I know. However:
- there's nothing on TV but gang wars, which is misogyny on the part of TV management;
- games are set in various fantasy settings, where the unfortunate tendencies in the portrayal of women are alive and well, even though there’s no realism to claim;
- it's not just cops, women cannot be competent civilians either, primary schooler boys hold up better that grown women;
- finally, honest cops consistently and singlehandedly destroying gangs? Lol, realism.

Oh I don't need to look them up, I know they are, question is, do you? Because a tennis game is a power fantasy. It puts you in the shoes of a good tennis player

Barbe horse riding? Also a power fantasy, it puts in the shoes of Barby and/or a good horse back rider.

Really, unless you're going with games like Tetris or Chime every game is a power fantasy.

Although, i found if funny how you asked me to "look up those games". Look up what? That they exist? Yes I know they exist, I can't be blamed if you didn't know Arkanoid's plot revolved around an aggressive alien species and that your paddle is supposed to be a space ship

What if you'd like to play a kind of game, but can't find it anywhere?

I'm sure you would enjoy Dutch 2010 series Penoza about a woman rulling a mob after her father dies :-)

by the way, the American remake "Red Widow" was cancelled after one season. It's hard for me to tell if it was just unpopular because of "turned upside-down" theme, or just because it was a bad show.

Case in point: Most early singleplayer games end in a loss by design. One can win by getting the high score, but it's no power fantasy, it's a regular RL victory.

So by power fantasy you mean what exactly? That you play a role better than you are? Or that you play as the specific male portrayed in the games, kicking asses and taking names, and getting all the babes to love you? Do you use the broad term of power fantasy as in "Heh, look what I can do" or the specific one amok mentioned in post 176. Because that specific "male power fantasy" wasn't introduced with the first games, it came later. So not all videogames were created as that specific power fantasy.

On the other hand, I am glad to find someone who knows what the Pantomation was. Not sure I've met another one.

But isn't the point of a high-score to instill a feeling of accomplishment onto the player? Dare I even say power?

Moreover, how are the victories won? by defeating Pac-man's ghosts (which you do every time you eat all of the dots)
I mean exactly that, that games place in the role of someone else. And I agree that "male" power fantasies weren't created with the first games. But "Power fantasies" in general were. Your example, tennis for two supports my assessment

Pong was NOT the Earliest Video game it was

In 1948:

Alan Turing and colleague D. G. Champernowne wrote a chess playing algorithm. At the time, there was not a computer powerful enough to run the algorithm. The algorithm was tested two times by human versus algorithm matches. The algorithm won once and lost once.

Ah so that's the issue. No, I didn't mean all games started out as a "male" power fantasy. Though I would argue that even at the very early beginnings it could have certainly been implied as such.

Going back to your chess and Battleship examples, most people would assume a military operation during the medieval ages or during 40's (I really don't know when was battleship created) would be mostly comprised of men. Though I see what you mean

Everything in the world is about sex. Except sex. Sex is about power.

Yes, yes! Absolutely.

Totally agree.

I always look forward to the next episode of Tropes vs. Women in Video Games. I don't agree with everything but I welcome that someone starts a discussion by creating a compact video series on a portrayal of women. As opposed to a random rant on forums, for example. And it's great to see that she began to use PC examples.

I wonder what is a rough ratio of men and women begging for killing them. I do agree that this martyr trope is way overused for sake of "Cry, man, cry and then fight ferociously" effect but I also have an impression that both genders are often victims of that. However right now I can recall only two guys from FF13. One didn't go down without battle and second benevolently allowed an enemy to kill him because he lost hope in a world, so there is a difference.

I would like to see a comparison with men in same situation. It gives a better perspective.

I agree with everything you wrote in this thread.

I was gonna post something but... No.

I honestly believe it would be best if most games didn't have a plot at all. Thinking back to Gears of War, the first game in the series has no plot. I mean seriously, there's no story at all, I'm not even sure why they bothered with the dialog.

I don't really need a reason to play a game like that other than "they bad, you good, go fight."