Remember Me's gender politics "a subconscious militant act"
Dontnod creative director on equality and lead character Nilin
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Dontnod's Jean-Maxime Moris has revealed the thought that went into making sure the hero of its upcoming title Remember me wasn't just a sex bomb, and how the world reflects the studio's take on gender equality.
"We didn't think of gender equality being a major theme in the game, but thinking back on the world we designed, it is true that women have key positions in its governance," the creative director told Shacknews.
"In 2013, we have a long way to go in terms of gender equality, so take this as a subconscious militant act."
"If you respect your public, then you refuse to dumb your work down"
He added that creating a rounded, strong female character was a matter of respecting in your audience, and in the long run would actually help a game stand out from its competitors.
"You have to avoid the pitfalls of making her just a damsel in distress or a sex bomb, because this is what you think would appeal most to the hordes of men that constitute your fan base," he said.
"But if you respect your public, then you refuse to dumb your work down, and eventually it pays back because what you do is different. But I'm not saying we're the only ones. I'm quite happy to see that more and more games feature female protagonists."
The words touch on a hot topic in the industry, as it struggles to be more inclusive in both the real world and the virtual. Naughty Dog recently explained how it had fought to keep its hero, Ellie, on the front of the packaging for The Last Of Us, and had to specially request female focus testers for the game.
Top Comment This is hardly a new thing though, Valve in particular are very successful with their female characters.
Its not like every female character until now has been a damsel or a personality-lacking sex doll. Male and females generally suffer from the same archetypes in games so its not even a gender issue so much as a personality diversity issue.
I got accused of making one of my characters "too sexy" because she had large breasts and there was a knockback from people about her design. As a girl with large breasts i was very irritated by this. We need to stop acting like theres a "right or wrong" situation going on here and just choose the suitable archetype for our games because for the past 5 or so years we've seen far more diversity in female characters than in males.
Equality is when theres room for damsels, sex bombs and whatever else we can throw in the pot.
Posted:3 days ago