Publishers Don’t Want You to Remember Me, Fear Using Female Protagonists

Female representation in the games industry has always been a problem, and now it has been revealed that publishers are turning down studios who develop games with a leading lady. With that, the Daily Reaction crew of Seb and Dan discuss the issues that surround giving women a leading role in games.

[doctorstrange]

It's like publishers want people to hate them.

[Foolsjoker]

You would think that they wouldn't have to try this hard.

[BitbyDeath]

I don't get it, i see tons of games with women in them.

[AngelicIceDiamond]

@Picture

No.. your perfect ) :

[HammadTheBeast]

And how many **** did Sessler give?

None at all.

[Gildarts]

This is going to sound pretty gay but somehow I feel more comfortable playing as a dude. If I see a game which in a female is the lead character, it automatically turns me down. I can't help it and remember me looks like an awesome game. But the fact that a female is the lead character just makes me not want to buy it. Maybe im a bit sexist and I can't see females as strong characters.

[Meep]

"I feel more comfortable playing as a dude."

That's understandable. You want to relate to a character as much as possible. Emotionally and physically.

"I can't see females as strong characters."

This does sound a bit biased. If you can expand a bit more about this because I am interested. Is it that you can't see female characters physically stronger? Or is it more than that?

[DarkBlood]

seems like a old fashion mentality if anything.

[FantasyStar]

Put simply. The current crop of games and how we just inject-woman into those roles are as about as useful as using an Elena-skin in Uncharted 2's Single-Player. The majority of games featuring woman is all like that and that's boring. Any man could pull off that role.

If you want to change that, create a plot that cater to a woman's strengths/persona and create a game that compliments how woman approach the situation.

Based on what I've seen. "Remember Me" doesn't compliment a female protagonist very well.

[kreate]

I really dont care.
My top 3 characters in diablo was the sorceress, amazon, and the barbarian.

2 female, 1 male. Its due to their ability, not becuz they're male/female.

I also played as sheva a few times in RE5 cuz thats how it was matched. Im a guy and im not black. I cant relate to her at all.

Sometimes I like to play as a female if the game has high quality visuals and its a third person view. But this is becuz I just want to see her butt on the screen. Assuming she's hot.

I also played as nathan drake who is a guy but I still cant relate to him other than being a human and a male. Im not going to climb any tombs. It just aint happening. I did shoot some of the weapons in the game but thats about it.

In conclusion, I dont care about relating to the character at all.

[Reverent]

I also used to go with a male character for games, but lately for some reason, I ALWAYS choose a female if given the option. It started with Skyrim; My first character was female. Not sure why I did at first, but after awhile, I realized I was slowly created a character in my head, and for every game from then on, I would recreate that exact same character, who just so happened to be female. I've gotten so comfortable with it that I'm actually writing stories about her.

I've given this imaginary character such a deep personality and background in my mind that I don't honestly think I will ever choose to be a male character in a video game again. I want to keep her story going in every incarnation of hers I can make.

Then again, I might just be a creep. Either way, the gist of what I'm saying is, I've grown far more used to using a female character in games over a male character.

[Foolsjoker]

I wonder if they ever considered that it isn't the female protagonist that is the problem, but more of the way they are portrayed.

[joab777]

I agree. I like playing both but it has to b done right. Lara Croft was bad ass and being a female does change the dynamic. I played a playthrough of akyrim as a female high elf and she was badass.

I cant wait for remember me. Game Imformer did an article on it and its memory gameplay looks really cool. Hopefully ppl learn about it.

[Reverent]

A thing about that... With trying to set that "perfect" image for a female character, I mean. The developer has to personalize it a lot (and this goes for any character in general). The character, as much as I don't like to admit it, has to be sexy, because let's face it, we're guys, and we'd rather play as someone sexy/beautiful over someone more realistic/average looking. Then, they need to, while being sexy, not be revealing. When you have a character like that, it just makes the game lose a lot of focus and it's harder to develop the character's personality.

Tomb Raider is a great example of this, because they made her great to look at, while also making sure we focused not on her body, but her story.

But most games seem to do the opposite. Most games seem to try and go all out on the sexy female lead in hopes drooling guys will buy the crap out of the game.

[TrendyGamers]

Male or female lead, I'm checking out Remember Me either way.

[knifefight]

I never forget a lady.

[doctorstrange]

Then why didn't you call after our special night?

[Foolsjoker]

Because he found more than he was looking for.

[ApolloTheBoss]

So long as the character, male or female, is well developed, interesting and worth caring for, I'll remember them until the day I die.

[jc48573]

I'm tired of seeing females as supporting characters. It gets really dumb. I'm like man, I've been staring at guys all day that it makes me wonder if I'm onto them. I like girls and I want to know what they are thinking sometimes, not what a guy feels about a girl or another guy? Always thought the guys in Gears of Wars were all homosexuals and don't ask me why.

[DragonKnight]

See? I told you we wouldn't hear the end of it.

[ShaunCameron]

It seems that the article is trying to shame gamers into buying more female-lead games, and publishers into funding female-lead games that the market might not have asked for to begin with, wasting money and resources just to appease some malcontents.

Maybe the article answered its own question in the avi. Or like most people of all races, many (male) gamers simply champion their own (gender) and only play as a female for the sheer novelty of it. It's only natural for them to prefer their own. And publishers are just acting accordingly to the market reality. Ideals be damned!

[Kratoscar2008]

In role playing games and Visual novels, the MC HAS to be male, to me its important when the characters are supposed to be an extension of the player, if they are intended to be their own character then i dont mind playing with females.

[PSNintyGamer]

Why exactly is it a problem to have female protagonists?

[ShaunCameron]

There is no problem. It's just some people mad that they didn't get included, so they're crying foul.

[SageHonor]

I prefer male leads but I have no problem playing as a female.

Publishers probably think the game won't sell as much with a female lead. It has nothing to do with sexism.

[HonestDragon]

It kind of makes me think that maybe it's not just the publishers who should be looked at in this case. We should be looking at gamers, too. After all, one main point to mention from this article is that games with male protagonists sell more than games with female protagonists. Gamers are the ones with the power to vote with their wallets and that translates to how games may be successful.

I'll reference one of my first blogs (Where is Gaming Going), in that the current gaming trends may point toward certain aspects of games being selling points with gamers. Basically, if a game has a certain element, then it will sell regardless of the amount of content is in it or if it's a particular name brand.

So, really some publishers can be looked on as not giving some games a chance, while gamers can be looked on as also not giving some games a chance. That's why games that try something different (not just have female leads) don't sell as much as they should because there are many great games that people glance over without a second thought. Besides, female protagonists can kick ass, too.

[PSN-JeRzYzFyNeSt]

i think it is a problem. i would much rather have a guy then a woman. just me.. plus i think it would sell more if it was a guy to.

[2pacalypsenow]

Who cares

[Knightofelemia]

With Mass Effect games I made my commander Shepard female and for Saints Rows I made my character female as well. With games flooded with male heroes or male killers it does tend to get a little stale. Playing commander Shepard as a female is a nice break from males characters. I'm all for both male and female characters.

[aLucidMind]

Same here; it's very refreshing to play a game where the main character kicking everyone's butt around is a woman for once rather than "bad-ass male marine #7654".

[HurstDarkStar]

This arguement is starting to sound like "if you don't like playing as a your sexist" And anybody that responds with " but I like being the male because i can see myself as them in the game " YOUR A SEXIST PIG. Which then makes me feel :(

[aLucidMind]

Many like to stay narrow-minded and stick to extremes; if they opened their minds a bit, they would see that many of those they called sexist are speaking in terms of it being difficult to relate to the main character because the way their mind connects to the game is akin to a form of role-playing; they guy is trying to put himself into the shoes of the main character.

However, if the other side opened their mind a bit then maybe the market wouldn't be so saturated with "grissled, bad-ass marine man #9356 takes down chaotic-stupid bad man!".

[kingPoS]

All this talk about female leads has me seriously wanting a Mirrors Edge sequel.

[aliengmr]

There is no denying there is risk involved in fronting large sums of money for new IPs. Especially one with a complicated concept.

You can't expect a publisher to not have an issue with a female protagonist in a genre whose primary audience is male.

It not about the gender so much as what they can sell.

I do not believe for one second that this game was pitched to every other publisher and was denied purely because of the female protagonist. Only to have Capcom swoop in and save the day in the name of gender equality. This was likely a tough sell regardless of the protagonist, but that is was female made it slightly harder.

Market research is a big deal. The numbers don't lie. If you want your game to be AAA quality the fewer things that make it even slightly harder to sell, the better.

I would personally love to see more female leads in games, but I am not completely naive to think everyone feels the same, its just a harsh reality.

That all said, whoever is trying to make this game the victim of race bias or gender bias, needs to stop. Sympathy won't make the game fun, so I have no intention of buying based on that.

[No_Pantaloons]

"Male-only hero games sold 25 per cent better than those with an optional female hero, and 75 per cent better than whose with a female-only hero."

Mystery solved. There's no hidden agenda like feminist suppression going on, you conspiracy theorists can all go home now. Really, there's nothing more to discuss.

[Wedge19]

Of Course Male dominated games sell better, because they dominate the market. We need to change that in order to see change in the female leads selling well. Look at Tomb Raider!

[jakmckratos]

Yes because Lara Croft, Nariko, Faith from Mirror's Edge, Jade from Beyond Good and Evil(which I haven't even played by ALWAYS read about it_, and Samus Aran are some of the iconic and bad-ass characters in the entire industry...if anything developers should stride to create memorable female characters that stand out in the sea of generic 30 year old average dudes with either no hair or short dark brown hair and just happen to know how to shoot a gun perfectly that make up 80% of characters nowadays.