Girl Gamers Australia

Sexist game review and 'gossip' sites

It has to be said their are certain online gaming sites I avoid. Why do I avoid them? Usually because of the sexist overtone of their "mature" writing staff, which by the way usually consists of 8 or so guys and perhaps one woman they might get in one day a week to cover the more academic side of gaming.

It sickens me people with sway in the industry hire more and more sexist twats to write their 'News', news which usually consists of things they've been sent in as tips and not true journalism work at all. Oh and let's not even begin to cover typos or content that has about as much to do with gaming as say peeling an orange might have to do with fishing.

Can we truly expect gaming to grow up and get over the "boys club" feel, when those that should be putting it forward as a mature hobby are essentially just spouting a lot of sexist shit - either in an obvious manner or in an ongoing subtext - in the direction of their readers?

I think its a fair complaint when tits and ass shots seemingly take precedence over gaming news or booth babes take precedence over development and other issues.

No boy babysitters thanks!

Remember that babysitting game we mentioned a few days ago. Well we decided to contact the developers and ask a very simple question. "could you confirm whether or not it is possible to play a male babysitter in the title: My Dream Job: Babysitter". We got the response back today, and of course it was just as we'd suspected:

"Unfortunately it is not possible to play as a male babysitter in My Dream Job: Babysitter. Thanks for your interest in our title."

Well no surprise there really is there and for the record I have ZIP interest in this title. God forbid a boy should accidentally load and play a game in which he might be taught some sort of social responsibility for a baby. So it was more sexist gaming drivel. Despite the press release stating 'player' and 'kids' rather than 'she' or 'her', being as how it's looking after babies, you don't even get the option to play a male character, so why not just be friggin honest in your presser! Let's guess what the reason would be shall we "too much development time"... "too many additional costs"... YAWN!! Kind of annoying you don't even get the choice should you actually be a kid of the male variety that likes the idea of sim baby care.

Sarah Palin as games characters - Governor Palin does Samus, Cortana, Meryl and more

Sarah Palin seems to be getting more and more coverage of late and now she's even entered the realm of video gaming. Gaming site Pwn or Die (a recently launched spin-off site to Funny or Die) has a set of Sarah Palin gaming images of the Governor as various games characters, including: Meryl from Metal Gear Solid, a hooker in GTA, Samus Aran, Cortana and a few others.

That's all well and good, it's in good humor, but the whole Sarah Palin thing has brought up numerous questions with regards to how women are treated in the higher echelons of not only politics, but business overall. Sarah Palin is consistently made fun of, for her accent, her career, her family pastimes, her looks. Now we're not Palin fans by any means here at GirlGamers Australia, anyone that says "Oil of coal, of course, is a fungible commodity and they don't flag, ya know, the molecules where, where it's going to, where it's not" doesn't bode well with us. What we find interesting is the way in which Hillary Clinton and now Sarah Palin are treated by not only their running mates or opposition - "you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig" - but also by the media as a whole.

Sarah Palin being covered as games characters at least has her depicted as heroes for the most part. We do wonder if Mr Obama would like to use the Sarah Palin image from GTA in his campaign in the coming weeks though.. seems like a tactic either side would stoop too.

Honestly will there ever be an honest politician with actual moral integrity?

Babysitting game... Frak me.. here we go again!

FFS.. WTF.. Holy mother of f... oh you get the picture, I'm irritated again... more sexist gaming drivel. This time we have "My Dream Job: Babysitter" which is out this week stateside. What is it, well it's a babysitting simulation, though we suspect it doesn't have kids being smart mouthed little brats or overbearing parents that think your five bucks an hour should make you Martha Stewart mixed with Supernanny!

Oh no you see, according to the presser, in this game you "will take care of adorable infants and toddlers while learning about time management, responsibility, and even personal finance. My Dream Job: Babysitter allows kids to take control of all aspects of their new "business" and have fun doing all kinds of activities with their charges."

The only real upside of the presser is it says 'player' and 'kids' rather than 'she' or 'her'... thanks heavens for small mercies. Of course this comes crashing down with the boxart which features a female babysitter. You can 'Create Your Own Character' though, so we'd be interested in learning whether that includes the option of a male character... no we're not shelling out hard earned cash for this tripe.

The presser should have probably said "take care of adorable infants and toddlers while learning about what will inevitably be your responsibility as a woman when you grow up. Run your own business girls, so long as it still involves nurturing children and not wearing a suit!"

LucasArts frak female gamers! - Again

LucasArts have frakked us female gamers with their new characters for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. They're releasing new downloadable characters you can play in the single player campaign... GREAT! I thought with a Star Wars fangirl excited yelp, "I'll get to play through as a female character" especially given their are 4 characters incoming. No screamed LucasArts, you get 4 male characters so frak you! The new characters include Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ki-Adi-Mundi, and Kit Fisto - ALL male! Apparently these skins were decided on based on what they heard from fanboys... sorry... "fans", that being the very vocal fanboy contingent.... FFS common sense LucasArts!! Is it really that difficult to assume perhaps some of the people to have purchased Star Wars: The Force Unleashed are FEMALE?!?!

Honestly, sometimes I just want to burst into these board room meetings, jump on the table and start singing I AM WOMAN! Well, not really... but you catch my drift.

Games for Girls and other ridiculous notions

Games girls play are apparently all the same, you see it all the time, in marketing, design and also conversation. We 'girls' as a species - set apart from the boys - have a strange chromosomal freaky thing happening wherein it is only the Y chromosome that allows you free thought and the idea of choice in gaming. Women gamers you see ALL like the same thing, we all love the EXACT same titles and we all loathe the exact same titles. It's a scientific fact, argue as you might this baby is cast in stone and it was handed down to Moses on some mountain someplace.....

 

And if you believe that you're as big a knob as the guy I had the displeasure of conversing with recently about the 'Games Girls Play' topic. For whatever reason the assumption by "Mr X" was that we girl gamers will only play simplistic puzzle titles, sim titles or at a push the odd RPG. Mr X couldn't conceive that a female gamer might like to frag and bag an opponent and held the opinion that a girl using smack talk in the same way guys do online is a "bit of a slag".

Well Mr X... you're a bit of a dick, which is fine, it takes all sorts. Please do be aware however that girls are not restricted to gaming genres based on gender, shocking I know... but just like guys, girls have differing tastes. There is no hard and fast LAW that states all girls like certain genres and not others. To suggest such a thing borders on the ludicrous... do all humans eat meat? Like pumpkin? Enjoy Bungie on the weekend? Weigh the same? Have black hair?

Wake up.

Gears of War female character agro

Gears of War 2 really pisses me off. Why I hear you cry, because it had the opportunity to appease its many female fans with at least one female Delta Squad member and Bleszinski (aka CliffyB) and Co. opted to completely ignore our demographic and go the all male route again. Yes the latest pre-release trailer is out and it discusses two new major characters in the form of Dizzy Wallin (aka the 'hick') and Ty Kaliso (aka  a hippy Mr T), both brawny testosterone flooded meat-heads. So what else is new?

The new trailer also shows a glimpse of two female characters, one the ever helpful Lieutenant Anya Stroud (relegated to 'helpful narration') and Maria Santiago, Dominic Santiago's missing wife (relegated to the helpless female role - rescue me, rescue me my husband!). There may also be a female 'stranded' character, but let's face it, who gives a flying frak.

It wouldn't have killed CliffyB to have placed a female Delta Team member in the mix, without a big deal being made about it. Gears is set in a militaristic universe where humans are fighting for survival and it is lame to believe that only men are capable of donning armor and kicking sand in the face of the enemy.

FFS CliffyB and Co, we girls like Gears too, give us some goddamn respect and inclusion.

Halo MMO female characterizations

With the Halo MMO out of the bag and under the axe, we can safely dissect this creature - one would hope - and check out yet more double standards in female characterization. It seems like every game concept that features male and female marines, fighters, soldiers, 'insert gaming hero here' must adhere to a specific gaming lore, and it is this "women must be ultra thin and / or have flesh showing, regardless of environmental or enemy danger". I'm pretty sure that is how it is actually written in the big smelly testostertome that game designers presently refer to... and yeah I just made up 'testostertome' and it shall from now on be known as that aka 'the big sexist book of game design'.

Anyways after the jump we've got a couple of images that have popped up on the internets that show how female soldiers might have looked in the "Halo MMO" if it had made it through development and onto store shelves. Though they're stylish, the fact there's such a huge difference between the armor clad male characters and the 'sexy' female characters just left me with a bad taste in my mouth.. I'm pretty sure it's a sexist related bile that bubbled up as my eyes perused the images.

Playing the "C-Word" game

We like to think we have an open readership of all ages and our feedback attests to this fact, so for that reason we'll be using "C-Word" in place of, well... the actual "C" word.. know what we're saying? If not hopefully all will become clear.

The feminist gamers are upset... again... and this time in the firing line is the rarely spoken (lest you get a slap from your mother) "C-Word", a flash game published by Newgrounds. We're not linking to it because frankly, why give them more direct links than they already have, but suffice to say the 'game' revolves around a small penis firing balls at a giant wizened (and rather disturbing) vagina, which gushes blood when hit. If that isn't disturbing enough for you there's also germs you must shoot too.

Feminist gamers take on the game comes down to a fairly simple premise "issues with female sexuality" and that "it represents a very real and tangible culture of hatred of women that exists within the gaming community".

Game Name Changes - Stupid means the same thing as dumb

Australia is kind of like America, at least parts of it are, we've probably got more in common with our American cousins than we have with our colonial UK past. So can some bright spark explain to us why the powers that be change the names of not only movies, but games from something we ALL understand, to something else.

"Animal Crossing: City Folk" is apparently in need of a name change, so in Australia, we'll be getting "Animal Crossing: Let's Go To The City!" instead.

Maybe "City Folk" was just too difficult for ozzies to get their heads around. Maybe "Let's Go To The City" makes more sense? NO! Gees, come on, there must be another reason surely? We all know what "City Folk" meant.

I'm having flashbacks to "Feel the Magic: XY/XX" all over again, that for those that missed it became "Project Rub".