RANTY RANT TIME. Disclamer: I am really, really, really mad.
Alrighty so as some of you gamers may know, the newest Assassin’s Creed game, AC: Unity is set to release in October. It includes game play set during the French Revolution, multiplayer, beautiful graphics, and four carbon copies of the same old hooded white males sporting a little stubble. “BUT JESSICA!” the readers cry out, “THEY RELEASED A SPINOFF OF AC3 THAT HAD A FEMALE LEAD!!” Yes. I know. Fools, think I don’t do my research? This elusive game was known as Assassin’s Creed: Liberation, featured a woman of colour protagonist known as Aveline AND WAS ONLY RELEASED FOR THE PS VITA, which came dead last in sales when it was released in 2011 AND STILL CAME DEAD LAST IN SALES a year later, when AC: Liberation was released. Further to that, AC: Liberation received almost no advertising. I will not be satiated by ONE game that had a female protagonist and was barely advertised for a game console that, let’s face it, nobody wanted.
Being one of the 47 percent population of women that occupy the gaming world, I would like to see some recognition. I also want to clarify a few facts regarding the ‘elusive’ girl gamer. HERE’S YOUR FIRST FACT. We’re not elusive. We’re everywhere. Well, 47 per cent of everywhere. But do you want to know why I (and most likely other girl gamers) don’t advertise my sex freely when gaming? Because I go to gaming as a stress relief (even though I will admit League of Legends makes me want to scream BECAUSE PEOPLE ARE SO RUDE), and that stress relief is ABSOLUTELY CRUSHED and replaced with frustration when I am swarmed with “t*ts or GTFO,” “get back in the kitchen!” or “you know you’re pretty good – for a girl.”
Maybe if entertainment companies made games with comprehensive female protagonists the other 53 per cent of the gaming community would be more accepting, instead of women in companies being treated as sex objects to be one once your quest was complete.
Excuses (I AM LOOKING AT YOU UBISOFT) like “animating female anatomy is difficult” and “women weren’t assassins during the French Revolution,” are not going to get you anywhere. I’m not an animator, but here’s an idea – instead of animating women to have unattainable 40-25-36 measurements or creating a risque sexy-assassin costume, how about you take a page from Valve Corp, whose AWARD WINNING GAME Portal and Portal 2 feature a realistic female protagonist who surprisingly survived escaping GlaDOS without having giant jiggling bits of female anatomy. Also, the fact that you neglected to include the female killer of a largely important figure in the French Revolution is just sad.
If you weren’t aware, homegirl Charlotte Corday assassinated Jacobin leader Jean-Paul Marat. “BUT JESSICA! CHARLOTTE CORDAY WASÂ EXECUTED!!!! IT WOULDN’T BE FACTUALLY CORRECT!” Yeah, neither is changing your vision so everybody is a shade of either gold, red or blue.
