Poll: Hitman Absolution hates women

[Continuity]

I came across this blog post by Elizabeth Edwards (Creative Assembly artist) linked at Rock Paper Shotgun. Warning, there are spoilers.

http://lizedwardsart.tumblr.com/post/43226499697/hitman-absolution

What do you think? Is Elizabeth correct that Hitman Absolution hates women?

Really what I'm interested in here is the poll result but please leave a comment explaining your vote.

 

[Lilani]

I think it's impossible for a bunch of code to feel anything about anyone, at least in this day and age. And especially when the code was made more than a hear ago.

And I don't think we have enough here to fully know if the actual creators of the game actually feel hostility toward women. Games aren't books, they aren't made by one person, they're made by lots of people and approved by lots of committees before anything makes it into the final cut. So not all of these ideas came from one person's head, it came from many groups of people operating under the same rough guidelines of themes they felt were marketable in their game.

So what is marketable in games? Sexy women, of course. And what else? Oh yeah, violence. Slap these two together and you've got a winner, right? Unfortunately, combining these in such a simplistic manner leads to a lot of uncomfortable scenes and subtexts that the article there pointed out. A world where every female must either be sexualized or an antagonist (preferably both), which thus leads to some uncomfortable and frankly bizarrely sexual deaths and murders.

I do not think it was the intention of the game's creators to make a misogynistic murder simulator, but I think by haphazardly slapping together sexy women and violence that's rather what they got. And that's...not okay. It speaks to tone-deafness on many levels of their development process and a lack of thought and clarity in regard to their vision. So no, I don't think "Hitman Absolution hates women," but I think IO Interactive doesn't do a lot of thinking before they create. This is further exemplified by the Facebook App [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitman_Absolution#Controversies] they made to promote the game. The app let you identify Facebook friends as targets of assassination, with such identifying traits being "her hairy legs" "her small tits" "his shit hair" and "his tiny penis." You could choose a reason for killing the friend, and send the friend you've killed a personalized video that splices together their pictures on their wall with Agent 47 shooting them. Needless to say, it was taken down the same day, with an apology from IO.

 

[Continuity]

You're right that its not necessarily the intention of the creators to bake misogyny into their game but really I think that highlights the point being made, which is that the games industry is perpetuating these retrograde attitudes toward women in an institutional fashion, which is to say it doesn't need to aim to be sexist, its doing it passively and probably unconsciously.

Edit: I voted "not sure" because frankly as a man I find it difficult to assess these things objectively, my first impression is that it seems harmless if immature, but at the same time I can see how its potentially reinforcing negative attitudes toward women.

 

[T_ConX]

Any time I see someone complain that a game is misogynist because you have to kill female NPCs or female NPCs die in cut-scenes, I use certain

(1 - (FT/(MT + FT))) * (MGR) * (1 - FCDR) = DR

FT = Number of female characters I am required to kill in order to complete the game.
MT = Number of male characters I am required to kill in order to complete the game.
MGR = Male guard ratio. The percentage of nameless guard NPCs that are male. Since most games have only male guards, this often tends to be a 1.
FCD = Female cut-scene death ratio. The percentage of characters killed in cutscenes who are female.
DR = Dumbass ratio. Measures how much of a dumbass the person making the misogyny claim is.

In Hitman 5's case:

Spoiler: The game has been out for nearly two years, but here's a spoiler warning anyway

FT = 10
Layla, Jade, and the seven Saints. I'm going to include Diana as well, because even though she doesn't actually die, you're still required to shoot her.

MT = 21
Since Lenny Dexter is optional, I won't include him.

MGR = 1
All the guards in the game are male.

FCDR = .2
I'm working from memory here, but the only female cutscene deaths I can remember are the hotel maid and Mrs. Cooper. Besides that, there's the part where Victoria takes down a full squad of Blake Dexters elite bodyguards, so I'll just round this to .2

Dumbass Ratio = 66%

Opinion discarded!

 

[josemlopes]

I could say the exact same thing about it hating men since all of them are sick fucks with all sort of mental issues and physical disabilities with the exception of 47.

Thats the fucking point of the game, everything is below shit in that fucked up world and in the end that thematical focus was probably the highlight of Absolution since the actual game was rather crap in comparison to Blood Money.

 

[cypher-raige]

Maybe Hitman Absolution does hate Women.
What is your solution to this? Censorship?

 

[Guy from the 80's]

"I felt so bad about killing her I quit the game and I haven?t gone back to it. It?s not worth it"

I guess she dont feel bad for killing men?

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I don't think that's the case at all.

 

[MirenBainesUSMC]

Unfortunately he is a gun for hire and will basically finish a mission once he is given, whether the target is a sadistic chief of police with a bondage fetish, a squad of killer nuns, or Aunt Edna at 256 Mulberry lane. If they had done something that pissed off some hierarchy, they probably shouldn't have been doing so to get a hit put out on them.

Then if we have to rag on the Hitman series, I guess the next prime target is going to be Capcom and their slant on it. Duke Nukem? --- Your going to be in the big house partner. I suppose Geralt of Rivera is also going to be dragged into a NOW forum to be rebuked and castrated...followed by The Warden from DA... it doesn't look all that good either for Leisure Suit Larry.

Dang. So many targets and so little time for the commando gals to fix.

 

[Zhukov]

Hate?

Probably not.

It just can't think of anything for them to be besides strippers, victims or villains. Usually some combination of the three.

Which tends to look awfully similar to hate

 

[Evonisia]

I think she's confusing "shows Women more for their looks than character" with "hates Women". If anything men are more horribly treated in that game. Most are sleazy, backstabbing or just unpleasant and most of them get horrible fates. Plus all the guards are men.

Given that "she can't go back to the game" because she killed a Woman, it's probably not any kind of valid opinion, but rather heavy bias she's trying to pass off as some kind of hidden message within the game.

 

[Lilikins]

Its always odd how contradicting these things are, I can bet right now, if not a single woman was included in the game..thered be an outcry that its a male industry so only males are included. Just like that Resident Evil 6 debacle of racism, but in every Resident Evil game beforehand you nuked down hundreds and hundreds of caucasians and it was no prob.

Now by all means, Im quite happy that publishers and game creators alike are starting to get away from the Damsel in Distress trope and completely implement strong women into games but seriously, its just..contradicting. It would be like me saying I wish to become a world class icon for Thai boxing..but I dont want to ever get hurt because thatd be..crap.
Yes it needlessly (in my opinion) oversexualized some women, but nevertheless, the character is a hitman... he gets his job..he does it, just like one on the real world would do. Im highly doubting the gender of his target matters in the slightest.

 

[linwolf]

Hate?

Probably not.

It just can't think of anything for them to be besides strippers, victims or villains. Usually some combination of the three.

Which tends to look awfully similar to hate

Well you know some of the females are just npc in normal everyday clothes, don't they count as being in the game.

 

[Colour Scientist]

Well, maybe women hate Hitman Absolution's face.

Yeah, I said it.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Well, maybe women hate Hitman Absolution's face.

Yeah, I said it.

Oh fuck, shots fired.

I know I'm fine with wiping out hordes of men, but kill a pretty lady? Man, that ruffles my jammies.

 

[SacremPyrobolum]

Didn't we already go through this song and dance?

Anyways, no, it doesn't.

 

[giles]

What about all the generic dudes you slaughter by the truckload? The only difference seems to be the complaint about being "sexualized". The author claims that old nun is the only character who is not sexualized, but them shows multiple examples of characters who are not solely defined by their sexuality.
Unless you want to make the case that wearing a skirt or being sexually attractive to the other characters is sexualizing them. In that case, please stop writing immediately.

Heck, the author even admits to not putting effort into this ("I don't even remember", "I quit the game and I haven?t gone back to it") in a way that suggests it adds to her integrity, not take away from it.

 

[Zhukov]

Hate?

Probably not.

It just can't think of anything for them to be besides strippers, victims or villains. Usually some combination of the three.

Which tends to look awfully similar to hate

Well you know some of the females are just npc in normal everyday clothes, don't they count as being in the game.

Ya, I know, I've played the game. (Even enjoyed it somewhat.)

Nondescript NPCs are a neutral. They're just there.

Whenever the game is required to separate a woman from the crowd in any way, she's always sexualised, victimised or a villain. If she's a villain she'll more than likely also be sexualised. In one case they manage to pack all three traits into the same character (Dexter's trophy wife. She's routinely abused and browbeaten by Dexter, she's an assassination target and if you corner her she'll strip for you before trying to shoot you).

Do I think this means the developers are all raging MRA misogynists?
No, not really.
Do I think this says something of the developer's attitudes towards women?
Maybe. Bit of a stretch. Besides, there's a lot of people involved in making a game like Absolution.
Do I think this says something about how the developer perceives their audience?
Yup.

Really, if you're having to point to random female NPCs in the crowd in order to try and show that the game totally doesn't hate females then I'd say you've half made my point for me.

 

[gigastar]

Generally speaking, most of the game takes place in a setting where law enforcement is throroughly corrupt and where organised crime groups seems to have free reign to do whatever pleases them, which does include sex traffiking. In the eldritch world of reality, where such conditions are met it tends to suck being a woman.

The nuns however... all logic fails to account for why anyone thought it was a good idea. Or why anyone concluded that spearheading the marketing with them would result in anything other than backlash. EA didnt get off lightly for its marketing of Dantes Inferno, dont know why Squeenix thought they were different.

Also for anything concerning interactions, if you have to interact with anything thats not an object or your target (by way of killing them) then your score is penalised for it. Absolution definitely wants its players to ghost, not knock out strippers and take them to a closet to explore the limits of collision detection.

 

[nathan-dts]

"I felt so bad about killing her I quit the game and I haven?t gone back to it. It?s not worth it"

I guess she dont feel bad for killing men?

Miss the paragraph about her being a domestic abuse victim?