Female Lead in GTA V: Would Have Been An Awesome Idea?

A female protagonist in GTA V would have been an awesome idea, but by making all three main protagonists in GTA V (Micheal, Trevor and Franklin) of the same sex (i.e M for MALE) Rockstar Games missed a golden opportunity.

[Yi-Long]

... I don't care much about the gender of the lead.

I certainly wouldn't be against it. In fact, I'd probably welcome it with open arms.

[EZMickey]

I agree, I would definitely welcome it too.

I think the golden opportunity missed here is that, if a female protagonist were included as one of the three leads, players wouldn't be obliged to experience GTA V from that perspective entirely. The game would let you play your chosen character at will and cycle between certain characters perspectives as compulsory for specific portions of the game.

One needs only look at the stats Bioware/EA released for Mass Effect that revealed the vast majority of gamers played as a Male Shepard (I personally restarted as Femshep on my second playthrough and never went back to Broshep because I prefer the female voice actor) to know that the mainstream gaming industry is still mostly run by and catered for males.

To a degree I feel as if this sort of Chinese Finger Trap situation that the video game market has fallen into decreases the opportunities for female leads in games as well as female video game consumers. There are plenty of girl gamers out there, but I'm not talking about them, I'm talking about the many curious females who may be interested enough to try but in the end may shrug off gaming as too clichéd.

I also think it holds back the kind of content we could see in mainstream games and fuels what we do see. All of your Brunette/Caucasian/Male with Stubble and/or Goatee and Man-with-gun Box art clichés I feel are affected by the lack of female presence in the video game industry both in content and creation.

GTA or a franchise on the same tier of popularity taking a step in this direction would be a great boost to this.

[Root]

Well a good solid female lead is better then three where the character development will be stretched out.

With GTAV I can only see myself care about one of them, most people will be like that. You'll play them, get used to YOUR favorite and won't care about the other two because you'll be too invested in the character you like.

[Donnieboi]

Speak for yourself. People are capable about caring about ALL 3. We're not as mentally closed minded as u apparently seem to be. And yes, a story can make u care about 3 completely different type of characters equally all at the same time:

Goodfella's the movie says hello. (joe pesci the psycho, deniro the brains, and ray liota as the misguided young apprentice/accomplice--each being similar to Travis, Michael, and Franklin, respectively in that order).

[Root]

You went to argue about how a story in video games is good at making us care about all characters then go on about films.....two totally different things mate

If it's a story like game then fair enough but it's an open world game. If you get to choose your character then you'll be spending more time with the one you've chosen to invest your time into. If it's forced fair enough but since R* have said you can switch at any time thats highly unlikely.

They couldn't even get me to care about Niko in GTA4 so you know

[Derekvinyard13]

All 3 are Probly going to be written really well, I have faith in rockstar

[MysticStrummer]

GTA leads have always been male, but going into next gen it would be cool to see the option to play as a female. It would require more voice and cutscene work, but they could have two slightly different stories with two characters, one male and one female, that have a lot of the same missions but some unique ones as well. Some NPCs could treat you differently, or there could be optional ways around certain obstacles, depending on your gender.

[MultiConsoleGamer]

You know how women women want to play games with female leads?

Well I'm a guy and I want to play a game with a male lead. It's just natural for either gender to want representation.

[febreeze1]

So you've never played Tomb Raider games or other adventure games with female leads?

[Sketchy_Galore]

He didn't say he had never played a game with a female lead. He didn't even say women shouldn't be protagonists in games. He said he prefers playing as a man. I do too.

Many of my favourite games feature female protagonists, from Portal to Mirror's edge. I can easily handle and accept playing as a female but if you ask me what I prefer I have to say I prefer playing as a man. Mostly because games are a kind of fantasy and most of my fantasies involve keeping my penis.

[BattleReach]

COOCKING MINIGAME

[Rumplebumpkin]

If you're going to type a tired, overused sexist pun, at least spell it right.

[Derekvinyard13]

Lmao

[smashcrashbash]

Yes it wouldn't have been but people are still too stuck on old ways and many people still think that females mostly belong in low level games or as side characters.It's good that we still have some strong female roles in games but we still have a long way to go before people accept female protagonist properly.So many types of media have accepted the female lead role frequently so I am not sure what is taking gaming so long to do the same. With the length of time games have been around using the female gender and other races as the lead protagonist should be second nature by now.

@ MultiConsoleGamer.So you believe that women don't play games with male leads because they want representation? Where did you get that idea? Females play games with male leads constantly so why should it be so hard for us to do the same with women? You can't relate to a character unless they are the same gender as you?

[TotalHitman]

I know that sexism is wrong, but there is a misogynist part in the back of my brain screaming no! I wanna play as a man. A big hairy bear with a beard and a deep voice with huge bulging muscles and a tight backside!

[aLucidMind]

If your reasoning is because playing as a female character pulls you out of the game (role-playing, in a way) then that is neither sexist nor misogynistic. Anyone claiming you're either in this situation doesn't know what the definition of the words are lol.

If it is because you don't think a woman is just as capable as a man is at being a criminal, that's sexist but not misogynistic. Misogyny is merely hatred towards the female sex, but sometimes not even misogynists are sexist (you can hate people while thinking they're equally capable).

[Sketchy_Galore]

GTA is possibly the only franchise in which I think a female lead would be a huge mistake. There's just far too much of a male energy to the game. The whole idea of carjacking, rampaging and killing to gain the money, the power and the women, it's a strictly male thing. I'm not saying women can't enjoy playing the game or that women can't hold their own in a fight but usually they have to be fighting FOR something. GTA is not about fighting for a justifiable goal, however much Niko may roll his eyes when taking orders or rant on about wanting out of the business, it's still all about satisfying the dumb desire to acquire money, power and choice of preferred mate through violence that is genetically wired into most men.

It could possibly work if the female character was a member of some Eco-terrorist organisation or something but no mob boss would send a woman out to do violent grunt work and no woman in desperate need of money would ever be in a position where that kind of work was her only option.

[aLucidMind]

"No mob boss would send a woman to do violent grunt work"

You'd be surprised. While the majority of violent criminals are male, violent female criminals is also somewhat common. The ones who make it into being on the same level as Niko or Tommy Vercetti are often far more tactical in approach. It is, in no way, shape, or form, strictly a male thing in real life; you don't need to be a man to properly fire a gun or be tough enough to survive living a life like Niko or Vercetti did/do.

[smashcrashbash]

That is so much nonsense and you are getting agrees for it.There have been female gangsters and pirates through out the years that have done exactly those things that you claim is strictly a male thing.Just shows how ignorance and sexist behavior hold things back. You are still assuming that a woman wouldn't pillage or murder or cause harm when so many of them did in history. The only reason that it doesn't fit now is because of the ignorance that infects gamers these days. That 'dumb desire for wealth and power' resides in women too.What do you think Cleopatra did the things she did for? Or all the female pirates and gangsters? Why do you think many queens ruled wit iron fists? For kicks?

[Sketchy_Galore]

I shouldn't have said that no mob boss would ever ask a woman to behave violently but I really didn't think I was going to be taken that literally. Of course there are exceptions to every rule. Of course there have been female mobsters, pirates etc. what I'm trying to say is that it's extremely rare for a woman to seek power through acts like carjacking, brutal killing and so on. When they say Cleopatra ruled with an iron fist they don't literally mean she used to run around with a large metal gauntlet on clobbering people. They meant she gave her mostly male grunts orders to go kill those who opposed her.

I know nothing about piracy but a quick look for the names of female pirates on Wikipedia brought up a small list preceded by an acknowledgement that piracy was an overwhelmingly male practice. Also, a sizeable number of female pirates on this list seemed to be women already in positions of power or with access to a ready-made crew, I.e. not the dumb, dirty-work doing grunts we play as in GTA.

Of course there have been violent women throughout history but women do not have the same inbuilt drive to attain status by directly engaging in physical violence that men have.

[ShaunCameron]

Isn't Cleopatra more remembered for her affairs with Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony than whatever she did as a queen?

[CaptainYesterday]

I think it would have been a nice change for there to be a female character in GTA5 she could still be a badass could be similar to Elizabeta Torres from GTA4 she was a tough chick. I always find myself playing as the female characters in games for example Borderlands I played as Lilith because she was the most interesting character to choose from and was an awesome character :)

[unchartedxplorer]

I don't want to be all p.c. and say that a woman should have a leading role because I think it's just a bad idea. Almost the entire fanbase for GTA is male and they will almost definitely want a male for the main role. Plus it just wouldn't fit into the game with all the car jacking and killing.
If you disagree please state why you disagree.

[aLucidMind]

I disagree mainly due to the fact that, in-game, you're always equipped with a gun. You don't need to be male to properly wield or fire a gun, much less being capable of easily beating the crap out of a person. Granted, it might make more sense for a female lead to have a more MMA/boxing/kickboxing-oriented background (and for Rockstar to greatly improve the fighting mechanics) for it to make a bit more sense for a woman to be capable of man-handling a man twice or three times her size hand-to-hand.

Sex does not really determine capability as a criminal. All she really needs is being fine with sticking a gun in a person's face, telling them to get out of the car, and drive off or shoot if they resist. Those aren't exactly male-only personality traits.

[unchartedxplorer]

It will still alienate the fanbase. Maybe on the internet the theory would be popular but in public even the females would say that it would be a bad idea, they might even say that it would be degrading to women.

[smashcrashbash]

I disagree because i you knew your history there have been lots of women who reeked havoc as queens and pirates and gangsters and they would string you up by your balls if they heard you talking like that. They killed and pillaged and hung people and stole and murdered and you would be trembling in your shoes if you showed them any disrespect or said the violent life didn't fit them. A woman pointing a gun at your head is no less threatening then a guy pointing a gun at your head. A female ninja was no less of a killer then a male ninja.She was just as dangerous and she would gut you and you would still be dead whether she was a female or not.I am only getting disagrees for my posts because of the ignorance people have.You have no problem with Lara murdering humans but think that a female gangster is out of place holding a gun and reeking havoc? and that ladies and gentlemen is N4G logic.

[proskatercam]

nope

[ME1989]

The idea that having a female lead somehow makes the character or story instantaneously better is pushed all the time on the internet, I don't understand.

It's all up to the writers. I don't see how making the character a female automatically makes it "awesome". It changes nothing.

[dafegamer]

I dont care much about the gender

[jessupj]

I have no problems playing a female lead for most games, but in a game like GTA the protagonist would have to be one of those 'in your face', 'all men are weak', 'girls that don't take no shit' girls and those types of girls severely piss me off.

I would have a very hard time having any kind of emotional connection to the characters I'm playing.

[N0S3LFESTEEM]

Just as long as tits