In some ways, it's nice that Mass Effect (and similar games) give everyone equal privilege. Saints Row 4 takes this even further, I've heard, by letting you choose male or female voices with either (binary) gender's appearance, and letting you recustomize your character at any time during the game.
In other ways, though, it'd be nice if a game designer actually gave some sign of awareness that a female-presenting person's experience of society is not the same as a male-presenting one's. "It's a utopian future" kind of feels like a cop-out, especially when games like that end up dealing with privilege and prejudice in other spheres using heavy-handed Star Trek morality plays.
Edit: The same goes for heteronormativity, and also trans* people don't seem to exist in these games at all.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-10-26 08:20 pm (UTC)In other ways, though, it'd be nice if a game designer actually gave some sign of awareness that a female-presenting person's experience of society is not the same as a male-presenting one's. "It's a utopian future" kind of feels like a cop-out, especially when games like that end up dealing with privilege and prejudice in other spheres using heavy-handed Star Trek morality plays.
Edit: The same goes for heteronormativity, and also trans* people don't seem to exist in these games at all.