Female Characters
Look, game development isn't as easy as people seem to think it is.
Vital Statistics
Date: July 7, 2014
Category: Shorts
Appearing: Graham Stark, Kathleen De Vere, Cameron Lauder, Jeremy Petter and James Turner
Writing: Graham Stark
Camera: Paul Saunders, Graham Stark
Big Booms: Paul Saunders, Cameron Lauder
Edited by: Graham Stark
Executive Producers: Andrew "Omega Lairon" Paye, Rachel Bradford and Christian "Imat" Johnson
Synopsis
At GamExpo 2014, Karen Wallnut (Kathleen) from "Sir Frags-a-Lot Gaming News" is interviewing Greg (Graham), the spokesperson for a major new title coming out on Xbox One, PS4, and PC. Greg his in his element until Karen catches him off guard by asking if players will be able to play as a female character. Three of the game's project leads (played by Cam, Graham, and Jer) are then shown in varying stages of game development that demonstrate that while the game has an unparalleled amount of character customization and an unbelievably swollen budget, the developers never even aware of the existence of women, and, despite their best efforts, their rush to include women in the game was hampered by time and very, very poor research. The video concludes with Greg suggesting that women might be included at a later date as DLC.
Trivia
- The video was released in July of 2014 as controversy over female representation in games was reaching a breaking point (that would come a few weeks later with Anita Sarkeesian's "Feminist Frequency" series and the coining of the term "Social Justice Warrior"). As a result, the video gained significant attention from various gaming news outlets beyond LRR's usual fanbase, provoking support from most viewers but a small and vocal backlash from people who believe that there is not a problem with female representation in games. At the height of this backlash, the video was posted to the infamous reddit thread r/MRA ("men's rights activism", a thread where people believe that men are being oppressed by society), an event which the LRR crew mock-celebrated on Twitter. Conversations about feminism and gaming continue to come up from time to time, especially around Cameron and Alex, who even before the video have been particularly vocal about the issue.
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