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I'm surprised at some of the hasty comments here. Sure, the article is wrapped-up in obscure academic language, but the main points are valid. Portal is not li

I'm surprised at some of the hasty comments here. Sure, the article is wrapped-up in obscure academic language, but the main points are valid. Portal is not like any other FPS. (This is obviously true, if you know anything about Portal.) The main claim is that FPSs tend to be "masculine", in many ways, and that Portal is unlike FPSs in those ways. 1. In FPSs you have a gun that's meant for killing. In Portal you have a gun that doesn't inherently kill (but can be very powerful if used cunningly). 2. FPSs typically have military or monster themes. Not so Portal. 3. In FPSs you typically play a male character. When the lead is a female character she's super-hot and sexy and is meant for teenage guys to drool over. (Think Lara Croft.) Not so Portal, with a not-particularly-sexy female character, and she's not even on screen enough to drool over much. 4. In FPSs you typically shoot bullets. In Portal you shoot portals. (And here the author makes an admittedly lame joke: "Heehee the bullets are penises and the portals/holes are vaginas".) 5. In FPSs, the enemy typically wants to kill you. In Portal, the AI wants to emotionally manipulate you. 6. In FPSs, you kill the enemy. In Portal, you outsmart the AI. 7. In FPSs, you typically kill monsters/Nazis/terrorists. In Portal, you disable these cute little turrets by kicking them and knocking them over. 8. In FPSs, your sidekick is some guy who's your best buddy. In Portal it's an inanimate block. What the author is trying to get across is that Portal is unlike any other FPS, which is indisputable. The author's take is that Portal takes the quintessential "masculine" videogame, the FPS, and makes it a little less "masculine". I don't think that's too controversial.

Retric 19y ago
I assumed the article was a joke. Yea it sounds about right but it draws no meaningful conclusions. Anyway, if you look at something like Metroid Prime you can see most of the assumptions don't really hold up across the FPS spectrum. PS: Be careful when using "tend to be X" because you often end up saying thinks that are logically equivalent to "blue cars are blue."

Retric 19y ago

I assumed the article was a joke. Yea it sounds about right but it draws no meaningful conclusions. Anyway, if you look at something like Metroid Prime you can see most of the assumptions don't really hold up across the FPS spectrum. PS: Be careful when using "tend to be X" because you often end up saying thinks that are logically equivalent to "blue cars are blue."