Uber-Geek Dad WIN!

 

Maya and I have been playing through Windwaker together; she likes sailing, scary birds and remembering to be brave, rescuing her little brother and finding out what’s happening to Medli and her dragon boat.

She’s the hero of the story, of course.

It’s annoying and awkward, to put it mildly, having to do gender-translation on the fly when Maya asks me to read what it says on the screen. You can pick your character’s name, of course – I always stick with Link, being a traditionalist – but all of the dialog insists that Link is a boy, and there’s apparently nothing to be done about it.

Well, there wasn’t anything to be done about it, certainly not anything easy, but as you might imagine I’m not having my daughter growing up thinking girls don’t get to be the hero and rescue their little brothers.

See also http://www.ksl.com/?sid=22991592&nid=1014&title=for-daughter-dad-hacks-video-game-to-make-hero-a-heroine&s_cid=queue-13 

"That women get treated terribly by every part of the gaming industry — as protagonists, in games' storylines, in gamer culture in general — is beyond debate, and completely inexcusable," he said. "I wanted to change this game for my own reasons, to make my daughter happy. But there's a much larger point to be addressed here, and I think we're at a watershed moment in the community where this sort of behavior is getting called out for what it is."