multipleendings:

THOUGHTS ON | puppeteer, gavin moore, and male protagonists

Gavin Moore, the creative director of upcoming PS3 title “Puppeteer" was asked in a recent interview about why players aren’t given the option to play as a girl character. His response was… disheartening. He basically said that it doesn’t matter, that it’s his story and that he shouldn’t have to be “PC" and “[pander] to public opinion” by offering the option of letting the player plays as a female character. The interview rubbed me in the wrong way and you can read the full thing here, but I want to address his comments as I feel they’re pretty indicative of how a lot of male developers treat the subject.

“ Why do we want girls to play girls and why do we want boys to play boys?”

I see this kind of thing brought up a lot, but I think people don’t realize that is not necessarily what this is about. What most people want is the option. Frequently when it comes to gaming, players aren’t given the opportunity to see themselves. Female players aren’t allowed to see themselves as the protagonist because they always have to play as a male. Furthermore, it keeps boy players from being able to relate to and connect with female characters because they are rarely ever in the protagonist role. It’s less about wanting girls to play as girls and boys to play as boys. It’s more about the fact that video games are making everyone play as boys and boys alone. It’s about the fact that video games treat male protagonist as “default" or “universal" and everything else as “special interest".

This is shown clearly by Moore himself later in the interview. When asked if Kutaro (the protagonist) is meant to be seen as “the player" he responds with:

“Exactly. It’s exactly, that’s what it is. I mean, he doesn’t even speak. He has no personality. It’s just you. You just impose your personality on him and play as you.”

But if he doesn’t speak, doesn’t have personality, and it’s all about what the player brings to the character, then why is it so important to Moore that Kutaro is exclusively a male character? If it’s about you, the player and your personality, why is the player avatar exclusively male? What sort of message does that send to players? This is where his argument doesn’t make much sense. If it’s all about the player playing “as you" why is he writing off allowing half of the population to play as themselves as simply “pandering to public opinion"?

“I know how the women are strong and I love women, I think they are wonderful, but, I’m not going to change my creative vision over something because somebody tells me that that’s what’s important now. Because I don’t think that’s important. ”

The unfortunate reality is that having a protagonist who can be either male or female (or even gender neutral) would better fit Moore’s vision of the protagonist being “you". But instead, denouncing it a matter of pandering and being politically-correct, kids get the lesson that being a boy means being an adventurer, means having an active role, while girls are relegated to supporting characters in that boy’s story again.

It’s a statement of ridiculous privilege, the idea that because it doesn’t matter to him, it is simply “not important". And you know, in a perfect world, it probably wouldn’t matter if a character like Kutaro is a boy or a girl. But that’s not the world (or the industry) we live in. Kutaro is just another character in a long line of characters that tell players that girls can’t be the heroes, they have to be the supporting character. Male protagonists overwhelmingly outnumber female protagonists and this disproportional ratio is a problem and it has real effects on people. Media has been shown time and time again to shape our culture and our society and our perceptions. And to frequently see so many male developers be so dismissive of these very real concerns is troublesome.

No one is saying that developers can’t make the games they want to make, or that they have to do xyz. They clearly don’t, and they clearly won’t. But just because you have a “vision" and you can tell whatever story you want doesn’t mean you are free from criticism. Content creators help shape society and culture and that position is not something that should be treated as a “get out of jail free card".

It’s something that should be held up to even more scrutiny.