Realistic Female First Person Shooter [RFFPS] by Anna Anthropy is a frustrating game to play. When I first started RFFPS up I was actually pretty excited to try it out, the title alone was intriguing and I don’t get to play first person shooters [FPS] that often. However, that excitement quickly changed into frustration as I actually got into the gameplay. Every aspect of RFFPS, from the mechanics to the game art to the text, are used to force the player to experience powerlessness.
Let’s start with the mechanics. After the player clicks through the beginning text boxes, they have to sprint to what looks like a gate with their 5000 ton gun using the W key. Here the player has to push the key repeatedly just to go forward, and that is the only direction that is allowed by the game. Once they reach the gate, the player now has to lift their gun by repeatedly clicking the left mouse button, and if they stop before the gun is all the way up, the gun sinks down again. Two basic mechanics of FPS, sprinting and holding a gun that are usually taken for granted, are now both actions that require a lot of effort on the player’s end. After all that work when the player gets to the shooting part, the scope is swinging wildly and is barely responsive to the player’s mouse movement which makes it near impossible to shoot any of the enemies. The player is able to choose when they shoot, but because of their lack of control of the scope, it seems like it barely matters. As a whole, the mechanics of RFFPS hardly give the player any control over their actions.
The game art of RFFPS is pixelated and simple. The background of the shooting section of the game is orange and white, and since the enemies are green and black they stand out which makes it even more frustrating, at least for me, when you still can’t hit them. However there is also intrigue where there is a lack of game art, specifically the lack of any relating to the player character. For a lot of FPS even though the player doesn’t see their character for most of the gameplay, they still are playing as a character with its own design, but there are no visible characteristics from the player character at all. The most we get from her in the way of character attributes are the grunts she makes as she sprints and lifts her gun. I think this is deliberate as it forces the player to exist in the world of RFFPS without the cushion of a fictional character, making it more personal, especially when it comes to the dialogue options.
The part of RFFPS where the player has the most agency over their own actions is during the dialogue choice part. After using all their ammo, the player has to speak to the major, where they are given two dialogue options that involve either flattering the Major or belittling the player character. This was the part of the game that frustrated me the most while I played. Often I didn’t want to pick either option, but I had to in order to progress the game, and I think the lack of any player character art only intensified my feelings. If there was some character I could visualize that was saying things like ‘and I’m only a woman sir’ or ‘I need a big, strong man to do it for me’, it would have been easier to play through because some other person is saying those things. But there’s no other person, it’s just me. I am discrediting myself and glorifying this man who doesn’t seem to respect me just to refill my ammo that I can’t properly shoot. What’s the point.
The player has to put in effort for basic tasks just to not be able to play RFFPS like a FPS, pick humiliating text options, and they can’t even make it to mission two because the player character goes through a heavy flow day. There is a lack of control given to the player and from that stems the feeling of powerlessness. But at the end of the game, the text box reads ‘Unfortunately, with your post abandoned, the Earth’s defenses are overrun.’ Because just the player character missed one mission the entirety of humanity is now going to die, and that means that she was actually of great importance to defending the Earth. Furthermore, the gun she was using weighed 5000 TONS and she was sprinting and holding it up. Both of those things are insanely impressive on their own, but RFFPS does such a good job of making the player not even acknowledge that power. The power that the player character holds is only acknowledged when it can be used against her: yes she can carry a 5000 ton weapon, but she can’t run fast enough and she cant shoot properly, yes she a key part of defending Earth, but she failed to protect humanity because of her ‘women’s issues’. Neither the player character nor the player are allowed to feel powerful by the game, regardless of the power that they do have.
A very interesting post as a whole, but what really stood out to me was the last paragraph. It really intrigued me while playing how the player character is carrying and moving a 5000 ton weapon, a superhuman feat, yet that is still treated like a failure and something to be used to humiliate the player due to her not doing so with complete ease. “The power that the player character holds is only acknowledged when it can be used against her: yes she can carry a 5000 ton weapon, but she can’t run fast enough and she cant shoot properly, yes she a key part of defending Earth, but she failed to protect humanity because of her ‘women’s issues’” is a great way to put it.
Reading the second paragraph, I feel that this game can also be considered a Realistic Male First Person Shooter, to a certain extent. I realize that it is satire, and not actually a reflection of women in these situations, but it helped me rethink more “traditional” video games. I don’t want to propagate stereotypes, but I think a lot of male gamers would not be able to lift a heavy machine gun, and if they could, they would likely suck at aiming. Not to mention that in most FPS’s, you can be shot several times without even slowing down. RFFPS shows that several elements of a realistic war simulator wouldn’t be very fun at all. Though, there are still some gamers that will enjoy decimating an army in seconds but decry a game as unrealistic for showing a woman in a position of power.
This really clicked for me, especially the part about how there’s no visible player character. I hadn’t thought about how that removes the “cushion” between you and the degrading dialogue choices, but you’re totally right. It makes the whole experience so much more uncomfortable because it’s just you saying those things. And that last paragraph is brilliant. The game literally tells you the character is carrying a 5000 ton weapon and defending Earth, but it’s designed so you never get to feel powerful. That’s such a specific kind of frustration, being told you’re capable while simultaneously being set up to fail. Really smart analysis of how the mechanics and narrative work together.
“There is a lack of control given to the player and from that stems the feeling of powerlessness. But at the end of the game, the text box reads ‘Unfortunately, with your post abandoned, the Earth’s defenses are overrun.’ Because just the player character missed one mission the entirety of humanity is now going to die, and that means that she was actually of great importance to defending the Earth.”
These (above section from the post!) specific aspects of the game felt particularly interesting and important to me, as I assumed playing an FPS would be much closer to my typical experience with video games, but took a completely different turn. As someone who enjoys competitive games I really tried to get past what felt like “impossibly difficult” levels but couldn’t make it through which, when analyzing the game, only conveys its purpose/meaning even more. I really appreciate your description of the effort required of the player and the immersion of the experience!
I found this game to be pretty hilarious conceptually and it plays into some very biting satire and playing almost as a skit. This analysis does a really great job of outlining the aspects that make the game particularly funny while also obviously pointing out real problems that exist not only in games, the military, but also just the world we live in, and if I had to point out a part of this post that particularly stood out to me it would be mentioning that her feats of strength are still absolutely incredible but she is still meant to be seen as weak for not measuring up to the expectations of her fellow operatives.