I really enjoyed Liestøl’s article; in light of her conclusion of Duke Nukem’s being a consummately masculinist (where women are objects—of anxeity, of desire, etc.) game, I wonder if there are feminist games in existence or being produced (when/if the population of women/feminist players becomes vocal/active/noticed).
I used to be a Quake fiend; Quake, despite its violence, becomes relatively genderless (the monsters are genderless and we play in first-person, effectually becoming the brain of the shooter), and isn’t as offensive to feminist players (which our various articles about all-woman Quake clans underscore). It’s interesting to contrast both games to Tomb Raider, which objectifies by divorcing the (female) shooter from the (male) player; the player acts as literal puppet-master of a gun-toting Barbie doll (is it true that, when first designed, Lara Croft was [much more] realistically proportioned, and therefore didn’t pass beta-testers?) .