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