Game of tropes

MANILA, Philippines - There is nothing more frightening for me than being in the presence of a very nice dude who asks, “What’s your favorite game?”

I worry, not because of any creepy Fifty Shades of Grey implications, but because I just know this means he only wants to know what my favorite video game is. And for the life of me, I can’t think of any game I’m familiar with more than Namco’s Tekken 3. Which, if you must know, came out in 1997. You know what else is 19 years old? Chloë Grace Moretz.

So when I try to be honest and say, “Actually, I don’t really play…?” I can see the light die in his eyes. All love lost. Goodbye true love. Goodbye beautiful children. But for the price of not having to play video games? Eh. I’m good.

At the risk of sounding like an old crone, I don’t really get the appeal of sitting in front of a TV screen with a console on my lap till my pajamas get crusty. As a girl, especially, I don’t feel strongly represented in any video game narrative unless I’m thin, white, and could be played by Angelina Jolie in a movie. The way women are represented in popular video games today is gratuitous at best, and that has not been more apparent than in 2016’s highly anticipated game Overwatch.

Developed by Blizzard (also responsible for games such as World of Warcraft and Diablo), Overwatch is a multiplayer first-person shooter game. It tells the story of a task force of heroes who banded together to restore peace during wartime. So now that conflict has come back, these heroes have been grouped into six, with their particular skill sets, to secure and defend control points before time runs out.

Based on this synopsis alone, it sounds like nothing too special. But its open beta last May drew in 9.7 million players, and has been critically acclaimed for its accessibility and, especially, its rounded characters. That, they say, is what sets Overwatch apart from your average video game; it offers much more representation to a cast of somewhat three-dimensional characters.

In the interest of science, I tried to find out which of these claims is, at the least, viable. In a cast of 21, there are eight female characters: Pharah, Mei, Widowmaker, D.Va, Zarya, Mercy, Symmetra and Tracer. One look at them and you can see that, well, they make no secret about turning these women into sex symbols. Widowmaker, a dark French femme fatale, is practically naked. Mei, a Chinese climatologist who wears a thick-ass coat, still manages to show off a fair amount of boob. I mean, yay for thick girls with boobs, but if you create a girl who’s smart enough to control the weather, then she would be smart enough to wear a sports bra on the field. COME ON.

Obviously, everyone in the Overwatch universe was made with a specific skill in mind. Zarya, the Russian athlete turned super soldier, is clearly valued for her guns — both the armed weapons and her actual arms. Tracer is valued for her ability to manipulate time and — according to various nerds on the darker side of the net — her butt. But I’d like to ask: in this universe, where are the fighters who eat a little too many pancakes for breakfast? (Probably dead.) Where are the girls who can’t reach for the overhead cabin on a plane, but can kill you in a second? Why are all the women in this game so goddamn cute, while the men are totally okay being unattractive?

That, for me, is one of the bigger offenses of Overwatch against its heroines. While its male characters include a cyborg ninja, a nut job into explosives, and a Swedish engineer who looks like a dwarf from Lord of the Rings, its female counterparts are explicitly sexualized. And I don’t just mean in Overwatch’s extensive pornography community, which mostly caters to a male audience. If this game really banks on its character-driven success, then why aren’t the men just as sexualized as the women? Why aren’t the men recognized for being men, or even for being individuals that can also be aesthetically admired? Why aren’t there enough near-naked men on Overwatch?

I suppose in the midst of any battle, clothing is the last thing on their mind. But if the women of Overwatch can take time to look cute while ridding the world of evil, then I think it’s only fair that we ask the same from the men. Surely Blizzard can afford to make a cute male character for Overwatch besides Hanzo the Japanese assassin. If we can’t expect video game developers to stop making women look sexy then the best solution that I can think of is to make it fun for everyone to play. So here’s my million-dollar tip for anyone trying to make their own game: represent the best and the worst of everyone. If that means having to make everyone see that both men and women are sexual beings, why not?

Maybe then it wouldn’t be so hard to answer what my favorite game is next time.