Welcome to another installment of She’s Got Game’s Weekly Wrap Up! Now that 2012 really is in full swing, gamers are preparing for all the best that the new year can offer. This week Diablo III releases 100,000 additional beta keys, Soul Calibur V‘s marketing ploy is pretty transparent, Skyrim releases a creation kit and a Portal 2 reference, LadySnip3r blogs about the “either/or” categories that women who game are put into, and we take a look at how RPGs speak to women characters.
With Diablo III slated as an “early 2012” release, the amount of time I am patiently waiting is running thin. A small rumor has been floating around that February was finally going to yield the game over 10 years in the making, but I sincerely doubt we would be graced with such a wondrous gift. Right now, I think most of us are just thinking that if it gets released before the middle of 2013, we will be happy campers. In the meantime, Blizzard has handed out an additional 100,000 beta keys to those who signed up to be beta testers. What does this mean for the actual release of the game? Nothing probably, since the official release date hasn’t been set. It might satiate the hungry masses for a little while longer, though.
When I think of video games that don’t objectify women, Soul Calibur has never been one I would include. However, this whole “breasts as a method of selling a video game” is getting pretty old. It was old years ago, but needless to say it seems like the newest Soul Calibur installment is grasping at straws for attention. Dorkly seemed to sum it up quite nicely with this comic.
My two favorite things came together this week, in the most unexpected way. Valve and Bethesda Studio partnered up to celebrate the release of the Skryim‘s Creation Kit, which allows for modifications and management of the game. It is also the second game to be featured on the Steam Workshop, which allows for easier sharing and downloading of user-created content. The creation kit included a new high resolution texture pack for the game. Valve’s addition was the Space Core from Portal 2, which for right now offers it’s quotable quips and apparently makes an interesting helmet. Right now there really isn’t anything else the Space Core can do, but Memborable from YouTube did note that a Portal 2 quest might be coming soon.
Blogger LadySnip3r discusses an issue with gaming and women that has been around for a very long time — the duality that occurs when women are labeled in gaming. She argues that women who enjoy video games are often placed into one of two areas — either women are the “[a]ttention seeking, hot, girlie-girl” or the “boy-killing, ugly feminist”. Unfortunately, I still see this duality occur on a daily basis on online forums, with a large consensus agreeing with the sentiments. Nevertheless, these stereotypes and methods of shaming women are obnoxious to say the least and tell women to remain silent in their enjoyment of video games or stay away from them as a whole.
Finally, Becky Chambers at The Mary Sue writes about how discussions can differ for RPG characters with a female gender, often for no reason. Chambers labels it as the “Hey Sweetheart Scenario” in which an NPC makes a remark about the character being a female, and the player is allowed to respond in a way that “proves” the NPC wrong that they are another gentle, timid, female soul. The biggest problem in these kind of situations is that RPGs are often touting themselves as gender-equal areas, where both sexes are allowed to fight in wars and both men and women can be the heroes. Why would be so surprising or worth noting if women are accepted in all aspects of society? Overall, the article is a worthwhile read and offers some excellent examples from Dragon Age: Origins.
If you have an article you’d like to recommend for the Weekly Wrap Up, please email me at stephanie@pixelatedgeek.com.