Into the 21st Century



Certainly, the online gaming community will continue to grow and expand. Massively-multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs, for short) like Everquest and Asheron’s Call are among the most popular online E-games currently in existence. In these online worlds, gamers may select the gender and race of their characters, and even design their appearance to a certain extent. The potential for strong female characters in this type of scenario is clear, but the reality is that patriarchal notions and imagery control MMORPGs.
          Everquest provides several examples of this. In Verant’s advertising for the game and its expansion packs, one image is recurrent: the Elf Queen. Everquest is portraying the Elf Queen as an idol of lust in an attempt to attract (male) interest in the Everquest experience. As a result, male gamers who behave according to patriarchal stereotypes play many of the female characters in Everquest. They dress their characters in provocative attire and sexually proposition the other players. This type of behavior is responsible for many players (men and women alike) canceling their Everquest subscriptions.
          Patriarchy has remained the dominant ideology in this country despite Feminist resistance. How has this been possible? The examples in this paper typify patriarchy’s response to any potential usurpations of its power: any real ideological threats are undermined and attacked, and are reformulated in a manner that fits more neatly into (and under) patriarchal values. The way potentially strong female characters in the E-gaming community have been subverted and objectified is representative of the type of resistance American Feminism has faced since before Stanton and Catt.
          An analysis of other current trends in the E-gaming community provides decidedly mixed results. Here are the top selling E-games from 1999 and 2000:

Top Selling Games of 1999
  1. Sim City 3000
  2. Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?
  3. Age of Empires II
  4. Starcraft
  5. Half-Life
  6. Command & Conquer II
  7. Microsoft Flight Simulator
  8. Frogger
  9. Roller Coaster Tycoon
  10. Baldur's Gate
 Top Selling Games of 2000
  1. The Sims
  2. Roller Coaster Tycoon
  3. Diablo II
  4. Who Want To Be a Millionaire
  5. Who Wants To Be a Millionaire (2nd Ed.)
  6. The Sims: 'Livin Large
  7. Age of Empires II
  8. Sim Theme Park
  9. Sim City 3000
  10. Age of Empires II: Conquerors
These lists reveal the enormous popularity of simulations and “God” games, which both allow the gamer to micromanage most aspects of the gaming environments. However, these E-games typically have few memorable characters at all, male or female, focusing instead on global environmental/political/military decisions. This grand scope leaves little room for the development of individual characters. This may result in less patriarchal sexist rhetoric, but it also means that strong female characters are absent. Some may see this genre of E-game as an improvement, but I see it as a step sideways at best; how can a lack of women characters in a game be a success for Feminism?