the net raiders

Fat Princess has finally arrived! And I am super excited! For those of you who don’t know about Fat Princess, it’s basically capture the flag, only your princess is your flag. The quicker you rescue her,  lighter she is, the easier she is to get back to your base.

The game is played as an RTS, using different classes like warrior, priest, mage and more. It’s an all out cartoon gore fest once the swords start swinging, which makes the twelve year old boy in all of us giddy with diabolical joy.

However, a dark cloud follows in the glory of this time absorbing savior of fun. The trap is sprung. This is not in fact an article about the game itself, but about the media surrounding it and how the hateful comments must stop. And I’m not just talking to the boys. Ladies, stop making sarcastic comments about men who enjoy playing an altered version of “capture the flag”. It isn’t going to help you have more rights or feel more liberated. Gentlemen, stop calling women  “fat” “lesbo” “b****es”. It isn’t going to help you get any. You are only making the stereotypes that started this whole media firefight a reality.

Being a female gamer I have had my fair share of issues with games and the way females are portrayed in them. Yes, they may sound feminist or make me sound insecure about myself, but do those issues stop  me from playing video games? Hell no. My reality check? If I’m playing a game like Heavenly Sword, or Mirror’s Edge where the main character flies around the screen slaughtering armies of soldiers or jumping across rooftops, and she’s fat, I’m going to say, “Um, problem! The physics in this game are unrealistic.” Now my gaming experience has been ruined. Not because the main character is fat, but because it’s unrealistic, heavenly powers or otherwise.

Some of you may have no idea what I’m talking about. Here’s a quote from a blog that received a lot of media coverage that I found to be a particularly good example;

“I can’t figure out why anyone would want to rescue a fat princess in the first place, since everyone knows that fat girls are unlovable human garbage at whom any sensible bloke would sooner hurl invective than cast a longing glance.”

I get the sarcasm, and believe me, I have been in that boat. I’ve felt exactly what this blogger is describing, sarcastic or otherwise. Which is why this kind of behavior must stop.

“I’m positively thrilled to see such unyielding dedication to creating a new generation of fat-hating, heteronormative assholes. It’s not often I have the opportunity to congratulate a cutting-edge tech company on such splendiferous retrofuck jackholery.”

Ladies, did you ever stop to think that maybe the reason other people don’t like you, isn’t because you’re fat, or ugly or whatever other catagory you decided to put yourself in, but because you’re a rude, mean, sarcastic person? Gentlemen (and ladies), did you ever stop to think that maybe the reason a girl was rude, mean and saracstic isn’t because they’re fat or ugly or whatever judgemental and petty stereotype you decided to put on them, but because at some point someone (male or female) decided to treat that girl as anything besides human?

In the end the results are the same. Any type of media (art, books, news, games, movies, etc) in the world is meant to do two things; entertain people, or act as social commentary. Sometimes they do both, sometimes it’s not on purpose.

I will not let the fact that the developers of this game decided to make the title and objective of this game about an overweight female member of a royal family stop me from enjoying myself. In fact I encourage people to play this game and congratulate the creators because of how well and easily the team on this project made a simple game like “capture the flag” new, fun, and challenging. In otherwords, Shut Up and Play.