Chapter 6: Fallout
“Invisible Women”—Posted on the blog of Girl Geek.
An Open Letter to Draco Multimedia Entertainment…and the leadership thereof.
Gentlemen,
And I address this unironically because I can only assume there are no women within five hundred feet of your offices. Or if there are, then they are as invisible as your female players.
“Female players?” you ask, eyebrows climbing your masculine foreheads in astonishment.
Yes. We exist. But as far as you are concerned, we are invisible. Or we are nominal, collateral damage in your quest to market your product to the boys. Because if you do dare acknowledge us in your marketing materials, somehow the boys will feel alienated from all that “icky girl stuff.”
But let me clue you in on a little something…our dollars spend just as well as those who carry their genitalia on the outside.
So, why all the scantily clad bikini babes? Why the Amazon sexpots with oodles of bare skin exposed to the elements? There is no such equivalent among your male characters. Or if there is, I have yet to find it. Is there a Chippendales in Yondareth? Equal opportunity skin exposure, please!
The male-centered storylines and male-oriented quests are ubiquitous. Rescue the fair maiden? Win the longest, biggest sword? *wink wink* Win a kiss from the young maiden named victorious in the village beauty contest? *gag*
I often receive private messages in-game from guild members and others, asking if I’m really a girl “IRL.” And of course, the obligatory, “got a boyfriend?” once I answer accordingly. Because, naturally, I’m on the game to find a boyfriend. That would be the only reason I’d be interested in all things geeky, right?
Heaven forbid that a girl can be a girl AND a geek. Because girls who are geeks are just pretending in order to get attention.
I realize this is a symptom of a much larger problem. Female gamers are not treated as equals, are not given characters and storylines that parallel the male-oriented ones. Female gamers are not recognized or even really valued in the community as a whole.
But Dragon Epoch has an opportunity to do its part in reversing this belief. And I call on the lofty male voices at HQ to do so.
Here’s my official challenge to the creators of my current favorite game: Do better. Think outside the box. Remember that almost half your player base is, indeed, female. And we don’t want to be invisible anymore.
With best regards,
Girl Geek
***
This blog post had been a long time coming…and as a result of the insults against womankind that I’d suffered in-game, DE and elsewhere. Days later, I was still dealing from the fallout of it.
I’d been called out by the male-run blogs and other avid supporters of Dragon Epoch, claiming that “it was all in my head” with a hefty helping of mansplaining on the side. I had to turn off comments on my blog post, block multiple harassers on my social media sites and stop looking at my inbox because of the angry comments—and even some threats.
It was not a good week for all of this to happen. Not after Mom’s bad news and the MCAT looming ever closer.
I tried—hard—during the time I would have been working on the blog or on social media to get into the right frame of mind for the test. I knew the material backward and forward, but getting myself to focus long enough to work through the hypothetical problems was another thing entirely.
It didn’t help that my hours at the hospital increased significantly due to the oncoming summer season. Though I welcomed the diversion from my own depression over Mom’s news and the associated increase in my paycheck, I hardly had any time to study.
And less time to sleep.
And no time to game.
Fortunately, FallenOne kept in touch with me every day via text message. And I looked forward to every single one.
Hey, he’d chime in at some ungodly hour. You doing okay?
Yeah. Busy as hell, I replied.
Test coming up soon, right? You all ready to ace it? I could almost hear the smile in his voice—what little I remembered of that deep, smooth, and yeah, a little sexy, voice coming through the crackling phone line.
I’ll settle for marginally succeed. The MCAT is specifically designed to eliminate 75% of all medical student candidates who sit for it.
Well, that’s a cheery thought. But hey, Heath did say you were a brainiac.
Heath knows nothing. :p
You’ve been studying for this thing, for what? Two? Three months?
Every day for four and a half months, yes.
You got this. I’m cheering for you.
Are you waving little pompoms and shouting out fun rhymes?
Something like that. Good luck, Mia.
When Heath returned from his trip, he showed up at my door. The camping hadn’t gone as planned. Brian had complained during most of it, so Heath decided to spend some time away from him by hanging out in my “dive” (as he called it). It was good to have him with me in my time of need.
But between the extra hours at the hospital, the last-minute, frantic studying and school itself, I was spread really thin. And exhausted.
A week later, the day of the test arrived.
I dragged myself out of bed early, guzzled caffeine and carted my five sharpened number-two pencils and scientific calculator with me.
Hours later, I walked out of that room feeling like I’d been hit by a bus. Crushed. Flat. Broken.
I’d been warned.
The MCAT has often been referred to as a colossal mindfuck. Many a student walked out feeling like they’d utterly failed. Basically, how I felt.
But I was reassured by numerous online MCAT forum posts discussing how they dealt with the aftermath—and the thirty-one day wait for the results.
It would be sheer hell to wait for those results. But I was in good company—feeling like I’d failed while hopeful that I’d known my shit. It had been difficult to concentrate on the problems and my mind had continued to drift.
But I’d finished early…
That was a good sign, right?
I’d find out in thirty-one days.