Extremely Late Response to Anita Sarkessian

I wrote this because I wanted to try analyse something that's happening in gaming media right now. Since everybody and their mother has an opinion, I thought I would give it a go.

What was she expecting from analysing this particular trope? The damsel in distress is an age old method of storytelling that has been used countless times throughout history. In this modern age, there are now other methods of storytelling, some unique to video games. What she has stated can be applied to any other form of media and she said she would perform an analysis particular to video games. She has analysed the trope at face value without providing any in-depth critique on the issues video games in particular face.

This lack of depth is due to the subject she has chosen to analyse, the trope, and the examples she has used to back up her argument. She has chosen a lot of older games from the 1980’s which has done little for her analysis. Older games should not have been analysed as, back then, video games had yet to fall within their own distinctive medium. Games should only be analysed when they have found their own place, when they have developed unique storytelling methods and when they have started to become more mainstream.

Back then video games were only starting to develop a basic narrative structure. Older games took a lot from classic storytelling to provide the conflict in the game. The damsel in distress is a proven technique to provide simple conflict. Games were more about developing fun mechanics and would skimp out on the story to make a fun game.

She commented on examples that date back to this period like Mario and the Legend of Zelda. Shigeru Miyamoto even stated that he thinks games should just be fun and he would try to minimise the amount of storytelling in his games. 

These older games were catering towards the male audience. These games were proven to sell quite well to this audience and, from a business perspective, it would seem right to continue this trend. Since games were only being developed for a specific audience, it would be quite difficult to market and sell a product to any other.

She talks a lot about the Mario and Zelda franchises and how their sequels reinforce the objectification of women. These games and their sequels are similar because they would still need to stay within a similar vein in terms of narrative/world to feel like a Mario or Zelda game. I didn’t like it when she said there should be fewer games that follow this trope. Instead of fewer games following the trope, there should be more games that don’t follow it. By saying that there should be fewer games without the trope, she is taking away the value of what made games like Mario and Zelda the way they are.

All of these examples do little to help her, if anything; they show how lazy and safe the video game industry is. Rather that develop new IP’s, Nintendo churns out new sequels because they know it will sell. Big triple A games market themselves towards a male audience because they need to make a profit.