Pioneer Project

I’ve spent some this month trying to get acquainted with a game that I should have played years ago. It’s been on my to play list for years. The idea that ultimately got me to the title screen was the idea of playing game that’s both combat driven with a strong narrative core, crucially it’s also a game that features a strong female character as its lead – and does so using the first person.

It’s extremely common for a game to feature the first point, it’s normal for a game to consider the second. A game that features both those as well as the third is still sadly rarer than I’d like.

The game of course is Metroid Prime.

A glorious experience

I’ve arrived extremely late to the Metroid series, but what is immediately apparent is Samus Aran such a compelling hero because she is associated with a quiet power, a resolve and tenacity to get a job done. Her brilliant portrayal in the Metroid series over the years (Other M excluded) remarks that her success and strength comes from her skill and experience rather than pre-defined expectations of her character or ability based on her gender.

Being able to play as a female character in any character driven game is always important to me. It aids the process of me getting into the mindset of the game in a way that being forced to play as a male character simply doesn’t enable.

It’s rarer to get this level of comfort when starting a game, I am so used to a male character model being the default in an adventure or FPS game such as this that when the opportunity presents itself, I find myself playing with a sense of elation that wouldn’t be there otherwise.

This may seem particularly strange, especially given the fact that the game is in a first person view. I am spending most of the game looking and experiencing the world through Samus’ visor, seeing the world as she would, with only fleeting glances of her suit and face.

But the idea of being playing a great game, especially one where I am able to play in the “right body” is sublime and is important to me.

Some male gamers play as female characters when given the opportunity to experience something outside of their normal experience of the world. Confusingly many women gamers like myself play for the opposite reason. To experience our games in an body more akin to our identity, as the “different experience” is often the norm.

The problem with the first person view

I suspect that such is the power of Samus’ persona that few would feel uncomfortable playing as her. That said how many first person based games are there where you can play as a woman? Despite the rising popularity of the first person view, a female character model (especially for single player mode) is still not particularly common.

It’s just as well that I have Samus as a guide through Metroid Prime. The game is uncompromisingly difficult at times. I often find myself playing at a level far beyond my comfort zone, as the game stretches and challenges me to be worthy of Samus’ equally uncompromising skill.

I simply wouldn’t have persevered for a character I related to and admired half as much. If I ever need a reminder that I’m playing a game that challenges the norm of this genre I see a flash of Samus’s face every time a missile explodes too close to her, daring me to continue.

After long thought, the only other recent examples of story driven games in the first person perspective I can think of (with female protagonists) are Portal and Mirror’s Edge. Both of these games (along with Metroid Prime actually) are not first person shooter games. Two of them are first person adventures, with the third being a first person puzzle game. While I find it impressive that I can think of three games that circumvent the gender and gameplay norms of the first person view in such a way, I am still saddened that very few true FPS games continue to ignore their female player base, providing male character models exclusively.

Epic games didn’t include the option of female characters in multiplayer until its third iteration of the Gears of War series. Bungie finally provided the option in Halo Reach (but only after making elites playable first in Halo 2). The ability to play as a woman is still missing from the genres two most popular series – Call of Duty and Battlefield.

The only series I can take any long-term pride in is Rainbow Six: Vegas, which has always given me ultimate level of character creation (in its multiplayer) and has done so from the very beginning. Regardless of genre, women have the undeniable need to be able to experience a game in a model matching their gender, particularly if the game is about customisation and bespoke player rewards based on skill.

Metroid Prime has helped to remind me of this fact, and not only that, it’s made me want this option in even more games.

After my last post about how games continue to motivate me, I feel a little ashamed for my absence. Greater still is my shame for our community this month, falling rather short of where I expected it to be in regards to tolerance.

Naively perhaps, I had regarded gaming (to a certain extent at least) to be a hot bed of diversity, more open-minded and liberal than our peers in the normal media would have the rest of the world believe.

Why I’m disappointed

I thought this because of the way that gaming has been treated historically. We have been (and are still frequently) demeaned as being part of a hobby of eccentrics and the socially inept. This is often stated to us as such without a hint of shame, if it isn’t openly implied in conversation.

In truth, I thought we, with our collective appreciation in a hobby that other people look down upon, would be more open-minded when it came to individuals in our community being treated without the respect and tolerance they deserve.

I’ve experienced intolerance for my interests, gender, race and age numerous times outside of gaming. The intolerance I have personally experienced inside the gaming community has diminished to almost nothing. I feel comfortable here. I am however ashamed that I do not speak out more openly about the occasions that I am not so happy of.

The moments when I have been verbally abused online simply for playing a game as a woman. The assumptions made about my inability to play games because of my gender. The telling assumption that because I talk about games online that I must be male (in situations where my real name is not used). While these things may not sound huge to those who have not experienced them, they chip away at your resolve slowly.

Moments where gamers feel uncomfortable playing games in public pale in comparison to the very real and threatening behaviour that happens inside our own walls – on our own turf – where we as gamers should feel safest. If public disdain of your love of gaming is the sole disadvantage you experience when playing games then I consider you extremely lucky.

Even those of us that are not guilty of intolerance in our community, are we helping to tarnish the experience of being here by tolerating such prejudice in gaming? It’s not true to say that there’s nothing that we, the silent majority can do in defence of others. If the perception of gaming in popular culture is every going to change all of us have to the very example of what is great and good in this community and we shouldn’t stand for anything less.

A word on gender imbalance

I’ve been a gamer for a long time. When I started to play games it was with the innocence of a child. As a grew older I became more aware of issues within gaming that was at odds with the other big part of my identity (such as the poor treatment of female characters, the portrayal of female gamers, and the lack of representation of women in gaming). When I started to identify myself as a gamer, it’s almost as if I had to switch off my mind to everything that bothered me. I almost had to focus on the part of our community that left me excited and proud rather than disgusted and ashamed.

I can empathise hugely with anyone (male or female) that’s experienced any sort of negative treatment while playing games, particularly given the nature of our hobby. Gaming it’s meant to be entertainment , it’s meant to be inclusive and rewarding. Instead we’re denying this pleasure to a wider spectrum of people by intimidating diversity away from something that fundamentally belongs to everyone. We’re letting a small minority of gamers perpetuate the very behaviour that we’re accused of in moral panic ridden headlines. Worse still we are all encouraging this behaviour by keeping silent.

Maybe we haven’t progressed as much as I hoped we have. However I adore gaming, and I’m not going anywhere. I’m a living, breathing reminder that many of us want bigger and better things for our community. Gaming is and should be for everyone and there’s simply no reason to perpetuate an agenda of prejudice.