http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/5/5462578/gaming-is-my-safe-space-gender-options-are-important-for-the

Really cool article.  The best part maybe?  The comments are the opposite of toxic.  Maybe the first time ever that could be said about an article about trans issues in the history of time.  I found it all very heartening.  Also the article is really well-written and rings true I think.

Very cool, I just hope the Oculus Rift doesn't cost and arm and a leg.

Great article!

I have a problem with the current gaming technology.

I want to look feminine and beautiful in real life, BUT....

If I make a very beautiful character in an open-ended roleplaying game (Skyrim, New Vegas, MMORPG games, etc), I play the character for loooooong periods of time staring at her and making her even more prettier, I start thinking this character is me, then I look at myself  in the mirror and I feel really bad that I can't achieve the perfection I have created in-game.

Sooo... what if I make an ugly female character so this way when I look at the mirror, I feel much better about myself? This way I can smooth out the incongruency




Not exactly a female character but let's pretend it is! If I could "download" myself into virtual reality, a world where I can customize myself however I want, then I wouldn't need to make ugly female characters! Oh how I wish when the day would come when you can change what you are born into! By changing, I mean changing every single atom in your body. Your chromosomes, your skeletal figure, etc.... everything

Cisgendered women blessed with good genetics would see the world like we see video games. To the ciswomen, the real world is their world. To us, the video games is our world. If only the video game world was actually our real world

I have similar happen with me when I watch shows with beautiful young women in them.  Their perfection makes me feel terrible about myself.  And I prefer stories that are female-centric, so I feel very much a moth to the flame.

When I play games, which I havent for a while tbh, I try to make the char look as much like me as poss, cause it helps me put myself in the story better, so I don't have the jealousy thing going on there I don't think.

I see

I think I now understand how cisgendered women feel when society tells them they're not a real woman until they are super beautiful. They have to dump their money into the cosmetics/fashion/clothing industry to achieve something that takes a looooot of work and something that may not be achieved. All so they can be seen as a "woman" to society.

From what I hear, this is more rampant in the United States than compared to other countries, like the United Kingdom for one.

I really like this article, I always escaped into gaming because I could be that badass male figure I always had in my head, I could for that time, feel real and how I should be. I think its why I like RPG games so much, shooters are a hit or miss, but rpgs, I always loved. Plus there was no judgement if I made a male character.

Men are lucky with games because almost every one has a male char.   I don't think it is a trans thing for me, but I like to sort of put myself in the games I play and, as a woman, it just is rare to be able to do that, or to be able to even relate with the character you are supposed to be in the game.

This is something that I really feel needs to be addressed by the industry, cause female gamers are getting closer and closer to 50% of their customer base.

It'd be hard to sell gender selection as an option for AAA games, no?  I mean, I'm pretty easily triggered when it comes to dysphoria, but even I can look past that.  In so many games, that would really change the story.  Not to mention how difficult it would be to record an entirely different set of dialogue...

RPGs do it, at least often.   Mass Effect did it really well.  They did luck out a lil because the actress did such a great job of making that char seem like a real actual woman, when really she was just playing a man with boobs for the most part, because I don't think they rewrote the story much for the female version. But idk, I think it is proof it can be done.

Also if that is so hard, why not make more games with female leads (sex objects for male gamers to oogle don't count)? That way you can make it appeal to women and have a female leada nd it would make double sense.  Like idc about a war/murder/hyper-masculine male-fantasy-scenario game with a female lead, cause I am not really into masculine things and games like that don't appeal anyway, but make a game that is from a female perspective, about things women might be into with a female lead.  Gone Home was a great example.  It would be cool to see more of that.

But you don't and I gets o annoyed I don't really even play games anymore because of it.

Oh, I meant beyond rpgs!  But yes, it would be a nice change of pace.  I'm a bit bothered by that "things women are into" statement though, just because I happen to like more violent games.  Just because we assign violent games a gender role doesn't mean they have one.  And enjoying the occasional third-person action fantasy doesn't make me any less female.  Meaningless violence- it has no gender

This has been a relatively good year...at least by comparison.  Between Mass Effect, the new Tomb Raider (not the least bit sexy this time around), and Bioshock Infinite (I know, NPC...but fleshed out and strong), I think we're making some progress.  But these things take time, and because not many people really care about the issue, I don't think we can expect to see any sort of drastic change in the near future.

Regarding the things women like thing, I was just speaking in generalities.  Ofc there are plenty of women that like first person shooters and all manner of typically male things.  I like basketball for instance lol.

I agree that there may be some hints if progress and I want to be optimistic about them, but it is really moving slow, and I think it is because the people making the games still are mostly male.  I don't think very many men can write female characters well, and I definitley don't think many of them can understand what the typical woman would connect with.

Have you heard of The Longest Journey? It's a great RPG/adventure/puzzle game told from the perspective of April Ryan, a female protagonist that you control. It's made by a Norwegian game company. Here's a 7 hour gameplay(and it's only part 1!) starting from the very beginning. It's a lot of spoilers but it gives you an idea of what the game is about. I played it and loved it! Great story, setting, characters, and humor

Thank you Jen for posting this article, it really made me smile. The article was very well written & the comments were super uplifting.

If given a choice in a 3rd person game I would always go for a female character, if questioned then i'd just say "if i'm going to play this game for hours & hours i'd rather stare at a womans behind".
Nowdays I can just be honest about my reasons for having a female character.
If it's a FPS then it doesn't bother me what the gender of the character is as I don't have to see it & if a game is story driven then it doesn't bother me what the gender is as long as he/she fits the story.