Girl Gamer and Duke Nukem Forever producer gives her opinion on game’s humor

23 October 2010

Posted by:Josh

Duke Nukem Forever potty humor screenshot
What do girls think of Duke Nukem Forever? And what do women think of the crude humor and potty jokes that make the series famous?

Well 2K Games’ Melissa Miller is a girl herself, and she currently WORKS on the series as the Senior Producer of Duke Nukem Forever. She was recently asked this very question, about what it’s like to be a woman and work on a series like Duke Nukem Forever where crude humor, particularly involving sexist humor, is so prevalent in the product.

Here is what she had to say about the issue and her opinion:

“I think it’s interesting, because I’ve definitely watched through the years: There’s this attention to women in games, and I always got the sense that people felt like there should be something tangible that says, ‘This is what we get (in a good way) when women are involved in games and part of making them.’ And it almost seems like they were waiting for us to say, ‘There are more unicorns and rainbows in games!’

“And I really feel very strongly that, despite gender, all you’re bringing to the game is you; you’re bringing your personality and your experience, and the things that are important to you — that you would push for and so forth. I definitely, with Duke especially — guess what? I’m not always gonna find the same things funny as other people, and I appreciate that. For me, I just wanna help these guys make the best game possible and do what I can.” Overall she thinks the humor is … “I think it’s funny!” So there you go.

Melissa Miller previously worked on Bioshock 1 and 2 as well as licensed titles like Family Guy: The Game and even briefly on Borderlands.

So what do you girls out there think about the kind of humor used in Duke Nukem Forever? Do all the sexist jokes bother you or do you think it’s fine and funny because it comes with the territory.

Categories: News, PC News, PS3 News, Videos, Xbox 360 News

http://hilarylindler.com Photographer Leia

I concur with Melissa Miller. I mean of course there are lines you should not cross, but that is more out of simple human decency than anything and has nothing to do with avoiding crude or sexist humor completely. The main problem with anything geared towards women is that a detailed *interesting* story is usually the first thing to go. You can expect to lose depth, personality, and other things that give a game a compelling darkness or edge. These elements are generally replaced with cheery (or alternately exceedingly depressing) storylines, shallow love stories, and the ‘There are more unicorns and rainbows in games!’ element. I say make a game, make it the best you can, and then let whoever will play it play it. If women don’t care for it then generally that is there problem. There are plenty of other things out there to suit their tastes. For the record, when I played the Witcher I totally collected all the cards. A lot of women cried “objectification!” which it was … but it was also absurdly amusing as well and completely fit with Geralt’s character. Don’t make your characters crude/sexist jerks just for the heck of it, but if you have a reason or an objective where it fits though I’d rather play the game as it was intended instead of a sanitized “let’s not hurt anyone’s feelings” version. Odds are that anyone who will truly be offended by the dialogue and situations probably isn’t playing the game anyway.
Kakaroto

I suppose you could call it “potty humor”. Playing Duke Nukem 3D when growing up I think what made him cool was that he didn’t give a shit what anyone thought about what he said. That’s what made him badass enough to save the world. I imagine that’s what Leia’s saying too that it’s Duke himself who’s like that, sexists jokes and all, he broke the mold of the everlasting pure of heart hero. It was refreshing and it still is in the way that he still says everything that comes to mind no matter the consequences.