Commander Mode

Important note: If you aren't a BF4 person and are not interested in watching the trailer, I am referring to the portion of the video starting about 1 minute 16 seconds in.

My experience as a male white gamer for the last 20+ years is that anytime you see a woman involved in gaming, it is almost always as a submissive, super sexy role, not as an actual equal in gaming. There has been a trend to change this attitude (even though there are at least the same amount of women gaming, the idea that women are gamers seems foreign to most gamer guys and to most video game companies).

I was looking at upcoming video games and I found a pleasant surprise while watching Battlefield 4 trailer/gameplay videos. This is honestly unusual, watching the trailers/gameplay almost always is either a neutral or a negative experience when related to the white male privilege issue.

The gameplay video is sort of what I was expecting. I don't see any female models in other gameplay trailers, and by the time I got to this one I figured this was a standard male only area. I was impressed a bit, evidently when in commander mode you can use a tablet to participate. I was even more impressed when the spokesman panned to an example of a commander using the tablet and the person they showed was a woman.

This is almost unheard of, and honestly I hadn't expected it from EA/DICE or from a combat orientated video game. It made my day. I realize this isn't much, and honestly the fact that it is a big deal is a sign of the problem, but it is a start. The even more impressive portion is she is in the "command" position, the person supposedly responsible for directing others on the field (now the reality is only a portion of players will follow the commander, but that is for any game).

I hope to see this type of thing more often.

You will find the example of a female gaming commander at the 1:17 section.

Hello

I just wanted to say a quick hello as my first post. I hope to document a long term journey as I grow to understand the non-white/male/cisgendered/multi-cultural world around me. I have always logically known that others have not gotten the same chances as myself due to their gender/race/sexual orientation and religion. For some reason though it never sunk in on how prolific or how rooted in as part of the system it was.

I struggled when I was younger, I grew up in poverty that was probably greater than anyone I have met (my family was homeless for over a year in high school, living in cars, state parks, etc). I always assumed that put me on equal footing with other people who were denied things due to other privileges they lacked but that I had.

I honestly hadn't realized that it is not the same. True, it took me 15 years longer to work my way through college, and I had always assumed with how difficult it was that it erased any other privilege I might have as a white male, seemingly cisgendered (not quite, but that is a future post to talk about) who wasn't Christian, but wasn't treated poorly by people who were, as they just automatically assumed I was.

However, over the last year or two I have learned that I still am granted a lot of privileges by society and that those advantages are denied others. I have always been a "white knight" losing jobs and friends over defending people who I felt were being treated poorly. For some reason though I hadn't realized it wasn't just individuals but entire groups of people (frankly the majority if you count all the aspects of privilege).

Now, I know I still sometimes (more than I like to admit) have knee jerk reactions when I feel I am being targeted unfairly by others who are subject to discrimination. I am still working through that reaction, and I hope to grow as a human being. I don't have a specific order or theme for this blog other than my learning about others, coming to terms with my own racists/sexist/intolerance ideas as I unearth them. I also will not hesitate to tell others when they are wrong. I am hoping to review media, news articles and maybe put a different light on some of the subjects (I have a rather extended range of careers in my prior and current path that may help).

I may never reach the full enlightenment of the Buddha, but I would like to die much older and much more enlightened then I am now.