Friday 31 December 2010

Female roles and how they affect the games

As it should be mentioned, I rather like it if anything in the media, be it games or books or movies, has a female character who isn't just useless. Yet, most female roles get downgraded as fetish fuel or damsels-in-distress, or maybe both. I find that rather useless, to be honest. Because I am a girl myself, I strongly appreciate female characters that actually do something, and aren't just there as a piece of enjoyment for the strong male hero to feast his eyes on. Or as something that needs rescuing, for that matter.

It seems to me that Rare is one of the few game developers who actually uses female characters in a place that could easily be filled up by a male. There are some exceptions, but most of their video game girls have strong personalities. They could have easily been male, but they weren't.

First and foremost, I'll be discussing Banjo-Kazooie.


what all female birds should look and act like.


A rather cheerful faerie-tale-gone-wrong game about a bear and a bird who save the bear's little sister from a rhyming witch. Well, Kazooie, the red-crested Breegull, is a rude, sharp-tongued bird who gives everyone nicknames yet also somehow cares about her bear buddy. Yes, her. Kazooie's a she? Why, she sure is. But she isn't very feminine, isn't she? Not at all. Back then, this led most kids who couldn't read to believe that she was a he.


Thursday 30 December 2010

Introduction

Hi, hello, and good morning/evening/night/anything else, fellow video-game fans! I'm Renée, AKA Vianerd, Ribbedebie, Badger, and Rododendron... depending on where you spoke to me. I'm well-known for the fact that I like talking about the stuff I like a lot. And then I mean, a lot. These rambles, pointless as they are, are actually very stress-relieving for me, so yeah. This is the first time I ever did a blog, so I'm just a n00b. Don't go calling me that though, please. I'll post about Donkey Kong Country, most prominently. May change if my obsession changes, though. But I'll also be discussing games which are ultimately considered to be part of the 'DKU' (Donkey Kong Universe) such as Banjo-Kazooie and Conker's Bad Fur Day.

I'll try posting some of my arts as many times as I can, too. As well as pointless self-promotion concerning fan fiction and similar stuff, heh.

So yeah, cheers!

I'd like to thank The Spriters Resource for the Jungle Hijinx background, which I added stuff onto, for the header image.