One of the most problematic parts of this horrible game is the ability for players to upload their own “skins” – essentially, each player can create a character for themselves in simple photo editing apps such as photoshop. This means that the selection of characters is limited only by the players’ imaginations. On the surface, this seems to be a positive of the game, but it turns out that it is not.
This unlimited customization dangerously blurs the boundaries of gender and sex, and, especially considering the predominantly young player base of Minecraft, can be very confusing in terms of gender. One of these confused young people is my son, now 21 years old, who, it turns out, had been using the default “girl” skin of Minecraft, often shown in marketing alongside a more fitting masculine character. While this is not concerning on its own, having done so since the age of 11 will surely have contributed to his gender confusion.
Ever technically minded, my son set up a multiplayer server to play with his boyfriend when they were 14 years old and just started dating. Unfortunately, due to Minecraft’s neglectful failure to include any filters or safeguards against dangerous and confusing ideological statements, it served as a funnel for the two of them to encourage each other in their “transitions.” Yes, that’s right – my son’s boyfriend is also gender confused. What’s worse is that these two, who are perhaps the worst possible people for each other, are engaged to get married in a “lesbian” wedding later this fall. I, of course, was not invited. Heaven forbid I try to save my son from his horrible confusion.
Just the idea that video games ought to limit your character’s gender to the player’s actual gender is so unhinged. I’m a cis man, and I often play female characters in RPGs. It has not transed me, and it has nothing to do with wanting to be a woman in real life. I just like playing different characters (and frequently the female voice actor in things like Bioware games is just way better).
I flop around depending on what game it is but I generally play a woman 60% of the time, if there’s also an option for a short race like gnomes then that’s absolutely going to be my plate wearing 2h axe character.
I’ve basically played female characters in every game where I could ever since I saw an image of a female wood elf in the Morrowind instruction booklet at age eleven. Still straight, still cis.