Why I am no longer playing Star Wars: The Old Republic

[lliira]

Two things: first, dull and annoying and endless daily quests. I don't like daily quests anyway. It makes the game feel like a job. I don't want to pay to work.

Second: I couldn't handle the sexism and rapetastic universe any longer. The romances for female characters are certainly far better than those for male characters, but that's because most of the female NPCs are written so poorly and cookie-cutter. Then there's the fact that almost every romanceable female NPC is extremely young, and many of them call the PC "master", but very few joinable male NPCs are young and only one of them calls you "master" and he is not romanceable. Every human-like female joinable NPC is romanceable, while most of the human-like male joinable NPCs are not romanceable. I would have loved the option to romance Lord Scourge, but no dice.

I have never played a game in which the clothing choices disturbed me as much as in TOR, and I played World of Warcraft during the era in which female paladins were stuck in metal bikinis. But the metal bikinis were just metal bikinis, and did not have the mark of sexual slavery on them. In TOR, there are skimpy slave female costumes but no skimpy slave male costumes. There are no skimpy sexy male costumes, period; the best you can get is an invisible shirt. But there are endless incredibly skimpy and sexual female costumes.

And that's not even starting with the endless rape of endless women that's treated in such a cavalier fashion and never even called rape because they apparently can't say that word. Which means it becomes background noise. The sexual slavery of women and girls is an absolute constant in TOR's universe, but not really dealt with, even though you can participate in it. And there is never, ever sexual slavery of men or boys. Not once.

In character creation, your options for male characters are: small, average, superhero muscular, and linebacker. Your options for a female character are: tiny, small, superhero no-ribcage, and average with a slim waist but large boobs and butt. The fattest a female character can be is the body shape I had in my 20s. I was not as fat as a linebacker, thank you very much -- I was not fat at all. The message is that if you are a woman and you are not thin, you do not exist. When there's only one body shape, that is not the message. The message then is, "we don't have the resources for lots of body shapes." Though one still usually gets a thin women with big boobs and butt, the male body shape is usually somewhat comparable, Hollywood muscular. It's an equal opportunity thing, rather than TOR's No Fat Chicks thing. 

I feel the ambient sexism in TOR more than in any other MMORPG I have ever played. I don't mind skimpy outfits if they're equal opportunity, if males and females can both wear them -- in fact, I like them. I don't mind rape in stories when it's treated properly -- in fact, I like it. (That sounds very strange.) I like being able to choose body shapes, but only when I actually have a choice, not when it's treated like "linebacker" for men is equivalent to "Jennifer Lopez" for women. TOR fails all these criteria, hard. I think it is no coincidence that it's the only MMORPG I've ever played in which I've been asked "are you a girl irl?" and whispered that my characters are attractive multiple times.

Rift is good regarding clothing. If it's a sports bra on a female character, it's a skimpy little vest on a male character. It also doesn't have oh and by the way sexual slavery of women every single blasted place you go. I'm going to be switching to that when I feel like playing a MMORPG again.

I do have some things to finish in TOR, and it is very fun to play with my husband. So I'll be going back to it for some things. But there's only so much rape rape rape rape rape rapity rape rape I can take in anything that isn't explicitly a ravishment kink fantasy. When I play TOR, I feel like I am enmeshed in someone else's kink about women getting raped all the time and/or being the one with WAY less power in romantic relationships with men, and that is not what I'm looking for in a MMORPG. And I have to be constantly prepared for the next rape that is not called rape because they're not allowed to use that word. Why the hell did they write so much rape when they can't even say rape?! I'd far rather just be stuck in a metal bikini.

Comments

[smurasaki]

The romances, particularly for male PCs are all kinds of messed up, starting with the fact that you're nearly always romancing a subordinate, which is not a good starting place. (And I don't think I've ever been as creeped out by a game as when Raina Temple came on to my Agent and gave me the very strong impression that, in the Imperial Military, it's standard operating proceedure to have sex with your subordinates, whether they like it or not.)

But clearly you're talking about more than that. What have I been blithely ignoring? I can think of a few other things (Vette's back story, for one), but I don't know whether it's a matter of classes played or my own inobservance.

[lliira]

The Hutts run a galaxy-spanning slave empire. In the Empire, slavery is legal. In the Republic, people just don't talk about it. And it is explicit that for women and girls, this means sexual slavery often. And if you play a Sith warrior, you can capture a woman and bring her to a man who quite clearly intends to rape her for the rest of her life.

There is so much sexual slavery of women in the game that I don't even know where to begin. Much of Nar Shadaa's economy is based on it, to the extent of there being a joke (which, yeah, a JOKE) about a man selling his wife into sexual slavery in a casino. Name me a planet besides Tython, Quesh, and possibly Makeb, and I will give you an example. (I accidentally wrote Korriban instead of Tython at first. Hahahah yeah.)

[smurasaki]

Good point about slavery pretty much inherently equaling sexual slavery. (Or at least including it. All slaves might not be raped, but the risk would always be there. Never mind it pretty explicitly being the point of Hutt slaves.)

I suppose I hadn't really thought about it because dystopian universe, and because the Star Wars universe has generally been portrayed (at least post-Return of the Jedi) as filled with slavery. Which doesn't excuse it! Or my ignoring it! It's a seriously disturbing aspect of the universe, especially when there's a tendency by the creators to make it cozy (Phantom Menace) or at least gloss over what slavery actually means. (For example, I haven't encountered any official Star Wars fiction that acknowledges that the Hutt dancing girls and such are sex slaves, even to the extent that Return of the Jedi does. Not that I've read all existing Star Wars fiction, but...)

It would've been far better for the game designers to skip that aspect of the universe, or even to limit slavery to Hutt space and take it seriously. The joke and the Sith Warrior thing? Yikes. Also no. Also WTF were they thinking? And I thought the companion romances were problematic!

(Which isn't to say that a universe full of slavery would be A-Okay if they didn't joke about it, but those two things really give a disturbing impression of where at least some of the game writers' minds were. At it is _not_ a pretty place. In fact it's well into "I wouldn't want to be alone with them" category.)

How can they on the one hand write stories that are pretty good on the woman hero front and on the other hand clearly think that women aren't people? Should I be feeling very sorry for the class story writers? (Also, isn't Bioware usually _good_ about gender stuff? What the hell was going on here? Or has it always been seriously of two minds like this?)

[lliira]

Bioware's... I dunno. I've been playing their games for a very very long time. They have blind spots. I have this feeling that all the blindspot people were working on TOR while the non-blindspot people and/or the people who have grown over the years (i.e. David Gaider, who used to be something of a doof) were working on Dragon Age.

I don't mind a universe full of slavery, and even rape, at all. My problems are that 1) it's only against women, which means the "realistic" defense falls apart 2) it is ubiquitous, more so than even in our world. When you read a story or play a game, you live it for a while. Even for enslaved women in the antebellum U.S., most of their lives were not rape ALL THE TIME. 3) it's not treated seriously and 4) WTF were they thinking, writing so much rape when they can't say the word "rape"? They had no chance to even be able to treat it right, considering their hands were tied in that way.

It's fine that you can ignore it. I'm glad that you can; I'm kind of pissed off that I can't, because it means I can't play a game I enjoy in a lot of other ways. But their cluelessness about this stuff makes me want to kick things. And their thoughtless masculism extends everywhere. If I have to hear that prisoner on the prison planet say they were born there because of the crimes of their FATHERS one more time...

[smurasaki]

It's the only Bioware game I've played, so I was pretty much going off of what people say about Bioware. Which is generally that, while they're not perfect, they're trying. And maybe the issues I have with the romances (Starting with that, for all but two classes (a few others could be argued about depending on the companion), they're your freaking subordinates! Argh!) and the joke and the Sith Warrior quest are all blind spot issues. But some of the companion stuff is creepy and the joke and the Sith Warrior quest are waaaay creepy (and that's getting them secondhand).

I fear my ability to ignore it comes from liking so many problematic things that I kind of have to be able to relegate some stuff to "background noise" - even things that bother me when I think about them. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. I mean, if I didn't, I'm not sure any fiction would make the cut, but at the same time, consumers like me let creators get away with a lot of shit. :\

And we all have things that are just too much. If the romances weren't optional, I would be too creeped out by them to play, for example. (And I get creeped out in other games when I feel like my avatar is intended as eye candy more than anything. A problem I have with Guild Wars 2, and an insurmountable problem for me in Aion. SWTOR - like every other choose your build game, sadly - dropped the ball big time on actual different body types for women, but at least you're not _forced_ to dress striperifically and the animations don't have a strange exaggerated femininity to them*. Though I've got to say it creeps me out when I come across people who've dressed their companions in the slave outfit or the other barely-counts-as-clothing outfits. One of the many problems with including some of those options in the game in the first place. (Along with the female-only problem. They _tried_ with the invisble chest piece, but one option vs many, at least one of which is problematic as all get out...))

The sad thing is, the game could have been written without those issues... and wasn't. (Though I can't help a nasty suspicion that addressing issue one would've forced a higher game rating, even if they still never used the word rape.) Hell, I suspect they could've written it such that they addressed the problems even if they couldn't, for ratings reasons, use the word rape. It all starts with taking it seriously. (And not making it women only.)

And the prisoner (unless they had very unusual fathers...) and the other times when the subtle sexism, masculism, or other issues whap one in the face. *sigh*

(And I wrote a book. Oops.)


*I hate to even call the animations that bother me "feminine" because of that weird exaggerated quality. It's a performance. I'm not sure the animations would bother me if they were part of a choose-your-animations package that was labeled "flirty" or some such, but as the default for female characters I suddenly feel like I'm being forced to play someone's imaginary girlfriend.

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[chocolatepot]

And that's not even starting with the endless rape of endless women that's treated in such a cavalier fashion and never even called rape because they apparently can't say that word.

What wait what? D:

[lliira]

You can have sex in the game, but in order to keep the game "T", they never show it and never even say the word "sex". (Or even "make love", "spend the night together", etc. Closest is "get to know each other".) The word "rape" never comes up that I've seen, and I've played all the classes to the end of their class quests except Bounty Hunter, including a class that can participate in rape.

[chocolatepot]

But why is endless rape in background??

[lliira]

I wish I knew! A love of Grimdark? (There are other things in the game supporting this hypothesis.) Someone's fetish? They could find other excuses for putting women in skimpy outfits, so that's not it.

[guardians_song]

Would it be cynical and/or offensive if I said that I've come to suspect "a love of [rape-filled] Grimdark" and "someone's fetish" are one and the same?

I don't know. It just seems like rape-filled Grimdark is an excuse for at least one of two things:
1) Lots of horrific rape of women and girls (EXCLUSIVELY women and girls), either described in loving detail or hinted at in such a way that the implications are shadowed in loving detail;
2) A white heterosexual male protagonist (suspiciously resembling an authorial insert) riding in to whiteknight a raped or almost-raped victim-caricature and show what a marvelously chivalrous and/or feminist Nice Guy he is.

Perhaps it's just that I don't read much Grimdarkery, but it seems like that's the report that keeps leaking back from reviews of stories set in such universes...

[lliira]

Would it be cynical and/or offensive if I said that I've come to suspect "a love of [rape-filled] Grimdark" and "someone's fetish" are one and the same?

No, I think it would be 100% accurate.

I've been thinking about why I enjoy JRPGs so much, and I lately realized something that might be part of it. They have some truly horrible stuff happening. Huge emotional gut punches, main characters dying, end of the world, etc. Lots of darkness all over the place. And it's not like they're free of sexism.

But 1) there are characters who, even if hugely messed up, are still trying to do the right thing and 2) there's almost no rape. There's creepiness sometimes -- there was an attempted forced marriage in FF10, which the girl got out of all on her own, and also a really weird part of FF7 -- and sometimes there's gender essentialism and such. But when there's an implication of the danger of rape, you can be almost entirely positive that the women or girls are going to find a way out of it, and entirely positive that they will not be blamed for it.

I can only think of one time a female character in a JRPG I've played was threatened with rape, besides the implications of the attempted forced marriage in FF10. In Persona 4, there's a scene in which a character is pretty blatantly threatened with gang rape. But that scene and her entire character arc are done right. It's about her. And though she's been a pretty obnoxious character, one who uses her looks to get what she wants, it's very explicit that the boy doing the threatening is totally and completely in the wrong. There's no "she deserves it" from anyone whom we're supposed to respect.

Basically, the female characters are all people. While there are background characters who are there to be victims, they're as likely to be men as women, and be of any age, and they are not likely to be rape victims. I might have to be braced for "okay, something really shitty might happen at any moment" and "the characters I love most are about to die" and even "the world is about to end and everything my characters worked for will be undone", but I don't have to be braced for "oh look a female character let's see how she's going to be sexually assaulted this time" or "let's see where the rape market is in THIS neighborhood."

Er, I apologize for the tangent. Tl;dr: I think you're completely right. A story can be dark without being rapetastic, even while having rape in it but treating it right. But I've never heard of a Grimdark story without lots and lots and lots of rape, all fetishized.