10 Years Since Tropes vs. Women

[Jaicee]

SvennoJ said:

Great write-up, very informative. Games are indeed slowly changing, gamers are not though. This article popped up recently with depressing statistics https://www.eurogamer.net/one-in-10-female-gamers-feel-suicidal-about-the-abuse-they-receive-playing-online Plus there is the frequent outrage over 'too much inclusivity' in games nowadays.

But as long as you play offline and ignore the nonsense outrage over for example a video game kiss, things are getting better. There's still a long road ahead to actually make games all inclusive, and an even longer road to make online gaming a safe and positive experience. But at least there are plenty indies to enjoy in the mean time. Great list, I enjoyed many of those as well. Papo and Yo left the biggest impression on me from that list, brave and very clever way to tell a personal story.

Thanks so much!

I'm encouraged by the positive reception this thread had gotten. I've been crafting it for a little over a year now and, as you can see here, the version I finally landed on wasn't as sweeping as my original vision for the OP, which was to include a more comprehensive discussion of the entire history of Feminist Frequency as a site/organization and an overview of each individual video in the Tropes series. That just got kind of unwieldy and became too overwhelming a goal, so I wound up streamlining it more before pitching it to a few friends and a separate audience for final tweaks (which I'm glad I did). The final draft still wasn't exactly short. At least it's digestible though. That wound up being an objective in and of itself.

The single biggest reason I joined VGC six years ago was because of persistent harassment elsewhere over just this sort of topic, to which end I was honestly kind of scared to post it and wanted to make sure it was worded as perfectly as possible and thoroughly sourced. Had really just hoped that enough time had passed...that enough water had passed under the bridge that a healthy and productive conversation could now be had and I'm so glad that that's proven to be the case!

And yet the statistics you share are just so disheartening. I haven't even perceived the improvements in representation of women in this medium as slow. To me, the difference in that regard between ten years ago and today (which doesn't feel like that long anymore when you're 41 ) is night and day. I sense a corresponding difference in the culture of gaming-oriented spaces like online gaming forums too. And yet when I look at stats like those you share here, I am reminded that venues like Twitch exist and that there is still clearly work to be done. Thanks for sharing.

(And I agree with you on the power of Papo & Yo!)

Last edited by Jaicee - on 10 June 2023