Why we can’t have women in games
As most of you have heard by now, there is a new God of War. God of War: Laufey, featuring Laufey, a frost giant and the second wife of Kratos and the mother of Arteus.
Now, for nearly two decades, the main protagonist of this franchise has been the hyper-masculine, shirtless Kratos. We accepted and even celebrated his rage and his grief. But the moment, the very second, the focus shifts and centres on a woman, the ‘anti-woke’ brigade starts sharpening their pitchforks.
We saw the exact same thing play out when Ghost of Yōtei was announced.
It’s all well and good when millions of players can play as Jin Sakai in Ghost of Tsushima. A male protagonist defending feudal Japan, that game gets labelled as a masterpiece (It was of course). But the second a woman is leading the charge, suddenly the game is labelled as pandering. It gets slapped with a scarlet letter and is deemed too woke for ‘real gamers’ and mass boycotts are called for.
To break this down in simple terms: White male is the default. A woman is a political statement.
But this wasn’t always the case; there has been a sinister shift that is poisoning the gaming industry. As someone who grew up playing Lara Croft, then later played Uncharted, both brilliant games featuring tomb raiding explorers, no one batted an eyelid.
If the original Tomb Raider was announced for the first time today? It would be torn to pieces. These ‘anti-woke’ trolls online would label it as a game that was only made to push the progressive agenda, and we would have all missed out on an amazing game, not to mention the collective experience of trapping the butler in the freezer.
The reason why there has been such a shift is the same alleged narrative that I see spewed online time and time again:
‘We don’t just want forced diversity. We want authentic gaming.’
And you know what, I wholeheartedly agree with that statement. I also don’t want a token in a game, but that is not what this is about, because suddenly, the exact same gatekeepers who are advocating for ‘authentic gaming’ have a completely different reaction to other titles also featuring women.
When God of War: Laufey was revealed, they branded that too woke, yet when Stellar Blade: Blood Rain was announced and we had a new woman as the lead, those same people put their pitchforks away and pulled out their wallets.
Why? Because the protagonist of Stellar Blade is incredibly hyper-sexualised.
Coincidence? No, it is hypocrisy and clear evidence that a woman is only acceptable in a game if her primary function is to appease the male gaze. If she is clad in nothing more than a loincloth, the game is deemed authentic. But if she is a fully fleshed out character with her own agency, like Laufey, wearing armour, she is labelled as an agenda.
A woman is only acceptable in a game if her primary function is to appease the male gaze
They don’t hate the idea of women in games; they hate women who aren’t made to serve their every need. A woman who they can’t objectify.
What happened to us? The true gamers who merely wanted a great story with some halfway decent graphics?
We can’t even objectively critique a game anymore because the conversation becomes overrun by these trolls who start throwing a tantrum and call for mass boycotts when they see someone other than a white male on the screen. Why is it that a woman cannot simply exist without them losing their minds?
It feels like women themselves are now classified as too woke.
As a black woman, I would be remiss not to mention that when we also add race to the mix, there is a double layering of antagonism from these trolls online.
The hostility we saw directed at South of Midnight proved that for these people, a black woman is the pinnacle of their inauthentic gaming agenda. It goes beyond sexism, racism and even homophobia; it is about the inability, the absolute refusal to accept or see anyone other than themselves as the hero of the story.
When white male characters dominate the screen, the game is lauded as a return to ‘real gaming’. When anyone else takes the spotlight, it’s branded as forced diversity.
The research I undertook to write this article, outside of talking to several different gamers, I also perused through several Reddit threads and watched some YouTube ‘think pieces’ from some self-appointed experts in the industry. I noticed a recurring defence.
Some of the most vocal voices maintained that they were entirely impartial, stating that they merely wanted historical accuracy and they were attempting to maintain the creative freedom of the gaming studios. They would state unironically: ‘The game is called God of War, not Goddess of war.’
If I am to pretend for a moment that they genuinely want to stick closely to the source material. Whatever genuine reason they claim to be making is completely erased by the manner in which they are doing this. The relentless online campaigns has created a toxic and hostile environment that pushes women, and anyone who isn’t a white male out of the gaming space.
If we really wanted to create characters that don’t read as inauthentic or a token, then we need to stop brandishing every game where there isn’t a white male as the lead as some sort of a political statement. Women have always been part of the gaming industry, as players, as developers, as creators.
I am Annabel or creativelyanzy as I’m known online! I am the founder of Melanin Gamers: a gaming community that promotes diversity and inclusivity in the video games industry, with a special focus on content creators; whiles also providing a safe space for people of colour to come together and game
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I am Annabel or creativelyanzy as I’m known online! I am the founder of Melanin Gamers: a gaming community that promotes diversity and inclusivity in the video games industry, with a special focus on content creators; whiles also providing a safe space for people of colour to come together and game