David Cage’s Detroit: Become Human wants to talk about difficult questions. The game from Cage’s studio Quantic Dream, is a story of android prejudice and rebellion touches upon questions of the soul and the nature of being. But Detroit is also a bloated action movie romp. One sequence, a series in a pattern for Cage, denigrates the female protagonist. It’s pointless voyeurism, and I’m sick of it.
Androids are commonplace in Detroit: Become Human. They perform construction work, provide home and hospice care, fight in the military, and perform domestic cleaning. One of these androids is Kara, a housecleaning android purchased by an alcoholic named Todd.
In one of the game’s most controversial scenes, Kara achieves sentience when Todd beats and abuses his young daughter Alice. While player decisions impact Todd’s fate, the story usually ends with Kara and Alice fleeing. Alone and with nowhere to go, they arrive on the doorstep of a man named Zlatko who they believe can help them. The scene that follows is exploitative, presenting a tired scenario wherein Kara is bound and menaced.
It is a scene we’ve encountered in Cage’s works before from Heavy Rain to Beyond: Two Souls. Each of these games takes their female protagonist and places them in uncontrollable situations of physical or sexual violence.
Zlakto informs Kara that in order to smuggle her to safety, he needs to disable a tracking device implanted in her body. The device to remove it, as luck would have it, is in his basement.
All Kara needs to do is head down there and step into the machine. Of course, Zlatko is playing her. The device actually wipes androids memories and turns them into his servants. The player encounters one of these servant at the start of the scene, a large black android called Luther. As Kara steps into the machine, she is bound by two metallic grips and left in the basement while Zlatko and Luther take Alice away.
The player must find a way to free Kara. If this sounds familiar to anyone, that’s because this is a scenario Cage is fond of.
In Heavy Rain, journalist Madison Page is one of four protagonists looking to uncover the identity of the Origami Killer, a murderer who targets children. In her search, she comes to the home of someone who owned an apartment that the killer used.
While it is possible to leave without incident, many players will find themselves drugged and bound in the man’s basement. Either they break free and escape or the man uses crude powertools to mangle and kill Madison.
In Beyond: Two Souls, protagonist Jodie Holmes sneaks out of the military base where she is staying and goes to a local bar. The bar inhabitants eventually slam her on top of a pool table and attempt to rape her. She is sixteen.
These instances of “controllable helplessness” invariably exist to disempower and imperil Cage’s female protagonists in a fetishtishtic display of violence. Cage pulls them off with a troubling consistency.
If the player does not act or fails too many prompts, these women are killed, traumatically assaulted or functionally lobotomized. In other cases, they are sexually humiliated and assaulted.
Often, these scenes do little to progress their stories should they live. If Madison survives, she pursues another lead. Jodie always survives before any sexual contact can occur and the only repercussion to the player is that she will have a panic attack in a later scene if she attempts intimacy with one of the male characters.
Heavy Rain’s Madison Page
Detroit repeats this pattern, imperiling Kara for little purpose than creating an action set piece for the player to complete. She is an object, a doll dangled before the player for them to save.
Male protagonists are occasionally bound in these games as well, but Cage consistently drags his female characters into compromising positions where loathsome men enact their power over them, for the sheer sake of drama.
In isolation, these scenes are not necessarily a problem. Art can address many different scenarios with frankness, even things we find uncomfortable. But when a pattern of behaviour emerges, attention must be paid. Detroit repeats tropes and scenarios from previous games in a gesture that’s not just exploitative but unimaginative. Can we go a game without compromising a woman’s agency for the sake of a cheap thrill.
Detroit‘s Kara captivity scene continues to be infuriating when she tries to escape. As the game embraces a horror movie tone, Kara must sneak around Zlatko’s mansion to find Alice and escape.
When he and Luther discover that she is missing, they hunt through rooms to find her. The player must sneak from location to location and avoid detection. It recalls another of Cage’s works The Taxidermist, a Heavy Rain demo wherein Madison sneaks around the house of a killer who kills women and preserves their corpse.
The sense of danger, as crafted by Cage, comes from a small white woman hiding from a towering black man. The camera frames him like a slasher villain and the gameplay indirectly conflates him with The Taxidermist‘s serial killer. Kara’s helplessness, a trait thrust upon her because she is a woman, reflects back upon the world itself. Luther becomes a monster not unlike Clock Tower’s Scissorman or Resident Evil 3‘s Nemesis. He only breaks free from Zlatko’s control when he sees how much Kara loves Alice. The black man cannot save himself; he can only be awakened into purity by the motherly plight of a white woman.
Women are not people in David Cage games. They are rhetorical devices meant to highlight the value of player choice. This is no more clear than how Detroit handles the more dire outcome of the much discussed domestic abuse scene. If the player fails to intervene or complete enough button prompts, Todd kills Kara and Alice.
In one version of the scene, Kara’s discarded corpse is left in the backyard as rain pours down on it. Failing here requires the player to almost intentionally leave the pair to their fate. This is true for the scenario with Zlatko as well. If Kara’s memory is wiped, you have a limited time to regain your memory or leave her to her fate.
The male characters in the game have more tools to succeed. When I succeed as Connor, it is because he’s a highly trained combat android. When I succeed as Markus, it is because he’s a tough dude. When I succeed as Kara I succeed in spite of her supposed fragility.
Detroit‘s main menu screen features an android assistant who comments on your gameplay. If you fail to save Kara and Alice in the aforementioned scenarios, she scolds you.
After all, you were the player and you could have saved them. It is meant to be a damning moment, an indictment of the player for not rising up to save the poor women. It comes off as emotional manipulation. The player might have been able to save them, but Cage did not need to so grossly imperil them.
This pattern of abusing women characters for easy emotional content has repeated in game after game after game. Time after time, I have watched as women in Quantic Dream games have been beaten and bound, murdered and discarded. Enough.
If Detroit wants to scold the player about why they did not save Kara and Alice, it needs to turn around and ask question if it was necessary to damsel and abuse them to begin with.
Comments
122 responses to “David Cage Games Keep Treating Women Like Shit”
Talk about reading into something waaaay too much.
But how dare he put one of his protagonists through hardship in a thriller/action game? He should have made Kara an empowered feminist. Who cares if it doesn’t fit with the plot of his game. /S
The hilarious thing is that Kara gets herself into the situation with Zlatko, and then gets herself out of the same situation without needing to be rescued. The whole thing with Luther occurs after Kara has escaped anyway. In any case, she can rescue him at multiple points in the game.
Kara is not ‘fragile’ as Heather has claimed. She can beat up frigging special forces soldiers during the attack on Jericho. The particular model of android she is, is programmed to be domestic help. It’s not like she’s going to have the mindset where she will wade into fist-fights.
There’s no reason at all why any of us should have to put up with critical thinking or rational debate. Seriously, blog posts like this are just silly.
Please Kotaku, just focus on lightly rewording publisher press releases and posting cosplay photos instead of this rubbish challenging us to think outside of our own pre-existing opinions and worldview.
Whilst I was a touche blase, it was more a comment on how Heather reached her conclusions, rather than a statement on the content itself.
Not sure how critical the thinking is. Or more so that it’s so skewed to the authors interpretation from their gender standpoint.
The mild mention of violence/abuse etc against men’s is brushed off with no real considerations.
This ^ 100%
This is an all too common reaction to two separate things in videogames, critical anlysis and women, that becomes multiplicative in presence when the two are combined. Reading into a text and pulling out a strand for investigation is standard for a critical analysis – Heather’s series within the ‘a critical look’ tag covers simple, understandable and approachable critical analysis about games. There’s nothing particularly controversial about writings which expound upon general observations within videogames.
Look harder at the current piece. Cage’s oeuvre contains a series of thematic and narrative motifs that form a familiar modus operandi that, if we were discussing cinema, would reflect auterism. Think about it: grand conspiracies, descents into mystical or sci-fi absurdity, awkward forays into sexuality, female protagonists who are placed in physically endangered positions and often in a sexualised manner. You can experience an hour of a Cage videogame and know not only that he wrote it but where in broad strokes it will go. The current piece takes that observation, zeroes in on a single element and presents a plain argument: Cage is unceasingly shitty towards his female protagonists.
This observation is no different to pointing out Austen’s prodigious use of semicolons, Townsend’s overly-compressed compositions, or the apparent prevalence of games featuring fatherhood as designers have aged, except in how the audience perceives and relates their experience to it. The latter discussion ties in well with the subject of the current piece; in a space where men have the loudest voices and think of it as their dominion, why should we be surprised that issues of sexuality or femininity are viewed unfavourably? We’re not surprised.
Diminution, insult and misdirection are the response de rigueur when topics of women are broached, and especially so when done by a woman. Tellingly, the irony of a culture that reveres the importance of videogames about fatherhood, such as The Last of Us and God of War, yet excels when attempting to exclude or quell women’s voices is apparently lost on us. The apt question isn’t whether Heather read too much into something, it’s “why do we fear women reading into anything?”
Before considering your acceptance of that question, or whatever your answer may be, take into account the preponderance of negative responses focusing on the gender or ideological pursuasion of the author and the gender-based analysis of the piece. Whenever videogame websites host articles about women’s issues, they always attract this severity and volume of commentary; we’re constantly chasing this ideal of diegetic and exegetic maturation in videogames but we’re wholly unwilling to match pace.
Well-written comment. I agree with a lot of what you say, particularly about people having a go at the author. Cage has a reputation, based largely on Heavy Rain and Beyond, but some of what Heather says about Detroit is either warped or flat-out wrong. I think most people commenting here would feel that she has tried to fit the material to her argument, not the other way around, which is harsh and unfair to the work and to Cage.
The use of violence in Detroit was both interesting and uncomfortable throughout the whole game. The overall story of the game was very much about how experiencing violence and cruelty at the hands of humans was what caused many androids to become “deviant” – breaking their programming, fighting back, showing emotions, etc. Almost like being a victim of violence leads to some kind of enlightenment – which is an extremely weird concept. You could probably write a bunch of essays on the themes in Detroit – there is a lot of food for thought there.
Look at the use of violence in the terms of adversity. Adversity promotes change, you need to adapt to survive. Some go the wrong way and turn to maladaptive ways of behaviour and actions while others use it for growth.
Growth is the ideal trajectory when faced with a challenge, especially so if that challenge is violent otherwise you open yourself to a range of disorders.
How about a spoiler warning?
I absolutely love that @AngoraFish actually downvoted this… Shows the sort of character I suppose
Odd the kinds of things that people love. Takes all sorts I guess.
But on the topic of spoilers, anyone who read the title of the article and still clicked through not expecting to read examples of the author’s contentions is missing something fundamental about how argumentative essays work.
Actually, now that I think about it, not understanding how argumentative essays work does go a long way towards explaining the usual hysteria in the comments section here…
I read the title and figured it was 50-50, they could easily just be talking at a base level about why they think he’s sexist without giving specific scenes/character details out. Saw there was no spoiler warning so I assumed that was the case… Luckily it only spoiled the next Kara chapter on me anyway but it’s still rubbish, not exactly difficult to say “spoilers here”.
This is the quintessential Kotaku article that ppl hate, David Cage’s legal woes in France equal Kotaku article, The gaming community dismiss Kotaku as a reasonable or valid source for information because it’s forever pushing gender politics, Stop it please.
I think Kotaku-US’ extreme-left niche makes a lot more sense in a market as big as the US.
In Australia though, Kotaku-AU is the only “big-name” gaming site with a local domain, so that’s why we’re all here.
KotakuAU is at its best when it’s being more moderate with its views. Even allowing for some interesting debate in the comments section.
Yeah you are right.
That’s a pretty decent analysis. Good work.
Wow. I mean, I get that rape is confronting, but it’s a real, glaringly legitimate risk for women. I have so much to say in response to this article that I won’t touch, but basically it reads like somebody adopted an attitude based on their own cloudy logic and understanding of the world.
Sorry, Heather. As a woman I’m sure you understand the concept of women being placed in victim roles more innertly than I, but as a man I recognise that my gender takes advantage of situations involving the opportunity to exploit women. These games (and series like Game of Thrones) depict that notion. It’s not a nice thing, but it’s part of humanity’s crapulence and we all need to take it more seriously. I feel these games achieve exactly that.
Totally agree. The risks to men and women in this life are not the same and art should certainly highlight explore this as a fact of the human condition. This seems to be lost on Heather unfortunately.
And FYI, Heather is a male.
Wut? Heather is totes a woman. I’ve seen vids of her talking about shit with Tim Rogers about Sea of Thieves and the like.
Definitely – look it up.
Not trying to be nasty in pointing this out, but I thought it worth mentioning given you gave Heather an ‘inherent’ understanding of victim roles that isn’t earned.
Oh! I did know that, just forgot (her a twitter tag is “Trans Gamer” or something after all.
I seethe point you’re making- and you are entitled to that thought/opinion, but had this article been written by another, male author, it’s opinions would still be that if the author. Men can still have a disdain for the portrayal of women in media, they just get accused of lording under fedoras because of it. In this instance, I find that my original statement holds (for me) and Heather’s trans status in many ways further articulates her enthusiastic opinion on this game and it’s themes. She’s not going “I’m a woman now and this has to stop in the name of how much of a woman I am!”— though you could choose to see it that way. She’s airing her opinion on the trope of women as victims and call David Cage (in some broader strokes) a mysoginist. A male could make the same call, but again, fedoras.
longwittyunsername – this is over a month old I know but she’s female. 🙂
Pretty sure Heather is transgender. Am I mistaken?
Yeah am with you on that one.
In general I dislike the anti-women toxicity in gaming that we find and comment to that effect, but sometimes I think some women see what they want to see.
In history, women have typically had a harder time of it, because of the simple fact that in ages where brutality rules, men were physically dominant. That’s just plain fact. So, sometimes, to outline that fact is not being sexist.
The irony is that I am currently playing Beyond Two Souls after it was released on PsPlus and I think the game has done a great job of showing me things from the girl’s point of view and ‘Jodie’ comes across as a rounded personality one can empathise and connect with, rather than a 2D toon to be used for male fetishistic aims.
The scene in the bar mentioned is fairly realistic I think, and it makes the player take a somewhat parental standpoint, feeling sympathetic that ‘Jodie’ just wants to be grown up and go out, yet not be worldly wise enough to understand that there are dangers.
Also, Heather fails to mention (of course) how later in the game, Jodie gets CIA training and becomes pretty kick-arse rescuing a homeless guy who is getting beaten senseless by some young male jerks.
But hey, let’s cherry-pick scenes to fit our preset agenda.
If you’re sick of how his games make you feel, probably best you don’t play any new ones he produces in future.
This article suggests he should change his art to cater to you; that doesn’t seem right.
Exactly. I certainly won’t be touching this QTE bonanza.
I’m assuming QTE is some current buzzword?
Quick Time Event?
Ahh yes silly me.
Serious?
Very serious.
Hey I forgot what QTE stood for because I don’t normally converse in TLA’s.
If you forgive me, I’ll forgive your fridging rant bellow, where you got the story, premise and ideology of the game wrong.
Insert Jim Fucking Sterling Son! impression of David Cage here
More polygons, more emotions.
Emotions emotions emotions emotions…
you forgot to mention that you know Ellen Page
I love Jim but I thought he was completely off-base about the ‘menial drudgery’ that the game makes you do.
It is tough, but it’s also a drama. You have to put the characters into these situations and then get them out to have a story that people will want to follow.
But definitely some artists do this in a really disturbing way that’s not a lot of fun to watch/participate in.
I don’t get it. David Cage games treat everyone like shit, that’s sort of how his games work. Should woman not be put through bad situations because they’re woman? Isn’t that inane logic , in and of itself, sexist?
The article explains how men are treated differently, men and women are not treated like shit equally. Men are allowed some agency over their situation, women are denied agency and disempowered.
The whole setup is closely related to the trope of fridging, where killing/raping/torturing someone (almost always a women or girl) is a cheap shot used by the author to provoke an emotional reaction and give the (male) protagonist something to get angsty about.
Ultimately it’s just lazy writing, playing off social assumptions about men as ‘protectors’ and women as needing ‘protection’ , but it occurs in a context where putting women and girls (but not men) in situations of cheap disempowerment is an already over used trope.
Yeah, most of what you said is fucking nonsense, given that;
1 – There is no male protagonist being angsty in this situation, you’re playing as Kara.
2 – There is no male protector, Kara breaks herself free.
It’s all about her empowering herself, and freeing herself of a shitty situation, so it’s a pretty big leap of “logic” to go with the female being “disempowered”.
But wait… Did the “girl” free herself, and then save her human counterpart?? I mean.. I haven’t played the game, so I’m only going by the spoilers in this piece.
Unfortunately, Heather is completely wrong about Kara being fridged. Yes she falls into a situation and is at the mercy of a man. She then gets herself out of the situation by herself. She then inspires another, larger and more powerful, android (nominally a male but non-sexual) to rise up and free himself. She is then the leader of her small band, with the larger, more powerful ‘male’ android deferring to her as a matter of course. Plus, neither of the other ‘male’ protagonists are at any time aware of Kara’s predicament. I really think Heather shot from the hip and didn’t take the time to consider this game thoroughly.
What?
Markus gets shot in the fucking face for no reason, where is the agency in that?I’m not even finished the game yet and I think I can safely say, bad shit happens to all three characters, it has a lot more to do with the fact they’re androids than what sex they are.
He’s just showing they’re vulnerable on their journey to empowerment, just like Lara in the Tomb Raider reboot. Only they aren’t killing hundreds of men to show it.
It’s funny you should mention Tomb Raider, because I found the violence against Lara extremely offputting and it made me very uncomfortable, to the point where I stopped playing and have no intention of going back to the game.
Didn’t have a problem with putting a pickaxe thru someone’s head though?
Don’t actually remember that bit of the game, so I can’t answer your question.
At the least, it was one the pickaxe instakill takedowns allowed when you crept up behind an NPC.
Same happens to Isaac Clark in Dead Space. A wonderfully wide range of gristly ways to die, most while seeing the sheer pain and terror in his eyes. Games do this to make dying more than just reloading or respawning. Showing these visceral death scenes makes it more real for the character and is designed to give the feeling that the character’s death has some kind of finality to it.
Yeah, it started to feel like torture porn after a while when the game would punish you with OTT grisly death sequences when you fucked up your timing, or a critical jump or something.
I think the main point of the article is that putting women characters in situations where they’re extremely vulnerable to violence and rape with no way to fight back is not a new or original storytelling concept. It happens in games and movies all the time and is an easy way to create tension and make audiences uncomfortable.
Detroit has some very interesting ideas in it, but Kara’s storyline is not really one of them.
I take your point, but I think Kara’s story is pretty interesting. It’s about many things, primarily emancipation of a ‘female’ slave character and having that ‘female’ character take control of her situation and work towards her own goals (motherhood, protecting Alice, getting over the border). It doesn’t have the same global influence that Marcus’s story has, but then neither does Connor’s story, necessarily. I think Kara’s story was the least interesting of the three, but it didn’t disappoint me by any means.
This really comes across as a feminist creating a strawman then attacking it on a public platform.
if those women were portrayed as men you wouldnt have even THOUGHT about making this article.
and maybe instead of thinking of the creator as a disturbed misogynist, maybe (given that your view on this are ENTIRELY SUBJECTIVE) they are a display of how society views each class and hes trying to break those views.
also its a fucking game, if you cant stand seeing hardship during a game stick to G rated, stay inside your white PC box, and stop being offended on behalf of a 3d model.
its sad the authors never get to read our replies, VPN time
So what are we meant to take away from this article, David Cage is a misogynist rape fantasist.
This shit happens to women all around the world everyday, maybe instead of taking the view of the women being Victims you could see them a overcoming a harrowing ordeal and being more empowered after.
The only problem I have ever had with theses kinds of scenes in games is that it reduces the severity of a perilous situation to a QTE.
Bad shit happens all the time, covering your ears, closing your eyes and screaming I’m not listening lalalala won’t make it go away.
If you don’t like david cage games, don’t play them.
Wow this comments section is a real trash fire. How dare her for writing about the game in a negative light in the context of gender representation. Would you guys prefer if we went back to 90s style video game journalism? 9 for graphics, 8 for gameplay, and an 8 for story!
It’s not so much that she’s writing about the things she is writing about, but that she’s either misrepresenting events in the game or drawing conclusions from those events that are clearly unwarranted.
And yet the vast majority of comments don’t engage on that level, do they? They’re just gut reaction, throw-away criticism.
To play the proverbial pot kettle, you haven’t conducted any reasonable engagement either.
I’m not disagreeing with the original essay. In fact, I have no strong opinion on it. My opinions are limited to commenting on the hysterical over-reaction that inevitably eventuates in the comments section whenever any article at all has the temerity to criticise any aspect at all of the portrayal of women in video games.
This is why people are disagreeing with you, the essay is flawed.
Instead of looking at the piece as a whole, the author has cheery picked items here and there out of context of the story being told.
Cutting and pasting quotes, you can make anyone say anything.
That seems to be one of the gripes I am seeing on the essay, you can’t pick and choose facts that you won’t to support an argument, you have to take the whole work in to account.
In the game she is abused and yes with tropes, but that abuse strengthens her resolve to fight back, which she does. Not through some male figure doing it for herself, or anything like that. In the end it’s a pretty dark story about empowerment.
Though that has thoroughly been explained to you already, but for some reason that’s good enough.
The fact that you can, after the horse has already bolted, formulate some kind of vague counter-argument to justify the hysterical over-reaction every single article like this generates doesn’t make it any less of a hysterical over-reaction.
The only hysterical over reactions I see are yours, or the ones you have managed to bait from people.
I have seen no rational argument, or discussion from you what so ever. In fact I don’t even see why I am bothering to answer as you are blinded by your own ignorance of your actions.
You have been given several good points of discussion, all of which you have ignored and continued on with you own rant about agendas, and sexism and what ever else seems to randomly pop into your imagination.
I myself have even asked you reasonable questions on the subject matter, all of which have been ignored as you go off on some other tangent, ignoring the question.
If I was to try label your actions, I guess I would have to say trolling.
You are nothing but a troll.
@guestwhowould Were you to read or respond to any point I had actually made instead of carrying your on own argument with yourself about topics of interest only to you based on assumptions that say more about your own blind spots than anyone else’s you might have been more likely to generate some kind of dialogue.
Pretty evident you are not into dialogue and just seeking to use other people’s talking to launch into your own monologue.
You realise that the like/dislike button is not an agree/disagree one, yeh?
You are being bigoted, intolerant and seem to only want to impose yourself over other people rather than actually have anything resembling a ‘dialogue’.
It is evident from the like/dislike spread on your posts though, people don’t like bullies.
The whole strong female character in games is the new mid 2000s bro shooter character. So forced and boring. People are people. Don’t read too much into it.
So if there isn’t a strong female lead character the story is labelled as “treating women like shit”?
Write your own story. Make your own game. That way you’ll have to defend your views on women, men and society. Because you’re going to upset someone. Even if you think you’ve covered all the SJW approved tropes.
Article makes points relevant to our society and how women are portrayed.
This seems to bring out the MRA-leaning comments as usual.
Maybe a trigger warning is needed so privileged white males don’t get their panties in a twist about how they are so downcast and undervalued.
Jeez arnna, maybe watch a Let’s Play of the game or something. Some of the stuff that Heather is drawing from the game is entirely unfounded. Other stuff is clearly tainted by her prejudgment of David Cage based on his past works. It’s a real hit piece, as seen from the title of the article.
Maybe, but arnna’s right. These articles always turn into an MRA circlejerk. It’s one thing to disagree with an article, but some of the commentary goes far beyond that.
Kotaku US write a hitpiece? Nevah!
Kotaku US write a hitpiece? Nevah!
I love it, not only do you bring race into it, but the panties twist. The ol reverse psychology thing. You know seen it was a derogatory thing said to women.
Or does all those things only exist when some one else says it?
How absolutely disgusting, blaming entire races and genders because your viewpoint isn’t supported.
Why does everything have to be a side?
I am left wing. Even i think this article is stupid. This kind of stuff belongs on Polygon.
The author of this article is prejudiced and had an agenda while writing this. Youd have to be blind not to see it.
There has to be a side for people because it’s easier for them, it’s black and white, right vs wrong, us vs them.
It makes it easier for people not only for their own arguments but to dismiss others.
Yeah, I’ve noticed this. Reasonable people on either side of the political fence seem to be coming together to highlight the inherent issues with this article.
Ok, there is so much to unpack here, but first of all.
SPOILER WARNING!
You should place a spoiler warning in this article because it details exact gameplay storyline that was unknown unless you own the game. The game literally just came out.
Ok, next you are constantly referring to the two machines with gendered pronouns. They are not gendered, they are machines. Can someone sexually assault a toaster? How about a fridge? At what level do they stop being machines and start being referred to as humans?
So, you have a major fallacy there.
Than you state that this has been the case for all of their games. I have played only Heavy Rain. But if I remember correctly, the first son dies in the opening moments, the second son is kidnapped and tortured all game, and the main male protagonist literally cuts off a body part in order to save him. What about about male disposability…?
But you ignored that because you failed to save the little girl (and in the promotional trailers, there is another little girl you have to save), and the machine chides you in your failure.
This tired trope of requiring each and every female (or female looking robot) to never be put in any danger is insulting to gamers and to females. And if you cannot handle the idea that sexual assault or violence can be used as a challenge in a drama style game, especially one that you deem the developer is known for, than I recommend turning away from that game, and going back to something less dramatic. Maybe Candy Crush?
I don’t really get it….. is Heather suggesting that female characters can no longer be victims in works of fiction under any circumstances? Or can they only be victims of female perpetrated violence? Or can they only be the victims of male perpetrated violence when the writer of the fiction is female? What did David Cage need to do in D:BH for this article not to exist? Other than change his gender. Art imitates life. The content referred to in the article seems like a fairly accurate representation of the more disturbing and dark side of the criminal underworld. Removing it would surely amount to nothing more than massive case of art imitating life when viewed through thick rose tinted glasses?
I haven’t played the game, but this character does not sound like a “damsel in distress” in any way. Meanwhile, does the game explicitly point out that Kara identifies as female? If not then the player can project whatever gender they like onto that character no?
Despite the vitriol in the comments, I think this article kinda has a point. There is a definite pattern of trapping women in physically powerless situations in these games. Sure, the characters across all these games get mentally and physically tortured in various ways, but do any of the men ever get bound up first? I can’t actually remember.
you said games so I was thinking “err Bioware throws the player character into all sorts of crap” then I thought maybe Detroit is technically not an RPG and more an action adventure game like what comes from Telltale… but Telltale markets their games as interactive adventure games or something.
anyway in regards to D:BH the entire plot of the game can basically be summed up as humans abuse androids, androids rebel. the game doesn’t differentiate between male, female, adult or child. abuses are insinuated or shown regardless.
i watched a heap of let’s play before borrowing a friend’s PS4 and buying the game to play it. the amount of cherry picking about Kara’s situation seems laughable and it really does seem the author read way too much into the game
If you mean as in sexual assault, none that I can think of actually.
Which is strange as other forms of media (tv, movies etc) have dealt with.
In society as a whole male rape unless it involves a minor isn’t taken very seriously. So as a subject matter female rape is I guess more believable to people as it unfortunately happens all to often.
Male rape child victims are almost always referred to in reports that they were in relationships with their abusers. Read a few articles on female teachers abusing boys and try to find one that even suggests that the child was being raped.
http://allthatsinteresting.com/jennifer-caswell-raped-student-must-pay-1-million
From reading the article it sounds like she forcibly raped him on at least one occasion. I hear what you are saying, but females in positions of trust and authority can use duress to obtain a sexual relationship in just the same way as a male in that position can. It will still be rape in that there is no consent, or that such consent as there is will be overborne by the duress.
Forget this guy, Shigeru Miyamoto is clearly the most misogynistic and depraved developer of them all.
I don’t even know how many times I’ve had to save Peach.
https://www.kotaku.com.au/2013/06/shigeru-miyamoto-and-the-damsel-in-distress/
^__-
Oh no 🙁
Years before it was cool to start talking about gender politics, too!
Can we not import these hysterical, inflammatory articles from the US and have something written by the AU staff instead?
Inflammatory nonsense like this, and the hand-wringing “I played/saw X and am now anxious about Y” blogging “articles” seriously detracts from the excellent Australian content.
So much this.
I would visit Kotaku a lot more if there was an option to filter for AU articles only. Heck, I don’t even care if half are written by other readers/the work experience kid.
This would be much appreciated Kotaku. A filter option (even just through RSS) for AU articles only.
I think we have an S rank comments section though 🙂
https://www.kotaku.com.au/tags/au/
There ya go, bud.
If i’m ever Lord Mayor of a town there will be a Snoweee statue erected, mark my words.
x1000
Problem is there isn’t enough staff locally to do that plus there isn’t enough “news” to go around.
Until you get big events like E3 there isn’t to much gaming news.
You then tend to get a lot of editorial and opinion pieces to fill in the gaps.
At the end of the day, look how much people have commented on this article. You may disagree with it but you keep coming back for more.
I also comment on the Australian articles. We can still have opinion pieces and the Au authors still post opinion pieces. The difference is that the US authors are constantly involved in a hysterical and anxious state of outrage and don’t post anything worth engaging in. The comments that this article attracts is people calling out this ridiculous article or buying into its outraged message. It’s not quality work.
Another click generating “article” from kotaku. They really know how to get you guys wound up.
After finally getting past the Zlatko scene and coming back to read the rest of this, I was going to do a full write up on why this whole thing is nonsense although I think enough people have already done that. So I’ll just say this:
This entire article is pretty much summed up by this idea;
Which is probably the most stupid thing in relation to gaming I’ve ever read. **No character** is a person in **any game**. They all exist solely for player choice because (this bit might change your life) **they aren’t real**.
Oh, also I just want to point out that using Beyond as an example of women being treated worse than men is complete bullshit as Jodie is the *only* real character in that game, unless you count Aiden in which case it’s still a BS example because he shares her body (and pain).
After finally getting past the Zlatko scene and coming back to read the rest of this, I was going to do a full write up on why this whole thing is nonsense although I think enough people have already done that. So I’ll just say this:
This entire article is pretty much summed up by this idea;
Which is probably the most stupid thing in relation to gaming I’ve ever read. **No character** is a person in **any game**. They all exist solely for player choice because (this bit might change your life) **they aren’t real**.
Oh, also I just want to point out that using Beyond as an example of women being treated worse than men is complete bullshit as Jodie is the *only* real character in that game, unless you count Aiden in which case it’s still a BS example because he shares her body (and pain).
Note: Reposted because of edit bug :/
Everyone in his games are injured/maimed/killed in pretty awful ways. But men aren’t demeaned/sexualized/threatened with SEXUAL violence on top of all of this like his female characters are. Of course we get that in real life as well and “art mimics life” or whatever BS that is, this article just argues that he uses that same threat of sexual violence (even if it isn’t explicitly stated, a woman tied up at the hands of some creepy dude will always have sexually violent undertones) in a ton of his work and he can do better than that. Escaping sexual violence isn’t the only plot device you can use with a female character to empower her.
To those that argue it’s (in Jim sterling’s best mock voice) “all about Kara empowering herself and getting out of a bad situation” there are soooooooo many ways to do that. The broad strokes of her story at the beginning of the game can be compared to someone breaking away from an abuser and her journey to empowerment could’ve literally been the struggle to survive in that scenario, to lose a home, to lose a support pillar and to re-establish yourself and take control of your own life again
But no, instead we get kinda rapey mystery mansion Shenanigans and it’s just so lazy. Rape and sexual assault are bleak topics and they do occur all the time but to use it as Cage seemingly does, as points of drama in the greater narrative with very little follow-up points to him trying to create drama in the absolute laziest way possible for a female character and it’s cringeworthy at best and offensive at its worst
Full disclosure, I tend to have a pretty mixed opinion of Cage’s work. I personally feel like some instruction manuals for appliances have more compelling stories and the degree of pretentiousness he can muster is insane when he must surely know that other studios have made games that, narratively, are orders in magnitude better than his. I have played Detroit for about 5 hours and it’s a very okay game to me
Bunch of mra crybabies upset someone even mentioned women at all
Oh fuck off, even if you do not care one bit about the social issues the article is pointing out that getting cheap emotional reactions by pulling the “vulnerable women is hurt” card is CHEAP
Its lazy storytelling, doing it once is fine, but doing it in every single fucking game you have? Its cheap, its lazy
Its a boring trope at this point, its bad because ITS BAD STORYTELLING
And if you fucking incel troglodites could see past your own snowflake victim “oh boo hoo the evil sjws” bullshit youd see that
Edgelord alert.
Goodness gracious me, comment threads like this make me realise how rare it is to see considerate, rational debate when it comes to social issues (which is a shame, because they are the topics I find most interesting to discuss).
I can’t comment much on the article itself, because I plan on playing this game at some point and I don’t want it spoiled for me except to say that after playing some of Cage’s previous games (Fahrenheit and Heavy Rain), I do find the way he writes female characters one of his bigger shortcomings.
There’s just so many posts here that are tantamount to “if you don’t like it, don’t play it” (an odd thing to say to a critic), or “this is just gender/left wing bias” (it’s good to read and understand others’ opinion on topics, even if you don’t agree. Plus there’s plenty of right-wing/neutral game coverage out there). There’s just so much attacking the author as opposed to critiques of the actual piece.
If you’re part of the group that focused on the article: gold star, keep it up. You’re promoting discussion and you’re a big part of the reason why I visit this site daily. Just, please, try to converse with other as opposed to attack them.
Also, remember downvotes aren’t for people you disagree with, they are for flagging hateful, non-inclusive speech.
Downvoting is precisely for showing you disagree.
The flag option is for what you describe. Thats why the flagging option exists.
I was always under the impression that if you get downvoted into the reds enough, all your comments get moderated. Seems weird to punish people for having a differing opinion.
I could be wrong, though. All my evidence is based on other commenters.
Downvoting does lead to auto moderation. A function i disagree with. But my point still stands.
Upvoting means you agree witht he comment
Downvoting means you disagree
Flag comment is to report a comment.
I think we need to go back to good Ol’ fashion gaming solutions when games contain content people find offensive. WARNINGS
That right, I am personally campaigning for the introduction of “Stereotype or Trope” content warning on all games e.g., Game contains trope content which may offend people of particular political leanings. The game includes the damsels in distress, perverted white male villans.
And I realise that may upset some people with opposite leaning views, so for them, I propose an “SJW” warning on games as well.
Will it solve the problem No, but who cares.
I would like to say that despite how varied the range of opinions is, I appreciate that we can have this sort of discussion in the comments without censorship.
You wouldn’t have this sort of conversation at Neogaf/ResetEra because as soon as something goes against the groupthink it is banned.
I just figured the games are tapping into a common fear that women have to deal with day to day. It never occurred to me that I was meant to get off on seeing a woman tortured. On the contrary it’s awful and puts me in the headspace of a woman being sized up for abduction and worse. Am I missing something? (Genuine question)
OK, explain to me then why the Handmaid’s Tale is critically acclaimed. The women in that are treated way worse than Kara, we see it all in graphic detail, and they are way more helpless. Kara is kickass and she rescues her adoptive child as well as Luther and the Jerries. June is unable to rescue her daughter, gets repeatedly raped, we have to watch all the handmaids getting raped, circumcised, shot, hung and subjected to work in poisonous gulags, not to mention child brides and other women under state control, and they can do sweet fuck all to change it. How is that better than a game where you can take control of the situation and the female protagonist can get themselves out of it? (I love handmaid’s tale by the way, but if you have a problem with male-directed stories about helpless women subjected to violence then look no further). I just want to know why it’s OK for a show and not a game? Is the storytelling worse? Then write an article about bad storytelling instead.
Also, I’m a woman so don’t say it’s just because I’m a man that I’m annoyed about this. I think it’s a double standard for games. My suspicion is that people don’t like being so viscerally connected to the experience of violence as they are in this game, and they hate the feeling they get when they fail to rescue the characters. Well, that’s the whole point of the gameplay structure. It’s meant to make you think about how your choices affect your real life. If you don’t want to feel the discomfort of that, don’t blame it on the game maker. It’s not his fault.
Quit being such a PC flog, Heather. Don’t use Kotaku to push your feminist agenda. No one give a hoot. It’d disgusting the way you girls act such the victim.