Stop the presses! Grown, adult men are bitching about Star Wars again. This time it’s the latest game, Outlaws, and it’s got nothing to do with the gameplay, or the setting, or even the premise. Overall, the internet seems pretty excited about it, and I am, against my better judgment, keen to play it as well. I love the idea of playing a Star Wars game that isn’t centred around the Jedi, since almost every Star Wars game ever made has been about Jedis. But men aren’t complaining about any of those things. They’re mad that they’ll have to play as Kay Vess, a – dare I say it – woman.People are trotting out the usual reasons. “What if I relate to male characters more because I’m a man?” I’m sorry you don’t have enough media literacy to understand that games can have meaning outside of how much you, personally, relate to the character and their gender. Also, there are plenty of games where you’re able to play as a man, go play one of those. “All video game characters are women now!” No, they’re not. Plenty of games have male protagonists, and it’s silly to claim that’s not the case.Star Wars Jedi: Survivorcame out less than two months ago, where the protagonist, Cal Kestis, is definitely a man. A man who likes women, even! Video game woke agenda conspiracy officially quashed, you read it here first. “It’s unrealistic for a woman to be able to survive alone in the Star Wars underworld.” Yeah, I love misogyny too! Women have never done anything that a man can do, ever, in any universe.Related:Call Of Duty Streamers Are Too Cowardly To Admit They’re HomophobicThe only remotely valid argument here is that people were hoping to be able to customise their character, since it’s an open-world game. Players want to choose their gender, or even be aliens or droids, whatever. It’s interesting that people really only seem to care about this when the protagonist is a woman, though, and by ‘interesting’, I mean ‘very obviously misogynistic’. In games likeGrand Theft Auto,Red Dead Redemption,Breath of the WildandThe Witcher, your gender is locked. You can’t customise your character in any really meaningful way. Your character is fixed, and nobody complains about not being able to customise their characters, because they’re still great, well-made, compelling games. It’s okay to admit you only care about diversity when it means you’re represented. If you’re going to be annoying on the internet, you might as well be honest about why.
We see these arguments all the time online. We saw it withHorizon Zero DawnandThe Last of Us 2. Smaller games that aren’t part of huge IPs, likeControlandA Plague Talemanage to escape the worst of it, but the bigger a series is, the more misogynists want to dunk on it. It’s always boggled my mind that people could be so self-absorbed over something so silly – out of the thousands of games made with male protagonists, suddenly gamers turn into champions of ‘representation for all’ when faced with having to have empathy for a character that doesn’t look just like them. The great thing about video games is that nobody is holding a gun to your head, telling you to play them or suffer unspeakable pain. You simply don’t have to open your wallet and shell out money for it.
As we say every time this debate rages anew, it’s extremely silly to have a hissy fit because you’ll have to play as a woman in a video game. But it’s more than that – it’s a huge indicator of the right-wing, conservative trends in gaming as a whole, and the fact that misogyny seems to be getting worse as gaming companies branch out into female-led games is extremely concerning. It’s foolish to think that online trolling and misogyny have no real-life effects, especially after what happened with theThug Shaker Central Discord server. It’s a symptom of increasing political polarisation, and a willingness to be dicks about a woman character on the internet that does, unfortunately, point to a willingness to be a dick to women in real life. Every time a new game launches with a female protagonist, I find myself holding my breath, hoping that maybe this time, gamers won’t be such beasts about it. I always find myself disappointed.
