Let me say this up front: I love video games. I met my boyfriend playing a video game and he moved halfway across the country to be with me. We play games together often and it is something that we have in common that some other couples don't. I do not believe that female gamers are as rare as a lot of people try to make them out to be and as a female gamer there are a lot of things about video games that really piss me off. Shall I begin to name a few?
Apparently it is just as useful for my female character to have her T&A hanging out of her armor as it is for her male counterpart to be completely covered up wearing his 50lbs of gear. I understand I am not the first person (or the last) to complain about this, but it really puts me off. Why yes, if I am to go on an assassination mission, of COURSE i want my skin tight suit to have my boobs hanging out of it. It's not like any of my vital organs are near my boobs, right?
There is a great article written about this here: Video games and Male Gaze - are we men or boys? In which the author, who happens to be male, argues against this blatant sexism in video games. Is it necessary to have these characters have sex scenes like in Mass Effect and Farcry 3 (during which actual boobs are shown). Do men really wonder why women don't like to play games much? I wouldn't doubt a lot of it has to do with how obviously male oriented video games are. I'm sorry, sometimes I get tired of seeing half naked women running around in these games for no other reason than to excite the male consumer. I will end this argument here because honestly that article says more than I could've hoped to put into words myself. It is a good read if you have the time. The bottom line is: There is a way to make female characters 'sexy' without making them into whores.
Secondly, I absolutely cannot stand war simulation video games. At all. Here's my reason for that. War isn't something we should glorify. I've recently been watching a documentary on Netflix entitled WWII in HD. It shows tons of actual footage of WWII, including lots and lots of dead bodies. Not just dead...but blow apart, burnt, shot, bloated and floating in water, limbs missing and all. I have a military history in my family and I have a ton of respect for our military. That being said, I cannot see how so many people can enjoy these games like CoD, MW, etc. Not after seeing what I have. Since when is it something to cheer about when someone gets their face torn off by a mortar? Since when is it something to cheer about when a soldier dies instantly with a bullet to the brain? Am I supposed to say, "It's just a video game. It isn't real life"?
Isn't it though? Do we not have thousands of bodies being returned to the US in coffins from being killed overseas? By roadside bombs, beheadings and torture? Is it supposed to be okay because it's the "other guys"? To me that type of murder is never okay. These men who go off and fight our wars, from WWI up though this current war in Iraq and Afghanistan are brave. They are heroes. They paid the ultimate sacrifice. Even if they didn't die, we have thousands of men coming back missing limbs, disabled, psychotically messed up for the rest of their lives. But some pimple faced kid or some man with something to prove gets to stay at home, play these games and curse at each other over a headset because someone died one too many times to headshots and they're pissed off about it? They're a bunch of cowards. Have some respect. I despise that this has become such a popular industry of which we have bought into as a nation.
There is a difference between being proud of what our soldiers accomplish and glorifying the horrors that is war. These men don't get to respawn and try again. Death is permanent. Anything else is a disgrace to those men and women's husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and children. They will never see their loved ones again. And for what? For you to sit at home and pretend to do what they go out and do day in and day out. What a shame.
"War is a horrible, nasty business and to say otherwise is to do a disservice to those who died."
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