Farming Simulator 17 has recently announced some of the new content that will be in the game. Mostly, it’s new vehicles, animals, crop types and for the first time, the availability of mods on consoles. Most significantly advertised, however, is that the option to play as a female farmer will be made possible. It’s the main banner, and the female avatar is pictured in every subsequent picture. The text almost glosses over all other new content to focus on new avatar options.
I am not a fan of any Farm Simulator – I lived on a farm and I’ve had quite enough of it – but isn’t it pretty wild that not only do you get to have a hopefully fully functional avatar, you can choose from two genders? No, it isn’t wild. It’s not progress, and it’s not new. We can call it inclusive, but again games have had the option between two genders since, well, the dawn of computer role-playing games. I really don’t think the option should be as notably advertised as it is. It should listed among the crop types and not as the main advertising banner.
The choice between two genders in video games dates back as far as video games themselves. Certainly much further back than my memory serves. That developers are still excited about it almost 40 years later certainly says a lot about what is wrong with the gaming industry. So the option finally hits a game in one simulator series. What’s the big deal? It’s not about realism, as farming has been a male-dominated industry until fairly recently. More and more women are owning and operating farms now, so it’s wonderful that Giants Software has decided to reflect that. I’m not sure it was requested either, as most fans seem to be far more concerned with crop diversity and game physics than what their avatar looks like.
No, the big deal is that Giants is treating this new option like Farming Simulator 17 is the first non-AAA game to have it. When, in fact, I would go so far as to say that it’s the even more obscure indie games where gender intersectionality occurred in constructive non-token ways years ago. Games like Journey , where the character is completely genderless in order to make a statement about equality; or The Immoral Ms. Conduct , where the experience of a particular gender is the point. Farming Simulator 17 is not the first, and it certainly isn’t the best example of gender options in games.
In a simulator game, for once I can say with confidence that I really don’t care if I can choose my gender or not. The point of the game is to farm and make as much money as possible – my gender doesn’t really factor into that experience. On the other side of the coin, realism is important to such games and that is likely why it is an option at all. But this game doesn’t factor in small town life, or any social aspect of farming really, so the avatar could be blob of red, white, and blue for all it matters. This isn’t intersectionality (which seeks to explore multiple identities through full representation), this is an option between two genders (when in reality there’s a whole spectrum worth) in a game where gender does not affect the experience in any way. There was honestly no point in splashing the option across their advertisements above all the other new content the way the developers did.