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 So I have been inspired to write a little review thing of Age of Conan. I play a fair number of video games cuz I'm a nerd, but I don't really... talk about them I noticed. I think it's kind of important to talk about video games because they are a very big part of Western life. A lot about culture and life can be critiqued through games both new and old.
Age of Conan is impressive from a graphics standpoint. I mean... I was impressed when I played the beta test of Lord of the Rings Online but Age of Conan is even better. The grass alone is enough to kill your video card. But the good part about it is that even playing on low settings (which I have to right now) is pretty. ^_^ The water is awesome. The textures on the clothing and on the wood and on the skin of the avatars gets an A+++.
But, anyone who has been reading this blog knows that .... my review isn't going to be about graphics quality or how much RAM you need to play this game. There are plenty of other blogs out there much more qualified to talk about such. I'm going to talk about gender and race in the game. （⌒_⌒） ニコリ Boooooooooo!
I'll start off with the grade I give it and then I will explain why. Negatives first, of course, followed by the positives.
My arbitrary grading system gives Age of Conan a B (up from a B- which I think is too harsh). Why? Well... first off.... breast slider in the character creation screen. It's not that I don't think it's perfectly realistic to choose the size of your characters breasts (being a well endowed person myself I tend to go more towards smaller breasts.... - though the smallest they go in Age of Conan is arguably a size bigger than what I have in real life-) but... okay, so where did my penis slider go? If you're going to spend so much time sexualizing the females by giving people control over their boob size, why can't you give the same courtesy to the male avatars? Why can't I have a huge, dominating package flopping around and getting in the way (theoretically) when I'm cutting some dude's head off? I already know the answer. That was just hypothetical rambling. The breast slider isn't a big deal really.. it's just the very first thing I was greeted with when making my female character and I noticed that my boyfriend had no such decisions to make when he made his male character.
Continuing with the boobage in the game; WOW. Seriously, the female characters in this game all have massive breasts. There are NO A-cups, B-cups, or even C-cups to be seen. I am not exaggerating when I say that the average female has two heads hanging off her chest. How anyone could fight with those things getting in the way... I don't know. Even in that picture up there... those are some big fcking boobs. I suppose it is to be expected when the target audience for this game is presumably men, but the game boasts realism and whatnot. Not... likely.. in that department.
Now a game set in the age of Conan wouldn't be complete without prostitutes. So there are plenty. In fact, you save one immediately after washing up on the beach! I had kinda hoped that, as a female avatar, I would be able to save a scantily-clad, tied-up male former slave in my beginning quest but, sadly, no. I was still followed around by a blond haired, gold bikini wearing lady (though I was happy that she cheered me on when I killed stuff) who offered me sexual favors when we finally got to the point where she could 'make it on her own'. Don't get me wrong. I'd hit it. But i woulda liked to have the other option anyway. Needless to say there are absolutely (at least as far as I have gotten) male whores handing out favors for money or quests. I know the world of Conan was designed by a guy and all but.. I honestly don't think there is a society out there that has ever had female prostitutes only. Prostitution is an Equal Opportunity career. Just a note to the developers. I WANT MORE MALE PROSTITUTES! (￣▼￣*)ﾆﾔｯ
Last thing I noticed in the differences between males and females in the game is this random sexy dance that some of the NPCs do. A kind of "come hither" self-rub-down and weird bend over a little thing. I mean, I understand for the prostitutes as they are selling their wares but they are not the only ones who do it. Just kind of seemed... random and unnecessary to me. Again, only the females do this sexual gesture. Why (again, not talking about the prostitutes)?
As you can see.. I really don't have too much negative to say about the game. While I would like to see what I have mentioned changed, I know that it is not going to happen. They are just observations from a young (i.e. learning) feminist perspective.
On to the positives!
Racism is pretty much absent from this game. There are all kinds of colors of people and no particular skin color has a particular accent or job description. There are blacks and browns and whites all mixed together right from the beginning and although I heard that Howard had a little problem with black people, the game designers luckily did not incorporate this into their game world. It is diverse and colorful and good and bad guys both come in a wide variety of colors and shapes. I was relieved to see this. One thing I did notice, though it may change as I move on from the area I am currently in... there seems to be a lack of dark skinned women in the world. I can't comment on the rest of the game but the beginning area could use more. I think all I recall of black women were other players.
Body creation is really well done despite the massive breasts. You can have a big bulky man or woman are a relatively skinny and lean one. While I have seen obese people in the game, you can not choose that for your body type. But to be fair... you start off the game as a slave and there is NO way a slave would be able to get their hands on enough food to become obese. So it makes sense. The fattest people in the game have lots of money... which is generally how that went back in the day. You can also choose scars or freckles or cuts. Unlike, say, World of Warcraft, I am pretty sure that the majority of these things are gender neutral and don't include "sexy makeup" for the ladies and "strong-man facial scars" for the gentlemen. Everyone gets a scar on the lip!
Your skills and abilities are not inhibited or enhanced depending on your sex, so that is good. But I think MMO developers caught onto that early on. Perhaps because they knew that a lot of dudes would be pissed off. Lots of them make female avatars to stare at their asses and boobs while they run or to see them in hot clothes (hey... I'm not even being sexist here.. I would need more fingers and toes to count how many times I have heard those exact words or something similar be expressed by nerdy gamers on the net AND in person) so it wouldn't make sense to nerf the ladies. Most of them are dudes. If the majority of female characters were played by females then ... it would probably be a different story. It would be chalked up to "realism" ("Well, women in real life are weaker than men so it only makes sense that video game female characters would be as well!"). But, luckily (I guess?), that's not how it is so males and females are 'equal' in the game world.
Clothing has also been surprisingly well done as well. I am only level 15 so I haven't really gotten a chance to see what the higher level, more intricately designed armors are like, but low level armors are pretty standard and not over-sexed. I don't actually recall seeing any higher levels running around in bikinis either so I have high hopes for the future of my character. ^_^ Actually, the majority of people in the game are pretty much equally naked. Bosses tend to have the most clothing on while the rest of the people have really very little armor or perhaps only one or two layers of clothing. This goes for males and females both. With that in mind, both males and females are fairly well represented in the occupation end of things. The streets are just as populated with female smithies and vendors as they are with their male counterparts and just as 'professionally' dressed.
All-in-all, I think that Age of Conan has done a decent job. They could improve on some aspects of the game but.... baby steps. It does a much better job of trying to maintain an equal balance between the sexes in terms of how hypersexualized the avatars are than World of Warcraft for example. The Male Gaze is still very much alive and well in Western society so one can only expect so much, but for the most part I am happy with the direction Age of Conan is taking.
I mean... besides the lack of male prostitutes, of course. Funcom, I hope you're listening!
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