Is Duke Nukem Sexist?

By Stephanie "Bobbi" Bergman

It is something worth considering. Duke is huge, nobody can deny that. But as this informal poll shows, the majority of people find Duke to be sexist. Assuming sexist can be defined as "offensive to women" (which may be an incorrect assumption, so this is merely conjecture), it can be concluded that the majority of people who like Duke 3D also find it offensive in one form or another.

Pornography is often seen to be offensive to women, to be sexist. However, the people who find it offensive wouldn't be seen watching it. Some people are incredibly offended by fur, be it for coats, clothes, whatever. You won't find them wearing fur. Why is it that people are offended by this game, and still play it?

Doesn't make much sense, does it.

The responses follow. Read them and make up your own mind. Are you blindly accepting something offensive? Or do you agree with Mark "Bastard" Surfas, "I found the strippers in Duke3D to be 'fun' and 'cool.'" Also following are comments from George Broussard, partner and project leader on Duke. Due to the possible inflammatory nature of this article, we felt it only fair to allow 3D Realms a chance to see the article before hand, and comment on it.

Everyone will have their own opinion. It's when the opinions conflict within one person that this gets interesting. What do you think? Let us know.

Matt "Toxin" Anderson: To tell you the truth, I don't have very much of an opinion on the subject. :) There is definitely a demand for strippers in Duke 4 from male Duke fans. I doubt that having strippers would increase sales for male fans, because they will buy the game anyway, although it might decrease sales among female fans. The thing is, I don't think there are any female Duke fans. :) Could be wrong there though. 3D Realms is really just going for the male computer gaming market. Rant: I think Tomb Raider is more sexist than Duke Nukem. People thought it was so great that there was finally a female character in a game, and that it was great for female gamers, etc. If you're a female gamer that plays Tomb Raider, great. But to think that Eidos was going for the female market with Tomb Raider is BS. Her outrageously oversized breasts should give it away.

Atari: Good female characters give me more incentive to buy a game. I enjoy playing females more than males. Especially when I feel I can relate to the character. This is why I do not like the characters in Forsaken, or Space Bunnies Must Die.

I would rather play a male oriented game than one with cheesy "chicks".

Duke 3D is male oriented... there are some really annoying scenes with cheesy chicks, but in scale with some of the other games out there, it doesn't really focus on it as much. The game is about a buff soldier dude running around and shooting shit.... and that it what they were looking for when they made the game. Duke3D doesn't piss me off nearly as much as a game like Space Bunnies Must Die. It's more annoying than angering to me. On the other hand, over the years I can accept that I may have become a bit insensitive towards sexism in male oriented games. But, if they made a game with just as good of an engine, and a female I could look up to as one of the characters, I would be more likely to buy the "female friendly" game over Duke3D.

^*Charles "Bedman" Bedford: A little womanizing perhaps, but I wouldn't say sexist.

^*Stevie "Killcreek" Case: Yes. I didn't really enjoy the game. When I first played it I wasn't really a hard-core gamer, I had just started getting into Doom and some of those games, and you know, I got through the first couple of levels, and felt like this is isn't something I can enjoy. I'll admit freely I didn't give it a full chance and didn't try to appreciate the gameplay, just because I found so many other things offensive. I know it's tongue in cheek, and I know it's supposed to be fun, but it's a little beyond what I can appreciate. It's disappointing to see games that are that way, but there are more women in gaming. I think we're going to see less of that, games still have to appeal to everybody. At the time, and even now, it is still a predominately male market, and that sells. Although it's changing and we're seeing lots more female characters in games...idealized, but they're there. That's what sells, easy sell right there. But we're getting there. Bombshell's interesting. It's nice to see a woman in a game, I suppose, but it's just that ridiculous body image we're forced to look at constantly. You look at advertising everywhere, that's what sells. We're getting there, and I guess we just have to look at that as a step in the right direction.

Coryfro: I say it's sexist...I also think it's funny...now...it's funny the first time you hear it... after that, it's a sexist Doom take off...you want to know what really offends me? It's an Army of Darkness rip off.

^* signifies the response was given in person.

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