Is FIFA 16 for Men or for Women anyway?

Rodrigo Lopes, the website’s author, has always wanted to do something while being some place near the community where he could explore more freedom of content. In this area, which will start by being a monthly thing, he’ll definitely have the opportunity to show a mostly personal vision about (not only) the game.

 

Is FIFA 16 for Men or for Women anyway?

 

Today we’ll approach the subject of the moment differently: ‘But what subject?’, you ask. Is the article going to be about Maxi Pereira leaving the club where he was sub-captain at the way he did? Or is it whether 60 years is enough time for Germany to pay Greece what they owe them or not? Or if Jon Snow will in fact come back from the dead? No, not really. The subject of the moment is, at least on FIFA 16, regarding the introduction of women’s national teams. Do you agree with EA adding this feature? Regardless of your opinion, one thing should be clear: we do care about respect.

Without further ado let’s get to what matters. For the first time in the history of the FIFA franchise, it’ll be possible for you to command a team of female players. This new feature has been frequently advertised by the developer, after all the significant investment will have to pay off. And when things are that much advertised they usually hear the community. And we’re talking about FIFA 16’s first new feature. Many players celebrated this extra game mode they’ll be able to play on FIFA, while others revealed themselves indifferent or even dissatisfied. Everything cool so far. Everyone has the right for an opinion. I have mine as well. I confess that it doesn’t really thrill me at all because I believe that more than 90% of players will quit playing with women’s national teams after a game or two. I want to try it, and I’ll probably be able to do so on the demo, but I’ll hardly leave my beloved Benfica aside to play as a women’s national team in which I’m not familiar with most of the players. But not being interested in doesn’t mean that I disagree with it. For me it’s simple: if you don’t like seeing women’s football in FIFA 16, then stick to the remaining game modes that you’re already familiar with.

 

 

Many players that criticize this addition argue that its development stops other features, supposedly more interesting ones, from being launched. According to EA Sports, the inclusion of women’s national teams is the product of an ongoing work of several years that never affected other sides of the game for it has its own specialized development team. There are also those fearing that the female players will lower Ultimate Team’s quality level, reducing the probability, for example, of good players coming from packs. That makes no sense since Ultimate Team won’t include them and they even represent less than 2% of the total, while their ratings will also be different. It means, for example, that an 80-rated female player will never perform as well as a male player with the same rating. Although I’m apparently countering all of these arguments from players that are against the new feature, I respect these opinions.

The freedom of speech ends where the respect for the other starts. And that’s what I want to focus on today. It doesn’t really matter to me whether you liked the possibility of playing with women on FIFA 16 or not. There are more important things than that. Among those who reprove the new feature, there’s been a very considerable number of people showing extreme levels of ignorance instead of using logical arguments. They’ve already flooded several websites with offensive comments towards women, showing not only complete lack of respect but also… how can I put this politely? Tremendous stupidity. That’s it. If that was your case, then today I’ll extend my freedom of speech just for a bit and call you more than ignorant and stupid. (2) Yes, maybe calling people names in front of an audience isn’t the smartest move, but I just feel like it’s my duty. Maybe I don’t have this right, but I do have this duty. I’ve already tried doing something related to civil responsibilities around here but my contribution was mainly limited to our Twitter account. Today I’ll take the opportunity of having a group of almost exclusively male readers here to try and raise awareness to the youngest or the less conscious on how wrong it is to have this kind of behaviour. And although I’ms a personal opinion kind of article I know I’m not alone on this one. Hugo has already showed his repudiation in his article and I’m sure that Sílvio, being the very intelligent person that he is, has the same thoughts. And also, those who think the website is made of just the three of us are very wrong. Pedro, for example, has been doing a remarkable job, week after week, translating most of what we write so that the word is spread and gets to the biggest number of people possible.

 

 

Now that I’ve already shown my aggressive and politically incorrect side, such a characteristic of my articles, we get to the point where you ask: “but Rodrigo, is that really necessary?”. Yes, it is. Such pitiful behaviour doesn’t deserve much of our attention, but if you want to go deeper for a moment, when you go look for it just for a bit you’ll find in an instant endless lists of stupid comments that minimize women’s role on society, insult them and refer to them as mere objects. It’s hard to find an explanation for such a concentration of idiots. My hope is that all this is justified not by the apparent valueless world we’re living in, but fear, a stupid one but at least it’d be a less reprehensible cause, fear of losing the game to women. There are people who think football and FIFA are for men only and these things shouldn’t be shared with women.

EA Sports wouldn’t invest so much money in the development of something that they’re not sure whether it would be a success or not. The number of female players, both virtual and real, has been increasing a lot alongside the popularity of women’s football, mainly in countries that have been well represented by their national teams in the past couple of years such as Canada and the United States of America. In these countries, women’s national teams have the same or even more importance than men’s and the female players have achieved extremely high levels of popularity. Is there anyone who doesn’t know who Hope Solo is, for example?

The same way I like playing with Hazard and Tévez, many other people are excited with the possibility of being able to play with Abby Wambach and Marta. Even the professional female players themselves wished they could say ‘I’m in the Game‘. Not only that, they also wanted the same opportunity men had to become popular and acquire new fans. FIFA does influence football fans a lot after all. So much that women’s football will have its popularity increased exponentially in the next couple of years.

 

 

I confess I might have said “football is for men” in an intimidating tone one or two times after a tough challenge while playing with my mates. It’s just something cultural and historical, but times do change and some unthinking acts such as this one get corrected. That’s what differs us from animals. Today we live in a global world and football isn’t just mine or yours anymore. It’s everybody’s. Men’s and women’s. They play football too, watch games and can also be great FIFA players. If you don’t want to play with women, then just don’t. But let others do so. It won’t hurt.

Ignorace kills. Maybe instead of insulting, these many thousands of players should spend some of their time informing themselves a little bit more on some of the themes that we propose: (2):

– Genital Female Mutilation as Weapon of War
– #bringbackourgirls
– Rwandan Genocide
– Sexual Violence Throughout the World

If they see themselves as such real men, certainly they’ll have the guts to read all that. If this doesn’t mean anything to you, think for a few seconds in your mother, sister, wife or daughter. Just remember that this isn’t a game. It’s real. It happens, unfortunately. Everyday. And you’re doing absolutely nothing to stop these atrocities from happening. On the contrary. Offence only feeds the ignorance. I did my part with this article. What about you, will you just sit there or do you have anything more important to do?

 
 
Notes

(1)
I believe that most readers here aren’t known for these insults. However, you may try and contribute for a better world. Clicking the share button at the end of this article would be a good start.
(2)
If you’re an under age, ask for your parents’ permission.