#FtBCon: Female Protagonists in Video Games

Had a fantastic panel with Ashley F. Miller, Rebecca Watson, Avicenna Last, Tauriq Moosa and Lynnea Glasser on female protagonists in video games, though we expanded the scope of the panel somewhat unexpectedly to cover also genderqueer, gay and trans* characters, which I wasn’t expecting and didn’t stack the panel toward. If I would have known in advance, I would have happily included voices, and I sincerely apologize if I was unable to speak for you adequately.

Even still, despite that issue of “mission creep” of the panel’s focus, I really enjoyed this panel. It was significantly more muted than the panel last night, but that’s probably a good thing. Last night’s was funny, and I had a good time, but it was a bit unfocused comparitively. This one ran really smoothly by comparison.

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#FtBCon: Female Protagonists in Video Games
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One thought on “#FtBCon: Female Protagonists in Video Games

  1. Zoe
    1

    Hi there! Don’t know if any of the panel members will see this to read it, but I’ll post anyway just in case. Longtime fan of FTB via Sincerely, Natalie Reed. Also a trans woman, and a casual gamer (casual in the sense that I don’t play very often, not as a statement about the kinds of games I enjoy). I was personally pretty excited that the topic of transgender and genderqueer characters in games came up briefly, since I wasn’t expecting that to be on the radar of a panel of cis gamers. I was also pleased to hear that the game Dys4ia made an impact on some of you. I wanted to pick on a couple of points, however.

    1. While it is true that having the option to play as your gender in MMOs and other games is a great form of release/escape for a lot of transgender gamers, myself included, it would also be great if some playable characters with backstories were written as explicitly trans, so that we could have our life experience reflected sometimes. Also, having customizable characters with only male/female options doesn’t really help genderqueer and otherwise non-binary folks.

    2. I watched a video recently about Poison that pretty convincingly made the case that she was always intended as a transgender character, even in the original Japanese release. It’s on joystiq.com if you’re interested, but I won’t link it because of transphobic nonsense throughout the vid. Regardless of all this, beating up cis characters as a playable trans woman could be a pretty empowering and subversive option for trans gamers who spend their lives in a world where trans people are themselves all too often the victims of beatings at the hands of cis people. Not sure how other trans folk feel about this, but I’d personally play as Poison no matter what the original intent behind her was.

    3. It’s called gender dysphoria, and it’s no longer considered a disorder in the DSM. Cheers!

    Thanks for a very enjoyable and thought-provoking panel!
    Zoe

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