I’m pretty much on full agreement with Mr, Tenda here.

I think a very good example of what Mr. Tenda is trying to say with the Colbert Report is Punch-Out. Funnily enough no one ever complains about Punch-out (even remade on the Wii as a E10+ rated game). The last thing I fear as a Canadian is people thinking I am a fat lumberjack who jugs up maple syrup because of Bear Hugger just as I wouldn’t fear that Paula would make people think all girls must be feminine and use frying pans and just as I wouldn’t fear that Kumatora would make people think girls are all tomboys who hate being feminine. These characters are clearly over-exaggerated to really push who they are as individuals (this can also apply to Jeff, Poo, pretty much every NPC in EarthBound). Going back to Punch-out, the reason it works is because of this over-exaggeration of stereotypes that clearly doesn’t fit a group of people rather it makes the people playing the game simply laugh at it’s absurdity further pushing how dumb it would be to actually believe these things.

The beauty of stereotypes though is they do create beautiful characters that you can both laugh at and attach to as well (Punch-Out has a huge amount of personality because of this). Jeff is totally the nerd in EarthBound and I can still connect with him even with the stereotypical nerd characteristics of glasses, bowl-like hair, and ability do sciency stuff. I don’t wear glasses, have hair like Jeff or go to a private school with a seemingly strict dress code like Jeff does, but man do I love science and the making of cool stuff. If someone went to the conclusion that I would look and act exactly like Jeff because I like science, well it only makes them look crazy for being obsessed with physical identity. I’ll push this further with Metroid. Samus is a girl and yet I can totally get immersed in the game without thinking, “why doesn’t this game not represent me as a guy”. Samus is famous for being one of the early representations of woman in games, but people like her more for being the amazing bounty hunter who will go through any situation unfazed. This is why I can easily connect with Samus when playing a Metroid game, her personality, not what she looks like. It’s such a great feeling to feel like a one man army who can defy all odds, which I get from Metroid. Basically what I’m going with here is that a girl gamer would clearly connect to Jeff if they are the more nerdy type, if they like baseball they’ll connect with Ness (I’d argue Ness is more of a blank slate to be honest though); Poo is for the more masculine type people. If a guy gamer is feminine, they can and will connect to Paula and if they won’t simply because she is a girl, well then they are, again, way too obsessed with physical identity.

I always found the idea of gaming having a female problem absurd. If anything, it would make more sense to say it has a male and female problem if you really do want to argue identity problems in gaming ( I would disagree with that notion as well though). I really do hope people wouldn’t be dismissing a game because the girls look a way they don’t like or the boys look a way they don’t like because honestly there is more to a game then that. I can just imagine the amount of fun games I’d miss out on if I were to focus on if a game represents a certain ideology I agree or disagree with (This is why something like Feminist Frequency annoys me, looking at games through an ideology). Even worse is when games have to be out right banned or censored (like EarthBound itself) because it doesn’t follow with certain ideological views where you don’t even get a choice on the matter.