Friday, August 17, 2007

This Is What's Called "Male As Default"

I am Officially Irritated.

Finally got on the Wizards website. The Race article? Very cool. The Class article? Very, very cool. I like fighters. I like this vision of fighters. We're only on the idea stage now, but these are ideas I can work with.

But the teaser video. Indeed, the teaser video.



There are no women in this video. Zero. There are, in this video, sixteen players of Dungeons and Dragons, and not a single one of them is female. Not even in the fancy future 2008 video.

Why are there no women in this video? Women play D&D. Lots of women play lots of D&D. And they spend money on it, too. But not in this video.

No. What this video says to me is, "Women? Women don't play D&D. They didn't play D&D in the past. And they definitely won't play D&D in the future."

This does not make me happy.

2 comments:

  1. The commentator worries me. I cannot place his accent.

    I kind of think they were trying to make their portrayal of D&D as stereotypical as possible. The monsters and characters they used, everything else about the players, and the message at the end that it's better, but still the same, seem to indicate that "this is what people think of as D&D", which unfortunately still means men, apparently.

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  2. I think it's supposed to be faked French. Not badly faked, but intentionally faked. Or possibly generic European, though that's normally reserved for bad guys.

    Why would they need to make the portrayal stereotypical? This is intended for viewing by people who know how D&D really is. Encouraging, in those people, the idea that D&D is a no-girls-zone is ultimately harmful to the hobby. (Even if it's intentional. The message is still there.)

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