Smith said that Sarkeesian’s criticism of the first Dishonored made him defensive at first, but played a role in the way Arkane approached the way it wrote the women of Dishonored 2.
“Your comment,” Smith said. “Which I will always remember and I’ll take it to my grave is … ‘While Dishonored is a game that does many things very well, the roles it has for women are very narrow.’”
After hearing Sarkeesian’s criticisms, he said that it made him see the way Arkane depicted the women of Dishonored 1 in a new light. Here are his comments in full:
At first, you take some criticism and go, ‘Wait a minute,’ and then you look and it’s like, ‘Wow, every woman in Dishonored 1 is either a servant, a prostitute, a witch, a queen or a little girl. Or a mistress.’ We have a mistress also. You know, that was not an intentional choice.
So, when something like that pops up, you can get defensive if you want, or you can say, ‘Guys, let me just ask this: Did we mean that?’ And the answer is no, we did not mean that.
Would the game be worse if we took an action on [this criticism], or would the game be better? The game would be richer and more interesting … and we carried that over into Dishonored 2 and we’re very happy we did.
finally get to see a positive mention of Anita Sarkeesian without misogyny and abuse
Hey you know how video games are art? Here’s a designer reacting to criticism like a goddamn artist instead of a petulant child
You can thank Anita Sarkeesian for being able to play Emily in ‘Dishonored 2’
Meg's Mumbles 