Bechdel test in games lol

[Halo Fanboy]

This is a fun thought exercise inspired by Daniel Floyd's new video. List games that pass or fail this test.

1.It has to have at least two women in it,
2.Who talk to each other,
3.About something besides a man

No need to list everything all at once, go stream of conciousness style. I'm sitting next to a pile of games so I'll just list stuff I see and off the top of my head. Games where the characters are silent automatically fail so don't bother listing those. Games where you create the protagonist don't count either.

Pass: Pretty much every fighting game that came out after SF2, Halo 1+2 and Reach, Shikigami no Shiro, HL2, every Tomb Raider since legend, Night Shade, Deathsmiles, Heavenly Sword, Code Veronica, Resident Evil 2, most Final Fantasies with plots.

Fail: Gears,L4D, GoW, SoTC, Half Life, Every Prince of Persia, every Brothers in Arms, Braid, No more heroes (I think), God Hand, Halo ODST, Every Devil May Cry, Timsplitters Future Perfect, Shinobi, Silent Hill 1+2, Portal (Chell doesn't talk back to GlaDos), Uncharted , both Ninja Gaiden (xbox), Resident Evil 4.

I could probably list more passes if I remembered more converstions in plot heavy games, but these are the games I can think of for now.

 

[lasherman]

Mass Effect, provided you rolled a female character

Edit: nevermind, I just read the part where you said these games don't count.

 

[pyrosaw]

I'm pretty sure some of the citizens in Beyond Good and Evil count. YAY!

 

[Trivun]

This is a fun thought exercise inspired by Daniel Floyd's new video. List games that pass or fail this test.

1.It has to have at least two women in it,
2.Who talk to each other,
3.About something besides a man

No need to list everything all at once, go stream of conciousness style. I'm sitting next to a pile of games so I'll just list stuff I see and off the top of my head. Games where the characters are silent automatically fail so don't bother listing those. Games where you create the protagonist don't count either.

Pass: Pretty much every fighting game that came out after SF2, Halo 1+2 and Reach, Shikigami no Shiro, HL2, every Tomb Raider since legend, Night Shade, Deathsmiles, Heavenly Sword, Code Veronica, Resident Evil 2, most Final Fantasies with plots.

Fail: Gears,L4D, GoW, SoTC, Half Life, Every Prince of Persia, every Brothers in Arms, Braid, No more heroes (I think), God Hand, Halo ODST, Every Devil May Cry, Timsplitters Future Perfect, Shinobi, Silent Hill 1+2, Portal (Chell doesn't talk back to GlaDos), Uncharted , both Ninja Gaiden (xbox), Resident Evil 4.

I could probably list more passes if I remembered more converstions in plot heavy games, but these are the games I can think of for now.

Technically, Halo: ODST does pass, if you assume The Rookie is female. Since that character is an open space to put whatever character you want in there, or project yourself as, then if you imagine the Rookie to be female, you'll notice that Veronica Dare does in fact talk to the Rookie about something other than men (i.e. the mission at hand) during the game, though admittedly the Rookie doesn't talk back.

 

[xdgt]

This is a rather silly test when it comes to games, seeing as how the game focuses on the protagonist 90-100% of the times, so most if not all interactions of the characters are with the player. If you take the player out of the equation you are mostly left with nothing. But then you can take two peasant women talking about how a new monster appeared to the northwest of the village and "pass".

 

[MikailCaboose]

Hmmm. There's...Uhm...LoZ Twilight Princess.
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (well, it meets 2 once).
Oh, and my Touhou games...[sub]well that's a given[/sub]...

 

[krimson_dropz]

i would point to the suffering but unfortunatly one mainfemale lead is dead by the time the game starts, an other is presumed dead after you fight through a horde of assholes withe her, and the other one is usually trying to kill you , and thus never meets the other 2.
and i agree with xdgt

 

[Altorin]

Mass Effect, provided you rolled a female character

Edit: nevermind, I just read the part where you said these games don't count.

Ashley and Liara talk to eachother about the mission during the mission debriefs.

It counts.

Just because there is ALSO a scene you can get where they talk about commander shepard, it still counts.

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

Morrigan and Leiliana talk to each other randomly in DA:O.

I really wish they wouldn't, though. Dumbasses.

 

[BlumiereBleck]

This is a fun thought exercise inspired by Daniel Floyd's new video. List games that pass or fail this test.

1.It has to have at least two women in it,
2.Who talk to each other,
3.About something besides a man

No need to list everything all at once, go stream of conciousness style. I'm sitting next to a pile of games so I'll just list stuff I see and off the top of my head. Games where the characters are silent automatically fail so don't bother listing those. Games where you create the protagonist don't count either.

Pass: Pretty much every fighting game that came out after SF2, Halo 1+2 and Reach, Shikigami no Shiro, HL2, every Tomb Raider since legend, Night Shade, Deathsmiles, Heavenly Sword, Code Veronica, Resident Evil 2, most Final Fantasies with plots.

Fail: Gears,L4D, GoW, SoTC, Half Life, Every Prince of Persia, every Brothers in Arms, Braid, No more heroes (I think), God Hand, Halo ODST, Every Devil May Cry, Timsplitters Future Perfect, Shinobi, Silent Hill 1+2, Portal (Chell doesn't talk back to GlaDos), Uncharted , both Ninja Gaiden (xbox), Resident Evil 4.

I could probably list more passes if I remembered more converstions in plot heavy games, but these are the games I can think of for now.

Technically, Halo: ODST does pass, if you assume The Rookie is female. Since that character is an open space to put whatever character you want in there, or project yourself as, then if you imagine the Rookie to be female, you'll notice that Veronica Dare does in fact talk to the Rookie about something other than men (i.e. the mission at hand) during the game, though admittedly the Rookie doesn't talk back.

I don't think James is a girl's name



OT: Fable II thats what i got

 

[mornal]

Fable 1 and 2, Oblivion, Fallout 3, Fire Emblem games (at the least in support conversations) and Red Dead Redemption. I'm pretty sure they all pass. It doesn't really work though, in most games that pass, the chatter isn't relevant to the plot and if the conversation is relevant, then it's eventually going to bring up a man.

 

[octafish]

NOLF 1 and 2 and The Longest Journey pass of course, and Jagged Alliance 2. It is ging to be much easier to list the games that pass that the vast number of games that fail. I should go watch the video now though.

 

[Altorin]

Fable 1 and 2, Oblivion, Fallout 3, Fire Emblem games (at the least in support conversations) and Red Dead Redemption. I'm pretty sure they all pass. It doesn't really work though, in most games that pass, the chatter isn't relevant to the plot and if the conversation is relevant, then it's eventually going to bring up a man.

Oblivion is the weakest example of this.

Yes, female characters talk to eachother, but they're inane retards (I say that with the utmost respect for people suffering from mental disorders, but SERIOUSLY, the mentally handicapped would agree, the NPC's in Oblivion are retarded)

 

[SimuLord]

My own writing frequently fails the Bechdel test...women exist primarily as Team Ninja-esque sex objects or as wet-blanket antagonists to my male characters.

So it doesn't bother me when female characters in gaming are subservient accessories to the men.

 

[Altorin]

My own writing frequently fails the Bechdel test...women exist primarily as Team Ninja-esque sex objects or as wet-blanket antagonists to my male characters.

So it doesn't bother me when female characters in gaming are subservient accessories to the men.

I actually wrote an entire novella (about 30,000 words) and when I got to the end, I realized that there was not a single female character in the ENTIRE BOOK

So in a later re-write (I started re-writing this story several times, implimenting and better foreshadowing future twists that I came up with as I wrote the original as a serial and I wrote it one piece at a time and interesting "intrigue" occurred by accident)..

Anyway, i rewrote one of the characters as a female, but even so, that character was turned to stone for the ENTIRE first story. And even so, I intended her to be a romantic interest with the protagonist in a sequel I never got around to. I also introduced another villain type character that in the original version worked in the background, but in the re-write they were front and center in a lot of the chapters.. That villain was SORT OF a woman. It was really a multigendered demon (a "sincubus")..

Wow, putting that in writing out of context is hilarious.

If I told you (after revealing the nature of the Sincubus) the story was "Frankenstein set in the Arabian Nights", would that cause surprise?

 

[SimuLord]

My own writing frequently fails the Bechdel test...women exist primarily as Team Ninja-esque sex objects or as wet-blanket antagonists to my male characters.

So it doesn't bother me when female characters in gaming are subservient accessories to the men.

I actually wrote an entire novella (about 30,000 words) and when I got to the end, I realized that there was not a single female character in the ENTIRE BOOK

So in a later re-write (I started re-writing this story several times, implimenting and better foreshadowing future twists that I came up with as I wrote the original as a serial and I wrote it one piece at a time and interesting "intrique" occurred by accident)..

Anyway, i rewrote one of the characters as a female, but even so, that character was turned to stone for the ENTIRE first story. And even so, I intended her to be a romantic interest with the protagonist in a sequel I never got around to. I also introduced another villain type character that in the original version worked in the background, but in the re-write they were front and center in a lot of the chapters.. That villain was SORT OF a woman. It was really a multigendered demon (a "sincubus")..

Wow, putting that in writing out of context is hilarious.

If I told you (after revealing the nature of the Sincubus) the story was "Frankenstein set in the Arabian Nights", would that cause surprise?

Frankenstein meets Arabian Nights? Sounds...interesting.

The main reason female characters don't appear in my writing (except as stereotypes and/or accessories) is because I cannot for the life of me write believable female psychology. My female characters always come out sounding and acting like dudes in drag. So I just don't write them into the story and figure that I could make a decent niche writing for misogynistic dudes.

Or I could stick to short essay collections and realize if I ever want to get a book published I need to be less Stephenie Meyer and more Chuck Klosterman.

 

[CitySquirrel]

Has anyone here read anything by Alison Bechdel? Dykes to Watch Out For is brilliant. I assume Fun Home is as well.

On topic, I can't really think of any games that meet this requirement, but as someone pointed out, it is harder to do this with video games. Like, does Blade Kitten count? It opens with two "women" talking about something other than a man... but I don't think this is what Bechdel had in mind...

 

[Altorin]

My own writing frequently fails the Bechdel test...women exist primarily as Team Ninja-esque sex objects or as wet-blanket antagonists to my male characters.

So it doesn't bother me when female characters in gaming are subservient accessories to the men.

I actually wrote an entire novella (about 30,000 words) and when I got to the end, I realized that there was not a single female character in the ENTIRE BOOK

So in a later re-write (I started re-writing this story several times, implimenting and better foreshadowing future twists that I came up with as I wrote the original as a serial and I wrote it one piece at a time and interesting "intrique" occurred by accident)..

Anyway, i rewrote one of the characters as a female, but even so, that character was turned to stone for the ENTIRE first story. And even so, I intended her to be a romantic interest with the protagonist in a sequel I never got around to. I also introduced another villain type character that in the original version worked in the background, but in the re-write they were front and center in a lot of the chapters.. That villain was SORT OF a woman. It was really a multigendered demon (a "sincubus")..

Wow, putting that in writing out of context is hilarious.

If I told you (after revealing the nature of the Sincubus) the story was "Frankenstein set in the Arabian Nights", would that cause surprise?

Frankenstein meets Arabian Nights? Sounds...interesting.

The main reason female characters don't appear in my writing (except as stereotypes and/or accessories) is because I cannot for the life of me write believable female psychology. My female characters always come out sounding and acting like dudes in drag. So I just don't write them into the story and figure that I could make a decent niche writing for misogynistic dudes.

Or I could stick to short essay collections and realize if I ever want to get a book published I need to be less Stephenie Meyer and more Chuck Klosterman.

in my case, it was largely an accident. I just didn't think to include a woman. Lots of books forget to. The Hobbit didn't have even a single female character in it I don't think. None of any real consequence if there were. *shrug*

You seem at LEAST intrigued, so I'll go on

Really, the "Frankenstein Meets Arabian Nights" idea was inspired by the Magic Card "Brass Man", which came out in Arabian Nights

I loved the art for that card, and couldn't find any actual reference to him anywhere else, so I wrote His story.

The basic idea is that he woke up with amnesia looking just like that, and ends up getting twisted up in a highlander-esque "game" - in fact, the first "book" was titled "The Wizard's Plaything", basically it was a magic the gathering fanfic, but with only the most loose affiliation.. the original story was basically just a list of cards.. The wizards basically could only be killed by other wizards, and their "game" allowed them to basically re-write the world as they see fit if they are the last wizard remaining.

It involved Djinns and Genies, and magical "Verjizera Men" who were created by a wizard to build "Verjizera, the City of Brass" which has the magical properties to produce Black Lotus flowers.

An interesting thing about the development of the story is how the violence grew and grew. In my first write of the story, Gideon (the Brass Man, although admittedly that's a horrible name for a character in an "arabian" setting, but I liked it) was docile and depressed about his lot in life and the fact that he's basically a living statue with a dead human inside of him.. As the story progressed, other characters took on more and more violent acts, including a skeleton which does some really mean things with sharp bony fingers..

I loved the violence that I wrote into the story in the later chapters, so when I re-wrote it, Gideon was super angry and brutally killed several of the slavers who capture him in the beginning of the story.

 

[SimuLord]

My own writing frequently fails the Bechdel test...women exist primarily as Team Ninja-esque sex objects or as wet-blanket antagonists to my male characters.

So it doesn't bother me when female characters in gaming are subservient accessories to the men.

I actually wrote an entire novella (about 30,000 words) and when I got to the end, I realized that there was not a single female character in the ENTIRE BOOK

So in a later re-write (I started re-writing this story several times, implimenting and better foreshadowing future twists that I came up with as I wrote the original as a serial and I wrote it one piece at a time and interesting "intrique" occurred by accident)..

Anyway, i rewrote one of the characters as a female, but even so, that character was turned to stone for the ENTIRE first story. And even so, I intended her to be a romantic interest with the protagonist in a sequel I never got around to. I also introduced another villain type character that in the original version worked in the background, but in the re-write they were front and center in a lot of the chapters.. That villain was SORT OF a woman. It was really a multigendered demon (a "sincubus")..

Wow, putting that in writing out of context is hilarious.

If I told you (after revealing the nature of the Sincubus) the story was "Frankenstein set in the Arabian Nights", would that cause surprise?

Frankenstein meets Arabian Nights? Sounds...interesting.

The main reason female characters don't appear in my writing (except as stereotypes and/or accessories) is because I cannot for the life of me write believable female psychology. My female characters always come out sounding and acting like dudes in drag. So I just don't write them into the story and figure that I could make a decent niche writing for misogynistic dudes.

Or I could stick to short essay collections and realize if I ever want to get a book published I need to be less Stephenie Meyer and more Chuck Klosterman.

in my case, it was largely an accident. I just didn't think to include a woman. Lots of books forget to. The Hobbit didn't have even a single female character in it I don't think. None of any real consequence if there were. *shrug*

You seem at LEAST intrigued, so I'll go on

Really, the "Frankenstein Meets Arabian Nights" idea was inspired by the Magic Card "Brass Man", which came out in Arabian Nights

I loved the art for that card, and couldn't find any actual reference to him anywhere else, so I wrote His story.

The basic idea is that he woke up with amnesia looking just like that, and ends up getting twisted up in a highlander-esque "game" - in fact, the first "book" was titled "The Wizard's Plaything", basically it was a magic the gathering fanfic, but with only the most loose affiliation.. the original story was basically just a list of cards.. The wizards basically could only be killed by other wizards, and their "game" allowed them to basically re-write the world as they see fit if they are the last wizard remaining.

It involved Djinns and Genies, and magical "Verjizera Men" who were created by a wizard to build "Verjizera, the City of Brass" which has the magical properties to produce Black Lotus flowers.

An interesting thing about the development of the story is how the violence grew and grew. In my first write of the story, Gideon (the Brass Man, although admittedly that's a horrible name for a character in an "arabian" setting, but I liked it) was docile and depressed about his lot in life and the fact that he's basically a living statue with a dead human inside of him.. As the story progressed, other characters took on more and more violent acts, including a skeleton which does some really mean things with sharp bony fingers..

I loved the violence that I wrote into the story in the later chapters, so when I re-wrote it, Gideon was super angry and brutally killed several of the slavers who capture him in the beginning of the story.

Y'know, NaNoWriMo's coming up next month, and lord knows I needed an excuse to finish my own essay collection (hell, to create one, since my essays don't really flow when aggregated from separate places)---and seeing other people work their asses off to create something shames me into motivation.

If you've got a copy of that 30,000 word opus lying around...