With all the talk about virtual worlds and first-person
shooters (FPS) I would have thought that the usually reputable X-Files crew would actually do some digging when
it came to their videogame focused episode, aptly dubbed "FPS" that premiered Sunday night on February 27th.
Instead of thoroughly researching why people play games like Quake III Arena and
Unreal Tournament then providing some keen insight, it was the same
old stereotype of a videogame player: male, immature and overtly aggressive. If nothing else this episode was successful
in painting male gamers and men in general with a broad brush. If we aren’t chest-bumping each other and screaming
obnoxiously about how we're going to kill everything in sight, then we are behaving like sex-obsessed Neanderthals that
devolve before your eyes at the first site of a sexy woman.
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These two messages permeated this episode of X-Files
and to my amazement the only defense of gamers was the lame response from Agent Fox Mulder, who said, "Maybe the game
provides an outlet for certain impulses. That it fills a void in our genetic makeup that the more civilizing effects of society
fail to provide for." This is by no means an acceptable rebuttal to all the negative depictions and I am dubious as to
whether the writers even wanted one. The show starts off with three clowns hopping up and down and screaming how they were going
to kill everything in site, followed by practically five minutes of non-stop shooting as they make their way through the first
level of the 'game'. Any thoughts of this portrayal possibly improving, were squashed as soon as the virtual murderer (named
Atreya) shows up and executes the unsuspecting players. In search of her identity, we learn a couple of new things about our
would-be conspiracy unearthers. For one, Mulder is a gamer. To find Atreya in the computer, he asks the programmer to search
the 'wireframe' to see where she was hiding (even if from a technical standpoint, I don’t see why that would make sense) and
after they found it Mulder asks to 'texture map' the image. Yes Mulder we get it, you are true blue gamer, however unbelievable.
Aside from that single line expressed by Mulder in the entire series running, has there been any other hint that Mulder can
handle the old keyboard and mouse FPS setup. Where does Mulder find the time to partake in the gaming hobby with his porn obsession
and X-Files work anyway?
Aside from penning in Mulder’s sudden interest in videogames, the
writers, William Gibson and Tom Maddox, spend a great deal of time elaborating on the sexism and gender themes in games. We find out
that the Atreya was 'scanned' in (another techno term thrown around loosely) from a real-life stripper named Jade Blue Afterglow. The
men bashing went into overdrive here with Dana Scully representing the voice of reason and being thoroughly annoyed by all the men’s
leering antics. With Ms. Afterglow doing her best Sharon Stone impersonation from Basic Instinct, she pursed her lips, crossed
her legs and even Mulder was reduced to a pile of drool (in front of his inevitable squeeze Scully no less). Seeing the members of law
enforcement reduced to a bunch of immature horndog schoolboys as well, was simply pathetic and I was in disbelief that males actually
wrote that degrading scene.
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