The Bitches of Arkham

Last week the internet was ablaze with discussions of whether or not Batman: Arkham City was sexist or not.  A blogger by the name of FilmCritHULK took exception to how developer Rocksteady used the word “bitch” in the game and how often it cropped up.  It’s a discussion I’m a little late to, mostly because the game didn’t come out in the UK until Friday, meaning I had no first hand experience with the game.  When I finally did get to play it, I didn’t want to start writing until I’d played it through, so I could get a sense of the whole game, rather than just the first few hours.

One thing I can confirm: The ladies of Arkham City get called “bitch” a hell of a lot.  In his/her article - I'm not entirely sure which one it is - FCH suggests that Rocksteady uses the word clumsily, and that’s something I’d agree with, although probably not for the same reason that FCH does.  For all Arkham City’s good points, the writing in the game can be rather rough at times, and the plethora of bitches is a great example.  Any time that Catwoman and Two Face are in the same room together the word crops up so much that it starts to get ridiculous.

I think I can understand why Rocksteady uses the word so often. Rocksteady is using the word bitch - likely one of the very few actual curses it could use in a Teen rated game - to establish a certain tone. It wants us to know that the residents of Arkham City are not nice people, and we should not feel bad about pounding the snot out of them.  It is said by characters we are not supposed to like, most often - although not exclusively - about a character that we are supposed to like. 
Whether or not that makes it OK depends on your own point of view, but I think it’s worth noting that Rocksteady’s intentions were good, even if the execution was not.  However, I do agree with a point that  FCH makes in his/her follow up article, where he/she says that there are better ways of establishing tone than random insults and swearing, but again, not because it’s sexist, but rather because comes across as really, really juvenile.   You're not going to convince anyone you’re grown up and mature by saying “bitch” a lot - if anything, it’s usually exactly the opposite.

Perhaps some good will come of this.  Arkham City is such a high profile game, that maybe, just maybe, the “controversy” will raise awareness of the issue of sexism in games.  I’m not holding my breath though, as I don’t think most gamers are willing or able to discuss topics like this just yet.  Still, perhaps just getting the issue in front of people’s faces is a good start.

The Halfling Conundrum

Creativity is hard work.

I’m currently creating a world for a Dungeons & Dragons game I plan to run.  One day, the idea of “pepper bread” came to me - yes, I know now  that it already exists, but I didn’t when I thought of it - and it seemed like the kind of thing that a halfling baker might create.  I really like little details that make a setting seem more alive and real, so I dutifully noted it down.  I even started to get a little creative with it, changing the name to “pfefferbrot” and giving my halflings something of a Germanic feel to them, with lots of fine ales, bread, and cheeses.  It wasn’t until much later than I started to think about why pepperbread seemed like such a halfling-y dish.  The reason turned out to be incredibly simple: Without meaning to, I’d made hobbits.

The sad thing is that I’d been trying really hard to avoid the cliches, or at the very least subvert them and make them interesting.  My setting has dour dwarves, for example, but they’re an ultra-conservative faction of a much more jolly culture.  Most of my elves live in cities like everyone else, and my “high elves” - or Eladrin for anyone familiar with the 4th Edition of D&D - are decadent and cruel (and totally not Melnibonéans.  I don’t know where you got such an idea.)  I even added some spice to gnomes - a race I’ve never liked - making them secretive and insular almost to the point of xenophobia.  But it seems I have a blind spot when it comes to halflings, and I find it incredibly hard to resist the siren’s song of the hobbit.  

It’s a little troubling just how deeply ingrained the fantasy cliches are.  Perhaps the problem is that  D&D is my fantasy RPG of choice.  D&D is pretty deep into Tolkien country, and when you’ve been playing it in one form or another for nearly twenty years, it can have a pretty potent effect on your mind.  Fantasy is a strange genre for me.  I play a lot of fantasy games, but I don’t read a lot of fantasy fiction, so it could just be that my limited exposure to the genre means I default to, well, the default.  

I can’t be the only person that this is true for though?  Surely other people have had  to haul themselves out a creative ditch created by someone else’s work.  Surely everyone does at some point in their lives?  In some ways, realising this has been a boon for me, because it’s got my mind whirring again, trying to think of something fresher for my halflings.  

Admittedly, all I’ve come up with so far is that they live in trees like ewoks, but it’s a start.