Are you a Girl? Or are you a Boy? Part 2 - Queer

Auntie Pixelante, creator of Dys4ia notes that "videogames are one of the few places in life we’re asked “what gender would you like to be? what would you like your body to look like?”" In contrast, her game "exists where that choice does not: it is seeing the reality that has been shaped around you like a wax cocoon, and feeling utterly helpless to change it." 

The game is free and available to play on Newgrounds and documents Auntie's transition to the sex she has always known herself to be. Whereas in Fallout 3 all that is required is to restart the game and select a different gender, Dys4ia plays as a series of impossible minigames. They are designed to undermine player choices, so that in playing the game you experience the barriers that those undergoing gender transition come up against. The first screen is a Tetris shaped body unable to fit through the gap provided. Other barriers include patronising doctors, the search for the right clinic, high blood pressure and the experience of not having one's gender accepted by others. 

In the game, Auntie talks about so called "feminists" who refuse to accept her as a woman. I have no doubt that she suggests that their self-identification as "feminist" is undermined by their unwillingness to support and protect a trans. woman. But in mentioning these women, Auntie recognises a divide between internally understood gender, and the appearance of gender to others. In Fallout, as I mentioned in the previous part of this article, your gender is never challenged: no-one suggests that you might be trans. 

In the real world, the question is asked:
Are you a boy or are you a girl? 

Mattie Brice, a second trans developer explores the ways in which external forces; (particularly the male gaze) enforce specific behaviours upon women. Her game Mainichi is free to download. Initially I played the game without making assumptions about the player avatar's gender. I couldn't understand why my protagonist was so anxious to put on make-up and get dressed up to go for a coffee with a friend. So I milled about the house, played video games and ate left overs. Only  once I leave the apartment and a man verbally assaults me, do I discover that the avatar has a male shaped body.  At the coffee shop I feel so anxious and unnerved I don't want to chat up the cute man at the counter. 

A second play-through involves baths, makeup and best dress. I saunter into the coffee shop and get the previously-frosty barista's phone number. The game clinically outlines that unless I behave according to societal standards of femininity I will outed as a fake. At the point at which internally a trans person should feel most comfortable; when they have moulded their wax cocoon into something that resembles how they believe themselves to be, they are at their most vulnerable. In both Mainichi and Dys4ia, gender is the point of conflict from which the games' tensions spill forth. Each story closes without resolution, Auntie still has to remind people to call her ma'am, and Mattie Brice has to enact a  barbie-fication in order to find limited acceptance. For them both, their gender choice is disputed by a society that will not allow them their convictions. Mainichi and Dys4ia bristle with frustration.. and this anger gives their personal stories realism and depth. They are games that can't be beaten. 

That's My Nintai!

How to undermine sexism: an indie developer's guide.


Megadev is a small developing team from the South of England. Their latest game is a polished retro platformer with super tight controls. Its enigmatic protagonist has come with a mission, to discover what happened to the one armed ninja who previously made the trip. Armed with trusty katana and shurikens, and trussed head-to-toe in fabric, Nintai Ryoko covers up another subtle secret... her gender.


There was to be no surprising reveal. Without close examination of the mocked up box art, or perverse scrutiny of her chest area, one might never really register the fact that it's a curious girl who is taking the trip. Intrigued as to why the developers had chosen to develop a female protagonist and then barely lampshade it, I decided to ask what had motivated the team.

 At the base of it, it was due to us not having very many female protagonists in our games and we thought it would be more fair remedy [to] that, while at the same time [we decided] not fall into the blatant trope of "sexing it up" for more hits.

Where other developers assume that simply adding a female into their games is enough, Megadev  developed its female protagonist who is an exceptional fighter and, as the game's attached comic shows, hungry for a story.

After I asked whether the appearance of the protagonist was designed to be a homage to the Metroid series, the developers replied that: Despite the "classic videogame homage" nature of the game, she was not a direct reference to Samus Aran; however the comparisons are pretty fair as both games tackle the case of gender equality by obscuring the protagonists' appearances with cloth/armour. Simply by hiding her under layers of clothing Ryoko becomes an enigmatic figure. All we can know is that she is a competent fighter, whose motive is what we might use to conceptualize her character. 

Megadev commented further that outside of her interactions with Smither the skeleton, her gender is really a non-issue.  Smither is the disgusting NPC that sits on treasure levels, asking the player character if she wants "to touch my fibula" and stating that "Ancient evil lies below. My waistline that is." His catcalls ignore the clothes that cover every inch of her body.

Who are you callin' ninjette?

So the developers have created a complicated gender narrative by having the player internalise that gender is a "non-issue", and then using an NPC destroy this illusion by focusing only on the character's sexual body. For female gamers, who are so used to having their good gameplay undermined by the sexualised attacks, Smither's words are satirising an everyday reality.

But for those not used to being reduced to a sexual object whilst playing, I hope the SHODN's lascivious skelly provides a wake-up call. Just as they have cleaned up the controls of retro classics, the team have addressed outdated gender-stereotyping. Megadev give the uninformed a taste of what it feels like to be objectified without compromising on engaging gameplay.