Games and the Bechdel-test

The Bechdel-test is actually for movies but I believe it can be applied to games as well.

The Bechdel-test is a very simple test. When playing a game you should look for the following;

1) The game needs to have at least two named women
2) They should speak with eachother
3) The topic should not be about men or a man

And I propose one extra rule for games; if you can select your gender, the main character doesn't count.

You may also look at the reverse, games that to pass the following;
1) The game needs to have at least two women
2) There are no event in which two men speaks with eachother
3) 2 is still passed if the topic of the interaction is about a woman or women.

Found;
* Several of the Final Fantasy games. Final Fantasy X-2 is a bit odd, because the underlaying theme is either Yuna's freedom and independence, yet she is also trying to find Tidus. FFX-2 might fulfill the reverse test.
* Kings Quest 7 have the mother, the princess and the evil one is a woman. But the underlaying theme is that the prince is princeless which might fail the test. KQ7 might fulfill the reverse test.
* Mirror's Edge fulfills the test with Faith, Kate and Celeste.
* Portal is questionable considering the main character is a mute woman and the talker is an A.I. It does fulfill the reverse test. The protagonist isn't named.
* Silent Hill 3 fulfills the quest with Heather Mason and the cult-leader Claudia. I believe it fulfill the reverse test.
* The Longest Journey fulfills the test, so do the sequel in which the new female protagonists interacts with the former. There's also a lesbian couple presented without sexual undertones. I do not remember but I believe it fulfill the reverse test.
* Several of Bioware's games have dialogue between NPC's, including the women. In Mass Effect 2 there's open rivalry between Jack and Miranda that doesn't involve a man.
* Tomb Raider Legends and Underworld have Lara, her (former) friend Amanda, the main villain Natla and one might even count the Doppleganger. I believe that Tomb Raider actually may fulfill the reverse test as well.

Interestingly there are several games with a female protagonist that fails the test. I am not completely sure about them, but I cannot remember the following games having any female NPC's worth noting;
* Secret Files, Syberia, Beyond Good and Evil, Lands of Lore 2, Metroid

Applying it to games is probably a bit hard, due to how dialogues are usually handled (two way conversations), and if the main character is a man, then there is a large chance that we won't see any real female to female interaction (or man to man interaction, not involving the main character).

Anyway, Syberia did have several female NPCs, one of which did take up a decent portion of the game, and who was portrayed as being a rather strong person, in the autumn of her life

Games that passes the test:
Dreamfall (The longest journey 2)
Baldur's gate 2 (party conversations)

Games that fails the test (but not by default (due to the way it handles dialogues or similar)):
Fahrenheit (indigo prophecy) (has a strong female main character (one out of 3 main characters), but no other real interaction with other female characters)
Shadow of destiny (the only "meaningful" conversation between two female characters is about the main character (male))

Games that fails by default
Keepsake (due to lack of characters)
Myst series (Due to lack of characters)

I was actually considering Keepsake. There is interaction between Lydia and Celeste but I do not remember if they were talking.

Who developed this test and why ?

Alrik Fassbauer said:

Who developed this test and why ?

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The test was proposed 25 years ago in a series called Dykes to Watch Out, created by Alison Bechdel. According to her though it was her friend Liz Wallace who originally invented the test. The test is meant to prove to those unconvinced that what's shown on the silver screen tends to be the product of a male perspective rather than a gender neutral perspective.

The strength of the test is that a very simple criteria; "two women shall talk with eachother about something else than a man" doesn't sound too complicated, yet the number of mainstream movies that passes the test are extremely few. The test was revived in 2010 in which the expression "Bechdel Test" exploded on google-search.

Movies that fails the test include Avatar, Ratatouille, Toy Story, Beverly Hills Cop, Gremlins, Ghostbusters, Star Wars, Indiana Jones I-III, TRON, The Thing, Conan, Bladerunner, RoboCop, Predator, Predators, Back to the Future, Star Trek etc.
Movies that pass the test include Aliens, Kill Bill and Schindler's List.

The official list (for movies) can be found here.

Note by the way that someone included Deus Ex Human Revolution on that list. It only passed the first, meaning that there were more than two named women in the game, but they didn't talk with eachother.

JemyM said:

The test was proposed 25 years ago in a series called Dykes to Watch Out, created by Alison Bechdel. According to her though it was her friend Liz Wallace who originally invented the test. The test is meant to prove to those unconvinced that what's shown on the silver screen tends to be the product of a male perspective rather than a gender neutral perspective.

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What exactly does it prove though? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that more movies are going to be the product of a male perspective when you look at the % of directors that are male.

Well, I guess this test is some kind of "I have it written on paper !" kind of proof.

If people say "everyone knows that", it ain't really a "proof" of something.
Wikipedia has the term "Weasel Words" for this phenomenon …

What does named mean? I seem to recall every NPC in Morrowind/Oblivion having full names and they would have constant conversions about mudcrabs and the like. Jagged Alliance 2 has many female mercs you can select have interact with Deidranna or Fatima. Some have interactions amongst themselves like Buns and Fox.

While intriguing I'm not sure that it is meaningful for games it is for movies since most content is constructed for the player and specifically target at the player. The clause about only if you can select the gender does the main player count doesn't feel right. Presumably the conversation should be more than a sentence or 2 as well.

Alrik Fassbauer said:

Well, I guess this test is some kind of "I have it written on paper !" kind of proof.

If people say "everyone knows that", it ain't really a "proof" of something.
Wikipedia has the term "Weasel Words" for this phenomenon …

Click to expand...

Still, a test like the Bechdel-test could be used for measuring trends, as long as it is done in the right context (i.e. only applied to games/movies where you would expect this type of interaction, so it would be totally pointless to apply it to say Doom or Civilization, games that would fail by default). Also, it does say very little about the individual game/movie in question, it can only be used, in a rather generalized way, to measure trends.

Regarding 3): Is it enough that there is at least one situation where 2 named women talk about other things than men for the test to succeed? Or the other way around: Does one talking-about-men-situation make the test fail? I would assume that in several movies both types of conversation are present.

EDIT: Checked the link. The test succeeds if there is at least one situation fulfilling the criteria.

It would be interesting to see how often reality fails the test...

JDR13 said:

What exactly does it prove though? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that more movies are going to be the product of a male perspective when you look at the % of directors that are male.

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At rock bottom it's still a fun intellectual game.

GhanBuriGhan said:

It would be interesting to see how often reality fails the test…

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*laughs*

Good one, JemyM

Says pibbur who did not fail the modified test today (Wife came home from a weekend trip, and I have talked to my oldest daughter as well. Both have names)