( Rust players begin the game naked, and must find their own clothing as part of the struggle to survive.)
RUST VIDEO GAME FEMNALE UPDATE
()Ī later update went so far as to randomly assign different sizes to players' genitals. The lead developer of the online video game Rust says he didn't assign a random gender to player avatars for political reasons, but rather to improve game play.
RUST VIDEO GAME FEMNALE SKIN
A previous update to the game randomized players' skin colour and ethnicity, which provoked a backlash from some Russian players who were unhappy to be playing as black characters, according to Newman, the developer. This wasn't the first time that Rust players faced randomization of their in-game avatars. "If they were playing games like a role-playing game and they had to look at the character for an extended period of time, they chose female," said Schmitz. "Sometimes when you play a game that suspends disbelief, it's sci-fi, it's Star Wars … it's OK to want to try an alien, it's OK to try someone that looks and sounds completely different from you," said Schmitz.įor male gamers, Schmitz found that gender selection was often a matter of strategy, and sometimes a matter of esthetics. In her own research, Schmitz found that many female gamers were more willing to play as avatars who looked nothing like them in video game scenarios that are removed from reality. "Women already have to their gaming experience, they have to adapt their storyline expectations around a pre-selected gender all the time," said Schmitz. The clamour over avatar gender in Rust has shades of the so-called " #GamerGate" sexism scandal, in which female video gamers, game developers and game critics were subjected to misogynistic, violent threats and harassment.įor Kelsey Schmitz, who has researched how video gamers create digital identities online, the controversy over Rust's gender assignment is a good example of a double standard in video gaming culture.
RUST VIDEO GAME FEMNALE HOW TO
Understanding how to increase player motivation is important to people designing games for educational or stress-reduction purposes, added Birk. Even if a player doesn't identify with their in-game avatar at first, though, Birk believes that overcoming in-game adversity can actually build a bond between player and avatar over time. "We also see an increase in intrinsic motivation, so people actually experience more enjoyment of the task." "If you identify with your representation … you feel in charge, basically, of what you are doing," said Birk. Players who reported that they identified with their avatar spent longer playing the game, despite being given the option to quit at any time.Ī study from the University of Saskatchewan explored the relationship between video gamers, their in-game avatars, and their levels of engagement in a video game. Gamers were either assigned an avatar or given a chance to customize their own. Max Birk, a PhD candidate in human-computer interaction at the University of Saskatchewan and the lead author of a new paper on virtual avatars, said the gender debate in Rust illustrates his research findings.īirk's research suggests that when gamers identify with their in-game avatar, they are more likely to become engaged in the game. Fallout 4, an award-winning role-playing game, lets users customize their character far beyond gender. Age, ethnicity, facial structure, body type, eye colour, hairstyle, makeup and even skin blemishes and scars can all be tailored to a player's tastes. It's certainly true that some games give players great latitude to customize the appearance of their virtual avatar. "We felt that player customization had got a bit out of control in other games," added Newman.
" Rust is not a game about identity," wrote Newman. "The objective in Rust is to survive." an editorial for the Guardian, Rust's lead developer, Garry Newman, acknowledged that "the range and strength of opinions have never been this intense," but he defended his team's choice: Rust is available as an "early access" release, meaning that the game is still a work in progress and is constantly tweaked and "randomized gender assignment" assures that neither my son nor I or others I know will be playing #Rust. "'Randomized gender assignment' assures that neither my son nor I or others I know will be playing #Rust," tweeted another. "You've made me into a girl," tweeted one player to the game's lead developer.
That proved to be too much for some Rust players, who took to the internet to complain. Half of players' avatars became female, while the other half remained male, with no option to change genders. Players of Rust, a survival-theme online video game, recently logged in to discover their existing avatars, previously all-male, had been randomly assigned a gender.
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