When Fantasies Collide

Character designs for different sorts of fantasies

From the Witcher 4 teaser trailer, Ciri (powerful, capable, battle-hardened) and an unnamed village sacrifice lady (demure, over-decorated, helpless).

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Ah, the holidays are over, and in the spirit of new year’s resolutions, I’m committing to writing shorter articles, exploring topics over multiple entries, and with more of an eye towards interacting with comments and questions from readers and friends.

I’d like these articles to be more of a conversation and less of a lecture.

So ask me anything, with direct messages, emails, in the comments below, or any of my other social media sources. These can be on the subject of the moment, or on any other game and story-related topics you’d like me to talk about!

Back to the Bullshit

Now, I’m back from the holidays just in time to catch the tail end of a totally bullshit “controversy” that I knew was going to be coming along about now.

See, back in the summer, I had the honor of interviewing with CDProjekt Red, and seeing their upcoming trailer for Witcher 4 a few months ahead of its public release. Which meant I knew that Ciri would be the main character for the next game — although that should have been obvious to anyone who read the books or finished playing Blood & Wine.

And since I’ve had plenty of experience with the worst toxic “fans” on the internet — going even back before Gamergate, to when the most toxic of fans were a bunch of reactionary eastern Europeans sending death threats to me and the other devs of Fallout 3 — I knew just how badly they would take the idea of the next Witcher game being helmed by a female character. So I had been buckled in and ready for their nonsense.

And once the Witcher 4 trailer debuted during The Game Awards, that nonsense began in earnest. At the cue of a few particular grifters who have cultivated their anger for clicks, toxic fans flooded social media with fury about Ciri leading the sequel. I’d go into the dynamics of that particular grifting ecosystem, but the game journalist

botherer

has already done an excellent job on that front, so go read his fine article on the subject.

However, I noticed on particular thread in these toxic fans’ complaints: a claim that studios were deliberately “uglifying” Ciri and other protagonist women, like Jordan from Naughty Dog’s upcoming Intergalactic: the Heretic Prophet.

Jordan Mun from Naughty Dog’s teaser trailer for Intergalactic: the Heretic Prophet, played by Tati Gabrielle, seen here already being done with toxic fans’ bullshit.

This argument kept circling around the idea that these women were being “turned into men”, or being made to appeal to “modern audiences” by having strong jawlines, prominent muscles, or shaved heads. All of the standard anti-trans and generally bigoted crap was there, all presented as if they were just a reasonable aesthetic critique, dressed up in dogwhistles to barely hide the hate underneath.

And, like so many of these arguments made in bad faith, I saw it catch on with a handful of outsiders, because there’s a tiny sliver of truth hidden within the heap of dung:

These women who are action game leads do have a different design aesthetic than women used to have when they were so often stuck as the romantic partner or damsels in distress of action games. It’s not inherently an ugly or masculine one, but it’s definitely one that puts less emphasis on beauty, and has been more commonly associated with male characters.

Actors vs Objects

These design differences come down to whether the player is expected to see the character as supremely powerful and an avatar of their capability, or if the character is designed to be an appealing to the player as someone to be rescued and “won”. Whether they’re designed for the player to identify with, or to appeal to their (presumed male) gaze.

In a very real way, it’s the difference of whether they’re portrayed as an actor or as an object. Or, in the shorthand of character design, whether the character is a Power Fantasy or a Sex Fantasy.

And a lot of these toxic fans are angry and confused because they’ve only ever thought about women in one of those roles.

Or, as summed up by this timeless comic from Shortpacked:

You see this phenomenon across comics at least as often as in games, really.

Let’s Talk Fantasies

So in the next few weeks, I’ll talk about how characters are designed differently for these story roles, the assumptions made in designing these fantasies, how those roles have changed over times and genres, and what other kind of fantasies games can and should appeal to.

Any specific questions about all this? Topics you want me to touch on? Things I’m clearly failing to recognize? Let me know in the comments below!

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