So I beat Dragon Age: Origins. It’s a funny thing about the game; I went in expecting your standard BioWare RPG fare, and came out feeling entirely endeared to the cast of characters, and excited for more content.
I started out playing Lyna, a female Dalish (woodlands) elf, as a rogue. In the world of Dragon Age, this means that not only am I being looked on questioningly as a female, but also as an elf, a race of beings that was once enslaved by humans and now still subject to racism and discrimination. Elves that choose to live in urban areas are forced to live in slums called ‘alienages,’ and are expected to generally work as servants or other such menial labor positions, under human bosses.
Racism and sexism are not new concepts to the gaming world or to high fantasy. What’s unique to Dragon Age, however, is the way in which these concepts are played out. (More on the racism aspect in another post this week.)
Until now, I have yet to play an RPG where playing a female character was a unique experience separate from playing a male character. Even in the much-lauded Mass Effect, playing Shepard as a female to me meant more or less the same thing as playing the role as a male, except you got to choose if you wanted to have sex with a male or a female supporting character.
In Fable II, female characters looked like hulking monstrosities if you dared level up strength, and in Fallout 3, aside from a few notable exceptions (the Black Widow perk, for one), your female character experience had no distinguishing differences from the male perspective of the game.
It’s as if developers of RPGs in recent years figured that they needed to have a female role in the game somehow, but they had no idea how to go about doing it, so they just made a female skin for the male protagonist. Sort of like how James Cameron developed Ripley for Alien (he admits he wrote the part originally for a male and then just “changed the name”).
Behind every great woman, is a Grey Warden with a sexy accent.
In Dragon Age, however, I have already been questioned by my subordinate party member, Sten, twice as to my abilities to lead a group of warriors as a woman. I’ve also been subject to comments from NPC characters in passing, expressing surprise that the Gray Wardens allowed women into the sect.
When another one of my party members, a female human named Leiliana, gets hit on by a new member of our group, she expresses disdain for such comments instead of the more traditional passive behavior or even appreciation of sexual innuendo seen in other RPGs.
And of course, as is standard for BioWare, refreshingly, the female members of the game do NOT have exaggerated hips and breasts. They actually look like real women, and their armor actually covers sensitive areas usually exposed on female characters (Well, mostly. There are some light armor pieces that still expose midriff regions or legs).
Throughout the game, I’ve been compelled to stop now and again and really look at each character. The primary female support characters–Leiliana, Morrigan and Wynne–all bring their own dynamic to the group. I might just make a mini-series of posts examining each one, but for now I’ll just say that Dragon Age is truly the first video game I’ve played where the female characters were more than boy clones or walking stereotypes.
Huh…that’s really interesting. I think the reason most games keep to the “same as male character with different skin” model is that previously when developers distinguished between male and female they did it by making the female character weaker in stats.
It’s refreshing to see that a game recognizes there is a difference in gender without stunting the game play.
Yeah, it feels like there was some real thought put in to the characters. There’s one who comes off as kind of the ice queen, but through dialogue she really struggles with concepts of being a strong woman and also not being afraid to show a more traditionally feminine side, for example.
I think this was a very interesting post thanks for writing it!
[...] Melinda Bardon writes about how Dragon Age: Origins actually changes the players experience if they play as a female character, unlike many other RPGs which often simply slap a female skin on an otherwise male role. Bardon [...]
I am also glad to hear that this is happenning. I think once I get around to playing Dragon Age, I might try with a female character, just to see how it goes.
I’ve only just began playing this game – it seems to have a very complicated UI interface which puts me off somewhat, but if what you say here is right it might well be worth sticking it out a little longer.
I’ve found the same with most of these RPG games, the difference between male and female characters is just that, a ‘skin’ over the male character.
It really annoys me and also to find that bugs still exist where NPC’s refer to you as ‘Mister’ or something similar in the audio or text. (Fallout 3 – Greyditch – yes, I’ve played that too)
I guess developers still have trouble escaping the false perception that RPG gamers are all teenage boys simply wanting female eye-candy to look at when they’re playing the game.
It was even mentioned in develop that the marketers of one of these games are deliberately aiming at the Male audience.
*sigh* will it ever dawn on people that we play more than just casual Wii games?
I liked it. So much useful material. I read with great interest.
Hey there — sorry to be a pain in the arse – it wasn’t James Cameron you’re talking about, it’s Dan O’Bannon
Glad to finally see a vid game with a real woman rather than — as you say — a skinned man character.
gotheek is right – Dan O’Bannon wrote the original Alien and came up with Ripley’s character. James Cameron wrote the sequel, and there is simply no way he ever considered doing Aliens without Sigourney Weaver as Ripley.
I am an avid RPG player and I have finally gotten so tired of playing male characters since that is the only option in most games, that I have decided not to play at all.
Until now. Thank you for a very informative article.
gotheek and Existenz — You are correct that Dan O’Bannon was the primary writer of the screenplay, I totally got that wrong & thanks for the correction!
However, there have been multiple instances in the press referring to the fact that Ripley was indeed intended to be a male character. Here’s one from The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/oct/13/ridley-scott-alien-ripley (This was also mentioned in the New Yorker’s article on Avatar recently).
Are you a professional journalist? You write very well.
Yeah, if anything, you have to admit that the game is very well done as far as converastion/role/direction is concerned. Your choices tend to make a difference in this game, and thats a good step forward.
Well written piece – will add you to my favourites
That was a very interesting post, I enjoyed reading it. You are so right.
[...] thing that I found appealing was the very real presentation of female characters. These were not your teenager-inspired passive hyper-sexualized characters found in a lot of game [...]
Great article, Fab work
Fantastic work, Great stuff!
I loved the article, great stuff!
Fab article very well written – enjoyed reading it.
Fab article, shall visit again.
Really good piece of work, an enjoyable read.
Enjoyed reading that.
What I found funny about the game though is that there will always be a Xena-like character in a game. In my case I think it was Ser Cauthrien for this one. Wow that sword was big.
Interesting read, will visit your site again.
It’s interresting, when you think about it, that we’re thinking of “seperate/different yet equal” as a step up from treating everyone the same, when it’s normally considered a step down in real life.
A bit ironic, actually.
I suppose perhaps we’re enamoured with the enhanced realism; the existence of a familiar sense of sexism in the peoples of the gameworld.
I really like your blog, keep posting.