How 'Knights of Pen & Paper' Spoils a Cute Concept with Offensive Characters

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

I was very excited for Behold Studios' Knights of Pen and Paper to be released on iOS earlier this month. If you've never heard of this innovative mobile game, it combines retro gaming flavor with a tabletop rpg framework: You control the make-up of your party both in terms of players and classes, as well as the complexity of their battles, the direction of the story, and even the decor of your room, while adventuring and questing across the map. It's all charming and novel, but when the game was finally released on iOS (after previously only being available on Android) my excitement to play died down at record speed. I don't think I offend very easily when it comes to games (though I do roll my eyes a lot), but Knights of Pen and Paper had managed to offend me before I'd even made my first character.

Knights of Pen & Paper is clever and original and very fun... But it's also a very clear example of how so many games are failing so many gamers... for literally no narrative or gameplay-related purpose. Here's what I mean:

When you start Knights of Pen & Paper, you start with your Dungeon Master and two party members that you pick from a list of predetermined characters. Being the type of player I am, I wanted to make a character like myself and others like my friends to play with. Well, too bad.

 

The three choices for female characters in this game are a grandma, Paris Hilton (yes really), and a manic pixie dreamgirl in the form of Ramona Flowers from the Scott Pilgrim franchise. That's it. Out of about a dozen character options including the developers themselves, a pizza guy, a little brother, an office worker and so on, there are three female options (maybe 3.5 if you want to generously include the alien). There are so many male characters that could easily have had female counterparts and, if you want to say that every character is drawn from a trope, plenty more female tropes to engage. They don't even reach for low-hanging fruit like a Ren Faire girl, so it almost seems lazy.

But maybe it's not so bad. So there are only a handful of female characters, so what? Well, every character has a bonus that gives them an advantage in one area over other characters, something like increased experience gain or higher health. The bonusses for the female characters are 'Loudness', 'Shopping', and 'Luck', respectively. Yikes. There's a time and a place for stereotyping like that in games, and that's only when it adds to the story or the game itself in a meaningful way (Becky Chambers has written about this particular issue better than I ever could over at The Mary Sue). I don't see how having Paris Hilton (a reference that is painfully dated in the mid 2000's at this point) rolling for initiative adds to the complexity of the satire/homage at the heart of this game.

Naturally if you want to change your Dungeon Master you can, but if you want a female DM you're completely out of luck. You can be Yoda or Doc Brown, but you can't be a woman.

Look, I'll concede that tabletop RPGs have historically been dominated by groups of guys bro-ing out over their +2 broadswords and so on, but it's not 1980 anymore. Times have changed. Plenty of women enjoy these games as much as men-- and beyond the tabletop gaming world, RPGs in general are an incredibly popular genre among women (just look at the fandoms surrounding Bioware's Dragon Age franchise if you don't believe me). More importantly, women LOVE mobile games, and make up an estimated 60% of the mobile gaming market. Even if I was willing to admit that there weren't many female character options for Behold Games to include in a game that lampoons D&D as much as it reveres it (which I'm not) I would still say that having a lack of female faces is an incredibly bad choice for a mobile game. Maybe it seems unimportant, but it told me that I was not the player this developer had in mind-- that I quite literally didn't have a place at the table-- and that's not how any developer should want to make any player feel.

Then again, it could always be worse. So far, of of the only characters I've come across who isn't caucasian (or as caucasian as sprites can be), has been based on an incredibly racist trickster character from Brazilian folklore (the developers are Brazilian). It's just one more awkward and avoidable blemish on what could have been a classic mobile game.

Tweet

Iris Ophelia (Janine Hawkins IRL) has been featured in the New York Times and has spoken about SL-based design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan and with pop culture/fashion maven Johanna Blakley.

Comments

[Ronaldo]

Hello Iris.

Sorry you feel this way towards the game. The characters are supposed to be stereotypes and funny, not to resemble "you and your friends" since you can't name your characters.

This is no meant to be sexist or excluding in ay form. These are just references. Just like the Dungeon Masters, who are all nerd references from the past. Yoda couldn't be a girl nor could Doc Brown.

About the "caucasian" part of your review, this is actually a fake. In the very first quest you take in Default Village you can see a non-caucasian character and others do appear thru the game.

Anyway, as I said earlier, this game is all about REFERENCES. We do have plans to add more women as characters, but if you search for someone to identify yourself with then you might come short, as it could be someone just like "little sister".

I found your review as extremist as you said the game is.

[Hynx]

Wow Iris,

Shut the fuck up! Really...

[Blanka]

"Offensive Characters"? "Lack of female faces is an incredibly bad choice for a mobile game"? "I quite literally didn't have a place at the table." CMON! Seriously?!?! Just play the f*cking game, enjoy it, and stop bitchin' it! DAMN! Get this: If you want to create ur female character, have a house, job and a dreamy life, my suggestion is The Sims 3.

[Rafael]

I'm a brazilian black guy, and it doesn't look like an offense to me. I think it is because i dont see the characters like "women", "man" or "black". They are just people. Pixelated and tiny .Dont take things too seriously! That's the brazilian way : )

[Little Dice (Zé Pequeno)]

How about a nice cup of Shut The Fuck UP?

http://static.blol.me/photos/1297626437947.jpg

[Anonymous]

Jesus, you make feminists look really bad. Funny you don't even mention the other character's passives... like the guy who's 50% cheaper to buy for example. Can you imagine if that was a female character? IT WOULD BE IMPLYING WOMEN ARE WORTH LESS RIGHT? Funny how you only present the facts that are relevant to your weak, unfounded criticism.

Also, about "I was not the player this developer had in mind"... There's a thing called 'target audience'. I'd suggest you look it up what that means, maybe it'll save you from looking dumb in the future!

[Paula]

Hey,

I am a girl and I really like this game...

But sorry, replying criticism with SHUT THE FUCK UP doesn`t seem to add much to the debate.

[LeeHere Absent]

Nothing unexpected about the responses to this blog post so far. As Yogi Berra said, "It's déjà vu all over again."

Oh, and not to forget that other archetypal celebrity and sometime game character, Paris Hilton: "I don't think there's ever been anyone like me that's lasted. And I'm going to keep on lasting."

[Marcellus]

Any woman should read this article and feel ashamed, cause this "review" misjudges the very role of women in games journalism.

I guess your "ongoing review" was supposed to analyse the game as a whole instead of babbling about your hasty conceptions and expectations.

Jeez, we're talking about a game that mock stereotypes. What the hell "making a character like yourself" have to do with anything?

Later you states that "it's not 1980 anymore", when the game clearly uses a lot of references from the '80s. I mean, that's the fucking point...

I think you could have deduced all of this by yourself, but you were too busy with your bias to actually review the game.

[Iris Ophelia]

@Ronaldo and @Marcellus: I think I did make it pretty clear that I understood characters were made to represent stereotypes and references, and my largest complaint was simply that the options for female character fell short of the options for males. The same goes for the DM. There are plenty of female characters in fantasy and sci-fi that could have been referenced alongside Yoda and the others, but they weren't. Honestly I wouldn't have even noticed Paris if there had been more than three female characters.

As I said repeatedly in this article, the game is clever, original, and very charming, but I wanted it to be better. I waited for this game to be released, I bought it the first day it was on the app store. I did not set out to dislike this game-- I still don't dislike this game, but I am disappointed in it.

I didn't want, as @Blanka said, to make a "dreamy life". I wanted to beat the shit out of trolls, upgrade my gear, build a balanced and skilled party, and I wanted to do so with at least one character I could vaguely relate to. I think that's a reasonable thing to want, and a thing that most guys could easily achieve in the game. I doubt I'm the only person in the world who plays games like this.

And to the others, telling me to 'shut the fuck up' is also not the best way to prove me wrong or make me reconsider my opinions. It just makes you look like a child.

[Pussycat Catnap]

Welcome to my world.

I believe I've covered all the points numerous times in other ways.

For me, SL looks like this too way more often than it should.

[Pussycat Catnap]

And looking at Ronaldo's response...

How typical to slander people who ask for diversity as 'extremist'. Very much like how I get labeled as 'racist' for asking why there is such appalling diversity.

Babylon tries to flip the lingo, but the truth of their ways is still plain to see.

[DaniMagoo]

This seems like an appropriate time to remind everyone about this ... http://www.gabbysplayhouse.com/webcomics/sexism/

[Takamori]

Ok....ok
So a game that makes a joke of the rpg stereotypes and nerd culture , can't make a joke because...?
Oh and Brazilians can't joke with themselves?

Ok feminazis going out of their minds.
Go take some vacation, you are taking everything way too seriously.
Oh go find a boyfriend or girlfriend, you need some love.

[Anonymous]

"I wanted to beat the shit out of trolls, upgrade my gear, build a balanced and skilled party, and I wanted to do so with at least one character I could vaguely relate to."

If you wanted to, that's fine. It's your expectations. But don't call the game sexist because it didn't meet -your- expectations; both me and my girlfriend don't give a flying fuck for playing with characters we can relate to, and that's the same for everybody else I know. And why's that?

Target audience.

If the developers wanted to target your kind of audience, then it would put in everything you've mentioned. But they didn't. It's like complaining that, oh my god, God of War makes me play that ugly, bald spartan guy, when I wanted to play someone handsome and with great hair like myself! No, it's not the premise of the game.

Again, the game did not AIM for diversity. It did not aim for showing lots of different characters to maybe try to appease everyone. It aimed for having stereotyped characters for you to laugh at, not identify with.

[Iris Ophelia]

I see your point, but the difference is that God of War and similar games closely follow a script that relies on a constant character, and the playing experience they offer is mostly linear. You are playing through preset encounters along a preset storyline with a preset character, a lot like reading a book or watching a movie. All you're really doing is moving this along by hitting buttons.

God of War doesn't advertise itself by inviting players to choose and control their characters, surroundings, and the direction/complexity of the story themselves, while Knights of Pen & Paper does exactly that. God of War doesn't promise a dynamic and customizable experience, so there's no reason to expect that when you play it. But that is exactly what Knights of Pen & Paper promises, and exactly why I was disappointed by it.

[A.J.]

Wow. I can't believe what hostility emerged in these responses.

I thought Iris made a convincing argument. I can understand disagreeing, but it's really not such a stretch to imagine that any game player likes to relate to their game character just a little.

Your character is the tool you use to play the game. It's always good to have a tool that fits.

It's a bit like being left-handed in a right -handed world.

[Takamori]

One thing is to say: Hey the game could use some improvements don't fit like a glove.

The other thing is calling the game racist, misogynist and w/e comes from your mind .

[Austin Walker]

@Takamori: You're right. To suggest specific, concrete improvements is different than labeling the game racist or misogynistic. The former is constructive and useful, the latter less so.

What's confusing about your complaint here is that Iris didn't simply categorize KoP&P and leave it at that. In fact, she doesn't use the words sexist or misogynist in the entire article. She uses "racist" only to evaluate a folk character that the developers didn't invent (but chose to include.)

Instead, she gave particular, material examples of what she found frustrating with the game, and coupled these with suggestions for improvement. She didn't call the developers names or provide any guesses as to their motivations because to do so would be to assume and drag the conversation off topic from the real point which is: hey, here's this really charming, well made game, it's really unfortunate that there's this one part of it that keeps me from really digging into it.

The labeling didn't start until the comments section, where defensive developers and players needed to quickly boil down her argument to better disregard it. Instead of opening a real dialog here, first Iris' position was simplified, then turned into a straw man. It's a shame, because an open discussion between developers, gamers, and critics who are actually interested in genuine, meaningful conversation about these topics is rare and often insightful. Maybe next time.

[Deoridhe Quandry]

It's amazing how quickly the sexist tropes come out when a woman dares to speak up about the lack of women in video games. Thanks for the review, Iris. I'll know to avoid a tired, cliched, sexist game played by tired, sexist people.

[Tha Great Niga]

Iris this is complete B.S. I don't know about todays practices, but when I used to play tabletop rpgs (like ten years ago), maybe 10% of all players were females, and I have NEVER played with a female GM. Maybe the developers are from that time as well? So what, they are supposed to rebalance the genders in their world simply because they dont want to be sexists? And wow, you know, thats just a game. Its not supposed to represent a nice and balanced cross section of the human society. Its not a thesis on sociology or human rights. You are the first person I've seen complaining about this. IMO your review tells more about your personality (a very biased one for that matter) them about the game itself, which is not a very desirable trait in a reviewer.

[Iris Ophelia]

Since this has come up a few times in the comments I should clarify, in particular for people who aren't familiar with this site: "Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style" is a statement I put at the beginning of ALL of my posts so that people don't mistake my content for the site owner's content. In this context, the term 'review' is being used to refer to the broad range of subjects I usually cover, and not to the content or intention of this particular post. This is an opinion piece and not a review, and I never claimed otherwise, but this is an understandable mistake to make if you're unfamiliar with the site's format.

@Deoridhe I wish I could say I was surprised or phased at all, but this isn't my first rodeo. it's the same old stuff you hear every single time (I'm only surprised it took a few hours before 'you need a boyfriend' came up). And it's a shame. The game IS fun and original (which is exceedingly rare in mobile rpgs in particular). I would have still recommended it, but frankly I suspect the hostility from the bravely anonymous and pseudonymous fans and developers alike may put more people off of it than my post would.

[Iggy]

For those of us who still play tabletop RPGs, this situation is familiar but largely ended with the second gen games of the late 80s. Cannot figure out why so many of the nerdboys here bared their cheetoh-coated fangs...women have long been treated like eye-candy or worse in games.

Hamlet, could you nuke the STFU remarks? If Iris is wrong, let's reply like adults, not ten year old whiny dweebs.

[Narrow Arrow]

Well, I hope it's not Hamlet trying to bring in more traffic with such yellow press trick.

[Takamori]

Wondering if the white knights read the article or really fail in reading comprehension

[val kendal]

Iris - thanks for trying, I appreciate the time you put into your SL and game reviews, sorry you're getting such uncivil flack over an opinion

[Arcadia Codesmith]

"Cannot figure out why so many of the nerdboys here bared their cheetoh-coated fangs"

Well, the first clue is that it's a gang of nerdboys we've never heard from before. I'm guessing it's either a flock of sock puppets or just the fanboi legion that infests every game and blindly defends every decision the developers make (even the ones that the developers themselves disavow).

They're just standard archetypes familiar to anybody who frequents gaming forums, especially if you're the type who likes to help improve the game, and most especially if you're critiquing the presentation of female characters.

[Iggy]

@Takamori, I read the post (again), so thank you. I will change what I said in one particular: I should have written "Cheeto-coated fangs." "Cheetoh" is a breed of cat.

Iris needs no knights, white or otherwise. She can fend very well for herself.

[Scott Jennings]

Kudos to Iris to bringing up issues *she* had with the game. The lack of female perspective in game development is why these issues exist.

Sheri Graner Ray, a long-time MMO/video game developer (she was one of the lead developers on Star Wars Galaxies), had as her signature on various message board postings, "...but what if the player is female?".

http://www.gamespot.com/news/gdc-qanda-womens-advocate-industry-hero-sheri-graner-ray-6120413

Much of her work addresses the issues raised from this simple fact - if the developers are in the main male (which, in most studios, is still the case), they will post from their own experiences. The vast majority of men, of course, have not been women. They can be sympathetic to women's issues (as I like to believe I am) but it's impossible to write from a perspective you simply don't have.

Thus; inclusivity is important. It's important for women to point out when they feel marginalized by casual decisions, and it's important for developers to take that into account and not be dismissive of such feedback. Otherwise gaming will continue to be a boy's club. And as a professional game developer, from my perspective, turning down the money of 50% of the world's population off the bat seems like a bad idea.

I think many people instinctively understand this, which is why topics such as this (and the abuse Anita Sarkeesian took for similar writing) attract such crude "shut up and get back in the kitchen and make me a sammich" responses. It elicits a primal response because gender relationships are primal things, and when it is pointed out that there are issues involving them, it is easy for many to lash out rather than reflect.

At any rate, consider this a public note of support. And to the developers reading this thread - I picked up the game based on this review - while flawed from a gender balance perspective, it seems fun! Take the feedback offered and iterate, and make the next one more inclusive.. and thus even better.

Scott

[LeeHere Absent]

Lovely post, Scott. Thanks for joining the discussion.

[Nissin Orfali]

I am jewish, and i find the lack of jewish characters offensive.

[Bender Bending Rodriguez]

Jo soy un robot mexicano, y por eso no me gusta el juego.

[Iris Ophelia]

@Scott Very well said, even if it's probably falling on deaf ears in this case. ;)

[Deoridhe Quandry]

Iris, Oh I completely know. Ironically, I've had several female tabletop GMs (and been one), and the longest running game I was in was 50/50 male and female. I've played male characters (one four person, con game I had no choice, which I pointed out to the GM) but I vastly prefer playing female, even for games where it's mostly incidental like Civilization. In a world where female gamers are reaching parity with male ones, it's really ignorant and short-sighted to focus on men and a few stereotypes of women.

[Cat Boccaccio]

Iris,

I've read about the hostility against women gamers and the audacity of their expressing actual opinions, but until now never saw it so totally on display. Many of these commenters are willfully misinterpreting your post, and their reactions are way out of proportion to the review you wrote. The gamers that are somehow threatened by a dose of feminism (not a bad word by the way, look it up, kids) sound like thirteen year old boys, one step up from underarm farts and and almost laughingly insecure. Ok, insecurity and ignorance are not really laughable, but those who have NEVER been left out of mainstream gaming (and often mainstream life) will never get it unless this inequality is repeatedly, and intelligently illuminated. So thanks.

[Anonymous]

Morgan Freeman would say...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2d2SzRZvsQ

[Iris Ophelia]

Your link makes a good point, and one in my favour, but given the fact that you posted it anonymously I doubt it's the point you intended to make.

You seem to think that Morgan Freeman is saying he doesn't like black history month because he wants to leave things as they are, or because he just doesn't want to talk about race at all and carry on so racism one day magically disappears. That's not what he's saying at all.

He doesn't want there to be a black history month because it forces a separation of history on racial lines, instead of having it be one uniform topic. That doesn't mean that he wants the history of african americans to be ignored and overlooked (as it was for a very long time), but rather that he wants it to be discussed regularly as a part of history in general.

He doesn't want the issue silenced altogether OR isolated on a little pedestal, he wants it normalized and integrated. I would like the same thing for gender in gaming. I'm sick of having "games" and a special little section for "girl games" off to one side, and that's why I write about things like this-- because just saying nothing and hoping things will improve doesn't do a damn thing.

[Daniel]

As a pizza delivery man, I'm quite offended. The pizza man in game has the special for "50% off this character", the developers were obviously being biased towards pizza delivery man. Idk what kind of message they're trying to send but I'm incredibly upset.

PIZZA DELIVERY MEN HAVE RIGHTS TOO
AND PRIDE

It's a tired cliche I've seen time and time again. This negative image needs to stop.

Signed,
I Take Everything Too Seriously

[Tiffy Vella]

It's interesting to witness the influx of new commenters for this article, and their apparent agenda; to stop intelligent public discussion about females in gaming by attempting to ridicule and shame any women that have a voice, and any men who share their views.

This is just a game review. A rather positive one, in fact. But it mentions some specific ways that the developer can make it more engaging to potentially half it's customer base. And suddenly, we have a comments section full of effings and blindings, personal belittlings, and accusations of extremism. Wow.

We've seen this time and time again, all over the internet, and it has become boringly predictable. I cannot understand why there is such a strong need for some to be so defensive. What on earth is a group of gamers so desperately afraid of losing?

[ZZ Bottom]

Amazed how many play a so stupid and old fashion game, that even look worse then anty played on my old Spectrum!
Really, start to feel like in another world, one that see games as high quality graphic ones, displayed in 46' monitors!

[ZZ Bottom]

And if it means Mobile it means also most of users are underage (physical or mental, you can choose wich aplies!)

[Pussycat Catnap]

"He doesn't want there to be a black history month because it forces a separation of history on racial lines, instead of having it be one uniform topic. That doesn't mean that he wants the history of african americans to be ignored and overlooked (as it was for a very long time), but rather that he wants it to be discussed regularly as a part of history in general.

He doesn't want the issue silenced altogether OR isolated on a little pedestal, he wants it normalized and integrated. I would like the same thing for gender in gaming.
*************************

I've been among many saying for years that the "token colored person" does not diversity make.

When I make these points over race, some of the regulars here are the first to jump on me with "oh, its just Pussycat again."

But its all the same basic issue, and lets not mince words here:

Angry old white guys getting upset about other kinds of folks demanding equal representation and equal treatment.

This issue plays out in our games, its plays out in who gets a part on our TV shows, it plays out in who gets ignored in our history books, it plays out in our political elections...

And this last USA election should put those folks on notice. You better stop it with the hate, stop it with the 'STFU', and learn to sit at the same table with everyone - or we "colored folks" and your own darned women are going to take the entire table away from you.

Folks may not like the way I say it, but you better listen to what I have to say. I'm not "one of you" so I'm not going to say it your way - and that's just something you're going to have to deal with.

[Ronaldo]

Just to clarify this, I'm the only person talking in behalf of Behold Studios and do not know any of the other rage commenters.

My point here is: The game is as it is for a reason. This is not second life, this is not skyrim and this is mostly not the sims. You are not meant to create yourself as a character, these are just funny archetypes that you pick from. I do believe the discussion about women in games is necessary, but this is NOT the game for it.

Also, we have been discussing this as a team and there will be other woman characters in the game for the next big patch, but as I said earlier, they will probably be new archetypes of women because this is what the game is about.

[Shabalabadingdong]

Okay I think iris is totally freaking out over some dumb stuff. You can't really expect the game creators to make a good product based on not offending people. Name one good game that didn't have stereotypes. Paperboy Mario Zelda.. All of them are about boys doing something amazing. Its just a concept. And I think when they referred to customizable they were talking about skills items etc.

[Daniel]

Hilarious how the women complain about games like this but if I complained about Mirror's Edge or Final Fantasy 13 I'd get laughed at. Not to be (completely) disrespectful but seriously get over yourselves.

[pj]

Anyone that can play a game, the is all about jokes, references, and stereotypes, and find a way to be offended, really befuddles me. and why are you so concerned about this stuff anyways? im tired of people whining and bitching about stupid crap like this and how they aren't included in groups or whatever. this game as many have stated, has a target audience, that audience is male nerds, hate to break that to you. so therefore they are going to have most of the things geared to males who are nerds. and yea, they could have referenced females for DMs or characters, but really, who cares? they could have had all the characters be gender-less faceless race-less balls of energy, i still would have enjoyed the game and not have complained because i play the game for a simple reason, its fun. i dont get caught up on things like the ratio of female characters to male characters because its just silly. sorry to crush anyone's hopes or dreams, but not everyone in the world is out to make you happy or make everything so that its perfect for you.

[pj]

Also, i love how everyone who is talking about how we need racial and gender equality and need to stop the hate or segregation, are also making sweeping generalizations that are just as racist as the ones they are opposing. trying to say that everyone needs to stop hating and learn to be together, yet placing the blame on "old white folks" because every white male is racist, and you can say that and its not racist, because making a blanket statement on minorities is racist, but say it about white people, and you are just speaking truth or putting it to the man.

[AwsomeAlien]

All i know is that i would play this game even if it had only rock made characters is a great game!! keep it the way u intended and if some people dont get that not every game has to be life like well is their lost

Love for every one :D

[wat]

You forgot to mention Ms. Goldberry, another female character who is quite unlike the others you have mentioned.

Also, you'd probably enjoy the game more if you weren't so easily offended. (Life pro-tip)

[Iris Ophelia]

Check your patch notes, because Ms. Goldberry was added to the game *well after* this was posted.

[Tariq Kamal]

Damn, why didn’t I see this post before I bought the game and started gushing about it online?

I figure your critique on this is fairly spot-on, actually — even after the addition of Ms. Goldberry. What kind of cinched it for me was the first comment that was made by the game devs, which could be construed as… well, not the best way to respond (pro-tip: your players will NOT be responding to the game the way you want them to respond).

Anyway, your article did actually make me re-evaluate the game a little, although… probably not enough for me to stop playing it.

[Forge]

Wow. So I finished reading this article, which I stumbled across via wayward Google search, and I felt counter-offended and scrolled through the comments to weigh in. Too late! Seems like half the internet has beaten me to it, many with comments with little more depth than "FOAD" or "STFU AND GET ME A SAMMICH!". Yow. Sucks.

To address the article itself, while I see where you're coming from, I don't think it's relevant. It may have escaped you, but the meta-game isn't set in the current day. This is a game (modern) about some gamers (80s-ish?) playing a game (logically also 80s-ish). I don't know what you were doing in the 80s, but all the D&D squads I ever directly encountered were guys, almost without exception.

I played briefly in a more modern group in the late nineties, but again, it was a sausage-fest, just not to the extreme it had been in the 80s.

While your criticism of game makes sense in the outermost layer (criticizing a modern mobile game), you've somewhat overlooked that it's a game inside a game, and the stereotypes were more accurate at that older point in history.

As for this wasteland of a comments thread, I'll just note that a well-reasoned (or even somewhat-reasoned) and decently-expressed rebuttal is infinitely more likely to make someone reconsider a point than "HAW HAW URAFAG LAWL" or "You suck, STFU!". It's the internet and all, but really; try to work on it.

[Iris Ophelia]

@Forge Yes, the 80s, when both Ramona Flowers and Paris Hilton were at their peak.

I get where you're coming from and I agree with you to a point, but it doesn't really cover why they chose the female characters they did-- a loud old nag, a shopaholic airhead, and a manic pixie dreamgirl, 2/3 of which have distinctly post-millenial pop culture roots.

[Joe Randim]

Speaking as one of the supposedly overrepresented evil white men, I have two things to say:

One, where the hell is MY parade?

Two, I was dissapointed that there wasn't a spot to name your characters as you made them.

Yes, I understand that the developers made it that way deliberately. Now you can understand that I say it was the wrong call. There is no reason that my Nerd, playing a Wizard can't be named "Wayde" or "Bill." None at all.

[Pandora]

I am a woman and I played with the female characters because the reference was so hilarious , the game IS reference fun and pleasure to the geek I am
Every detail is an "hommage" as we say in my language to videos games series and geek culture
Your articles is very disappointing sorry to say

[Pandora]

I much say more, I have played alomst every RPG games but the last boss MOM that's the best final boss ever ( second degree talking) who doesn't have a mother complaining and you playing video games ?? ( but we still love her )

[Pandora]

I am French and in us series French is always the bad guy we never complain about that , more, we have fun too

[Steve]

That's pretty ridiculous. It's playful stereotypes. And, typically, there are fewer girls who plays tabletop games.

Like wow.

[Balsuks]

Poor Ms. Goldberry. She wasn't included in your overly pathetic rantings.

[femnazi wtf has the world come to.]

It's a game and your a bitch. That's my take on it. Hope you have fun in that small minded world that men keep crushing down on you.

[FnkyCold]

Easily offended woman is offended. I just bought this game and I think it's fantastic. Unfortunately, this isn't really a game review. It's commentary on how women are portrayed in videogames. I'm glad I don't live my life like this anymore. My advice is learn to laugh more. With age usually comes wisdom and understanding. Another person's ignorance is their problem, not yours. You'll find that wasting time being upset over stupid bullshit you could easily ignore isn't worth the stress. This is coming from a Latino man who married into a racist white family.

[John Evans]

I read the first few comments and, boy, there is a lot of misogynist readers. I agree with the author of the article, and glad she wrote it; it saved me from wasting my time and money on this game.

I cannot wait to make games of my own, and I fully intend to represent genders equally.

[Joe Randim]

Huh.

I read your "review" from start to finish and the only thing I know about this game is that you got your poor widdle feelings hurt because you didn't like the character options.

FAIL.

[R-K]

U dont even mention the teacher one,so that makes it four .__.

[Dionide]

The game itself is about your party trying to save the world from the Dark Mage, it is full of stereotypes and references of the 80's and that's what make the game funny. It is full of quests, story, plot twists, funny character and not about how to treat bad a girl, I know that the game doesn't have a lot of options to women but your characters say the same things, and kill the monsters equally. You made a lot of people dislike the game even being targeted to the "nerd boys", the game is inspired on 80's and on jokes, estereotypes and references so please, edit this "ongoing review" 'cause the game still fun to play.

[Barnaby What?]

People are seriously trying to have an argument about you being a "femnazi" because you want more selections then a "grandma" (which is a reference to WHAT?) and Paris hilton who has been old news forever. Personally I hate SP cause it is sexist garbage but I get including that one for fans sine it is about video games. But to think these guys couldnt rack their brain for more than ONE actual female reference is beyond me. Buffy the vampire slayer? Even Leia from star wars since yoda? Zoe from firefly? chelle from portal?Or any of the other tons of geeky cast members from thousands of parts of media. People are just fighting for straws saying you are over reacting then proceeding to swear and curse you out just because you wanted a little variation.

The lack of POC is another thing but if you want to avoid that whole drama people cannot seriously be annoyed that you wanted more selection when girls make up a majority of the mobile game market and 51% of the population. People need to grow up and not tell people what not to be offended/have an opinion on. Giving people more selections doesnt limit others enjoyment.

[Elindos]

I came to this article with an odd result of google search and am sorry for necroposting it.

It has an interesting point of view actually about representation of women, which actually goes far beyond the "comfort zone" of many.

#1 There are implications that the developers were misogynistic. Oh well this is not written "in black", but is clearly implied here. This argument made many people react defensively. This is a reaction you can clearly expect as the points were arrayed like an artillery fire. Many arguments are put in bold to make sure we don't forget, as if the game developers failed like misogynistic.

#2 There are implications that developers should include some sort of quota of Male to Female characters.

#3 There are implications that developers should cater about the needs and ideas of the female player population, and the the game failed in that area.

I completely agree with the defense of developers freedom of creation:

* even more since this is a game about references (from the 80s but also beyond) and fun,

* instead of applying some sort of "customary law" restricting or banning anything because of: what I would call "social pressure".

* believe me social pressure has an effect on sales so publishers are putting developers under pressure for that, and censoring creative value and "fun" values already. So we should fight along our developers to defend their rights.

However Iris also made a very interesting point.

We are now in a great world where half the players are female.

Whereas there should not be anything like quotas, or social pressure, there should be creative ways to bring so much more fun to as many as our female population as we can.

In that area the article is great because it insists on an area quite important, we should be creative, not restrict ourselves, and allow people imagination to express itself in our games.

So, there is a good direction in this article, points I disagree with too (#1 / #2 / #3) and I believe a review of the review could have been made to imply that

Half players are female. This is
We must really think about the fact that there
"ew I want to succeed so I will cfange tha game core aspect and values".

[Elindos]

.. sorry for the lack of editing options, typos, and yes I am french too so some badly used words are possible.

[Tom]

Iris, I came across this article randomly and am appalled by the comments.

The point of TTRPGs is that you can play as who you want, and I completely agree with you that there should be a diverse set of options for player characters.

People like me (white, middle aged, men with well paid jobs) would have exactly the same opinion as you if we were never represented appropriately in media. I don’t want my daughter growing up in a world where she has no role models!
Unfortunately a vocal minority don’t seem to be able to empathise with others and are also for some reason cruel and small minded.

You do have support out there. Ignore the haters. Their ill constructed opinions exemplify everything wrong with humanity.

Best wishes