I appreciate the corrections, but I think I should point out that I wasn’t claiming that fans on the Frag Doll website were as likely to talk about how hot so-and-so is, but rather “Conversations about the Frag Dolls on any given gaming site are at least as likely to be about how hot X member is as they are to be about how talanted they are.”

I certainly don’t doubt that the US Frag Dolls are serious gamers- they’ve won a number of events, and I’ve seen them on the television before, beating the pants of off of people. That doesn’t change that on most websites, conversations about the group are at least as likely to focus on how they look as they are to focus on how they game. I’ll grant that a lot of people don’t see that as problematic. I do. When I played clan matches on Counterstrike, nobody cared how hot I was. Nobody cares how hot the men in any clan are. It bugs me that Ubi makes a concentrated effort to push the Frag Dolls “hot factor” in addition to their gaming skills. It’s not incidental or secondary- the two are sold as a package. In the case of the Frag Dolls European branches, they don’t even push the skill aspect, it’s all about how hot the women are.

As far as point 2 goes: That’s simply untrue. There are any number of events where the FDs are signing autographs and handing out photos while they’re not playing games. You don’t think that the men who get their picture taken and never get a chance to play the Frag Dolls walk away with the impression that they’re just another bunch of booth babes? Booth babes who play video games, but booth babes none-the-less?

I don’t doubt for a minute the joy and dedication that the women who are in the Frag Dolls have towards gaming. I don’t doubt for a second that they love gaming and are damn good at it. My issues are with the way that they’re marketed. The representation of the Frag Dolls troubles me, and the way that US promotes them and uses them.

1) The fans on the Frag Doll website are not only discouraged to mention, “X girl is hot”, if it does happen, the community self-polices and makes it clear that is not acceptable and the thread is locked or deleted.

2) Not a single person has played against the US Dolls at a any Ubi event and walked away saying they were glorified booth babes. They walked away wondering how the hell that bullet got in their head so fast.

Now, working for Ubisoft do I agree with everything they do with our brand and our team? Of course not, I am a gamer and as with typical gamers I fight many things about corporate ownership and dictation of my beliefs about gaming and the industry. But working for Ubisoft also allows me to have a voice for things I believe in and we do indeed have an impact to what they do with us and utilize us for.

Now of course I think I am decent looking, but I am also a 31 year old, married, slightly overweight Frag Doll. There are other married Frag Dolls as well, and I wasn’t even the oldest frag doll until Katscratch left to follow her gaming career. Is this an excuse for the perception people have against the frag dolls that we are all young, single, hotties? By all means no, I am simply saying if their only motive was to sell sex, the could do a much better job then myself. Did looks count when Ubisoft picked us? Of course I think they factored in, they put us together to help market and promote their products, and it is safe to say that that any company that is going to put a face to their products would want one that is appealing and can present their company well. But it isnt like they went after models, and it most certainly was not the most important factor to say the least. In fact most of the frag dolls are simply cute or normal looking with a couple of exceptions, dont let professional photography or makeup fool you all that much.

Point of fact is if Ubisoft based their picks on looks we would not be able to carry the wins and placements of all the tournaments that we have competed in, period. No way in hell, becuase gaming with, and beating, the male gamers out there takes a natural love, skill and dedication and you can’t make people have this on a whim. When they picked us, it was for the package in all things, but most important was true love and skill for the games themselves.

I like to think of it as baby steps to help change this industry and bring attention that hardcore gaming consumers arent only 13yr old males, and unfortunatly the only way the female voice seems to be heard is if we are in a group instead of lets say, a co-ed team (which is hopefully where the future will end). This is why I only play for female teams and the reason I helped found my clan and my heart, the PMS Clan as well. One day there will be no need for all-female teams, but until that day comes consider me a feminist for gaming to the extreme. And this is how I push my feminism-by showing that girls don’t need guys to carry a win for them and can do it all on their own, and do it well.

I know this mentality usually riles some guys up, but it breaks my heart when I see female gamers out there think we don’t do a good thing for all of us. If you look at the big picture of things, I know in my heart we are doing a GREAT thing for female gamers out there and as long as Ubisoft doesn’t go against my morals or better judgement, I will continute to promote THEM to promote US.

Anyway, as I said I did enjoy your article and appreciate your interest and questioning. I hope I was able to clarify somethings but if you have any more questions, indeed let me know.

One of the tortures of jealousy is that it can never turn its eyes away from the thing that pains it…

Actually, no- they’re not. There are European Frag Dolls, but that first photograph is of the US Frag Dolls. And why would you think that because Ubisoft are concerned about them being attractive that they’re less likely to be concerned about race? Beauty standards here are strongly influenced by race.

Essentially, I think its sort of up to women to come up with some suggestions as to what they want.

Women area already doing that. I’ve got several sites listed in my blogroll that have women talking about what they’d like to see in games, or what kinds of things are likely to turn them off of games. I’ve mentioned in other posts of mine what I, as a man, think would help make games less sexist, too. Our voices, alone, aren’t going to change things, though. The manufacturers of games need to be willing to listen, and need to be willing to make changes.

But as to the real point, making Games less sexist. Essentially, I think its sort of up to women to come up with some suggestions as to what they want. I mean obviously not making every characters a sex object might be nice. A female Mario, if you will. But is there anything else, is a game where you do nothing but shoot things male oriented or is it just oriented to people who like to do nothing but shoot things.

If you’re saying that 46% of gamers are women then clearly the current market is providing entertainment for women, how do we do better. Are more lifestyle games an idea, Sims, Wii-minigames, DDR, etc. Or is that condescending.

The game industury is dominated by male programmers, so as a woman, your first job is to say, I want this, make demands, throw out ideas, sure the Frag dolls arent doing much, so present the alternative.