OK, so what is a "feminist game"?

[DonFerrari]

Jaicee said:

DonFerrari said:
You are showing to have more prejudice than the average gamer you are talking against.

You appreciate more if a product is aimed at you, use female as protagonist, abide by the rules of your section of feminism, etc. Those are very narrow-minded way to limit your pleasure on the entertainment.

Well let's test that theory for a moment:

I've been gaming with fair regularity for the last 31 years. In the course of that time, I have amassed a considerable library, out of which titles that apply male-centric narratives compose probably in the neighborhood of 70% even now. Would you conversely say that 70% of the games you own primarily revolve around the other sex in terms of the stories they tell or the characters they center as the player? I'm going to go out on a limb here and say probably not. You know why that is? It's because I am, in all likelihood, a more broad-minded and less bigoted person than you are. And because I factually have fewer alternatives to choose from that way.

Let's say that the objective situation that presently exists were exactly reversed. Let's imagine an alternate universe in which female-centric games reaching publication outnumbered male-centric ones by a margin of 5 to 1. Let's imagine, likewise, that 99.9% of video games were created by predominantly female development teams and that gaming-oriented communities like this were nearly all female in their composition in addition, with threads popping up all the time complaining about how it's unnatural for men to be included in this game and that and half of users using their "husbandos" as their avatars. What if there were stories of epidemic levels of sexual harassment of men by women in online gaming spaces making the news? What if the main and most common public role of male gamers was that of sewing together sexy costumes of game characters for beauty pageants rather than participating in competitions? What if male-led video games sold only 25% as many copies, on average, as female-led ones and female gamers frequently used that fact as an argument for why male-led games shouldn't be made at all, and publishers generally listened to that argument? Would you still be a gamer under those circumstances or would your relationship to this medium probably be reduced to a casual one at best under those conditions? I think we both know what the honest answer is.

The fact is that the video game industry values your patronage a lot more than mine and that both the industry and corresponding community pander to you a lot more than they do to me because of your genitals. I don't believe that placing a premium on the clearest exceptions to that rule makes me a particularly irrational or prejudiced person.

I would say 90% of my games are genderless and that I don't even care if the game is geared towards man, woman, children, etc.

And I'm talking about your own prejudice because of your consecutive threads and your assumptions about the community that you yourself already confessed were wrong in the last thread you made.

Yes in all your what-if scenario I would still be a gamer. Have been gaming for as long as you since I was able to grab a controller, and gender relevant choices/games have been a thing less than 10 years and I was a gamer before. Sure if I didn't like 90% of the games released I would play less, but considering there are over 1000 games launched per gen, 100 games I would like is quite enough for me to have things to play. I average 250 games owned per gen (from as much as like 2k-5k released), do you have as much?

The main thing that shows your prejudice is exactly that you take your time to see if a game is sexist or not, if it represents what you believe, etc. Still I watch and play content regarding action, adventure, comedy, romance, fiction, terror, etc. And even watch some very feminist or identity politics show without much of an issue. As long as the material is constructed with good care and present a good result I usually enjoy. The only instances I frown from what is show is when they try to put white male as villain (not a white male villain, but generalizing the population as villains). I can very much empathize with black woman struggle, transgender, etc and how much more hardship they may face than myself, but since I haven't ever met someone being a regular white male that go against these people or make their life harder I won't accept any blame or guilty towards myself for being born white male.

I can say to you will all confidence that I don't cry over markets that doesn't have me as target even if I like their product, I know companies need to profit and they do that selling to a market that will have more people buying (except when some companies see the unattended niche and focus on it).

I also can tell you very much that I don't need to see myself on screen to relate or like the show. My favorite shows are black only sit-com, in some jokes I can totally see myself in their shoes, in others I can see I wouldn't pass through that, but even so it doesn't diminish my liking for it. So for me representativiness is pointless. So give me an accurate or in case of fiction a coherent verosimilitude content and I'm pretty much happy. I'm actually eager to see movies and games based on tribal africa and their folklore since I love myths and don't know much about theirs as I do about greek, roman, japanese and norse. But you won't see me making rants about not getting that content. I simply vote with my wallet not buying what I don't like, and if identity politics ruin a game fun then I won't buy that game, although if it improves or is indifferent I will glady buy it.