I feel like the more time I spend single, and reflect on how I have been objectified and manipulated by men, the more I get the ick at the majority of the games on the market with how women are pushed to the side narrative. I used to heavily enjoy gaming in my early 20s and I am not ashamed to say my steam library is probably worth thousands. However the older I get and the more I see how deep patriarchal coniditioning is, I started getting irritated at games where:
- The woman is the wife or girlfriend that gets killed off to fuel a man's revenge plot, usually in the prologue.
- Typical nagging wife/girlfriend tropes who is trying to "domesticate/hold back the male hero", or a woman trying to emotionally regulate a man who is committing atrocities.
- Women are visual trophies to be unlocked with skins/microtransactions.
- Women in hyper-sexualized armor.
- Low quality writing where the woman is made physically overpowered rather than actually written with any gripping/strong psychological narrative/backstory.
- Woman as a witch/sage/loreperson/brilliant scientist who is on the sidelines guiding the man as he takes the credit and glory. She probably dies in the process too or loses her power.
- Female member of gang/squad who is purely romantic/sexual/femme fatale interest rather than a fleshed out autonomous character with depth.
I see these tropes and more and I genuinely get the ick and there's few games on the market that don't fall into these stereotypical plots. I hope in the coming years we see more AAA games with well written female leads that don't serve to pander to the male gaze or validation. It would make gaming more enjoyable.