Im in ur game, gendering it up.

So I’m working on a video game that involves robots and will be available for all ages. We have one design finalized, but there’s 4 more bosses to be decided.

My quandary, as I’m one of the few designers coming up with ideas for this is, should we try to gender the robots or leave them all neutral. And how does this affect our players?

One of the things that I loved playing games as a child was when there were female characters. As I grew up, I did get tired of the pink and the fan service, jumping more onto characters like Samus, Sheik or whoever was put into REAL armour instead of leather thongs and slit skirts, because sometimes it’s hard to suspend belief when your exposed character is getting chopped into with a giant blade.

Or, sometimes, I would just have to play male characters to prove that I wasn’t “girly” but genuinely wanted to play a light, fast character with a ranged weapon (in fighting games, which are my favourite). This occurred more when I was younger and insecure, which is why I’m focusing on how developing gamers might feel if this is an introduction. We want everyone to enjoy playing the game.

So I get to change the system now.

If I render all the robots in completely neutral terms, the idea still pops up that they’re male robots because they fit into male stereotypical proportions (big, buff bots). If I start gendering them, then I do still have to figure out how to make a robot read as ‘feminine’ without resorting to pink, lipstick, bows and tits. Do I take away the pride of a female playable character who is able to kick ass? Or do I just make everything neutral and hope that it can read like that.

It’s something fresh on my mind as I’ve been re-watching the first season of Farscape, which has the fun aspects of the main characters riding a living ship, who is female but doesn’t fit into any traits of it because, uh, it’s a spaceship. But Moya does give birth and has character development to make it a likable female character. Also the episode where there’s a male actor and in the end it’s revealed that the alien is actually a female species.

Would it be enough to give a neutral bodied robot a female name? Should I push for a character that is more obviously female?

The game is also for a handheld and has no story line, which shows that I might be slightly over thinking this to make a stand on something that is important to me. Still, it’s an issue to think about for the future as we delve more into the world of crafting games.