New AoC trailer promises gender equality in ass-kicking

by William Dobson May 14th 2008 at 2:30PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Age of Conan, New titles

"They say it's a man's world -- is it, baby?" - Keaira, as she ruthlessly plunges a blade through a man's heart. A new trailer called "Femme Fatale" shows off the lethal women of Age of Conan, and why you will want to stay on their good side. Keaira is the star, and she and other Hyborian lasses do their part in making sure no one underestimates the fairer sex in AoC. Check out the embedded clip above (rated M for Mature), or visit the community site to download the trailer at a higher resolution. The time to shred the veil is here!

Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, femme-fatale, funcom, keaira, teaser, trailer, women

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

DM said on 3:26PM 5-14-2008

There was a discussion on the AoC forums about whether this actually appealed to women. Personally (as a male, but in gender studies), I found it to primarily be a half-hearted marketing ploy to try to shield Funcom from the flak of nudity, brothels, and a very masculinized world. The "men are dumb, weak sheep, let's take advantage and kill them" mentality is cliched and demeaning to pretty much everyone. Of course I can't speak about the actual game until I play it, but I definitely have my doubts.

What I'm more interested in is how many women actually worked on AoC (outside of voice actresses/motion capturers). I know it's a male-dominated field, but WAR/Mythic has at least a visible contingent of female developers/designers, while I've yet to see any women working on Age of Conan. That might just be me not looking, but, thus far, it's only added fodder to the argument that "mature game" equates to "stereotypical teenage boy desires."

Yaisha said on 4:13PM 5-14-2008

I am a girl and I liked it. Yeah it was stereotypical and cheesy but I also like comic books so maybe I am not a good example. XD

Dan said on 12:45PM 5-15-2008

My only question is - what class is Keaira (? - the one with dreads and blue tattoos, not the blonde one) in this video? A barbarian or an assassin maybe?

Sayvara said on 11:43AM 5-16-2008

What's the problem, really? Female nudity in not inherently sexist... neither is female prostitution inherently degrading. You are speaking from a radical feminist interpretation of things. But that is just one out of many ways of looking at the world and not by necessity the "right" one.

Bear in mind that Howard's Hyboria is nothing like our world. Not all humans are concidered equal. Men and women are being subjected to slavery. Exchanging someone's liberty for money is commonplace. Prostitutes are being fully respected as citizens in some societies (this has been the case in "real" history as well, in pre-patriarchal civilizations).

The radical feminist interpretation of our western societies have been criticized since its conception, especially by women of the kind we see her: those that use sex for empowerment. They have been shoved aside though and their stories are not being heard near as much as those that agree with the rad fem theorists.

Maybe it's about time that we - after 40 years of this - started to think outside the box, hm? Times they are a-changin'.