The Game Industry and Female heroes (2024)

So this morning while browsing across destructoid I came across this lovely article.

http://www.destructoid.com/the-game-industry-doesn-t-want-female-heroes-249067.phtml

And it got me thinking. Apparently the game industry still pretty much caters to the absolute worst stereotypes possible of Female behavior and male behavior to achieve maximum profit. And yet people claim that videogames arent sexist for it. And it kind of disgusts me.

Not surprising; the Bechdel test partially exists in such prominence because movie executives think males get bored about conversations between two female characters.

Perhaps the commercial success of the new Tomb Raider game might change things.

Fight. Struggle. Endure. Suffer. LIVE.

Well of coutrse males get bored when two women speak. Because the average movie writes all-female conversations as nothing but boring drivel about the men in their lives or their shoes as though women have no interests or desires outside men or shopping.

edited 19th Mar '13 9:03:00 AM by Midgetsnowman

Oh, for goodness' sake ... why is it that both publishers and critics of publishers have such a low opinion of male gamers?

Publishers: "Male gamers can't accept female characters in games/on covers".

Destructoid: "... the hom*ophobic insecurity of the male audience."

Edit: Oh, and I'm so sick of hearing about that Bioshock Infinite cover. God forbid a developer puts the hero on the front cover ...

edited 19th Mar '13 9:36:45 AM by Guest1001

I think more executives in all walks of the entertainment industry need to read the quote at the opening of our Legend Of Korra page.

If Tomb Raider outsells Gears Of War Judgement by a very significant margin I will dance in the streets.

Don't push your luck, Shirow.

Watch Symphogear

It's less, "Evil male gamers are oppressing women and have been since the beginning of time!" and more, "Call of Duty dudebros ruin gaming in yet another way by being catered to despite being dumbasses who fear playing as a chick because that would be 'totally gay, bro'".

EIGHT GLORIOUS SIDES

It's less, "Evil male gamers are oppressing women and have been since the beginning of time!" and more, "Call of Duty dudebros ruin gaming in yet another way by being catered to despite being dumbasses who fear playing as a chick because that would be 'totally gay, bro'".

I don't play Call of Duty, but if I did, I would be pretty sick of everybody blaming everything on me and whining about me ruining the industry.

"It's not us 'real gamers', it's totally that Call of Duty crowd!" It just feels like we're playing the same blame game we complain about.

Reminds me of studio execs claiming films with female heroes don't sell because Electra and Catwoman were horrible.

edited 19th Mar '13 11:35:54 AM by Scardoll

Fight. Struggle. Endure. Suffer. LIVE.

That too. They point to the failure of a game like Mirror's edge (which was more because the controls were iffy and the combat was kind of unneccesary) and go 'see? people dont buy games with women lead characters"

But you wouldn't know anyone felt that way since you wouldn't be anywhere that real gamers post.

Seriously, it's like the writers and producers of these don't see how beloved female leads can be. Look at Samus, look at Claire, look at every player, male and female, who makes a female avatar in an RPG or online game. Hell, look how many people adore Jane Shepard! If you don't think women leads sell, maybe you should take a real good look at the role your games have them in.

Apparently Publishers were weary of having a female protagonist for Remember Me

I don't know if this is sexism so much as it is that publishers are old fashion and afraid of taking risks. They still have this ancient notion of "Gamers are all young children who don't want to play as a yucky girl."

@Scardoll: As someone who does play FPSes (including Call of Duty) among many other genres, it does get pretty grating after a while when people make stereotypes about you being some ignorant behind the fall of the industry. I swear, it's only on the Internet that people believe that you can only like one genre and nothing else.

Eating a Vanilluxe will give you frostbite.

Interestingly, there are a TON of people that essentially play Call Of Duty and nothing else. It's catering to a pretty specific crowd that's sprung up around it.

I don't know how that happened. I don't even know if Call Of Duty knows how that happened.

edited 19th Mar '13 12:22:04 PM by ShirowShirow

They caught on the Dubstep train quickly enough to make my ears bleed.

edited 19th Mar '13 1:37:12 PM by ShirowShirow

I think you are kind of missing my point. What I was trying to communicate is that a fairly large amount of adult males have been able to set aside their usual masculine bravado to enjoy a show aimed squarely at young girls.

With such a precedent, you'd think that developers would be a bit less squeamish about having feminine elements in their games.

Honestly in games where I have a choice I always play a female character.

sh*t to date I have not made even one male character in Skyrim.

I alternate, mainly because there are only so many grunts, yelps, and death cries I can hear before wishing for something new.

Except for the death scream in Metroid Prime. Jesus, that was scary.

Fight. Struggle. Endure. Suffer. LIVE.

"If I'm going to stare at an ass all day, it better be a nice one."

Well, at least that's the logic I'm going with those few times I play as a female by choice. sometimes, the male design is just so ugly it becomes harder to relate to than the female.

edited 19th Mar '13 2:31:36 PM by Kayeka

Dark Souls approach: Everyone looks like beef jerky! You'll want to put on as much armor as possible.

edited 19th Mar '13 2:32:40 PM by Scardoll

Fight. Struggle. Endure. Suffer. LIVE.

I have no idea why that attitude is still around when it's been proven time and time again whenever someone takes that step that men and boys really don't care that much about the gender of the protagonist.

Video Game Census. Please contribute.

Strangely enough, I find the female PC in Demon's Souls to be... well, to put it politely, not pretty. Maybe it's just because I used the character customization poorly, but I had trouble making my female character look pretty.

Not that it stopped me from playing her though. I didn't play Demon's Souls to play dress up after all.

I was admittedly like that once. Didn't play a game if it had a female protag. I have long since gotten over it though.

edited 19th Mar '13 3:04:06 PM by Eldrake

This. As long as the game itself is good, does it really matter whether or not the protag is male or female?

edited 19th Mar '13 2:59:55 PM by nigelstack345

Vote..#Bayonetta 4 Smash