BioWare has been a staple in Video Game history. For a brief recap, BioWare is best known for creating RPGs (Role-Playing Games), but what first got them fame was "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic" in 2003, a highly successful game that finally allowed the West to plant a foothold in a predominately Japanese platform. By that point, having created a chapter in the most famous space opera, BioWare’s ambition grew. And thus, their own space opera, "Mass Effect", and later in 2010 and 2012, "Mass Effect 2" and "Mass Effect 3".
The story: It’s the year 2184 and humanity co-exist with various aliens in the Milky Way galaxy. You, the player, takes control as Commander Shepard, a human soldier who finds out an ancient legend of Reapers, machines who wipe out sentient life every 50,000 years and are due to come back. With a band of teammates and a ship known as the Normandy, it’s up to Shepard to stop the Reapers before they kill everyone and anyone.
Par the course for Bioware, you can customize Commander Shepard to your liking; you can change their hair color, eye color, ethnicity, sexuality and so forth; thus allowing a strong power fantasy to flow and better immerse the player.
The games were immensely successful, despite outrage over the writing, specifically the ending of "Mass Effect 3". But by 2012, the "Mass Effect" Trilogy was over with "Mass Effect 3". But alas, BioWare still needs to make money and during that same year, even one of their biggest competitors, 343 Industries, had revived the legendary "Halo" franchise with "Halo 4"; allowing players to step into the armor of Master Chief once again. But Commander Shepard’s time was up, and it was time for a new "Mass Effect" game. Enter "Mass Effect: Andromeda".
Instead of taking place in the Milky Way galaxy, the game takes place in the Andromeda galaxy. Taking place 600 years after the first game, this time, the player takes control of Pathfinder Ryder (Scott or Sara, depending on what gender you choose) and must help people find a new home on behalf of the Andromeda Initiative; a Milky Way organization planning to colonize the Andromeda galaxy.
Prior to release, fans had a few hiccups going on. Firstly, Samantha Maggs, a talented but controversial writer and feminist who claimed "Grand Theft Auto V" allowed virtual rape, was hired as a writer for the game. Due to the claims, Maggs had become a punching bag for anti-SJWs and gamers; especially in the light of that virtual rape turning out to be a mod (short for modification to a game someone created for others, aka it did not come with a purchased copy and must be installed voluntarily).
(This lady here, is Ms. Samantha Maggs)
Ms. Maggs, from one feminist to another, do your proper research before accusing a game of virtual rape.
Then came Manveer Heir, a game designer at BioWare. He’s openly stated on this twitter that he follows people for their race and hates white people. Granted, a good number of white Americans aren’t exactly nice people but that’s no excuse to discriminate. Being a minority doesn’t grant you a free pass on racism. Ever hear of violence only breeds violence?
(Well, at least he's bold. I'll give him that)
But then on March 21st, 2017, the game was released. And it had a mixed reception during its first few weeks. Most of the complaints were aimed at the animation and writing. While the writing quality is debatable, the animation wasn’t bad but there were many questionable parts lacking or just not working.
Most of the characters had a dead look in their eyes, making them look like this.
(That stare is terrifying)
Then there’s Sara Ryder, the default female protagonist. Compared to her twin brother and male protagonist Scott, she resembled her template model a lot less compared to Scott. Take a look.
The idea apparently, was to make her less attractive to avoid “male gaze”.
The "male gaze" is the way in which pop culture depict the world and women from a male point of view, presenting women as objects of lust and pleasure for men. So, if you ever wondered exactly what the feminist movement was fighting against in terms of pop culture, this is one of them. But more on this later.
So in the following weeks, BioWare had to scramble, releasing Patch 1.05 which fixed many of the animations; no more dead eye looks anymore.
(Right is her face after the patch; that's a lot better, isn't it?)
As an ethnic minority and a pro-diversity person, I should be applauding the increased minority people within the development team. Yet, I can’t. It’s as if BioWare hired Maggs and Heir for the sake of checking off diversity on their team list. I get it, I really do; the video game industry is a predominately white male entertainment area, so for a woman and/or ethnic minority to get in and succeed is difficult. Making a game where the protagonist is a minority was well without being objectified? Even more so.
But even with that, people need to be hired for their talents, not their sexuality, skin tone or gender. Do you want an example? Steve Fukuda, the Japanese-American game director of "Titanfall 2".
Prior to "Titanfall" (both 1 and 2), Fukuda was a lead designer at Infinity Ward (the company behind Call of Duty) and was responsible for every "Call of Duty" entry up to "Modern Warfare 2". In short, not only was he talented, he had the experience and proof to back it up. Just look at all the acclaim that those "Call of Duty" games got, as well as "Titanfall 2".
And male gaze? As a feminist myself, I’ll wholeheartedly agree that objectifying women is a bad thing. But allow me to direct your attention towards "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" and "Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens". Those films had Felicity Jones and Daisy Ridley, both of whom are quite the eye candy, as the protagonists. Yet, they avoided male gaze. How? Their characters weren’t overtly feminine, their clothes didn’t show much skin, and their dialogue didn’t revolve around a male love interest; many female characters looking attractive is just an unfortunate by-product of how showbiz works. But if you apply what I said above, it can go a long way for feminism. There are a good way and bad way of going about making a good female character. BioWare did fine, but the PR didn’t help; Both genders of Commander Shepard and Pathfinder Ryder were modeled after models, in which looking like the most desirable people, unfortunately, is part of their job description. Frankly, making Scott look more like his model and Sara less comes off as more sexist; as if only men get to look hot in space operas.
I’m trying to enter the entertainment industry as well, and as an Asian-American it’s even harder for me to succeed and find a foothold. But I know the challenges lying ahead, and I know there’s a proper way for me to lay the ground for the diversity I desire. I just hope BioWare learned from this incident and will do better for the future of the Mass Effect franchise.
