泥中蟠龍‘s Game愛歌 The Bechdel test and righteous games



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泥中蟠龍‘s Game愛歌
[A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]

The Bechdel test and righteous games

Bechdel test

The Bechdel test


 
There is the Bechdel test which is a method of evaluating the portrayal of women in fiction. It is first appeared in comic strip of the American cartoonist Alison Bechdel in 1985. And it just needs to satisfy the following requirements:
 
1. The movie has to have at least two women in it,
2. who talk to each other,
3. about something besides a man.
 
It's not easy to find films which meet these simple-looking standards. Recently released Korean movies generally fail to meet the requirements. All movies meeting the above criteria don't portray gender equality. However, the fact that just less than half of the movies pass the simple test means that film industry is a largely male-dominated filed. It's more clear when applying the requirements to men and women in reverse.
 
In recent times, the question about 'Political correctness' is gradually raised in the cultural world. Gender equality, one of the problems, is the most talked-about question. A female character in the recent trailer of 'Battlefield V' wearing a prosthetic arm and using a cricket bat to kill someone is being debated. Battlefield, which is well-known for its good historical research, now is said to be not desirable because it degrades gameplay and has an historically unrealistic character appear for excessive 'Political correctness'. The controversy over 'Political correctness' and gameplay seems to be going on. Someone will try to reflect recent changes for 'Political correctness', while others will criticize them for degrading gameplay.
 
I'm not talking about right and wrong. I don't want to force my own idea on readers or be attacked by the opposition in the newspaper column where the writer cannot rebut their arguments. I mean that these arguments themselves have a beneficial effect on games industry. Game is one area of cultural contents and progress in the field is based on diversity. Contents will lose some of the individuality and will not improve without acknowledging diversity. So, in that respect, these disputes may be advisable. Heated dispute over the righteous games and game content will help a continual improvement in the quality of games. I hope to see someone learned literature and philosophy through game like someone studied history and literature through comic book and film.



※ This is from Kyunghyang Games column by 泥中蟠龍 since September 2013.
    Translation by Kim Ki-hui


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