Comments on: Hay Ladies!

By: Smith

Smith — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 10:36:14 +0000

Counterpoint: Cortana.

No, she doesn’t wear armor and tote around rocket launchers, but I think we can all agree she’s absolutely essential to the plot of the Halo series. She’s not the Chief’s tool, she’s his partner.

By: Hal

Hal — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 12:07:13 +0000

I guess mirror’s edge is a win, here. :)

By: Jason Lee

Jason Lee — Wed, 21 May 2008 02:10:21 +0000

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

By: spitfire

spitfire — Mon, 19 May 2008 02:39:04 +0000

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…? ;)

By: InstinctSage

InstinctSage — Mon, 19 May 2008 01:59:37 +0000

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.

By: W0LF

W0LF — Sat, 17 May 2008 01:58:47 +0000

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.

By: O.G.N

O.G.N — Fri, 16 May 2008 22:41:31 +0000

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.

By: fred

fred — Fri, 16 May 2008 21:45:57 +0000

…Mavis Beacon?

By: Ace

Ace — Fri, 16 May 2008 21:23:51 +0000

/cough

DOA Xtreme Beach Volleyball 1 and 2

By: Craig

Craig — Fri, 16 May 2008 20:08:44 +0000

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.