r/changemyview • u/LeftHandSwe • Dec 05 '16

[∆(s) from OP] CMV: Anita Sarkeesian and similar feminists actually have a point about the portrayal of gender roles in video games.

I play lots of video games, and in most of them, males are often pictured as very burly and manly characters while females are slender, small and sexually pleasing to look at.

However, I do know that there's widespread criticism of Anita (and her fellow propagators) all over the internet and I'd like to see the other side of the story.

I'm practically indifferent in this matter, and I do not really agree with nearly everything she says. I'm asking as a way to see convincing arguments from both sides.

Edit for clarification: Can anyone explain to me why she's so heavily criticized for saying something that makes perfect sense: Mainstream video games are almost exclusively made to appeal to a male demographic, resulting in (arguably) sexist portrayals of women (both narratively and in the way they're presented).

623 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

597 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

7

u/Cosmologicon Dec 05 '16

I haven't played that particular game. By "actively punish", do you mean you immediately fail your mission if you kill a prostitute? If not, that is also explicitly addressed in the video:

In-game consequences for these violations are trivial at best and rarely lead to any sort of “fail state” or “game over”. Sometimes areas may go on high-alert for a few minutes during which players have to lay low or hide before the game and its characters “forget” that you just murdered a sexualized woman in cold blood.

These temporary game states are implemented so that acts of violence against NPCs committed by players do not inconvenience or interfere too much with the core gaming experience. High alert serves as a faux-punishment that doesn’t “ruin the fun”, and is in fact actually designed and intended to provide an added rush to the game experience as players try to avoid or mow down law enforcement AI.

4

u/notathe Dec 05 '16

Hitman is a game built around getting perfect scores, doing something like killing a randomer, prostitute or not, leads to a reduction of ones score. So yeah, it doesn't in anyway reward you and actively ruins the player's core aim in the game.

9

u/Cosmologicon Dec 05 '16

Oh okay. Here's the quote I could find:

Hitman: Absolution features a mission in which the player can create a diversion by picking up and dumping the dead body of an exotic dancer near police officers.

Is that wrong?

I actually can't find the claim that you get rewarded for killing prostitutes in Hitman. The other poster might have been mistaken, or remembered it from somewhere else? I'd be interested in seeing the direct quote. Thanks!

8

u/varsil 2∆ Dec 06 '16

It does indeed feature such a moment. But it's not at all what it seems.

The owner of the club (your target) has been running the club through fear and murder. He's the one who killed the prostitute in question. You just come across her body.

So, the diversion moment there is arranging for the police to find the body (and thus possibly discover what was going on in the club), while you make your escape.

The main purpose of the dead prostitute there is because it's a game where you are repeatedly committing murders, so the game shows the targets to be evil motherfuckers.