only play on the Wii or the DS because they are much simpler to use. Personally, I found the Wii infuriatingly simplistic and therefore quite difficult to use, as I’m used to a whole keyboard full of buttons as opposed to just two.

It isn’t necessarily the gaming communities that build and perpetuate these stereotypes either; they seem to be bleeding through from mainstream society. Although gamers are perceived to be more tolerant of difference (simply because mainstream society treats us all as different) there’s still plenty of ‘epic fail’ when it comes to gender and gaming.

So, why have I told you all this? Well, because I wanted to give some groundwork that we can build on with the Gamer Diary and see where we go. I hope to prove these stereotypes wrong and spread the word that anyone can play any type of game that they want to or enjoy. That’s what gaming is for: enjoyment. Nobody should be hampered by other people’s opinions of what they should/shouldn’t do. So I would like to build up from here and look at the changes in games and gaming culture that happen constantly as we inch closer to gender equality (and hopefully all other types of equality too!).

• Rai, at the tender age of 23, has been gaming for 15 years and writing for 10 – perfect combination! Watch this space for more Gamer Diary.

March saw the eagerly anticipated release of Dragon Age II; the follow-up to Dragon Age: Origins and Awakening (along with all the extra DLC that became available during the interim period). Dragon Age, for those of you unfamiliar with the games, is a fantasy RPG in which you guide your character through quests and the main plotline, battling all manner of nasty creatures and unscrupulous types along the way. You gather a team made up of mages, warriors and rogues who may be human, elf or dwarf, and they help you defeat the forces of evil.

One of the key features of games like this is that you can build your own character: you pick the gender, the hair style, the facial features, the class (e.g. a mage), and in some instances you can even pick the voice. I, for example, have a male warrior elf with ginger hair in Origins and in Dragon Age II my character Zakarianna Hawke is a female, white-haired rogue with a facial tattoo (you can see a visual of her below left). The possibilities aren’t quite endless, but they’re still fairly comprehensive.

Other popular games that boast this feature include the Mass Effect series and the Fable series, both of which I thoroughly enjoy. I was, however, quite late to the Mass Effect party for one very key reason: I thought you had to be male. That is to say, the advertising and marketing for Mass Effect gave me no inkling that there was any other option than to be the character that features in the trailers and the stills.

Normally this doesn’t bother me (pretty much all the games I have ever played have a male protagonist) but I read an unfortunate article that suggested Commander Shepard – Mass Effect’s protagonist – was a bit of a womaniser. So I wrote it off.

I then, much later, got a little overexcited by all the sales after Christmas in which I saw Mass Effect 1 and 2 for a little over a tenner. I asked my brother what he thought of them and ended up buying the games – turns out, you can play as a female character! Plus all the womanising depends entirely on the decisions made in-game by the person directing the character (again, my take on Commander Shepard, Drakhoa Shepard, is just below left further down).

This little surprise, combined with Dragon Age II’s recent advertising prior to its release, made me wonder why games that allow you to play as male or female are only ever marketed using the preset male appearance. For illustration purposes I have collected a few trailers courtesy of YouTube:

• Dragon Age II “Destiny – Extended” Trailer
• Dragon Age II “Rise to Power” Trailer
• Mass Effect 3 “Debut” Trailer
• Mass Effect 2 “Full Cinematic” Trailer
• Mass Effect 2 “Launch” Trailer
• Fable II
• Fable III

From those trailers alone, would you have any idea that you can actually play through as a female protagonist? If you knew nothing else about these games, I doubt there’s any chance you’d be able to guess the female protagonist option from the advertising. This could be quite off-putting to gamers (not just female gamers either) as the advertising doesn’t highlight the option of choice that you get in the game; to be a character that you want to be. It certainly put me off: when confronted with the limited information and the possibility that the male protagonist was a character I wouldn’t be able to stand, I chose to look elsewhere. Even though, for me, that elsewhere was probably going back to a First Person Shooter with a male protagonist: at least most of them don’t talk, and you forget the character when you’re facing down hundreds of Replica soldiers or when a Necromorph just came bursting out of an air vent to tear you to pieces.

I’m not trying to fault these RPG games here, though they do all have some downsides – I’m just wondering why the distributors and the marketing bods decide to exclude one whole section of their demographic in one swoop. I’m sure there is some (weak) reasoning to do with demographic statistics and some blanket statements about who buys these games, but surely that’s wearing a little thin by now? I certainly got sick of seeing the preset male character’s smug face in all the Dragon Age II trailers.

Well, if we look over at Blizzard and some of their teasers for Diablo III (coming out later this year) then there are some positive developments on the horizon. They’ve begun releasing trailers relating to each ‘class’ of character for the upcoming game – all of which can be played as a male or female version – and, most importantly, they’re telling us all about it in their advertising!

• Diablo III Demon Hunter
• Diablo III Wizard

Demon Hunter and Wizard are two of the classes you will be able to play as in Diablo III; the others are Monk, Barbarian, and Witch Doctor. The latter three are automatically presented as male, but Demon Hunter and Wizard are automatically presented to us as female on Blizzard’s website for Diablo III, despite the fact all five classes can be played as either. It is interesting as well that at BlizzCon2010 the 19 minutes of gameplay footage included in the press kit featured both the female Demon Hunter and Wizard as the protagonist.

Clearly, then, not all RPG gaming advertising is male-centric, and hopefully more companies will start to follow down the path that Blizzard is taking – showing the audience the variety that is available in-game, instead of just marketing it at male gamers and assuming female gamers (should such a fabled beast exist – haha!) aren’t going to get offended at being ignored or forgotten about.

They are, as I mentioned earlier, all good games (Fable, Dragon Age, Mass Effect) so don’t let the advertising put you off playing them, but equally let’s not resign ourselves to the notion that male-centric advertising will never change. It is changing; it just happens to be very slowly.

• Rai, at the tender age of 23, has been gaming for 15 years and writing for 10 – perfect combination! Watch this space for more Gamer Diary.
• Have an idea for a guest post, or a project you’d like to tell us (and the world) about? Send us an email.