Tropes vs Women in Video Games

There doesn't seem to be a relevant thread in Video Games (which surprised me! The word Tropes is right there), so I thought I'd create one myself.

Anita Sarkeesian has created a fantastically successful Kickstarter to fund a video series about certain tropes used. Here are the videos she has planned.

• Damsel in Distress - Video #1

• The Fighting F#@k Toy - Video #2

• The Sexy Sidekick - Video #3

• The Sexy Villainess - Video #4

• Background Decoration - Video #5

• Voodoo Priestess/Tribal Sorceress - Video #6

• Women as Reward - Video #7

• Mrs. Male Character - Video #8

• Unattractive Equals Evil - Video #9

• Man with Boobs - Video #10

• Positive Female Characters! - Video #11

• Video #12 - Top 10 Most Common Defenses of Sexism in Games

And here are some links to read. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/566429325/tropes-vs-women-in-video-games

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/internet/2012/06/dear-internet-why-you-cant-have-anything-nice

http://www.feministfrequency.com/2012/06/harassment-misogyny-and-silencing-on-youtube/

She was harassed on the internet in a variety of terrible ways, all of which likely helped induce people to donate to her Kickstarter. It's nice when things work out like that. What are your thoughts on this project?

edited 18th Jun '12 12:58:19 PM by ZeroFlowne

I think someone is reading into this a bit too much. Tropes aren't directed at anyone. They simply describe a commonly used element in fiction. But hey if this is what they want to spend their valuable time doing its their choice.

The tropes aren't directed at people. The industry's use of tropes, and the bias towards certain types of tropes, are directed towards portraying people in certain ways. That's what she's getting at.

edited 18th Jun '12 7:32:16 PM by Swampertrox

I agree with Jamdat.

Honestly, I can't say I see the point of this series.

Don't get me wrong, portrayal of women in Video games (media in general, but video games and perhaps comics especially) is a big issue and people far too often fall into bad archetypes or just plain shoddy writing and irritating fanservice. We all already know this. Anyone who's played games knows how bad it can get as far as the portrayal of women in games and we also know many of the examples of "good" female characters in games.

The issue here is that I don't see this series offering anything new to what we already know. Simply doing an episode on "The sexy sidekick" (whatever that means) isn't going to provide any more discussion points compared to what others have already done.

More importantly, this isn't a professional taking the time to research and understand the industry. As far as her background it's basically "person who likes playing games and did some videos about women in media" and her research is, in her own words, "researching and playing hundreds of titles from across the gaming industry (including some truly awful games that I wouldn’t wish upon anyone!)" which honestly isn't that insightful nor does it need thousands of dollars to fund.

People have already done videos all over youtube and other places about women in video games. Back when I liked The Game Overthinker he had a great video about women in games, Extra Credits also had a pretty decent video on how to write women in games. This is the kind of stuff that you can make with a decent artist or just a mic, windows movie maker and google image search. It doesn't need a kickstarter to fund unless you are really going to make something worth a damn that provides proper insight into the industry.

So then, since criticism is pointless if it isn't constructive, the way I see it is: for this series to actually be a meaningful documentary she's going to need a lot more research than just playing a bunch of games. She can't just assign female characters into arbitrary, and clearly biased, archetypes and faff around for 20 minutes about each one while everyone nods in agreement because there's nothing worth discussing.

She needs to actually interview people in the industry, talk to the big wig executives, the developers, marketing etc (she certainly has the budget to do some of this now) and just generally have a proper understanding of how the industry works (but frankly, unless she uncovers some massive conspiracy that no one saw coming she's only going to find out what we already know "the writers are bad and they are pandering to young males as the core audience" so I guess even then it still might be pointless).

We need some proper damn journalism and not just sitting in front of a camera and talking about stuff without a proper understanding. A Documentary is meaningless if all it provides is a clear bias without research into how things are functioning.

I'm done rambling now, maybe I should leave.

Yeah, when documenting something about an industry, it's generally a good idea to speak with influential people in the industry (think Motor Trend's Power List).

EDIT: And come to think of it, not just a call to action, either. You've all seen the massive support: everyone's behind this, so why not focus all that effort towards something more, you know, active?

And yeah, documentation is kinda nice, but there's a lot about sexism in games that we know of already. It's a nice cause to rally behind, but this is more the time for action, not discovery.

Otherwise, I got nothing else to say. Personally, I think it's great, but...I dunno, I think I know a fairly comprehensive amount of how women tend to be portrayed in games.

edited 18th Jun '12 9:07:25 PM by RocketDude

Why does this need money? Is this a scam?

That is one of the biggest concerns about quick starter.

And it would be so easy too.

I'd assume it's to buy the games she'll be talking about.

I see nothing that she has done, that hasn't been done to death on the internet and even this very site before. Seriously, it's one of the topics most game columnists same to tackle sooner or later.

I heard about this a few days ago when it generated considerable amount of controversy around though...something about loads of misogyny comments abound...

Other than that, I'll go by with what Shadow Scythe said...that was extremely well-put...

edited 19th Jun '12 3:30:32 AM by onyhow

I agree that another trope dissection isn't really necessary at this point, but the series itself doesn't strike me as especially important either way. What's notable is the reaction to even the idea of there being a series.

edited 19th Jun '12 4:30:31 AM by Swampertrox

I got the impression that the reaction isn't about the idea, but rather about asking for money to make it.

That article with all the youtube comments made me want to kill something.

That is all.

I suppose I don't technically have a problem with her wanting to do videos about this topic, and the comments and harassment she experienced are obviously not justified.

My only concerns are that this type of analysis has been done before on many occasions with many similar videos, ignores all of the real problems and industry trends and provides no insight on the nature of the industry.

And I still don't know why she needs money for it.

What should be happening is some sort of discussion or interview with people in the industry, trying to find out why certain tropes and archetypes came to be, not simply buying a lot of systems and consoles and games, playing them all and analysing them.

edited 19th Jun '12 6:39:22 AM by unnoun

Making a quality video series isn't just something that happens with a laptop webcam and a mic. You do need money for it.

...And will it require $159,000 worth? Or even $6000?

People like The Nostalgia Critic seem to do just fine.

Video productions are usually expensive. I'm not sure how expensive, since I'm not a film producer (and I assume you aren't either), but $6,000 doesn't seem unreasonable.

Her videos seem a little higher quality than his, though.

And in any case, I'm not sure why we're all pretending to be so deeply interested in Anita Sarkeesian's financial reasoning.

She only asked for $6,000, which strikes me as an appropriate amount for renting a good movie camera and a space to work in. Somehow I doubt that she'll actually manage to use up all of the money she actually got.

The fact that she's uing kickstarter to ask people online for funding her video series makes the whole enterprise seem somewhat suspect.

Especially when her stated goals and intentions for the project don't seem to address any of the real issues, and thus seem to be treading over old ground, that everyone already knows.

But she apparently already had a camera, and her stated intent for the money was to buy games so she could play them and analyze their plots and their tropes.

edited 19th Jun '12 7:30:10 AM by unnoun

Frankly, I'm just more baffled than anything that there are apparently so many people with tons of money burning a hole in their pocket that they felt the need to give her like 26 times her original goal.

Every Kickstarter project that gets more than a little publicity is eventually overfunded. i don't know why anything is different here.

Bravo for there being a project, but what she really needs to do is talk to females in the business and drum up interest in women becoming an even bigger part of the business. Women don't need a list of tropes demeaning them, they need a real rally call to clean things up. That can come from people in the know.

Edit: I didn't read very far into the comments page, and I don't ever want to. GIFT can go to Hell, lousy apes.

edited 19th Jun '12 12:02:57 PM by Journeyman