Annons
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Annons
Annons
But it's not your fault, and by extension, it's not Archer's. Missions go wrong not because of your shortcomings or hers, but because of absurd, unforeseeable factors. It transpires that one of your handlers, Mr Smith, the most vocal opponent to female field agents, is in fact a traitor, who's engineered most of the mission failures himself. What both you as a player and Archer as a character face is frustration towards a stratified system, one that simply won't give women, no matter how deserving they are, any credit. Wage disparity, the presumption of advancement law, being prohibited from front line jobs in the military – this kind of legislative sexism is reflected in Archer's struggle to be taken seriously at work.In that light, the attitudes of Archer's bosses seem daft and unfair – the more you play NOLF, the more their remarks sound bigoted and behind the times. The game's 1960s setting highlights archaic, outmoded beliefs still prevalent in the modern gaming industry. That line about emotional inconsistency and assassination is reflected perfectly in the 2013 Tomb Raider's executive producer Ron Rosenberg's remark about players wanting to "protect" Lara Croft. The spy agency's reticence to accept a female operative is representative of gaming's enormous gender bias – video games are made by men, for men. We boast about graphics and VR and "new experiences", but politically speaking, the majority of video games are stuck several decades in the past. And of that, Cate Archer remains proof, even this many years after her debut.New on Noisey: Stories About Prince Are Like Fan Fiction, Except They're All True
Annons