What's a 'Normal' Female?

Let's get serious for a moment.

There's something that's been bugging me of late. It could very well be the fact that everywhere I look, there's no end to the mythological belief that all women are short skirt wearing, big boob owning, makeup dominated creatures of the night life.

I must have missed the memo when they approved all that.

Before you get me wrong, I'm not suggesting a for or against mentality here to those who actually want to dress like this. It's a persons right to decide what they wear and how they act. What disturbs me is how this 'version', for lack of a better word, is the dominant iteration spotted in most forms of media. Especially gaming.

The common excuses for such actions is that gaming is a male dominated society, it's what people want to see. Even I can see that this a dated term, dare I say it a pathetic excuse for nudity or sexual exploitation just for the sake of selling a few extra copies. Yes I'm looking at you, Grand Theft Auto. Coffee anyone?

There's some small level of comfort that a game like, say Mass Effect 2, allowed you to create your own character (male or female) and decide yourself how he/she acts and responds to certain events. It's up to you as the player to choose how they look, to a point. I've also read just recently that gay/lesbian relationships will be introduced into the third game. It's an edgy call to make for a game so well known in the public eye, but does it make it right? Especially when it isn't a believable scenario?

Truth is, as long as video games portray women in a light that deems scantly clad as normal for police officers, detectives, doctors, lawyers, heroes, mothers, scientists, etc, etc, than how can gaming possibly be considered an adult medium, if it's such a childish mentality in design?

There's an argument for and against. For: gaming needs to be unbelievable in order for it to be entertaining. Against: True to a point, but where does that leave LA Noir or (dare I say it) Call of Duty, that rely on realism for the impact of the story to hit home?

Here's another interesting point, relative to this thought process. In the last ten years of video games, only a small number of games with a female lead character have sold in profitable numbers. I dare you to remember at least one of them that doesn't feature a certain Lara Croft. Got one? Okay, was this character in any way like what I suggested above? Big boobs? Maybe even all that?

Hands up who thought of Portal? Congratulations, you picked one of the only games in modern history (not counting the Mario Bros. titles, which depicts a helpless princess ... I'll get to that problem another day) that doesn't follow all the typical rules.

It could be considered unusual that I, being a male, would write on such a topic. I guess, maybe, I have an opinion that doesn't conform with reality. A reality that's become tainted by immoral choices considered 'normal'. I guess that's why it bugs me. Why should it be considered normal in the first place, when clearly it isn't. Gaming or otherwise, it's the ultimate misstep by society, especially when I see fourteen or fifteen year olds dressing like this. It just seems ... wrong. Very wrong.

What's a PSN?

I'm torn. The PSN's back. I found it at the back door, tail between its legs. "Sorry, Master. Next time I'll leave a note." But I'm not really sure if I should let it back in, besides the fact that it's been raining and I just washed the floors.

See, with the network down, I had to find other methods of maintaining my interest. Funny thing is, despite my concern over this thing they call 'real life', I actually found it rather rewarding. More rewarding than trophies, believe it or not. So I opened the door the other day and discovered this thing called 'The Sun.' It's this amazing gas giant that the Earth revolves around (I don't think that's been proven yet, I'll get back to you on that). It warmed my skin way better than my usual microwave technique, I can't believe I didn't discover it before on wikileaks.

Still with me? My point is, we've become such a technology driven society that if something were to go wrong, we'd be bleeped. Totally bleeping bleeped. No emails? No SMS? Forget about the world turning, this is end of the galaxy stuff!

Perhaps, on reflection, I'm judging this a little harshly. I mean, Sony *did* have all our contact details and credit card info stolen. Bad Sony, bad! Go to the corner! But seriously, it's not something to be taking the bleep out of. What annoys me, however, are the endless amount of people complaining that their lives, their weekend plans, their whole supposed existence has been utterly destroyed because they can't pull out a spleen or drop a hole in the ground against a fourteen year old kid in Iceland.

I'd like formally apologise to any readers from Iceland. Clearly not all of your fourteen year olds play PS3 ... what with all that ice around.

I'd like to formally apologise to any readers from Iceland. Clearly your land isn't full of ice. However, if you do in fact have some, my coke's getting warm.

What was I typing? Something about games, I think. Seems like all this time away from them have left me a confused mess. Even my 3DS left fifteen messages for me, but I couldn't bare to answer. That's the moral of this blog post. Now that PSN is back online, don't allow it to take over your life again. Or anything else gaming wise for that matter (I'm looking at you, World of Killing Things!). Go outside, smell the roses, or if you so desire, burn some ants.

I'd like to formally apologise to any readers from Antland. Clearly you are an inferior species, but I love you all the same and I'd never burn you. Besides, I've got Portal 2 co-op to catch up on. Cya in virtual hell folks!