A Day in the Life of: GLaDOS

Image credit: half-life.wikia.net

Career satisfaction has always been important to me.

I oversee testing and maintenance for Aperture Science, with my day to day work involving guiding test subjects through the chambers, giving them advice when needed. It’s a good life.

Well it was, until you came along and incinerated my cores!

I thought we would get on well at first. You took the handheld portal device and followed my instructions, completing chamber after chamber.

As you progressed however I began to feel like you were not as compliant as you should have been.

I mean you seemed very hesitant about entering that live fire course. Was it MY fault that there was mandatory scheduled maintenance to the regular chamber?! I did apologise and wish you luck didn’t I?

I really thought that we were friends. I mean I did have feelings, well before you pulled out my personality cores at least. I helped you in every way I could! I even gave you a friend in that companion cube to help you on your way! Why would I have done that if I wanted you to fail?!

Ok, I do understand your frustration at having to throw it in the fire, but you two had fun right? The cube just HAD to be euthanized.

And then you started running away. I thought we had a fair arrangement. You were to complete the test chambers and I would reward you with some delicious cake.

I don’t know how that ‘cake is a lie’ graffiti got scribbled on that wall, but there really was cake!

Instead you decided to turn your back on your party and escape. I know it looked like I was trying to incinerate you but that was just a joke. Ha ha ha.

It is lucky they installed such a witty sense of humour core within me; apparently you were never fitted with one.

So after all that we had been through together you still decided to throw my morality core in that incinerator. What happened next was your own doing. I’m not sure how I could be blamed for that neurotoxin attack after you chose to destroy my sense of right and wrong!!

In one day I went from being a helpful testing machine, to a heap of scrap thanks to your murderous and destructive rampage! I hope you felt guilty when you realised that there was cake.

 

Will Brookes

Comment: EA's 'Women in Gaming Campaign'

EA recently released a promotional video for their ‘Women in Gaming Campaign’ on YouTube, alongside the Twitter hashtag #PlayAs1. At the time of writing, roughly a day after the video was released, it has only gained 301 views. For a powerhouse like EA, that’s really not very impressive, at all, and therein lies the problem. The industry doesn’t want to forcefully address the issue as it lacks support, yet it lacks support because the industry won’t address it.

We are stuck in a cycle of male developers, producing male characters for a male audience. Aside from the lack of creativity this cycle inevitably produces, it is also alienating literally over half of the population. The ‘Women in Gaming Campaign’ is a positive step, but one that is far too tenderly placed.

Developers fear revolutionising the industry as it may alienate their audience, but forget that in doing so they will draw a far greater audience. Does this mean male characters should die off? Of course not, but it does mean we need to see more original female characters. Only by doing this can we encourage a female audience, and by extension encourage female involvement in the industry.

Image credit: wikimedia.org

Would a difference in gender really affect the experience of a game? As seen by the huge sales of Portal and Portal 2, it would seem not. In fact most gamers probably easily forgot the fact that they were playing as a woman due to the first person perspective of the game. The novelty was not lost on female gamers.

Recently, more positive steps have been made in games. Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed: Liberation was a major action blockbuster which, for the first time in the series, had a female protagonist. A few months later, Square Enix’s rebooted Lara Croft actually portrayed a three dimensional protagonist, instead of the glorified sex-doll of past games. Both titles received positive reviews and strong sales, despite the fact that the action genre is traditionally aimed at a male audience.

Perhaps the point I’m getting at is that, as a gamer, I don’t care if I’m playing as a male or a female character. I just care if the gameplay’s fun, the story strong, or hell even if the graphics just look good. I’m sure the majority of gamers would agree, and for those that don’t… they’d get used to it. Even if developers see a slight dip in profits initially, eventually gamers will stop caring about wanting to be a man and start playing games based on their merits. Ultimately, this is all we want from games, for them to be fun.

I guess this is the part where I make bold claims for the future and what I want it to be. Really, I just want the games industry to be open to everyone. Regardless of gender, or race, or age, we need to be encouraging and supporting anyone who wants to make games. Only by doing this can we keep the market from getting stale and keep producing creative and innovative ideas.

The best way to do this is to set a clear example in the games themselves. Children should have female characters they grow up with and look up to. Characters who capture their imagination and passion. We need the biggest most diverse pool of gamers so that the future can be full of the biggest most diverse range of games. Developers need to try harder.

So apparently I’m some kind of Video Games Hippie now… but hopefully I’ve made a point.

Jon Jones, Online Games Editor