Swords and Bikinis
The Portrayal of Women in Everquest

Once upon a time, if I wanted to play a computer game, I had several choices : brown haired muscle man, blond muscle man and black muscle man. Hmm. Decisions. Though derided by some for her ludicrous bosom, Lara Croft of the Tomb Raider series actually seemed a refreshing change, at last I could play a girl! Today I can log into Everquest and every single class and race can be male or female, there's no denying that's a considerable improvement.

Some women have complained about the appearance of the characters that you can play in Everquest however. Many of the races do seem to be wearing so little that corpse retrieval can sometimes be a somewhat embarrassing business. Words such as "degrading" have been bandied about, but does a scantily clad dark elf really degrade in the same way that pornography often does? I would argue that no, it does not. The dark elf is not helpless, and is not there just to be looked at, she is playing the same game as the male players and contributing just as much. Also the evil nature of dark elves makes it seem appropriate that they should flaunt themselves. On the other hand, dark elf males get to wear a cross between a smoking jacket and bathrobe when without their armour - perhaps it would be more in keeping for them to go about clad only in red velvet thong? It's not just newbie and dead characters that look semi-clothed of course, some actually look as if they are wearing less with armour on (for example the female dark elf leather leggings, um a tad airy around the rear, or the look of the leather on an erudite female).

It must be remembered that fantasy role playing games are just that - fantasy. You can choose to be ugly (well you can if playing an ogre or troll!) if you wish to. I tried it once, personally I would rather look sexy, and I am sure that goes for many other players too. Sexy does not mean sex-object of course, that is a problem that comes with the context in which it is portrayed and also the attitudes of people to it. However I am not here to be an apologist for Verant - there are plenty of reasons to make sure the female characters look good and have a penchant for bikinis and leather, namely the still predominantly male customer base! Many of the character models were designed by a woman, not that it tells us much! (Rosie if you are reading, the message board readers would love to hear from you I'm sure).

So what do women want from role playing games? I cannot speak for all women, but I can for myself, that the answer lies in simple choice. I certainly want the ability to play a woman, and I want to be able to decide what she looks like as much as possible. I want my characters to be beautiful, but not necessarily brazen. I certainly don't want to be forced to display even virtual buttocks to the world to the howls of laughter from my fellow players (did I mention those dark elf pants????). Oh yes and we want to know what barbarian men wear under their kilts ;-)

Kiaora Kordama

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