Dad hacks Zelda game to make it girl-friendly for daughter

[purpleeee]

This story cheered me up (though yes, it's sad that this was necessary). And I love that he shared how to!

 

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article ... -a-heroine

 

 

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Mike Hoye hacked the Legend of Zelda computer game to change male pronouns to female so his young daughter can feel like she's the hero of the game.

 

 

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“I’m not having my daughter growing up thinking girls don’t get to be the hero and rescue their little brothers,†wrote Hoye in a blog post explaining how to duplicate his hack to other code-savvy gamers.

 

“When we had kids, one of the things that I wanted to be able to do was introduce them to my own hobbies. That’s kind of a problem if you play video games and have a daughter. In the gaming industry, women, frankly speaking, get a raw deal,†Hoye said in an interview. “It seemed like a problem for Dad’s favourite hobby to treat women as second-class citizens.â€

[JesusFightClub]

Ah! How interesting!

My brother was speaking to me about this. He plays Dayz (I think it's called) Battlefield and some other games, call of duty and the like. He said "What I didn't understand was where were the women players? Then I went on a server where there were some and they were constantly shouted at to show their tits, and did they have their tits out and were they fit*, and they left the server and I don't think they played any more".

I'm not a gamer but I used to be and that's one of the things that made me stop.

*"Are you fit" means "are you attractive" in British English

[Spider Burps]

As a Zelda fan, I am outraged. As a feminist, I'm pleased (actually, the first time that came to mind was "well chuffed" after reading JFC's post).

Honestly, I never had problems with Link being a boy. Impa was a woman and she was the bad ass who actually kept Zelda safe in OoT and SWS while Link fought the monsters. Sure, Link was the one doing the killing, but without Impa, Zelda would've died and game over. Uhm... I'm going to shut up now before I get too much nerdier.

[itsnikki05]

Aw! That's so sweet! :) I love stuff like that. And we have a little mini gamer... so things like that just make me happy. (Yes, a 5 year old mini gamer. Like her daddy. I only play a few games on the Wii and Sims. LOL)

[Maggie Mae]

I always thought Link WAS a girl. Always wanted to play Zelda for that reason, never did. :(

There are lots of girl friendly games, but not enough. And the online community type games like WoW you really can't let on what sex you are if you participate in chat. It's horrifying what people think is acceptable when they are anonymous.

[Trynn]

When I saw the title of the thread, I thought that the father was making the game more pink, like the Lego industry. I was torn between, "that's so cool that he hacked it" and "ugh, must he have?"

But this, this is just brilliant. I love it. If I played games, I'd so totally learn to do this.

[Claddagh]

As a gamer this does make me smile. At first I was worried the father changed the game to make it more pink and stuff like that.

I don't play online games so much anymore as I got tired of asking about my boobs, age, sex, location, all that stuff.

[Closed Womb]

This is what awesome dads do.

Are you paying attention, PP, Jim Bob, Maxwell?

[JeanneD]

As a gamer this does make me smile. At first I was worried the father changed the game to make it more pink and stuff like that.

I don't play online games so much anymore as I got tired of asking about my boobs, age, sex, location, all that stuff.

I wonder what, exactly does the questioner what to hear in response to those type of questions? I've never thought to ask about someone's boobs and I have no idea what kind of response to expect. "How're your boobs?" "Fine thank you, and yours" "Doing well, doing well" I mean what, exactly is the point?

On the other hand, this is a super sweet way to modify the game.

[YPestis]

Sounds like something my hubby may do if we have a daughter. He's a gamer and would love to engage in some gaming with his kids. I bet video gaming will become more female friendly in the future. If Angry Birds told us anything, even nongamers can become obsessed with video games!

[PokaDot]

I always thought Link WAS a girl. Always wanted to play Zelda for that reason, never did. :(

There are lots of girl friendly games, but not enough. And the online community type games like WoW you really can't let on what sex you are if you participate in chat. It's horrifying what people think is acceptable when they are anonymous.

You know, I had heard that female WoW players were harassed, and I didn't really believe it until it happened (very quickly I might add) to me. So now, I specifically make it a point to not let on my gender. Some people eventually "find out", but mostly because when I speak (in vent-which I still don't see the point of) it's obvious to everyone I'm not a dude.

Most games are geared to males. And while the gamer community can be awesome (like the time they helped a blind boy by making an auditory guide to Zelda), sometimes they are downright jerks (but you get that in any community). I'm not even going to blame it on the "they are nerds who don't have people skills" stereotype, I think it's because anonymity makes people asses. The internet is still a fairly young medium, so the social mores haven't really been established (except for the whole don't talk in caps because it's shouting). I mean, there really isn't any lasting damage to an identity for being a troll on the internet (unless you get arrested or publicly outed). It's so easy for a troll to change identities that they can easily escape what would, IRL, be social ostracizing.