Chaos2Frozen
Member
This got me lol-ing.
Mortal Kombat 3, DOOM, and Prince of Persia were some of my first videogames I played as a kid. Parents didn't care back then, they probably don't even now. As long as they know their kid can distinguish reality from super cartoonish fantasy violence. Shit, my 8 year old cousin's dad has let him play Call of Duty, Hitman Absolution, and a few other pretty violent games. He always tells me that each time so I can let him play mature rated games lol like Shadow of Mordor or Bloodborne.
Honestly probably isn't surprising to anyone who's actually worked with kids at all. The Minecraft class I taught last summer was like 60% girls
Yes, I am also surprised that girls liked a character with a personality and not a blank avatar who only appears to be a girl if you catch her visage in a portal on occasion. I didn't even know the lead character of Portal was supposed to be a woman until I saw her on a magazine cover after I already played through the game.
Not actually surprising as they likely assume this from their immediate friend group or if they happen to play one or two of those genres online they are bound to run into female gamers and then they assume "well I hear them on voice chat so I guess girls are into these kinda games". That's why every genre has a large representation.This got me lol-ing.
Sorry for the off topic question but Minecraft class? Was South Park parodying something that actually happens in real life?
Not actually surprising as they likely assume this from their immediate friend group or if they happen to play one or two of those genres online they are bound to run into female gamers and then they assume "well I hear them on voice chat so I guess girls are into these kinda games". That's why every genre has a large representation.
League of Legends player base is over 90% male and DOTA 2 is even more extreme, so that experience is probably not unusual.Would you say that you assumed the MC was a male? Not picking on you just wondering if that was your immediate thought process.
I would kill to see some studies like this in central Europe. I always get the impression that it's still very much a "boys only club" in that region just judging by the random game store workers and clients who you can tell are buying for themselves and who shows up at the random game expos. I was observing some CS competition and then some MOBA competition (as well as some wacky PC racer that looked like toy cars). It was all dudes. In fact when I bought my Wii U I was surprised that the store actually had a female employee who was there to help me that day.
Jesus Christ
No idea, haven't seen that episode. Two summers ago I ran what was really just an excuse to get a bunch of 12 year olds on a local server for a week, and that was mostly boys.
But last summer it was a "Minecraft crafting" class in which we were building a giant Minecraft diorama together and making swords and pickaxes and costumes and stuff and that was, IIRC, 7 girls and 5 boys
I guess I was expecting more stereotyping, it's just funny that boys think girls play everything lol.
Out of curiosity, if you did manage to see and remember but what were the girls making in Minecraft compared to the boys? Or was it all planned and everyone was doing the same thing?
Sexism In Games
Watch the boy and girl talk about this, they are really smart.
Theo (20:47)
Theo: "This game, it's called Mortal Kombat. I really like it, but I notice a lot of the female characters are wearing very scantily clad clothing which doesn't make any sense because if you're playing a videogame like that, you expect everybody to be armored because it's a fighting game! If these girls are dressed how we think we they should be dressed, objectified like this, it just defeats the entire purpose of wearing armor. I just thought it's kind of polluting young kids' brains to think this is how they should dress. Like, this is how women will dress everywhere."
Rosalind: "And Theo, if you had a female character that was dressed in the kind of armor that you want to see, would you want to play as that character?"
Theo: "Yeah, a lot more. I would definitely respect the character a lot more for like having some dignity." [<- slut shaming]
"200 7th grade kids clapping in support of a boy in their class talking about sexism in games."
Rebecca (24:35)
Rebecca: "I play Trivia Crack and on Trivia Crack, there's always these ads for Game Of War. In Game Of War, Kate Upton plays a female and she's barely wearing any clothes and her upper area is bouncing and it's disgusting and it makes me uncomfortable and I know that makes other kids uncomfortable...I personally find it sexist and if she's going to be dressed like this - and she definitely shouldn't have been - then why aren't other people, why is it just the girl? She's the only girl. This game is played by kids and I don't know any kids who want to see that."
You misspelled Rebecca. I think it's sexist that you ignore the comment that actually makes sense and applaud the one that doesn't.This was kind of amazing. Theo had an excellent comment. Thankfully the MK team took notice of how disgustingly they were objectifying their female warriors.
Violence isn't bad, sex is.Theo's going to get in trouble, Mortal Kombat is an M rated game.
Again, violence isn't bad, sex is. And let's not talk about those male hussies.I get the kids point about the armor or whatever in Mk but the particular argument itself doesn't make any sense
I mean you have a game where a good number of the male characters fight topless as well
Johnny Cage, Jax, Lui Kang etc. So you can't really question it one way without drawing attention to the same thing happening with the male characters on the other side of the spectrum.
Also surprised no one asked him why he was playing that with how sensitive people are in relation to that stuff nowadays lol.
Frau Engel is great. She's in full control of expressing her sexuality, which you don't often see in older female characters. Even if she can be taken for an evil madam trope, she isn't sexualised like the evil demon seductress female villains often become as detailed in Anita's tropes video. Being cartoonish doesn't diminish that she's interesting for a villain in the context of most Nazis portrayed being men. Especially when you find out about her past from overhearing the conversation in the courtyard of the camp about the League of German Girls and her conversation with Bubi as you're near her office of having served for the country and given six children as a mother but "now it's time for me to have some fun". She doesn't take shit from anyone and is a strong second-in-command villain which is a position in fiction usually reserved for weakass righthand men when faced up close. She doesn't go down so easily.
League of Legends player base is over 90% male and DOTA 2 is even more extreme, so that experience is probably not unusual.
But this study is about the upcoming generation so there might be change coming up
Also, slut shaming:
Boy plays game he isn't supposed to play, thinks gory fantasy is representative of reality (italics are mine). Also, slut shaming:
You misspelled Rebecca. I think it's sexist that you ignore the comment that actually makes sense and applaud the one that doesn't.
Violence isn't bad, sex is.
Again, violence isn't bad, sex is. And let's not talk about those male hussies.
Criticism of skimpy costume design has nothing to do with slut shaming. This is a complete non-starter.
Criticism of skimpy costume design has nothing to do with slut shaming. This is a complete non-starter.
I get the kids point about the armor or whatever in Mk but the particular argument itself doesn't make any sense
I mean you have a game where a good number of the male characters fight topless as well
Johnny Cage, Jax, Lui Kang etc. So you can't really question it one way without drawing attention to the same thing happening with the male characters on the other side of the spectrum.
Also surprised no one asked him why he was playing that with how sensitive people are in relation to that stuff nowadays lol.
No the point is that women want more games that star someone that they can relate to like the games starring men.
No it isn't. But it is the personal choice of actual women who would dress like that. Doesn't his dignity argument apply also to them?How dare you criticize the character design of a fictional character thought up by, drawn by, animated by, consumed by men! It's her personal choice.
Theo: "Yeah, a lot more. I would definitely respect the character a lot more for like having some dignity." [<- slut shaming]
How dare you criticize the character design of a fictional character thought up by, drawn by, animated by, consumed by men! It's her personal choice.
MK prior to MK8 and post MK9 tended to do prettt solid designs for the female characters' clothes. Don't know what happened in 9 though.
No it isn't. But it is the personal choice of actual women who would dress like that. Doesn't his dignity argument apply also to them?
And yes, don't confuse criticism towards fictional outfits on a fictional character as slut shaming.
Theo: "Yeah, a lot more. I would definitely respect the character a lot more for like having some dignity." [<- slut shaming]
What does that have to do with what I said, Theo said, dignity or slut shaming? If you want to argue my points, maybe you need to properly read them first.When was the last time you saw a cop walking down the road with her shirt open and no bra?
Your argument would be a lot stronger if women actually wore outfits similar to those in MK9 in any setting outside of the beach, which is pretty much the point.
"The majority of boys surveyed said that women in games were too often treated as sex objects. In fact, only 19% of the boys said they'd be happy if more women-as-sex-objects made their way into games."
No it isn't. But it is the personal choice of actual women who would dress like that. Doesn't his dignity argument apply also to them?
I'd say his criticism isn't limited to fictional outfits, he is talking about dignity:
Theo: "This game, it's called Mortal Kombat. I really like it, but I notice a lot of the female characters are wearing very scantily clad clothing which doesn't make any sense because if you're playing a videogame like that, you expect everybody to be armored because it's a fighting game! If these girls are dressed how we think we they should be dressed, objectified like this, it just defeats the entire purpose of wearing armor. I just thought it's kind of polluting young kids' brains to think this is how they should dress. Like, this is how women will dress everywhere."
Rosalind: "And Theo, if you had a female character that was dressed in the kind of armor that you want to see, would you want to play as that character?"
Theo: "Yeah, a lot more. I would definitely respect the character a lot more for like having some dignity."
Heh. I has chortles.
And yes, don't confuse criticism towards fictional outfits on a fictional character as slut shaming. Those are two very different things. It's not like we ever come remotely close to knowing the proposed mindset behind wearing a sling bikini to a fight against a man with giant metal spires coming out of his hands.
No they didn't, come on.
And interestingly, the girls I know who play Tales here have the same or similar complaints about female objectification in the later games. Most of my friends who jumped on at Symphonia got off at Xilia because of the complete lack of options for the female track.
And that being said, none of my female gaming friends have played P3:FES. I wonder what they'd think of the female track in that game.
. Otherwise female character costumes made sense as something to wear in battle. And absolutely no one (except maybe Sindel, who could fly) wore heels.
I think he is just repeating what he heard, including the slut shaming argument. Doesn't change the fact that it is a bad argument which is falsely applauded as smart.Sure? But the kid is like 12 and probably isn't knowledgable about social justice issues to a degree where he'd realize that the dignity comment is pretty bad and is probably just speaking about this in the very basic way you do when you first start trying to think about this stuff? Lay off Theo a bit.
And seeing as how the video and questions are about video games, I don't really see how this applies. If he said that about an honest to god real life woman, hell yeah that kid would get a talking to. But since this is talking about the costume decisions for video game characters said in super basic ways by children...
He explicitly says he is disrespecting women based on lack of dignity. That is the very definition of slut shaming.You know where your argument falls apart?
The moment you accuse an 11 year old of slut shaming for pointing out that MK9 has bad costume design.
State your case. And don't use Mileena's skimpy costumes because we actually DO know why she does it (compensating for her Tarkatan features. Her sister was the "pretty one" so she showed off her body while hiding her face).
Besides her I can think of Li Mei MK Deception Jade as being a character with rather sparse attire. Otherwise female character costumes made sense as something to wear in battle. And absolutely no one (except maybe Sindel, who could fly) wore heels.
I'm sorry, track?
Giving anime to children is child abuse and is morally reprehensible. The very thought makes me sick. Thank God anime is going to be illegal soon.
State your case. And don't use Mileena's skimpy costumes because we actually DO know why she does it (compensating for her Tarkatan features. Her sister was the "pretty one" so she showed off her body while hiding her face).
Besides her I can think of Li Mei MK Deception Jade as being a character with rather sparse attire. Otherwise female character costumes made sense as something to wear in battle, or at leadst as something the character would wear. And absolutely no one (except maybe Sindel, who could fly) wore heels.
What do girls and boys want to play as? Do they even give a fuck?
"One of the most common answers that games companies and marketers will trot out any time the topic of women protagonists enters the conversation, is that people simply don't want to play as a woman. The industry tends to assume that men are their primary audience and men only want to play as men. But Wiseman and Burch's study counters that base assumption as well. When asked, most of the boys they surveyed said that they either wouldn't mind playing as a woman, or would be happy to do so. Girls on the other hand, had an overwhelming preference, particularly as they got older, to see more people that represent them in games.
Minecraft is being used more and more in classes, that's for sure. 200 UK schools use the game, 3000 schools internationally. Instead of spending time at home and playing the game anyway, they're utilising that time in class for more constructive results. It might be used in creative writing classes, programming where kids are engaging with Boolean logic at the age of 9, strengthening and exploring social interactions between schoolchildren, maths and science, history, geography, learning disabilities, and more.Sorry for the off topic question but Minecraft class? Was South Park parodying something that actually happens in real life?
Minecraft is being used more and more in classes, that's for sure. 200 UK schools use the game, 3000 schools internationally. Instead of spending time at home and playing the game anyway, they're utilising that time in class for more constructive results. It might be used in creative writing classes, programming where kids are engaging with Boolean logic at the age of 9, strengthening and exploring social interactions between schoolchildren, maths and science, history, geography, learning disabilities, and more.
Chell has 0 personality and nothing defines her, I'm not surprised most people aren't interested in her and instead take to Glados.Heh, maybe I like Chell a lot, so I am kinda biased. I respect that she.basicaly derailed the game itself and even made an alliance with Glados in the end of the second game.
Still a nice research, just saying again because I think someone can think I wrote with sarcasm in mind.
*looks at OP*
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh, nah man, nah. None of those would be practical in a fight.
And we'll know more tonight, but from what little i've seen of MK10, they're doing WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY better than they ever have EVER.
I worry about what video games are doing to the logic centers in our brains.