Feminism vs Sexism in the Game

I began my life as a gamer around the age of 8. On Christmas morning, I opened a bright green GameBoy Color complete with some nameless and now long forgotten game. As I got older, I expanded to TV consoles like the Nintendo GameCube and Xbox. I remember hearing about a brand new online game called World of Warcraft, which was becoming more and more popular. One day while at a friend's house I even got a glimpse of his older brother playing it on their home computer. A year or two after that, while at a different friend's house, I got to play it. Within the next day, the game was being downloaded on my own home computer. When the download finished, I started the game eagerly, and the opening cinematic began to play. Fierce warriors with battle-axes traded blows and evil warlocks summoned demons to do their bidding. But then, a graceful female elf clad in extremely scandalous armor dashed through a dark forest. I was confused at first, but i soon forgot about it as I began playing. Since then, I have noticed that almost all female characters in video games are portrayed as super models wearing highly revealing clothing. There is never an option to have anything besides a perfect body. After all, who would want anything else? Even the male characters are portrayed as ultra-buff and handsome with no option to be slightly less brick-ish than the average linebacker. Although at first glance this game appears to be extremely sexist, I have also noticed a few feminist aspects to the game.

         Brunnhildar Village

In the farthest reaches of the Storm Peaks, deep within the frozen continent of Northrend, lives a tribe of Vrykul, the giant Norsemen who are native to this wasteland. However unlike the rest of the Vrykul settlements scattered across Northrend (all of which have a typical patriarchal society), Brunnhildar Village is controlled by Vrykul shield-maidens. Since this is World of Warcraft we are talking about, each and every woman in the village has a perfect body and is drop-dead gorgeous. They have enslaved all the men of their village to work in the mines in order to supply the demand of iron needed to make weapons and armor for the female warriors (some may see this as a male fantasy, but I think that is ridiculous). These women only trust their fellow shield-maidens, so in order to infiltrate their village I had to magically disguise myself as one of their own. After completing a few tasks for them, I was given a quest to beat the exhausted men who have stopped working. Some of these men decide they've had enough and attempted to attack me. Being the badass that I am, I of course slaughtered them with little effort. As I stood over their corpses, I wondered, what were the developers trying to say here?


Thrall and Aggra


Something else that caught my eye was the quest line to save Thrall, the High Shaman and former chief of the orcs. These quests only became available in the patch 4.3, the Hour of Twilight, which is the most current installment to the World of Warcraft story. During a meeting between members of the Earthen Ring and Cenarion Circle in Hyjal, an agent of the Twilight's Hammer attacked and split Thrall's spirit in to four pieces, casting each into a separate elemental plane. The council members grieved and were convinced he had been lost forever, but Thrall's fiance, Aggra, did not give up hope. She set out to find her love and bring him back from the elemental planes. Each plane had an emotion tied to it. Air was guilt, water was desire, earth was stubbornness, and fire was rage. Each showed what Thrall felt he was guilty of, or desired. This implies that Aggra was the only one who could access his subconscious. I believe that this ties in with the feminist mystique. Even though I ended up doing all of the work to save Thrall, it was really the thought that counted. A very powerful male character being saved by his fiance may just be a good plot twist, or it might be saying that women are just as powerful and ambitious as men.


Sylvanas Windrunner and Jaina Proudmoore


Among the many important and powerful female characters in the game, the two that stand out the most are Sylvanas and Jaina. Sylvanas Windrunner was once a beautiful elf, but was murdered by Arthas, the Lich King, and resurected to do his bidding. She broke free of her enslavement and became the Banshee Queen, founder of the Forsaken, who are the undead who have been enslaved by Arthas, but have broken free. She is feared by almost everyone in the entire game as a ruthless warrior, and her skill with a bow is unrivaled. However, she does wear a bikini. Jaina Proudmoore is an extremely powerful mage who was previously second in Command of Stormwind city, but left, feeling that she could not agree with the King's warmongering. She now rules over Theramore Isle, a small human settlement in Dustwallow marsh. Funnily enough, she and Arthas were very much in love before he became corrupted by hatred for the demon that destoyed  his city. He then became the Lich King and murdered Sylvanas. Jaina ALSO wears a bikini. I went in-game to do some further research, and I discovered that all female characters with power are scantily clothed. It's good that the creators are including important female characters, but come on. 

All in all, World of Warcraft is sexist. There's just no getting around it, however it doesn't seem to be a problem. With over 11 million players worldwide, World of Warcraft is the most popular online game in the world. I even asked some members of my guild what they thought of the way the game portrayed men and women. Most were unresponsive or unhelpful, but those who did respond agreed that it was sexist. However none complained or showed that they wanted the game to change. Some female members even said they liked their characters the way they were.  I guess most player just don't care that it's sexist.