Is this about appreciating female game pioneers or about bashing the fact that games are a male dominated hobby?
"phallic first-person shooter."
"phallic first-person shooter."
"Some of the most original games in recent years have been made by women. Kim Swift was the lead designer for Portal, which one game critic called the first nonphallic first-person shooter."
Oh look, the full quote is appreciating a female game pioneer, and your mangled phrase was from a singular game critic. Also, it makes sense. Instead of shooting bullets, you're shooting portals. Seems pretty non-phallic to me.
Yeah, the phrase is from someone else, but it certainly wasn't included by accident.
Certainly not out-of-context.
I always thought of it as more of a fantasy/RPG issue.
(Similarly unrealistically proportioned male character with armor missing on stomach: http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120215221956/quake/imag...)
Which has nothing substantial to do with a "phallus" of any kind.
What's phallic about bullets?
Are women not allowed to be interested in small arms? The Soviet Union deployed women as snipers to great effect in World War II, and the idea that only men could be violent and warlike is itself gender-biased to those who look at history.
This isn't very complicated or contentious from any angle I can imagine. Unless you're coming in with an agenda, and take offense to the idea that certain types of games might be traditionally male-oriented.
If bullets are "phallic" (despite rarely even having in-game models) then portals are "vaginal" and the primary game mechanic is to have your player "penetrate" them.
In reality, all of this is just pseudo-intellectual Freudian bullshit.