Not long ago, I started playing State of Decay again. I know, I know, but at this point, it’s become a comfort object for me, something to help me relax during a busy week. I started a new Breakdown game and fiddled a little with Lifeline again, and looking at those two modes together in a short span of time helped me realize that I’ve rarely played through any mode with a white male anchoring my team, with the exception of ol’ Andy Pimms, who in main story mode. In the main story mode, Andy is described as a homeless man, a toothless alcoholic one of the characters cared for; there’s a whole side mission dedicated to finding Andy and learning his fate, but in Breakdown, magically, he’s returned to you as a hero character, and he’s on the roster of regulars for me. Sometimes I choose him to start, though he’s low on that list (see below), but if he appears in the game, I drop everything to recruit him, because ol’ Andy Pimms is amazing.

My other go-to heroes in Breakdown?

Gurubani, the Year One Survival Edition character

Amelia, one of the game’s most reliable fighters

Lyanna, who starts with a tremendous axe, but who is limited in inventory capacity

Marcus, whose leadership qualities help with recruitment, and who is the starting character in story mode

Andy, who’s somehow the sneakiest, luckiest guy in the game

The heroes I’ll always keep around if possible, outside of the above?

Alicia, the commander from Lifeline

Sam, whose wits and reflexes make her a very useful fighter and runner

Becca, the tattoo artist who can boost morale

Zeika, another strong fighter

Calliope, the gardener

There’s almost no men on my dream team, and of the two men, only one appears to be white. At least three of the women are nonwhite, as best I can speculate. All these hours (hundreds now; several hundreds) playing this game, and I’ve been surrounding myself with a spectrum of women, something few gaming experiences have ever offered. This is the apocalypse; I choose my teams in Breakdown, choose who survives and moves on, and mostly, I choose women. Oh, sure, I’ll sometimes have random-sweater-guy, or maybe another male hero, but these are my favorites. These are the teams I build for the later levels, when resources grow more scarce and the danger ratchets up, teams of women with multiple skills, teams that are diverse not only in terms of look but also in presentation and attitude, and it’s wonderful. If you’ve gotta be in the apocalypse, might as well make it an inclusive one if you can.

In Lifeline, there’s less choice. You have your team at the military base, and you pick up a few people here and there, but that mode is less about building anything than it is about just getting through the day and working to survive the next. While you can still choose your main characters to play, the leader is set, in terms of story, and here, that’s Major Alicia Hawkes, a hardened soldier. I’ve talked about her before, about how she’s presented, how refreshing it is just to see a woman leading men and getting things done without her gender or sexuality at the forefront, without anything in play but the mission and baggage and the struggle… exactly the way she would be presented if she was a male character, I think. That approach leaves room for delight up front (yes! a female commander!) and then it’s just no longer an issue. She’s just the leader, and you play.

That last bit may make it sound like it doesn’t matter. “But, Alisha, you just said it doesn’t, even! That you just play the game, so why not make her a man?” It’s simple: it matters because we’re so rarely given women in power without other objectifying trappings; it matters because women are rarely just allowed to be people who have things to do. It matters because we so rarely see visible, important female characters who aren’t sidekicks or love interests (or both), and we need to see that, because that’s life, even though a lot of people are convinced it isn’t. That visibility, that care of creation, that helps break down barriers for all of us.

When we spoke with some folks from Undead Labs back in Episode 104 of the podcast, they said this diversity was definitely by design, that they wanted this world to be real, and maybe that’s part of why I keep coming back, so I can exist in this virtual world in which, finally, women are allowed to lead. Where you start the first part of story mode as a Black man who isn’t a caricature, but just a guy with a great voice on vacation. Because so many other games lack that reality. They suffer from the same tropes and repeated issues with representation we see in other media, and the black men die first, and the women are objects to be fought for in love triangles that increase the drama. Here, it’s just people, struggling to go on, and as someone in love with the apocalypse setting, I wish I saw that simple facet more often.

This piece was written as part of Critical Distance’s October Blogs of the Round Table on Leadership.