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Game Developers Try to Depict Non-Sexist Art

posted by janrinok on Saturday March 15 2014, @06:02PM   Printer-friendly
from the the-impossible-takes-a-little-longer dept.

lhsi writes:

"The Atlantic looked at a recent update from the developers of the game Desktop Dungeons to discuss problems with gender bias in gaming, asking 'can a work be racist or sexist if its creator doesn't mean for it to be?'

The developers of the game had recently been adding female character art to their game with the intention that they would be "adventurers first and runway models second." While actively trying to avoid doing everything the 'simple' way, they came into some problems due to subconscious shorthands creeping in.

"This adjustment turned out to be startlingly non-trivial - you'd think that a bunch of supposedly conscious, mindful individuals would instantly be able to nail a 'good female look' (bonus points for having a woman on our crew, right?), but huge swathes of our artistic language tended to be informed by sexist and one-dimensional portrayals. We regularly surprised ourselves with how much we took for granted.'"

 
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  • (Score: 2, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday March 15 2014, @08:57PM

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Saturday March 15 2014, @08:57PM (#16949) Homepage

    Sarah Jessica Parker would actually be a perfect character-model for addressing the concerns outlined in TFA: She would very convincingly be a witch or goblin in a video game, even with digital makeup applied.

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  • (Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Sunday March 16 2014, @12:30AM

    by GungnirSniper (1671) on Sunday March 16 2014, @12:30AM (#17014) Journal

    Sarah Jessica Parker would actually be a perfect character-model for addressing the concerns outlined in TFA: She would very convincingly be a witch or goblin in a video game, even with digital makeup applied.

    Or she could play a horse. [sarahjessi...ahorse.com]

  • (Score: 1) by Taibhsear on Tuesday March 18 2014, @06:25PM

    by Taibhsear (1464) on Tuesday March 18 2014, @06:25PM (#18198)

    Sarah Jessica Parker would actually be a perfect character-model for addressing the concerns outlined in TFA: She would very convincingly be a witch or goblin in a video game, even with digital makeup applied.

    Funny that you should say that... [imdb.com]
    AMOK AMOK AMOK AMOK