Should guy gamers and male characters stick together in party games?
When it comes to party games, should guy gamers play with male characters? It may not be the most important guy gamer decision you face all day, but it’s one of those little choices you can make on the road to earning gaming respect.
Let’s consider the facts. Guy gamers are a rare commodity. It's true, our numbers are growing, but we're still far outweighed by a world of female gamers, elderly gamers, soccer mom gamers, invalid gamers, and nongamers. A lot of girls think boys just don't play videogames. And that's not true. We want to; deep down, we all do. But the system is against us. Games are designed for and marketed to girls, who have years of The Sims practice under their belts. We're just catching up.
In the meantime, guy gamers are fighting back against old stereotypes. We're beating our female friends enough times to be considered serious gamers. We're trying to find more guy converts. Though, in the process, we're getting a lot of funny looks from other, "manlier" guys. It's not easy. Put it this way: When you see a guy confidently picking up a controller, it makes you go all nostalgic inside. Then you step in, grab the second controller and collectively kick butt.
But it doesn't happen often.
So if we guy gamers are really such a scattered minority, doesn't it seem like we should be sticking together?
Almost as scarce as male gamers are legitimate male characters. Sure, you'll find at least one guy in every Nintendo, Capcom, Namco, Konami, Square-Enix, Ubi Soft, Rare, or Sega game, but, like the guy who claims to be a gamer but really only plays Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Madden, Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, and Halo games, they're usually pretty hardcore.
Luigi is a prime example - except for those moments when he stops being weak altogether and parades around as Mario's brother. He sits in his mansion, hunts for ghosts, and waits to be valiantly saved by E. Gadd's newest invention. The same goes for Donkey Kong, a meat-head through and through. Couldn't he at least try kicking K. Rool in the shins? True, he’s getting his own game for the DS, complete with acrobatic moves (like vine-swinging) and a cheerful GF, Candy. But, in short, it promises to be a manly copout. Or, think Diddy from Donkey Kong 64. Pretty quick, yes, but not really good for anything except firing a coconut gun that fires in spurts; if he shoots ya it's gonna hurt.
There are, of course, the counter-examples. James Bond, for one, is a fan-boy favorite and, theoretically, the ultimate male fighting machine. But even he has some issues. For starters, he's only really a guy when he dies and blood runs down the screen. Otherwise, he's nothing more than a suit, or the view from a first-person perspective. It’s hard to identify. And Link, from Legend of Zelda, but you know a girl picked out his outfit. What kind of guy would go fight timeless evil dressed in a green tunic, white tights and boots?
What's the likelihood Nintendo's next big game is going to star a super-regular man? Probably not so good. Alas, will videogames be permanently populated by heroic, manly men?
Who cares. Forget them. If guy gamers want to play good male characters, they should concentrate on games where talent is the determiner of coolness: party games.
In party games, you make characters good or bad. Sure, certain characters just outright suck, and others seem to have more punch. But, with practice, it's possible to rock with almost any character, male or female. Which brings us back to the same question: should guys stick together? When given the choice, should guy gamers play as male characters?
On the one hand, lots of guy gamers feel like girl characters are meant for the girls. They think that they're wimpy. And it's not hard to understand why. Female characters, the few that do appear in games, usually have less powerful attacks, take damage more easily, have poorer steering/weight/top speed than their male counterparts. More "hardcore" gamers usually steer clear of them, play them as a joke, or use them to show off their talents - so superior they could even win with a girl.
And some guys like to play along with the guy gamer/character strength idea. They pretend to be the undefeatable, glitch-privy, first-class gamer. I know it can be tempting. But you’ve got to resist. You’re bringing the rest of us down.
For example, I played in a Brawl tournament a few months ago, just me and fifteen girls. That is, until a veteranie guy showed up. I was totally jazzed. He seemed like he might be able to hold his own. Then the girl running the tourney asked him who he wanted to play as. What does he say? "I don't know. Give me something with good aerial attacks, quick recovery, and easy infinite phase-shifting." Give me something with infinite phase-shifting. Come on.
So, they set him up with Meta Knight and, needless to say, he cutely jumped himself off the playing field and cutely avoided receiving a single point of damage.
Those fifteen girls went thinking guy gamers are silly and take gaming too seriously. And that’s just no good. Maybe, if you're a beginner, you should stick to the characters with the natural advantages. Slowly, as you get better, you can develop a good relationship with a female character - get in the groove. That way, once you rock, your girl gamer friends will get beaten by a guy both on and off screen. On the other hand, if you pick a male character, even to start out with, you're kind of siding with the opposition. You're acknowledging that guy characters (and by association, guys) are better. Who's going to stick up for guy characters if not guy gamers?
It may be helpful to remember, there are advantages to appearing strong. A guy on screen often experiences the same avoidance faced by guy gamers. Some girls feel like guys are worthy adversaries, so they don't fight as hard against them. Play as a male character in an unsuspecting female crowd, and you can often win by default - going on a rampage, throwing nonstop punches, duking it out. If that's how you want to play the game.
And, on the third hand (You have three hands, right?), if you never play as a girl, you boost the same old stereotype. Guy characters are for guys. It might not look like you're taking a stand for guy gamer rights, but rather that you're ready to win as a character with a giant sword and a mustache. What to do?
My advice: switch it up. Try things out. Test the reaction you get from other gamers. If you have a more enlightened crowd, flips things totally around - have the girls play as guys and the guys as girls. See how they feel. Find a character that makes you excited to play.
Does it really matter if you play as a girl or a guy? In the end, it's about having a good time. And, as guy gamers know, it's too easy to do that while feeling respected. So do what you need to do. Be a girl character. A guy character. Or, if neither seems right, there's always the androgynous Pokemon, Fire Emblem characters, and Birdo.
Topic: Playing By Party Lines (Read 5895 times)
