Dev.SN

Game Developers Try to Depict Non-Sexist Art

posted by janrinok on Saturday March 15 2014, @02:02PM   
from the the-impossible-takes-a-little-longer dept.

lhsi writes:

"The Atlantic looked at a recent update from the developers of the game Desktop Dungeons to discuss problems with gender bias in gaming, asking 'can a work be racist or sexist if its creator doesn't mean for it to be?'

The developers of the game had recently been adding female character art to their game with the intention that they would be "adventurers first and runway models second." While actively trying to avoid doing everything the 'simple' way, they came into some problems due to subconscious shorthands creeping in.

"This adjustment turned out to be startlingly non-trivial - you'd think that a bunch of supposedly conscious, mindful individuals would instantly be able to nail a 'good female look' (bonus points for having a woman on our crew, right?), but huge swathes of our artistic language tended to be informed by sexist and one-dimensional portrayals. We regularly surprised ourselves with how much we took for granted.'"

• Re:in the pursuit of equitable sexualization Re:in the pursuit of equitable sexualization (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 15 2014, @07:52PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 15 2014, @07:52PM (#16996)

  I see plenty of advertising aimed at all walks of life.

  I don't know whether this relates to your point at all, but it annoys me - the advertising, not what it contains. Cheesecake? Don't care. Beefcake? Don't care. Neither? Still don't care. It annoys me. It's a distraction.

  However, I will note that I have seen women playing games in which they get to tweak the appearance of their characters. The results are usually attractive, stylish, and have moderate to exaggerated sexual features - the one exception I can call to mind was a militant nonegalitarian feminist, who deliberately made an ugly male.

  What a lot of people ignore is that the typical hero of these games, when male, represents an idealised male regardless of appearance - competent, strong, physically resilient, dominant, independent ... and the objectification doesn't bother me either despite the equipment dangling between my legs.

  Most of the people whining about this crap need a big steaming cup of Get Over It.

  Parent

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• Re:in the pursuit of equitable sexualization (Score: 2) by hatta on Saturday March 15 2014, @09:35PM

  by hatta (879) on Saturday March 15 2014, @09:35PM (#17031)

  However, I will note that I have seen women playing games in which they get to tweak the appearance of their characters.

  They generally spend more time doing that than playing the game.

  Parent