Male centered gaming

[Vindekarr]

To my mind the portrayal of some female characters as mindless tarts is accurate and fair, as is the portrayal of "ladies men" and "girly-men". Bloody hell I've met a few ladies IRW who fit the whole stereotype of minimum brains, maximum bust. And I've met just as many men who fit that description too!. And anyway, sex isnt a black and white thing, some men have huge tits, too!

 

You'd be wise to remember that extreme deficiency of character isnt a gender thing. Mindless fools slave to their own hungers and desire exist in both sexes, and if you think otherwise, you're blind. I know I've met plenty of idiotic, tarty, parasitic women who barely deserve to live, just as I've met plenty of idiotic, tarty parasitic men who barely deserve to live. Tarty lobotomised parasites are a fact of life, and arent gender specific.

 

As for Lara, Im impressed by the way they're taking the emphasis off the tits and putting it onto exploration and survival. Im a writer. I write for a living, I also write for enjoyment, and I've had a few female characters across a wide spectrum of personalities and ways of being. Sexuality isnt a neccesary theme with female characters-that's where the real flaw lies. Men wiriting up a female character all too often feel compelled to harp on lyrical about sexuality, and typicaly the result is a nuymphomaniac yardgnome with no resemblance to a human being, let alone a woman.

 

You dont have to mention sexuality, if you dont write a single sex scene then your novel will not be missing anything it wouldnt likely have been better off without. Sure some novels are better with a sex scene or two, and some chracters need it, but only an idiot wastes their time writing hackneyed sex scenes. I cant remember the exact name, but I scifi I read a few years ago, Voidhawk or something, due to the utter incompetance of the author, was basicaly porn because he couldnt resist the temptation to throw his proposterously endowed female protagonist into a sexual encounter with anything that bears a pulse-then again had I not quit by the third chapter and 7th sex scene, I probably would have been traumatised by encounters with things without a pulse aswell.

 

As for not playing online games because of the community... just gotta find a game with a community worth hanging out with. I think you'd like EVE Online Illiad, pretty no-one gives a damn who you are, they only care whether you're pointing a Hurricane in their general direction and saying "stick em up". It's like the wild west in space, a grand expanse of beautifuly rendered space to explore, that's been turned over to the players 100%. Players rule literaly everything, moderation, law enforcement, help and support, even the vendors for goods and auctioneers are players. And because of that, surprisingly, it's literaly trollproof. You just cant grief in EVE because sooner or later you're going to need something from the fellow you insulted.

 

In WoW maybe the lesser sort of idiotic troller might yell insults at you for what you play, but still, they're a minority.

 

I cant think of a single MMO I played recently where I'd not bother speaking for fear of there being nobody rational to respond. Only Guild Wars was ever that bestial.

Edited March 2, 2011 by Vindekarr