“Female Draenei and Tauren, however, are just a little bit shorter than their male counterparts, and can usually fit through the same doors that males cannot, while mounted. This may sound like a trivial problem, but to some people it is a really big deal — so much so that some people have vigorously petitioned the WoW developers to allow them to switch genders on their Draenei and Tauren characters.
John Kim, on Vincent Baker’s blog:
And you know, when I look at people’s reactions to Dogs in the Vineyard or even Kill Puppies For Satan, I don’t see many people offended—judging by the threads on RPGnet or such. Vincent may get a clueless email or two, but most people just don’t care. The recent games people have gotten up in arms about are games like Blue Rose and Wraeththu. Guess why?
Context: Dogs in the Vineyard presents a sort of backward highly patriarchal society, but this was okay because we players are supposed to be in a position to judge it. (And also, the rough historical analogue did have this kind of patriachy.)
On the other hand, Blue Rose presents the trope of romantic fantasy, depicting a lot more gender / sexual equality than most fantasy. And yes, on several major fora, Blue Rose is held up as some oppressive tract, crushing down on the rights of the heterosexual.
Interesting, that.
How can it be a triumph of female agency when the woman who’s kicking some ass is doing it in the context of male desire?
Girl Power, Andrea Rubenstein.
When I look at myself, I see a girl on the internet and a girl with an internet life. I see a girl who loves to play games and kill the dirty Alliance faction in WoW. I see a girl who can bunny hop with the best of them and keep her kills higher than her deaths in Counter Strike. I can talk the talk and walk the walk. But I am not a girl on the internet, because as I’ve been told before, I do not exist.
Well, this is me telling you, I do exist. Owned.
Whitney Butts, the Escapist, “OMG Girls Don’t Exist on teh Intarweb!!!!1”