Some kind of rhyming reference to yesterday's post there. Incidentally, in reference to the 'travellers', has anyone out there seen the 'Geeks and Gamer girls' music video parodying Katy Perry's California Girls? It features the one and only Seth Green? Fun fact, he's married to the girl dressed as Lara Croft (NO SETH! WHY COULDN'T YOU WAIT FOR ME?!) but it's an interesting video - caused a lot of controversy because the girls lie around naked, with things like PS controllers and geek DVDs covering their more scandalous parts. It's nice that the gaming world is recognising women participants a bit more, but it's worrying that as always, women's participation is based upon sex and bodily parts. There was an interesting Penny Arcade comic about a new game out that contains a very large breasted woman, clothed (if you can call it that) in hair that comes off when she battles, who constantly licks lollipops.
Penny Arcade left most of the talking to female game blogger Leigh Alexander (not that it matters, readers, I'm just saying maybe as a female blogger she has a bit more knowledge/perspective about what video game objectification feels like/means). Here's the comic for those interested, and remember to click on the 'news' icon, which has some fairly onto-it thoughts from Tycho: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/1/11/
Alexander argues that the sexuality of the character, Bayonetta, is theatrical and intended, and that it's refreshing to see female characters who are sexy and every bit as powerful as the male characters, who are also ridiculously proportioned, but not particularly lambasted by the gaming community. Article here for those interested: http://www.gamepro.com/article/features/213466/bayonetta-empowering-or-exploitative/
This is all true, except Bayonetta still bothers me. I guess, it's fine to have theatrical characters, but when most female game characters ARE ridiculously sexual, the theatricality is lost. Also, sexy doesn't mean her body has to be anatomically crippling. Also also, why does being female and powerful mean you HAVE to throw sexy into the mix? Why is being female tied to being sexy?
I suppose the problem is, is that stereotypes abound in the gaming world for both men and women - men are huge muscle-bound, shaggy haired, macho, rough-voiced....where was I going with this? No no, I joke, but a lot of video games subscribe to the 'barbarian and wench' character game types, and let's face it - geeks lap it up. I'm getting a bit scatty here, but it's an interesting topic that is changing daily - does sexy mean you're selling out as a feminist? I certainly don't think so, but I think making someone an object, as Bayonetta is, isn't right.
I rest my case with case studies, examples where women in games are powerful, genuinely admirable characters who don't have to show their animated cleavage to show they're women. Most of these characters are generally playable as men, which might have something to do with it - they are given HUMAN dialogue options, based on the character's role and motivation, regardless of gender, so the answers ring true and aren't tainted by gender assumptions. Commander Shephard of Mass Effect (also starring Seth Green, and Raphael Sbarge, of Carth legacy, more swoon) is a good example (I think, haven't played most of the game!) Revan and The Exile aren't bad either in KOTOR 1 and 2. As far as I can remember, Sarah Kerrigan from Starcraft was pretty awesome. The female Fallout characters were never disappointing, and Alex Roivas from Eternal Darkness is cool even when she's crazy (which, when I was playing, was most of the time).
I think a good rule of thumb in gaming is that if it's adult anime or fantasy RPG, expect stereotypes galore. Would love feedback/comments/views!
ANYWAY, after that epic rant, what happened today is not so exciting: I went to work late, I frantically read up on capitals cities that moved and why, I chatted with the guys at the office about how we SHOULDN'T have turned up yesterday because it was a public holiday (NO ONE TOLD US) for Chinese New Year (or rather, today was, so the paper wasn't produced yesterday, you see what I mean?)
Then I left and caught a taxi with the others to Social House for some drinks (Lychee cocktail) and a schmoozy, delicious dinner of peking duck pizza (am over the taste of duck, however, very fatty and heavy tasting) and cheesecake with my first glass of wine in a while - exorbitantly priced, and I spent far too much money, but it was lovely. In the middle of it, some ladies dressed in traditional Chinese costume came in and danced, which was nice.
At the end there was the usual hassle of paying for the bill. Because we're all essentially travellers, or at least, very temporary dwellers, we all pay in cash, and haven't organised bank cards etc. There's also the fact that Indonesian restaurants charge a service tax and a something else tax (PSI? I'm not sure) but don't add put it on the menu. So you have to calculate your own tax, according to wherever you go (some places don't charge it, some charge only one...very confusing) and then try and find the right change...it's exhausting and when you've got 12 people and a 3 million rupiah bill, and people forget their tax, you end up short about 200, 000 rupiah, paying much more than you bargained for to make up the odds, and essentially a nice meal is tainted. Nothing in Indonesia is easy.
HOWEVER, the wine, food and dessert was lovely, and it was one of the JPPers bdays so it was nice to see her have a good time. I headed home and had a cold shower, and am now preparing to get up early (read, 9am) for the first time in a long time. I can do it!
Also also, a REALLY good view of Indonesia here, including a run down of the inherent problems/power structure: http://atraceintime.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/working-in-wonderland/
LESSONS LEARNT 35:
- Pay for your drinks at the bar - it's not worth it otherwise
- If you plan to stay in Indonesia long term, arrange a cashflow card
- Tech writing for NBR is going to be fun, I'm thinking tentatively - I spent all afternoon looking up tech advances in engineering and it was fascinating - if you've got time, have a look at solarroadways.com, I think it is
- It is time for bed!
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