Fantasy Nerd Woman Does Awesome Fantasy Nerd Replica

What is art?  It’s one of those things with a tricky definition, partly because as soon as we draw the line of is and is not, something dares to cross that line.  If we are talking about traditional canvas works, we have examples like impressionism, cubism, and my favorite, pop art, to give examples of this changing definition.  Andy Warhol famously created art from the everyday and happily mass produced it.  When he began he was scoffed at.  Art could not be mass produced, they said.  They claimed that what he was creating wasn’t art, but years later, we recognize Warhol’s creations as defining a generation.  He crossed into the ‘is not’ and forever changed the art world.

That leaves open the question of what we should toss out as art and what we can keep.  Certainly everything is not art simply waiting to be redefined?  Art, by definition, is a creative expression of creativity and skill to be appreciated by others at an emotional level.  Without intent, there is no art.  Without a reaction and connection, there is no art.  So I ask, why can’t video games fit into this definition?  When did art become about anything other than a connection emotionally to the work of another?

Let’s leave out, or a moment, the average everyday game.  While we may have deep emotional connections and very real reactions (that early scene after Ezio dons the robe in Assassin’s Creed 2 made me feel like my heart was being wrenched out) to the products of a team of people who pour their heart and soul into a product, I am going to today ignore the mainstream offerings.  Art or no art, that is a discussion for another day.  What I want to talk about is specifically art games.  These are games made specifically to convey a particular emotion or idea.  They are created to provoke a profound and lasting effect on the player, leaving every person with a unique and thought-provoking experience.

I have long had a soft spot for art games.  As I stated above, I love pop art, and I also love bizarre art movies, performance art, mixed media art, installation art, and other contemporary, strange expressions of humanity.  These odd little games stuck with me for this reason.  I love novel ideas and creativity.

So starts a series of overviews or reviews of games specifically created, marketed, and recognized as art.  Unlike Roger Ebert, I won’t base my decision on videos.  I will do what he did not and actually play the games I assess.

Please join me as I enter the world of art games.

I am not saying that rape should never be mentioned in a game.  Movies do it, but when they do it it is not to glorify the act. They do it to define an event or bring out horror.  I do think, however, that if games were ever to go into that realm, they would need to be very, very careful.  It has long been the case that female characters in the comics universe have been raped as a catalyst for their internal strength, their turn to vigilantism, or an attempt to give depth to a character.  Rape is not something that women are glad for.  They don’t brush it off and say, “It was horrible, but I’m better for the experience.”  It’s a difficult topic because it’s a difficult thing to go through.  For this reason, I think that for now, rape is better off being left out of the narrative.  And games certainly shouldn’t be about it solely, because we just don’t seem to know how to handle it without exploiting it.

Some porn involves rape.  I am not singling out games here.  Any time that rape is being justified is not okay, whether it’s pictures or videos or a story.  Some people argue that murder is worse, that because we simulate murder in so many ways on so many games, we opened ourselves up for a nonfatal assault.  Yes, murder is wrong.  It may even garner a harsher punishment from the law.  But that said, it can be justified, and when a person is dead the suffering ends (this of course ignores the family and friends of the cloned soldier you kill).  How could we attempt to justify rape?  Think back to the games we play where we murder.  Besides a few like GTA, the murder that is committed in these games are done because we are defending ourselves, our country or others, or our ideals.  Rape is always one sided.  Rapists are not defending themselves, others, or an idea.  They seek dominance through violence towards a person who is no threat to them.

For this reason, I day that game simulators which feature rape as a goal are not okay to create or play.  This does border censorship issues.  Should these games be illegal?  Unfortunately, this is not a question that I can answer.  I am not a law practitioner or an expert on anything to do with that field.  I do think that this shouldn’t be an issue in the first place.  There should not be a market for these games and there should not be creators for them either.  If it was a perfect world.

Please think about it and educate yourself on why rape is unacceptable in any form.  Me writing this does not mean that I think that these games or other form of porn will turn men into rapists.  I do think that our attitude towards women in culture, does.  There has to be a reason that the numbers between female rapists and male rapists are so incredibly far apart, and the number of female victims encompass male rapists to an extent so completely that we barely acknowledge that men do get raped.  It has to be something sociological, and our attitudes and myths regarding rape need to stop.  These games add to a culture where women are objects to be abused and rape is commonplace.

Maybe you’ve been told to make them a sandwich?  Maybe they give you a blank stare when you ask to join in their L4D game.  Perhaps a male friend decides to buy for you ‘Imagine Babies’ when they hear you like to game.  Sometimes you just feel frustrated.  Today I will reveal to you my solution for those days when chauvinism beats me down to a place I hate to go.  Resentment.  I love men and not just for their bodies.  I love hanging out with the guys just as much as hanging out with women.  So to fix my resentment, I do the following:

I watch videos where female gamers heavily pwn male gamers.

Please enjoy the following <3

Yeah, I know it’s all Halo, but man, do they own at it.  So whenever you hear “girls only play ‘The Sims’” or “girls suck at video games” remember that instead of kicking him in the balls, you can live vicariously through awesome female gamers.  Cheers!

Female Gamer videos below!

Instead of blood, their enemies explode in a shower of lego pieces.

What I like about it is that it really is about the two of us.  Playing the game alone doesn’t hold that much pull for me because I miss the strategics and the teasing when one of us has to rescue the other.  This is a game, however, where there are no female soldiers.  And you know what?  I gave it a semi-free pass because they explained it in the back story and the universe of Gears of War did have in its history powerful, strong female soldiers.  When the games take place, there are none, however.  This is explained because women needed to be making the babies after the drastic population drop and men needed to be fighting.  At the same time, women ran things behind the scenes.  Would this be okay with me if I lived during this?  Well the idea of childbirth, personally, creeps me out and I don’t like other people making decisions about my body for me, but it’s an extreme situation they are in, and it seems that they do have a really important role, if silent, in the games.  It’s kind of disgusting that women don’t seem to have a choice in the matter, and that their worth is measured as baby-makers.

Yes, though I loved this game, I missed playing as a woman.  I always will, probably, when I’m not.  But at least the absence of women was given an explanation beyond “we ran out of time” or no explanation at all.  A poor excuse, but one nonetheless.

That’s why, when the Gears of War 3 trailer was being discussed on the Jimmy Fallon show and it revealed a woman soldier, I was shocked.  This was not a series I ever expected there to be a female soldier in.  They had their excuse!  Supposedly, this character is unable to have children(infertile women was something I had wondered about in this scenario, actually), and so able to join in the fighting.

Oooooh yeah.

I am excited and I am so glad it was this series who were mature enough to realize the future of game design where equality is commonplace.  I applaud you Gears of War, for recognizing what you should have been doing all along.

One further point?  She appears to be wearing armor that would actually protect her instead of some chain mail bikini.

So awesome.

Badass and not overly sexualized?  We can hope!

Check out the video below.  It looks really flipping awesome. Screenshots shown were taken from this video.

C'mon. You would have let your guard down too.

In Batman Returns, Catwoman repeatedly uses her feminine wiles to disarm enemies, like Batman, and after they take the bait she strikes. “How could you? I’m a woman!” she famously says after Batman knocks her down. Batman apologizes and goes to help her. Taking this moment of sexist vulnerability, she inflicts damage on him. At other points in the film she is seen seducing him then once again inflicting damage. An important use of her sex appeal is manipulating the Penguin into trusting her and working with her. This is a classic Femme Fatale character

Do you know who is not a Femme Fatale character? Miranda from Mass Effect 2 is not, yet this was the explanation given for her sexualized clothing and appearance.

Wow. Really, Bioware?

Let me first give a little bit of backstory to Miranda to flesh her out. Created from birth as a genetically perfect human, Miranda escaped the grip of her overbearing father and into the embrace of Cerberus, a questionable human-focused and armed group. The Alliance, the military and overarching government of the humans, as well as the Council, the backbone of the laws in the galaxy composed of four prominent and powerful species in the galaxy, consider Cerberus a terrorist organization. But even working for an organization like that, Miranda has high morals. Though sometimes arrogant or cold, she tries her best to do the right thing while carrying the heavy burden of genetic perfection. Yes, she is given a perfect body because she is perfect. Because it is a futuristic game, most of the people wear skin tight clothing, but nothing like Miranda’s clothing.

One scene has been gathering some controversy for the character, and it is because of this scene that the question of her sexualized appearances has been brought.  In this scene, a dialog tree is present.  This is how conversations with different NPCs are held.  It is a still screen with these options in front of it, and many people have noticed that the below screen sticks out.  There are no scenes like that for any other character where the behind of a character is so prominently featured.

Umn, do I really have to click on her butt if I want to investigate?

To explain her appearance, she was called a Femme Fatale, and the clothing was a reflection of that.

I’m sorry, what? Were we playing the same game? Miranda was a character I respected. Again and again she proved herself to be a reliable fighter and character. Not once, in my memory, does she use seduction to get what she wants. Miranda uses her superior intelligence and battle prowess to succeed. She has a ‘perfect’ body, yes, but that is not the focus of her character. I do think that Femme Fatale can be a great character to employ, and if she was actually seducing people to their doom, then I would probably support choosing this outfit. But she isn’t, and that’s what bothers me. Where is her armor? She’s a soldier, not a sex object. Yes she heals faster according to canon, but she’s not bullet or rocket proof and can still take damage.

My point here is that calling her Femme Fatale is just an excuse to provide wanking material for the fanboys. I wish they had given her a little respect and a little protection. This will certainly not dissuade me from playing the game, and it shouldn’t dissuade you either. It’s more a commentary on the excuses made to cover up the fact that Bioware, even after having an amazing and successful game, still feels that they need to put a sexualized female character in to please fans.

Further reading here. More links posted later.

Has it sunk in? Let us begin.

First, the most blaring thing about his statement is the piece about women. We are doing better because men are doing worse. Allowing for no other factors like empowerment, changing social stigmas, and encouragement for women to have careers, Mr. Schrock instead decides that the driving factor for womens’ success is because men aren’t taking their rightful place as most educated, employed, and intelligent gender. Yes, women are getting higher education in larger numbers because men are too busy playing video games. This also, of course, ignores the fact that 40% of all gamers ARE women. Now I say that statistic fully understanding that some of those female gamers are farmville and bejeweled addicts, but it still holds true. No matter what kind of game we are playing, women are gaming almost as much as men. He also bases his idea that there are more women than men now on the fact that he says he sees mostly women faces in his lectures and that there are more women in he workplace than men. First of all, there aren’t more women, though numbers are closer than ever to being at least equal, and secondly, we have no idea what Mr. Schrock teaches. Some fields do attract more women than man, such as Psychology.

My second important note to point out is his confusion with correlation and causation. Let me briefly explain. When I was young, being an inquisitive mind hungry for science, I learned that causation does not equal causation. I always assumed it was a basic science fact everyone learned like having a control when conducting an experiment or the difference between a hypothesis and a theory. Though there are long stories connected to my astonishment as I slowly learned that these easy to understand concepts are not always grasped by a shocking number of scientifically illiterate people, I again was taught this idea in my Academic Statistics class.

Let me break it down for you. A correlation is when two or more variables linearly match, like if one variable increases as the other decreases at an equal rate or they both decrease at an equal rate. Causation is when one or more variables is directly contributing to the increase or decrease of one or more variables.

This is the example we were given–

The community pool sold the more ice cream on days with higher drowning rates.

According to Mr. Schrock, this would mean that ice cream would cause the drownings. Someone who knows how to look at data would see something different. The correlation could be caused by a different variable altogether, such as higher number of people present at the pool or greater number of children. More people means more potential drownings, and more children means more less experienced swimmers are at the pool. These two variables make a lot more sense as to why there were more drownings on those days.

Using this same eye, let’s look at Mr. Schrock’s data. As video game usage increased, so did women getting jobs and attending University. Mr. Schrock says that one causes the other, but we know better than to confuse correlation with causation, don’t we? In this case, because there are so many other variables involved in this scenario, one variable may not even cause both increases. The increase in video game usage can be connected to an increase in mainstream acceptance and greater accessibility for the masses as well as other factors. Increase in women in the workforce and Universities can be contributed to social change as well as other factors I have listed in my paragraph on the sexism of Mr. Schrock’s words.

Seriously, if you get the chance, take a statistics course. I hope for most of you this was a ‘no duh’ moment, but if this news to you, I urge you to learn about critical thinking and the scientific method to better navigate the often confusing world of scientific research and findings. If someone tries to connect the frequencies of seeing TLC programs and weight gains, point out that maybe it’s not the programming that’s causing the weight gain but the lack of movement.

Remember, our greatest tool in our metaphorical toolbox of life is our ability to think, and when we do it we want the sharpest tools of critical thinking to be at the ready.

The first thing you notice in the game is its visuals.  They are striking.  This was sincerely the most beautiful game I had ever seen environment-wise.  The cities entered were lovingly rendered in a crisp, colorful, and highly realistic fashion.  The people in the game have realistic movements whether fighting, walking, or holding a conversation.  Altair’s robe was especially fun to watch.  Though most guards shared a face, it wasn’t something that detracted from the gameplay.

The climbing was my favorite part, and I found myself running around rooftops and exploring every nook and cranny just to see everything.  In this game, every building can be climbed, and it is a pure joy to do so.  There are three different parts of a city in this game, and each part was a distinct area.  The was poor, middle, and rich.  They all had a different feel and look, and I really loved to explore them.  Rich is shiny and well-maintained, poor is dank and crumbling, and middle is clean but without the polish of a rich section.

Climbing and moving was a breeze.  Using a ‘puppet’ system, different buttons controlled different parts of the body.  The X controlled weapons, A controlled jump and running, Y controlled vision, and B controlled grabbing pushing.  Anyone who has a 360 controller knows that these controls are arranged according to position of body part.  I had no problem figuring out the controls, and the buttons to climb made it easy.

The weakest points and my biggest complaints in this game are the information gathering missions and the fighting system.  There are a few weapons to choose from.  The throwing knife was my favorite, but there was also the broad sword, the assassination knife, and your fists.  Fighting enemies took a lot of practice and frustration to get right.  In the end, I found myself just running and hiding from guards to avoid fighting.  Assassinating people was easy, and I loved taking a running start, jumping, and sticking them in the neck with my knife, leaving the onlookers screaming and running.  The counterattacks and combo kills were cinematic and fun, but combat was so broken, I barely ever saw them.

The information gathering missions were essential to assassinating your final target.  Three missions are required out of many.  These range from listening to a conversation, pickpocketing a man and gathering flags, to assassinating some targets for an informant.  Unfortunately, the missions are sometimes boring and nearly always lackluster.  They get old fast, and by the end I only bothered to do the minimum three so I could get to the assassination itself.

The assassinations were fun and really stood out.  Each one took place in a new and interesting location with a different challenge.  They contrasted strongly with the bland and repetitive missions leading up to that point in that I enjoyed every second.  One standout mission took place in a harbor.  Of course this brings up the fact that gymnastic and elite assassin Altair flops about in the water before being dragged under by what I assume is a hungry seal when he falls in, but I digress.  Hopping around from boat to boat before chasing your target is fun and challenging.  It illustrated the potential of this game.

The story isn’t the strongest point of this game, but it isn’t the weakest, either.  The premise promises twists and turns, but gives a mediocre telling of a much bigger tale to be told.  Still, since I played this game after the second title game out, I treated the story as an epilogue to the larger tale.  In the end, I found the story satisfying if not revolutionary.

No, this game is not as good as the second one, but I think it deserves a play through.  Repetitive and sometimes bland, it still had a charm that made me keep coming back and eventually finishing it.  This is a fun game.  Rent it or buy it for cheap, if you like exploring or killing, action or the second title in this series, I recommend it.  You may not play it exclusively until it’s finished, but I believe it’s worth it.

This game scored 7.75/10 stars

I’d like to add one additional part to the review, a separate score for the game based on a female positive standing.

I actually think this game did an okay job with women.  The main character is not a woman, but one of the main NPCs is.  She is strong, intelligent, not sexualized, and plays an important role.  Also in the game is a strong female fighter whom I will not further discuss to prevent spoilers.  Women do not have a large presence in the games, and there is a few minimal moments with women as sex objects, but overall, this game isn’t offensive.  While women do not have a big role in the game, their presence is felt and not in a way that degrades them.

This game scored 8/10 respected women based on its female depictions.

I’m reviewing it because they have some things in common.  They are decent games with a stellar sequel.  This is something that seems to be a common theme lately, one that even my mother picked up on.

“There seems to be a lot of ‘Two’ games out there,” she told me one day

“Huh?”  I looked at her, confused enough to pause my game of Dead Space.

“The title,” she told me, “There seems to be a lot of sequels coming out.”

“Ah.” I said, ready to return to my gaming session now that I understood what she was saying, but I stopped for a moment to think about it.

Now, my mother is not a gamer in any sense of the word.  In my hobbies I am much more like my father than my mother.  In fact, she is a very stereotypical female gamer.  She plays Bejeweled and word games like virtual Scrabble and its clones.

Who wouldn't rather spend all their time matching colored gems than, say, saving Hyrule or Ferelden.

She does, however, live in a household with two gamers, my father and I.  Because of this, she hears us discuss new games and sees the boxes when we forget to put them away.

To a non-gamer, media experience with sequels has always been less than awesome.  Movies sequels range from the occasional good/great one to the more common mediocre or bad one.  They have a reputation as being quick cash-ins riding on fame.  And every movie after a second in a sequel seems to decrease in quality, sometimes even ending in the virtual dunce-cap wearing straight-to-dvd zone at the fifth or sixth movie.

Seriously? This is going to theatres? Well it makes more sense than that chipmunk movie 'squeakel' being in theatres. I mean, really? Who am I kidding, I'll probably go see this Shrek too...

Game sequels are different as many gamers have noticed and have been discussing.  Right now, there are many many games coming out as sequels in a series.  Final Fantasy XIII just came out, a famous example of when a series lasts for a long time.  God of War III just came out, ending a trilogy.  These are great games, and they are at the top of their series along with being the most recent.  Some recent sequel games are Left for Dead 2, Just Cause 2, Mass Effect 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2(not the second for Call of Duty, I know, just Modern Warfare), Bioshock 2, and Assassin’s Creed 2.  Game sequels increase in quality usually, but what becomes of the first game?

This is why I am to review the firsts of game series.  I will only review a few that I have actually finished, and I will review them for a few reasons.

The first reason would be that they are actually fun games.  Yes, they may be hardly perfect, but they are still decent games.  This ties into my second reason.  Because the second game has exceeded the first, people may feel that those games do not deserve a playthrough.  I say no.  I will weigh pros and cons of the games and tell you that they may not be the best the series has to offer, but they deserve a playthrough.

Tomorrow: Assassin’s Creed