22 responses so far ↓

• 1 Tenyu // May 15, 2008 at 9:37 pm

  Third one, if it is, Super Princess Peach on NDS, or that one in Heavenly Sword.

• 2 fred // May 15, 2008 at 9:43 pm

  Howdy. I like the site, real clean. Anyhow…

  I agree that there is a severe lack of strong female leads in action movies and games, but I find the few that do have a woman , if not in the lead then at least in a supporting role, those women are put into a few stock roles; sex object, or macho kickass sassy chick, who moonlites as a sex object. The one film I can think of that had a strong female lead that wasn’t oozing cleavage was Sigourney Weaver in aliens, but then I haven’t really been paying attention the past couple of years. But then its hard making an action movie with developed characters; its easier to just have someone who’s instantly recognizable so people will identify with them so the movie can get on with the task of blowing crap up.

  ‘course games are a horse of a different colour. Like you said yourself (okay, maybe a little out of context, but what the hell) “gameplay is king”. Most, if not all, game characters are archetypes of somekind, most borrowing liberally from sci-fi, fantasy and pop-culture. And while I see your point that there just aren’t that many female leads, I personally don’t think it would add much to the game. I’ll admit that I haven’t played much of heavenly sword (only the demo), and I’ve only ever finished super metroid. I have played through mass effect with a female though…But to be honest if the game isn’t there, female lead or no, it doesn’t matter.

  That being said, could a female lead action game sell? Sure, why not. As long as she’s got some big guns and they’re pointed away from me, I’ll buy it.

• 3 Terry Biel // May 15, 2008 at 9:43 pm

  Portal?

• 4 Sassamifrass // May 15, 2008 at 10:07 pm

  As a gaming girl who plays a range of stuff from FPS to RPG, I do get a kick out of playing a female protagonist. I was stoked when Fallout 2 gave me the option to play a female character, with different slants on a few quests and outcomes due to that choice.

  In the end, that’s because I really like putting myself into the game a lot of the time. That said, I have no problems playing a male protagonist either, so long as he isn’t too irritating.

  Then there are characters like Mario, which to me feel almost essentially genderless to me - he’s just an avatar. Even moreso with FPS when you almost never see yourself - I feel like I am playing a genderless character, which is fine with me, blank slate and all.

  I’d love to see more kickass, well-developed (not just in the bust, cue sniggering, though that is fine with me) female protagonists in games and films. I’d also like to see more kickass, well-developed male characters.

  Playing Portal has probably been my most recent experience of playing a female character - due to being able to see Chell in portals it was less genderless than some FPS.

  Subscribed to your blog after reading your fascinating Portal posts last month - love your stuff!

• 5 spitfire // May 15, 2008 at 10:14 pm

  I considered Chell, but Portal is far from blockbuster or mainstream, unfortunately

• 6 Christopher J. Rock // May 16, 2008 at 3:49 am

  The statistics are against it. Girls don’t play hardcore and hardcore gamers are the blockbuster audience. Therefore, if you’re going to see a female lead, she’s going to have a bust like you wouldn’t believe. That’s what the numbers are saying anyway and assuming the industry is run by profits, the numbers will be right.

  But indie games are much more free and spontaneous than indie films. Who knows what steps we may see their. Unfortunately, it’s not often you hear from a game developer with any knowledge of the feminist movement, but maybe that’ll change. Maybe it already has. Maybe there’s a feminist with a game ready to bust out any minute now.

  I’d like to play it.

• 7 Trevor // May 16, 2008 at 4:22 am

  Unfortunately, like the early years of the movie industry, game developers are equating genres with genders. Men tend to symbolize strength and action, like Indiana Jones or 007, therefore they get the action games. Video games, being what they are, have an enormous amount of action titles comparably.

  With other genres, however, it tends to be a toss-up between genders and those title usually don’t as much coverage, being more gamer’s games. Titles like Beyond Good and Evil, or The Longest Journey, or even Syberia rarely see the light of day, however, as the gamer base expands i’m sure we’ll begin to see more and more of these titles make a stand.

  One more note, Video games are also able to get away with non-gender games, like Command & Conquer(Really almost any RTS) or games like you mentionesd, like Mass Effect or World of Warcraft, where gender doesn’t matter. In my opinion, i think this just a phase sort of puberty.

• 8 Alex // May 16, 2008 at 4:45 am

  It makes you realise how unusual Portal is, with *no* male character at all.

• 9 Terry Biel // May 16, 2008 at 8:27 am

  How about The Sims, then? Highest-selling video game I’m aware of, though it’s certainly not a “recent” release.

  And I would stop short of calling any of the games listed as true blockbusters. They’re the highest-selling video games recently released, so they’re relative blockbusters. But Halo 3, at about 8 million copies sold, is–by comparison–arguably less popular than NASCAR’s Nextel Cup Series, which has traditionally averaged about 9 million viewers per race.

  So I think video games are still very much a niche product, and as long as developers continue to fight for the buying dollars of the tiny fraction of all human beings who happen to play video games consistently, there won’t be a huge shift in the gender of protagonists.

• 10 Amauriel // May 16, 2008 at 8:36 am

  I get very tired of these people that continue to say “Guys are the mainstream that play games”. It’s a sad, sad cycle, actually. I work in a K-12 school, I’m female, and I’m a gamer. The kids think I’m the coolest, but not for the reason most would think. I’m an “old person” (ripe old age of 25, thank you) that plays games. They never say anything about my being a woman. I have never heard anything along the lines of “A girl who plays games? No way!” or anything like that. They think I’m too old to play games…but they could care less about my gender. Overall, I would say I’ve had at least as many girls come up to me in the Middle School and High School to ask if I’ve played Bioshock or Gears of War. I’m serious.

  Now, if those girls had a game with a real female role model, there might be even more of them that play these games…or be more open about the fact that they do play. I know we have a lot of closet gamers at the school I work at, as it is a farmer community and you should be at least as interested about the next John Deere combine as GTA IV, and I know that if there are as many girl closet gamers as open gamers, they might just outnumber the guys.

  But we’ve told girls for so long that they aren’t allowed to like trucks and video games…they have to like dolls and jewelery…let’s get away from the idea that girls can’t like games by putting some female main characters (or at least not the princess-in-distress kind) and I bet we’ll find that there are thousands and thousands of girl gamers out there that are just embarrassed to admit their hobby.

• 11 spitfire // May 16, 2008 at 9:16 am

  I’ve suspected that the “girl gamer” is the next “sports gamer” for a long time, Amauriel, and have been hoping that a company as large as EA or Actiblizzard would take notice and begin catering to that market. But unfortunately even if they did I suspect we’d get a lot more “Barbie Horse Adventures.”

  I imagine the next generation’s (of kids, not hardware) influence will give us some more balanced gendered role models, at least.

• 12 Jim // May 16, 2008 at 9:36 am

  Uhh, Heavenly Sword? That chick was badass

• 13 holyground // May 16, 2008 at 1:35 pm

  I think your argument is biased. Why don’t you consider Heavenly Sword? Perfect Dark? What, exactly, is blockbuster? If this is about equality, why do games that give you the option of choosing your gender not count?

  That being said, there’s definitely a bias in the system. My question is, how much does this bias in the medium reflect those who create it.?

  I’m much more interested in the make up of the developers: How many women were on the Halo 3 dev team?

  How many are on that new parkour game coming out?

• 14 spitfire // May 16, 2008 at 1:45 pm

  All arguments are biased Bias pretty much defines argument.

  But my premise for selection was pretty much:

  Blockbuster = sold more than 1 million units.
  Recent = this generation of gaming consoles.

  Heavenly Sword didn’t ship a million units.
  Perfect Dark is two gens ago (at least the first one that sold the best), and even though I beat it I couldn’t even tell you the heroine’s hair color.

  And I shied away from games that allow you to choose a gender because they aren’t creating a strong hero protagonist. They’re giving you the option to pick a character. I want to see studios taking stands on a female, not just giving a female option.

• 15 Craig // May 16, 2008 at 2:08 pm

  One reason I liked Beyond Good & Evil so much was its strong, non-sexualized female lead. All the cleavage (among other things) in games makes me ashamed to be a guy sometimes.

  I’m surprised you didn’t mention Half-Life 2 though. You may not play as Alyx, but in an FPS that’s a good thing in terms of character development. She’s far more interesting than Gordan.

• 16 Ace // May 16, 2008 at 3:23 pm

  /cough

  DOA Xtreme Beach Volleyball 1 and 2

  

• 17 fred // May 16, 2008 at 3:45 pm

  …Mavis Beacon?

• 18 O.G.N // May 16, 2008 at 4:41 pm

  Monolith did try some years back, but despite Cate Archer being a great heroine, and the two No One Livers Forever games being great games, I don’t think they sold well.

• 19 W0LF // May 16, 2008 at 7:58 pm

  No.
  Adding more words won’t make the answer more true but I’m not one to let that stop me. If game developers could squeeze one more game through an engine by giving us a female character to play through it and a different title they would, and they do, and as you measured the box-office, they don’t make the grade. In addition to the video game heroines you mentioned there are dozens more, some of which rode pretty impressive graphics and story, but were not blockbusters. The far-and-away dominant market for video games are males. Video games are a much more highly interactive medium than film or television and games where players cannot form an intimate connection to the main character in the first chapter do not succeed in the market.

• 20 InstinctSage // May 18, 2008 at 7:59 pm

  I’ll repeat my sentiments on xkcd’s blag.
  Going against what Amauriel says “…we’ve told girls for so long that they aren’t allowed to like trucks and video games…they have to like dolls and jewelery…” I think the problem is largely the opposite. Girls are told they can be whatever they want to be, and do. Girl gamers aren’t a fad anymore. People know there’s plenty out there, but just like in blockbuster movies, that doesn’t change the male dominated protagonist role.

  Why?
  Because women who have grown up being told they can do anything a man can do can relate to a male protagonist just fine. Perhaps they’d prefer a female protagonist, but having to play as a man isn’t going to stop them playing Gears of War.

  Men, on the other hand, are still given a very strong push away from the dolls and jewelery. Whilst it’s perceived that women should be able to ’step up’ into a man’s world, men shouldn’t have a desire to ’step down’ into a woman’s world. Metrosexuals are the butt of many jokes, and while ‘female crossdresser’ is almost a misnomer, even wearing pants marketed to women is joked about for a man.

  Thusly, men aren’t conditioned to relate to women. They’re conditioned to do all they can to separate themselves from women. With a female protagonist, you’re risking alienating a part of the market. Not all men are going to have a problem with it, but subconsciously a lot will just not connect with the game.

  Bayonetta has been announced as a spiritual successor to DMC. It’ll be interesting to see how it is accepted, and how developed the character is. Bloodrayne never seemed to escape cliches.

• 21 spitfire // May 18, 2008 at 8:39 pm

  Insect Sage, I hope you swing by more often, because you win my “best intellectual reply of the week” award.

  Uh, swing by the main office to collect your prize…?

• 22 Jason Lee // May 20, 2008 at 8:10 pm

  There’s more than one problem with having female protagonists in games, and I don’t think we can solve it just by having female protagonists in our games. Lara Croft is the “iconic” female protagonist, but she’s not helping the female portrayal in games at all. Rather, there’s been a problem in the few games that feature female protagonists that females are being defined as “as good as men”, “on men’s terms”, or as “femme fatales” who we are excited to play as because she’s a sexual badass. By puppeteering a femme fatale in a video game, you’re suddenly occupying this weird space of getting off on having total control over this “dangerous” female body that’s usually off limits to men. Okay, I’m getting into weird theoretical talk about “fetishization of the female body” and “otherness” so I’ll hold back and show some examples:

  Take a look at this Perfect Dark ad from way back. Women are still being defined in terms of men: http://youtube.com/watch?v=4BtX2hOUGrw

  Miltos Manetas also puts up a good argument for the problems with Lara Croft in this pretty controversial art piece called “Flames”: http://youtube.com/watch?v=t1Ih5lojELM

  I think a game that’s got it’s mind on the right track is Portal (nice analysis btw). There, instead of a female character the player is meant to objectify like BloodRayne or Lara Croft, you got a female who players have to insert themselves into due to her lack of identity and personality. I support Samus from Metroid also because by being put in the first person position of a woman with no personality, there’s the lack of women being defined on men’s terms. I’d argue that current Metroid games and Portal are definately feminist in a way Perfect Dark and Tomb Raider are. Maybe there’s a better way to do it (Dreamfall being a good example), but just because a game features a woman doesn’t make it feminist.

  Anyways, here’s a great essay by a new media theorist Mary Flanagan who basically points out the problem with Lara Croft, female characters in computer games, and even feminism in general: http://maryflanagan.com/articles/ReloadHyperbodies.pdf

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