I guess this comes with a disclaimer:

I like Metal Gear Solid V, i can accept that it has faults, and i'm not really one who wants to bash Polygon for being Polygon as some others do. I probably would've been as confused and somewhat angry if someone else including GB made this article.

Also i'm sorry if you consider the title a spoiler, i don't really think it is and couldn't find a way to talk around this, so i'm open for constructive

So i stumbled upon the link to "Metal Gear Solid 5's best secret: You can play the campaign as a woman" and a subline that promised me "this is important".

Knowing about that being technically a feature, i was utterly confused how much this feature is praised by Brianna Wu, its author.

Choice Quotes:

Much has been written about the juvenile design of Quiet, the improbably naked sidekick in the Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. But, for all the justifiable anger about her character, almost nothing has been written about the secret new female protagonist in Metal Gear.

I’m calling her FemSnake.

FemSnake is awesome. She’s on the title screen. Soldiers stop dead in their tracks and sharply salute her. "Thanks for saving those kids, Boss," they say.

[...]

Everything about her demands to be treated like a professional and not a sex object. Accompanying her is a sexist train wreck of a design, a woman designed to be ogled while never speaking a word. Quiet is a capable soldier who looks like anything but.

[...]

Let’s look at some of the design decisions in Metal Gear Solid V that are meant to make most gamers feel like they’re Snake — including gamers that are not white.

[...]

In fact, Snake himself barely even matters in this version of Metal Gear. That’s why the game teases you with changing Snake’s character’s race and face in the opening, a feature that delighted my Asian husband. As the online component comes next month, players will represent themselves as their custom avatar. The technical term for this in gamedev parlance is "player agency," giving you control over your game world.

FemSnake is a design compromise to allow female players to play as a woman. And make no mistake, including her was a feature that took quite a bit of development resources from the Metal Gear team. They had to alter the game’s armor implementation to work with her different body proportions. They had to bring in a voice actress. They had to code scenes so Sutherland’s line reads would appear as captions and not voiceover in many scenes. What they did to make this happen across so much content was neither quick nor easy. Someone cared about this feature.

[...]

That’s how I feel playing this latest Metal Gear. I’m both elated and troubled. In researching this piece, I saw hundreds of articles critiquing Quiet’s design. But I didn’t see a single article praising Konami for including an inclusive design compromise that boosts my own enjoyment of the game. You can play through almost the entirety of the game as a woman hero! Or a person of color! This is great news, and needs to be celebrated.

Credit: http://www.polygon.com/2015/9/8/9275393/metal-gear-woman-lead-character-secret

So, yeah, look:

I am all for being more inclusive and having more female protagonists in games. And i've also often argued in the past that trying to stir controversy about (percieved or obvious) sexism in games seems MUCH less effective to me than praising the few positives the game industry has to offer in this regard.

However, what i didn't mean by that is that one should go out of its way and heap praise upon what when described comes across as a table scrap that has fallen off the dinner table.

Again, i like MGS V, very much so. And i don't have anything against the feature to play as other characters, thats neat.

But this is not "important", and suggesting that MGS V makes a step forward in inclusiveness because of that seems to be somewhat embarrassing. And by "somewhat" i mean absolutely.

We are talking about something that is almost accidential here. Sure, as Wu points out, there had to be quite some work done to fit the different armor/camo types onto a feminine body and account for logic in game. Still, this is a cool detail, like "In GTA V Flip Flops actually flip-flop", not a progressive feature.

And it seems especially painful that someone like Brianna Wu seems so easily content here, going out of her way to lay down the maybe-sexist-definitely-immature things about Quiet and other MGS-isms in favor of heaping praise upon this somewhat inconsequential extra which im pretty sure but not 100% certain was already featured in Peace Walker. This kinda reeks of "trying to justify how a game is great because i like it".

I'm not saying MGS V needs to be burned on the stake for the problems it has regarding diversity. And i'm not really saying "that is not enough" and demand that MGS V should've let you play as EVA or somesuch.

But it is just embarrassing to think about all what happened in the game industry and all the talking and trading of ideas and yes, even advances that have been made regarding gender and diversity in games and gaming...

...and then having an (accidential) spokesperson on that topic advertising an absolutely minor feature as "important" and "progressive" in a game that otherwise is rather traditionally japanese-hopefully-accidential-immature-creepyness.

This is Polygon's thing. They're a completely political blog and make no bones about that fact. I don't know how anyone can stomach something so ideologically driven, because uncontested ideology is poisonous to the critical mind, but whatever. Polygon is a site that regularly blows up mole hills into mountains so it's not like this is in any way out of character for them.

Sums it up. Stopped going there to support this kind of thing.

I like this line.

At least this shows that Polygon can do sensationalism boths ways.

And yeah, this feature was indeed in Peace Walker.

As someone who hasn't been following the game before I play it, that title is definitely a spoiler.

Is she talking about being able to use the soldiers that you recruit in missions? Or is there actually an option to switch to a female snake?

She is talking about using solders that you kidnap on the field.

I thought the feature was pretty nice and fits with the theme of the game. I don't know about w/e political commentary or what not about reasons. But as far as story I thought it was nice.

Maybe someone who is not a white male would enjoy this feature a little more. Making it easier to project yourself onto the character. Dunno if it can be known if they did it just for diversity or just cause that's what the story demanded.

It really isn't a spoiler at all. You can swap out Snake for one of your PF's soldiers, just like you could in Peace Walker. The game still thinks you're Snake.

I think she makes a point of saying the work that Kojipro put into the feature is non-trivial and that it's impact was non-trivial for her and her husband. So even if it seems like a throwaway feature to you, it was a huge boon for her. And she even points out that this feature doesn't excuse any of Quiet's design, it is a separate design decision with a separate impact.

The former. You can't actually play the important missions as a female character

There's a female soldier you can get. In the article, Wu talks about the specific prisoner rescue mission that is most likely to spawn a female prisoner. I think that's all she's talking about.

Like, yeah, dawg, this game lets you play as a bunch of other randos other than Snake if you really want. Big whoop. It's not actually a fleshed out female protagonist or anything.

I mean... at least it is supposed to be a positive thing? For all the bitching about AC:Unity not having female characters, it's good to see at least somebody saying "hey this is a good thing keep doing this" when a game developer actually does do the thing those people want to see so badly.

Probably could have sent a clearer message without the constant "but also Quiet still sucks" quips. Nothing can just be positive apparently, but goddamn if they want to be negative about something that's all they'll be (I know I know, the irony of this post).

I see literally nothing wrong with this article. It's about a feature in the game that the author likes. What's the issue?

Is there a point to playing as a character other than Snake? I thought maybe it would boost their stats but it didn't seem to do anything (but I only played a couple of side-op missions with them). Snake still looks more badass so I'm sticking with him. And I would have to imagine they don't show up in cutscenes.

Not surprising coming from someone who wrote an article titled "Metroid’s Samus Aran is a Transgender Woman. Deal With It." Everything Wu does is just attention grabbing nonsense.

@teddie: I think it makes sense to point out that the game (and the series) has a complex relationship with female representation. The article could have been purely praising; but, considering that this is likely to be Brianna's only post on the game, I guess she wanted to also talk about the photosynthetic elephant in the room too.

@frybird: "But this is not "important"

Not to you maybe but even table scraps is better than nothing. It made me enjoy the game significantly more having a character that I can relate to. I guess this is a good example of a situation where if you aren't the one suffering from it then you lack the experience needed to appreciate it. Just like Austin mentions in that one article about animal crossing. No one notices the lack of skin colors in animal crossing more than people with other skin colors. No one notices the lack of female characters in games more than females. Thus, change this to a race thing " You can play as black snake" and someone who is black will be like " Oh awesome!" and someone who isn't black might say " What's the big deal?"

Ya feel me?

@badnews: +1

That is exactly the truth. Because as soon as I found out you could make Snake Black (the first scene with the face change) I jumped up off the couch.

I said some words I can't repeat in mix company and then I called my significant other in the room to show off black snake.

@badnews: I see where you're coming from, but referring to table scraps features as "important", for me, just kinda cheapens when devs actually create a game that has female characters who matter and are well written and everything. Like, fine, it was a big deal to Wu and her personal experience with the game, but I think she is overstating how big of a deal it really is that you can play as rando soldiers with no meaningful identity.

Like, fucking Saints Row 3's character creator is more "important" than this feature in Phantom Pain.

@thatpinguino: That is her opinion yes. My opinion however is that being so easily satisfied may not bode well to actual progression to the point where i feel like after all the awful stuff that happened recently in the industry, being so joyful for THIS sounds shockingly defeated

@teddie: As i said, i do prefer praising good things over shaming bad ones. However, i don't think something insubstantial such as this should not be satisfactory enough as to held up as a positive example.

@milkman: My issue is that praising such a throw away feature as a positive step towards inclusion, as it implies inclusiveness can be archived by little more than a pallete-swap. As Bison Hero said, it's not like shes a fleshed out character or anything.

@thatpinguino: My only issue is that it makes the article annoying to read. For every compliment given, it immediately changes course and says "but also this is shitty", only they don't give that part of the story any context or anywhere near the same thought/discussion as the rest of the article. As it stands, in this article it's just a bunch of throwaway comments that will only matter to people who already have an opinion on Quiet's design.

@frybird: I think, as someone has pointed out already, what's important to one person may not be important to another. Sometimes it can be as simple as seeing yourself represented on the screen. I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

And for the record, I really don't have a problem with your original post. I think your questions are pretty fair. I was more taken aback by the ridiculous over the top response from other people in this thread. I truly don't understand what part of this article is "attention grabbing nonsense" or whatever else people are calling it. I can only assume that people in this thread aren't actually reading the article and just seeing that it's from Polygon and assuming what it's about. I don't think they even realize that she's praising the game.

While the subject itself is important, this article is shit.

@bisonhero: So yeah, take a step back though. Look at what's going on here. Sure Saints Row had some great options and stuff for female character creation and implimentation well beyond Phantom Pain but notice how that's kinda it. Like okay if I want to play a well implemented female character I need to go back and play saints row 3. Oh I can also play Saints Row 4. Maybe some Tomb Raider? I have options for games. Sure it's table scraps but when your starving, table scraps are a god send. Thank you for this bountiful meal of a random character I got after completing a mission. It will keep me satiated until Fallout. :D

Edit: Also, Saint's Row was the equivalent of a full table spread in this analogy so yes it's much appreciated but that meal was years ago I've 100% it 5 times on multiple consoles. I'm starving and The Phantom Pain gave me something small yet needed. (Also Bloodborne did a good job on that front too, better options for female characters than previous games. Especially armor that changes based on gender same as Metal Gear.)

@badnews: But its not like there's "nothing". There are, few and far between as they may, games with female, asian and/or black protagonists who are actually, you know, characters. If someone calls them a step forward, or a nice representation for them, i'd agree. I don't see that in this skin-selection of MGSV. It honestly feels almost insulting to me calling this "important"

(...and yes i am a white male, yet i still find it hard to believe that someone would feel represented by a minor bonus such as this)

If you can only relate to female characters does that mean you can't watch films with men as the lead role? What about the other way around on the race issue? Can white people not relate to black people or indian people?

I'm not trying to belittle you btw, I'm legitimately interested in this. I don't think a character's gender, age, race, nationality etc etc has ever stopped me from enjoying something, hell if anything it makes it more interesting.

You could DEFINITELY already do that in Peace Walker.

@frybird: I am a female person of color and I find it fucking caaash. Love it love it love it. Eventually better representation would be nice but I'm happy with scraps and that's pretty sad. But such is the world. I'll keep gobbling up any tiny scraps the game industry throws at me.

@badnews: 1000% agree, great summary.

I think that it is important to note that a feature may not be a big deal to some people, or even most people, but to even a small percentage of players, it may be momentous.

Take for instance older games like Alien Syndrome, which I owned on the NES, of Zombies Ate My Neighbors, which is still one of my favorite SNES titles. Both games had the option to play as either a male character or a female character. From my recollection, there was no difference between the two characters besides that. No special powers were granted to the boy character versus the girl character, or vice versa. Still the allure of being able to choose my gender at that point in my life was probably one of the things that kept me engaged with games through high school and college and probably up until this very moment.

So it is easy to say that this is an unimportant feature, but that's a perspective that I can't agree with. I think this is a big deal. First, because it is in a major numbered MGS title. Peace Walker may be an important game in hindsight story-wise, and it may have been a good game in it's own right, but when it came out it wasn't popular (perhaps because it was a PSP title) and didn't sell as well as a major MGS release. So it may be a feature that existed before, but now it's getting a wider audience by being a part of the main numbered series. Also, even if you can't play story missions or anything with the character, it is still really cool that they let you out into the world to play other missions as a female soldier. I frequent other forums and this feature has been well received by female MGS fans in places like Reddit and the like. Again, maybe it's not a big deal to the majority, but there is a very happy minority out there that is embracing it fully in the game.

In my life, there are really minor game play features and little wrinkles that I have found to make a game more enjoyable. One of them is playing as a woman in a game. It may not matter to even 95% of the people who play games, but it does matter to me. I'm not saying it's a deal breaker or anything, I play a ton of games where there is no choice at all and I love them (Deus Ex: HR, Halo series, Gears of War series, etc) but it certainly makes me appreciate a developer more if they create more options for me as a player.

@alexw00d: I can watch movies and stuff with male leads but I am usually less invested. Also it makes it so I can tell if a movie has shitty writing a lot easier. Bad writing in movies usually has women play shitty boring parts, since my focus is naturally gravitating towards the females I can tell how much effort or lack thereof was put into the characters or writing.

Huh, cool. And yeah, it's totally an important thing for a lot of people.

@frybird: Think of it this way, a game with an almost 30 year history of involved storytelling centered around two male protagonists (where one is a literal clone of the other) managed to include a feature that allows for diverse representation. Metal Gear has every entrenched story justification necessary to not include a feature like this. It's team was under immense time and monetary pressure so they easily could have not included a feature like this. And yet they did. Even if playing as a random npc seems like table scraps or a trivial inclusion, it isn't. From this article and from other people in this thread, it seems like that minor feature found it's intended audience.

It's important to campaign for more fleshed out female protagonists and minority protagonists, but it's also worth praising the less obvious improvements as well. Both lead to more diverse representation.

I'm not sure about side ops or free roam, but doing main missions with the other characters will level them up. As will sending them out on combat deployments in a combat team.)

@Mike: I thiiink it does work. My character has an insanely high combat stat. I know she didn't have the bars that high when i got her.

@badnews: Yeah I have seen some of that same stuff! It's hard to tell though since a lot of the information related to troop experience isn't surfaced to the player. At least when using someone other than Snake on a main mission, you get some actual stats after you're done to show how much your character improved. I guess if I paid closer attention to individual characters' stats the whole system might be a little more clear, but at this point in the game all of my people are at a minimum an A+ in their primary stat anyway.

Are you playing as one of the rescued soldiers from Ground Zeroes?

The first thing I thought of was "Rue" from the hunger games. I am thinking of "Freedom Song" and I am thinking of the other assassins creed game set in New Orleans with a black female lead. The controversy around these things stemmed from white people being unwilling or unable to identify with non white characters. Something non whites do all the time. It is expected and mandatory. Playing as a woman is a big deal and noteworthy since the default is male. Just as the default for race is white.

People don't notice the lack of color and hair options for non whites in RPG games. But I always notice that-I always notice the lack of customization for black women.
It is not that I can't identify with a white woman or enjoy a game with a white woman. (I love that new Laura Croft) what it means is that I get the rare treat of having something that reflects me on the screen. Representation-good representation is needed for all peoples

@Mike: Is their a female character in ground zeroes?? I hear everyone is using that one black dude from ground zeroes with aviators as he is the only playable character with glasses and he looks hella cool. I didnt rescue everyone. Just hideo and a handful of others. Also i can confirm that they do get better, the character list has them listed by how high their combat rating is. At first my character was in the middle of the list, now she is at the top just below snake. I wasn't sure if it was because maybe some of my characters had died or something but now it makes sense.

You can definitely tell if writing is shit regardless of gender too, but that's fair. I'd hate to be less invested in something 'cause the lead is female, especially as my favourite film of the last couple of years has 2 female leads, and touches on issues I have no personal experience in, alcoholism and physical abuse.

Man, Polygon really can do no right, it seems. I genuinely don't understand the fanatical hatred some people harbour for that site.

I hate to comment twice in a row but you replied as I was replying to a different post lol. But I have to disagree with this. The default is not white, nor is it male. The default is Big Boss. You're not playing some random white male, you're playing an incredibly fleshed out character pivotal to the entire MGS timeline.

If this was Skyrim or Fallout where the character is essentially a nobody then absolutely this is a fair point, although I will admit I usually play as someone completely different as myself in those game as I play as myself in real life every day lol.

Original post pretty much nails it. That is not "important." And way to spoil it Polygon. Fucking assholes. I'd say I won't go to that site anymore, but it's kind of hard to boycott a site twice.

@alexw00d: I have done a poor job of explaining myself.

When I say that white is the default and that male is the default I am talking about in life and in art.

When someone says 5 american soldiers died in Iraq today...

we think of white men

When someone says 2 Americans were taken hostage today in...

we think white

All I am saying is that for games the default person is a white male

@ddi_kazal_st_drebin: Speak for yourself there. When I read about people dying I don't even begin to wonder or assume their race, I think "damn, that sucks". Maybe this is an American thing.

@alexw00d: Fun Fact: Movies with well written females or people of color are better received critically. I don't think it's because of good writing for females or people of color though, but having those characters written well is a sign that the creator of said movie is good at writing and doesn't default to women are objects to give the viewers emotions and people of color are criminals or not as human. The default is women are their to be romanced or killed to make the viewer feel emotion or people of color are angry, tough and animalistic ie not human. As Patrick says you can enjoy a medium while still thinking about it critically. I enjoy movies but I can tell when they are written by someone who has unconscious preconceived notions about gender or race. Also Fuck Micheal Bay.

The greatest strength of storytelling and video games is their ability to facilitate relating to characters who don't look like, think like, or have lives like ours. That's why there should be more variety in character design, characterization, and story; not because some people, in order to relate, need to see physical similarties between themselves and the characters they encounter or inhabit.

That, and the simple notion that variety is cool.

LOL I am speaking for myself.

I am speaking as to how we Americans have been trained. We live in a very racial society. Our institutions and government care very much your race-and it is assumed that the normal person is white.
This is not to say that Americans only think whites are in the army or get kidnapped what it does mean is that our collective identity to what it means to be an American is a white male.

Free, white and 21