Why Ask For Female Led Games Only To Ignore them?

Pixel Gate looks at the widespread ignorance towards Toren, a game that fulfills the demand for female led games perfectly yet gets hardly any support.

''The last few years has seen a huge push for more female representation in video games. A number of video game journalists, pop culture critics (still not sure what that exactly entails) and industry figures demanded to see well rounded female characters leading video games. It’s a admirable stance, but the issue of practicing what you preach quickly reared it’s head.''

[mrbojingles]

Why ignore Toren? Because its a bad game. I've beaten it. It was a boring struggle. Some small moments shine but its a run of the mill, poor clone of Ico. Sure, Moonchild is cool but just because people want more good female leads doesn't mean they don't want them to be crappy games that have terrible screen tearing, N64 textures and inconsistent frame rates with boring gameplay. FILL THIS SHAPE WITH SALT TO CONTINUE!

[PixelGateUk]

So only cover good games then aye? No one said it had to be a positive review. I think the Avatar is utter garbage, but I can praise the visual effects no? I dislike Beyond Two Souls, and I praised that for the direction? You don't have to be totally dedicated to love/hate...

[Godmars290]

Don't praise poor or bad games because they have one sole socially positive aesthetic such as the gender of a main character.

Something like Two Souls got attention for its cast, one actress, but in the end its little more than a footnote because overall it failed to deliver as a game.

[Swonic]

The game is an insult to anyone with taste.

[Agheil]

This gender debate needs to end.... Leave it out of video games.... Devs should make whatever they want regardless of female/male lead....

[annoyedgamer]

Have you stopped to think that the whole tall tale that gamers are begging for female protagonists is made up? It is feminists/SJWs that continue to parrot that mantra not actual gamers.

They make money from creating controversy so it is in their best interest to ignore games with female protagonists and continue screaming.

[joab777]

Exactly. You can't force political correctness. If it works for the story, and the game is great, we will love and buy it. But no one is gonna support a bad game b/c it's pc. Sorry. I'm not rich, and it doesn't work that way anyway.

[mrbojingles]

I had high hopes for Toren but I wish I hadn't spent money or time on it.

[Activemessiah]

Remember Me didn't sell well either, really enjoyed it even though it received warm reviews.

[PixelGateUk]

I quite liked it, bar some truly annoying sound effects

[rainslacker]

Remember Me was a very underrated game. good story, and some clever mechanics which went underused but had great game play overall. Strong female character as well. No one brings it up as an example of female characters done well.

[ShaunCameron]

Was that the game which its creator (a guy, by the way) harped on about the 4 publishers prior to Capcom declining to publish it due to its main character being female, accusing the industry of sexism?

[Somebody]

That's the one. And guess what? They repeated the same tactic with their latest game, Life Is Strange. Only now it's Square Enix who didn't demanded them to change the main characters into males.

[LostDjinn]

Blame the gamers huh? Seems familar.

Edit: To edit stuff.

[Lukejrl]

Vote with your wallets right?

[DanteVFenris666]

Make the game good and the female good and than we will buy them. I don't want to play a female that's trying to be a man. That's been overdone and that's all we get

[insomnium2]

TLOU has the perfect package of everything. A strong female protagonist too who isn't overly strong or masculine. She is a tough kid but still a kid. Though if she was a grownup woman we would've heard all the tropes about her being captured and stuff. She doesn't need a man to rescue her but still they would've cried foul.

News flash to feminists. Men are stronger than women physically on average. If a man wants to force a woman into captivity there is a high chance he will be able to do it. It has nothing to do with being sexist or a chauvinist etc. like I'm sure you would want to say.

Holy shite how well Karen Straughan explains everything about this in her 2 part response to someone. here's part one https://www.youtube.com/wat...
This might be one of the best piece of explaining things through biology and drawin conclusions from them I have ever seen. Karen is a monster of knowledge I tell you.

[WizzroSupreme]

Why indeed. Gamers these days. They seem to have short attention spans for what they asked for just a week ago and want now.

[madjedi]

So can you point out specific people, rather than just using a really lazy ass generalization.

Yeah too much effort, it is fair easier to look down at others while believing yourself to be superior.

Reads like more elitist real gamer bullshit.

I don't really remembering asking for more female leads a week ago, a lot of people have stated that they don't mind a good female lead character.

Where are all these examples of gamers in mass demanding more female led games.

Because I haven't seen it, you and the author have the same problem trying to put words into other peoples mouths when they said nothing of the sort.

Liking or enjoy strong female lead characters and demanding them is not the same thing.

[ironfist92]

Gee...lets see

Heavenly Sword, Remember Me, Life is Strange, upcoming Hellblade, Mirror's Edge, Tomb Raider, Mass Effect (choose a Female), Contrast, Child of Light.

All great games with great female leads. Stfu. People care about good games, not who's in them. I dont ignore games with female leades, I ignore bad games.

[Sureshot]

Highly eloquent prose my friend :D

[fashionst]

Surely someone was paid to write this, as there's no lack of female protagonists in games.

[PixelGateUk]

This is awkward, err the post even says that there's a decent amount of games with female leads. Did you just read the title then decided to post :p?

[fashionst]

Clearly it wasn't important enough for me to thoroughly care.

Games should stand on their own merits. Complaining that the masses are ignoring a game and pinning it on the gender of a digital character is charlatanistic at best and reeks of hidden interests.

If it was a better product, people would play it. Simple as that. Try not to shove gender politics where it doesn't belong. It makes you look shady.

[Lukejrl]

The problem is not asking could a protagonist in an up and coming game be female, but trying to criticize developers for already established male protagonists.

The other problem is being overly critical of a female protagonists flaws. As if because she is a female she doesn't fall in love and be weakened by that love. every person in the world has strengths and weaknesses and so should protagonists. If there is a trope in there well Yea maybe mention it but do not be all hard up for weakness. Men are portrayed as weak all the time. So can women. And real men can be weak and so can real women.

[Agent_hitman]

I love female protagonist in videogames.

[Germany7]

Gamers are not asking for more female protagonist specifically, the gaming media wants to generate controversy with that subject.
Gamers want a great game, doesn't matter the gender of the character.
Enough with the SJW agenda.

[Mexxan]

Er, nobody asked for female led games....

[robtion]

Sure but nobody didn't not ask for them either right? ;)

[Sy_Wolf]

Hating things and being angry is SUPER fun.

[Lukejrl]

Certainly seems that way. I am going to rant on the computer till I break my keyboard.

[DanielEndurance]

So everyone was supposed to just hop on Toren because there was a female lead? What? Look, I wouldn't recommend buying the game. It had its fair share of technical problems as I cringed to get through it and an extreme lack of memorable moments... However, I really did like the art style, despite the cut-scenes getting very janky at times.
And, one reason I don't think it's doing so well in sales is the lack of news about it. Not sure most gamers know it even exists...

[Lukejrl]

People not knowin it exists Is the problem. The critics who bash everything don't take the time to bring to light positive things. Even though the game has flaws doesn't mean that it should be ignored as a game with a female protagonist.

[KryptoniteTail]

Gender is irrelevant for a protagonist. As is age, or race, almost anything else. I like Lee Everett not because he is black or middle aged, since I am white in my 20's, but because he is a good character. Liked Clementine not because she was a prepubescent female, but because I am a gamer. These things mean notbing. As a gamer I want a good character, not some narcissistic projection of myself.

Ignore SJWs. They are unpleasable diseases upon our medium.

[cogniveritas]

It just sucks when let's say a game like Assassin's Creed 3 takes the opportunity to have an amazing tomahawk wielding Assassin but they fall flat with the story writing like they wanted us hate him. I'm sure revolutionary era Native Americans had personality, but they chose to write Connor without any of the charm that made the past protagonists likable. The game was nearly devoid of any real Assassin presence compared to Ezio's saga.

Now I know we're mature enough to know it just wasn't a great game in the series (On the bright side it spawned a love for the Naval Missions). But more immature minds may attribute the failings to trying to include some kind of diversity.

[antias]

Game was bad, had nothing to do with gender. Make a good game like Tomb Raider or Alien: Isolation and it will sell. Expecting every game with a female lead to automatically sell regardless of it's quality is kinda sexist, nobody expects it for male leads.

[DasTier]

I agree, but I think the gender does play into the games setting to. In tomb raider and Alien Isolation especially, you as the player feel more much more vulnerable playing as Ripley than say if Hicks was forced ham-fistedly into the game.

It ties in well with the point insomnium2 made above. Some games make sense for female or male leads, but the worst possible thing to do is just make carbon copies of games with different gendered leads or even worse, change the gender of characters such as link/ Mario.

[antias]

If you think a female is more vulnerable than a male, I think you need to check your balls. One knock to your balls and you are out. Women can take a beating.

[JOWAPPO]

I disagree, Das. Regardless of whether it's Hicks or Ripley, the player is going to feel just as vulnerable. It's not like a film where the audience needs to believe that the protagonist is vulnerable, therefore, the filmmakers are more likely to go with a woman.

It's a video game. If you changed Ripley into a dude, but kept the gameplay identical, nothing would change. The player is still going to piss themselves every time they hear the Alien drop down from a vent.

Also, a female Link isn't too far out of the question. Link is a hero of time, there are literally dozens of Links. The only reason they all look so similar is because Link is too iconic for his own good. The real problem with a female Link right now (say, in the next game), is that it will be praised by the media for all the wrong reasons.

"the game is simply phenomenal because this silent, blank slate has a vagina!" -Polygon 10/10

[Lukejrl]

It is not that women are more vulnerable than men was what his point was. Ripley is the main character in the Alien films. So we as the player identify her as the character in the film all the vulnerability and the times she said "f*** you" to the queen

[-Lawless-]

Don't make games for people who waste time complaining about females not being gender centric in videogames, because clearly the people who make this argument aren't gamers to begin with.

No hobbyist likes when an outside force tries to push into their territory and deliver some completely separate and ridiculous) agenda that completely takes away from the essence of which they enjoy.

I can name 4 female video game characters in recent memory that are bad asses right off the top of my head who don't exist for the sake of trying to push a certain platform, Faith (Mirrors Edge), Lightning (Final Fantasy 13, Hell Fang was a bad ass too) The Boss/Joy (Metal Gear Snake Eater) Meryl Silverburgh (Metal Gear Sons of Patriots it was nice to see Meryl return as a bad ass in my opinion).

Those four are just a quick example. Stop making it seem like a female lead in a video game is actually suppose to mean something, because it doesn't. What matters is the merit that your game stands on, if it's good people will talk about it, if it's mediocre then not so much.

In short, nobody is bothered by female leads or strong female characters in video games, if you're going to waste your money to try and appease a certain demographic who makes judgements on a community they don't truly engage in, but instead make assumptions of them looking from the outside in, then when it comes to shipping your product out then expect to fail.

Seriously? Game is mediocre, pretend sexism is why it won't sell? It baffles me people in the real world even could think this way, I mean I don't know their background, but they at LEAST have to be young adults...they should know better.

[jmc8888]

A huge push? Not really.

That's what's funny. We're told it's some big desire by people, but the truth is, it isn't.

It's a big deal to a very small portion of people, including females themselves.

Gamers want to game, and we really don't care if they are female or male, black or white. We just want a good game.

The reason it SEEMS like it is some big deal, is because a few people ram it down our throats by going to the rooftops and yelling as loud as they can.

So no, the problem is a bunch of morons seem to think a few people screaming loudly means it's a big deal to the rest of us. It isn't. The first mistake is getting that all screwed up.

If people want to complain about something that is important, the last thing that should be is ANYTHING VIDEOGAME RELATED.

[DasTier]

Lol thats society for you, the smallest proportion make the loudest noise and ruin it for everyone else.

You can see it in gaming/sports/films and now more than ever society is losing all its morals.

[ShaunCameron]

Confirmation bias? SJW's ask for female main characters only to ignore them so they can feel justified in their hatred of the activity and its participants from the outside looking in. To them, symbolism is more important than making an actual contribution since the former requires just mere presence while the other requires effort.

[cogniveritas]

I don't know if it's actually that simple. Gamers or (SJWs since that's the buzzword) who ask for female protagonists very well may have purchased the game, but it wasn't enough to make a huge impact because the vocal few can't move real sales of a poor game regardless of protagonists. Even word of mouth needs to be backed up by a positive experience. If the game is poorly made, then yeah it will even be ignored by them.

It's pretty lame to just say yeah here's a game that fulfills a thing that you asked for minus what makes many other games great now buy it because you asked for it even though it's terrible as a game.

Frome the article the game Toren was "slated for it’s poor mechanics and dated gameplay" yet they ineplty go on to state "It’s hard to pin down exactly why Toren was ignored"

Perhaps the poor mechanics and dated gameplay have had something to do with it, or the bad reviews are where it's pinned down? They're playing coy, trying to make a point on a flawed case. If SJWs neglected to enjoy Mirror's Edge, or Lightning Returns or Mass Effect then there would be a point to make. Most traditional male gamers will ignore games of low quality as well, even if it's what they thought they wanted they are subject to change their minds on bad previews/reviews (See very early opinions about SW Battlefront 3 from gamers fond of SW Battlefront 2).

[Enigma_2099]

Diversity in games isn't bad. Bad games, however... are. And I don't care if the main character is a man, woman, or three-legged dog... if the game sucks, I don't want to play it.

[Ogygian]

Because the people asking for female characters either:

A: Don't buy/play a lot of games, or

B: Are a highly vocal minority.

For the rest of us, female characters aren't going to fix a bad game.

Personally, I used to enjoy female characters as much as male, but now I feel like I need to be a counterbalance to the feminists demanding them like entitled little brats, so that devs can choose freely, without being overly-pressured into either choice. Thus, I tend to be very suspicious of female protagonists (I wish this wasn't the case, but it is).

[insomnium2]

If anything a female protagonist gets me is to buy the game if she is hot. Oh no now I said it!!!!

But seriously even if the game is sh*t but the female is hot I somehow end up picking it up. Happened so many times. I even bought RE6 after seeing Ada crawl under stuff.....I then played RE6 for a while and thought to myself "wth am I doing buying these shitty games for a piece of nice a**, pixelated at that too". Can't resist biology though. It makes me a worshipper of the perfect female form and the hunt for the ultimate form is neverending.

[Acquiescence]

Release better games with female leads then.

[JOWAPPO]

"Why Ask For Female Led Games Only To Ignore them?"

Because the people "asking" for it aren't actually gamers or don't really care. SJW's, Feminists, anti-GG, narcissists, whatever you want to call 'em, the fact is they're mostly outsiders with an agenda to push and a community/industry to parasitize by means of manufactured controversy and politically-charged dogma.

-you know why they push for simplification of hardcore games like mirror's edge?

-you know why terrible videos like "25 invisible privileges" are praised as the truth instead of laughed out of the room?

-you know why all the games that they talk up and signal-boost don't do any better?

It's because their audience DOESN'T PLAY VIDEO GAMES. Shocking, I know.

Meanwhile, as others have already pointed out, actual gamers could care less about a game having a female lead, it's not really a novelty. Sure, that's not everyone (all kinds of markets, genres, and gamers) but it is the core audience that made this industry as big as it is.

A female-led game should not be a selling point to make up for a terrible game.

[SilentNegotiator]

They were probably kept from purchasing it by the patriarchy.

...or it was judged by what gamers actually care about; gameplay.

[ManAnimalX]

..