Is There A Valid Excuse For Not Having Playable Women in GTA 5?

Gameranx takes on Rockstar Games and its defenders' reasons for not including a playable female protagonist in GTA 5.

[tigertron]

For goodness sake. Women are playable on GTA Online.

[StillGray]

Obviously the article is talking about the singleplayer campaign.

[KonsoruMasuta]

Article never specifies that. He is talking about GTA V as a whole.

[Nitrowolf2]

@KonsoruMasuta

TBH, I think it can be implied with the comparison the The Last of Us and this line "The issue is that “women don’t fit into a story about masculinity” is in itself a statement I don’t agree with."

But nonetheless, making this an issue is just dumb. Don't get me wrong, I think Rockstar could really work it out, but considering the humor and lines that they always use for the Male characters throughout the whole GTA franchise, a female character going the same representation as the Male character would probably give them more hate than having no playable female in the story.

It really does make sense. They just don't want to piss off a bunch of people for something they never have done in any of their games. Rockstar games revolve around male characters going from rag to richies.

[0ut1awed]

@KonsoruMasuta

To play devils advocate, GTA V is not technically GTA Online according to what rockstar is marketing. I mean it's the online component on the same engine and all. You wanted to get specific about the article though, so specifically speaking you are incorrect.

[Hicken]

Obviously the article is a weak hit grab and/or misguided attempt to latch onto a hot topic.

I write in my free time. A LOT. I've got a few dozen novels at varying levels of completion. There isn't one of them that would allow me to just swap the main protagonist for one of the opposite gender.

Stories just don't work like that. You can't just pull off or pop on a penis and everything goes on as planned. Relationships change, reactions and interactions change. Entire world views change.

So yes, there is a valid "excuse"- I'd call it a reason- for not having playable women.

What's your excuse for such a silly article?

[PoSTedUP]

yeah bc its a mans world and a mans game. funny how this shit attacks one of the most masculine games ever made, fk'n feminist...
write about call of duty bc women are noble enough to wanna fight in our military, but you cant play as a female charcter? that is certainly less rightouss than the bs they are attacking gta with. its just a bunch of sour feminists, now excuse me while i go treat women equally as i mow them down with my car in gtaV.

[Gaming101]

The author doesn't know anything about art. When you have a canvas and story you want to create, it's your art, and it isn't up to anyone else to whine like a bitch that you didn't make your art the way they would have liked you to make it. Complaining that the story wasn't more centralized around women is not objective whatsoever, it's like complaining that He-man wasn't actually She-woman back in the cartoons and movies. They just didn't want to tell that story. It's like complaining that you don't play as any American Indians - as if it's up to you as a developer to include every single identifiable group, homogenized into your gameplay. It's retarded, and a non-argument.

[B-radical]

It's a story.....you cant tell someone what to put in there story...its just wrong if r* didnt want playable female in the sp then fair enough

[UnHoly_One]

Exactly.

You don't see any articles complaining about not being able to play as a guy in Tomb Raider.

[okmrman]

yes there is a reason
the writer didnt include a woman in his story

why does everything has to be politically correct

[nypifisel]

Yeah political correctness got to go. What's wrong with the simple fact that the story was written for 3 men..?

[Blaze929]

....women, smh. Always wanting something

[3-4-5]

Where is the playable women in almost 95% of games?

Why single out GTA 5 ?

O yea, because it just released therefore it will have it's own exposure which this person can then leach off of.

Attention whoooors and nothing more

[Taislin]

Hmmmm, let me think. Because the developers didn´t want to, and the whole story was created with the three protagonists in mind. Why does a game NEED to have female and male playable characthers nowadays? Same bullshit with FFXV, people whine about no playable female characthers. If the game doesn´t have them it´s for a reason.Doesn´t mean it isn´t nice to have both, but it´s not a necessity at all. No excuse is in order

[DoctorJones]

Talk about flogging a dead horse, it isn't an issue to pretty much everyone playing it. I'm fed up with hearing the same thing over and over again.

It hasn't got a female protagonist so get over it, none of this matters to most people and it isn't going to change anything. A game shouldn't have to shoehorn a female character in just to please a small minority that take issue with it.

If you're that worried about it don't buy and play the game, it's as simple as that.

[chrissx]

This is getting crazy

[JackVagina]

sigh

[Baka-akaB]

Why should they need excuses ? i dont see a 4th asian character either , are people complaining ?

[Rai]

so..should I be expecting an article for every game that comes out in the future that doesn't have a female playable?

[laijka]

There better be.

[TheEnigma313]

Why is this even an issue? I mean really. I'm all for equality, but this is just ridiculous.

[KonsoruMasuta]

Why couldn't you play as a man in Tomb Raider? I'm mad!!!!

This is obvious sexism.

[Software_Lover]

Obviously.

[snitch_puck]

Now I ain't taking sides here but from my vantage point, it really doesn't matter to me if this GTA OR the past GTAs have no woman protagonist. Yet, i do agree with the author at some point: GTA has always been so redundant. That being, you are a manly man doing manly things, from rags to riches 'till you get all 'em bitches. It was always like that. Now, a change of pace would certainly be nice. Grand Theft Auto can potentially HAVE a female protagonist. I'm not hoping for rockstar to do that yet since their minds are all about the same thing: we need our players to play as men. playing as men will be fun because PROSTITUTES! DATES! EGO TRIPS! yep, that's all we gonna expect. Yet, I'm still going to play this game GTA V. I just hope hope hope, that they include one hot female vixen as a protagonist in the future. now that would be rad.

[KonsoruMasuta]

GTA 1 actually had lead female characters in the PC version. If I remember correctly, they gave you the choice to choose from like 7 different characters.

But they were taken out in the PS port. So that's probably why no one remembers.

Anyways, back on topic, this article is stupid. It's their game, their narrative choice.

The game was built around these three male characters. Besides, you can play as women online. Don't know why people are complaining.

[snitch_puck]

really? they did? hmm well that would be worth noting.

point taken and I do agree with you.

Anyhow, from what I see though, GTA MAY have female protagonists in the past but that was overhead gaming and although I haven't played GTA 1, I can say that the characters may not be well rounded. A change of pace though is getting a female protagonist that's very well-rounded, 3D rendered (well that's a given) , has a background story, and of course, playable.

GTA V now is, I agree, centers and focuses on these 3 male protagonists and I have no complaints about that. but a DLC featuring a FEMALE 4th character would be interesting!

[Sadist3]

If I were a developer and someone asked why there are no playable women in my game, I would say "The same reason there aren't playable aliens or cats or children. Because I designed the protagonist to be a guy."

[Scatpants]

Nobody asks this about books or movies. Games shouldn't be any different.

[metalgod88]

There may be good reasons for not using a woman, but there's always a counter to each and every reason. This argument could seriously go on forever, so I"m just going to go back to GTA V and enjoy my stay.

[vivid83]

why is this question only being asked of GTAV and I'm pretty sure women aren't complaining

[HonestDragon]

"Well take The Last of Us as an example: here is a game that is entirely based on a core narrative of masculinity that still devotes a significant amount of time to a secondary narrative of a young woman growing up a nightmarish world."

Where the hell did you get that from The Last of Us? What game did you play? It wasn't about that all. It was a journey for two people from different times of the world coping and fighting for a way to achieve something that no one else had attempted or bothered with. It was about survival against all odds.

On topic, you completely lost me. Where and what point are you trying to make? That Rockstar are big bad bullies who won't let you play a female character in one of their games? I have a better question: why are you trying to politicize Grand Theft Auto V? Even then, where did your interpretation of The Last of Us come from? You are trying to bring up topics that have no reason to exist in the conversation.

Grand Theft Auto V has its own story. A story that is done the way the writers want. The Last of Us is no different. Everyone has their own way of writing and thinking about what type of character fits best. To me, it sounds like you are trying to find some underlying message within these games. Does it not occur to you that they were just made for entertainment and not to address some social commentary? This article is flamebait, plain and simple.

[jmc8888]

Nothing wrong with having men, women, various races, nationalities, religion, sexualities, etc, etc.

But people need to remember that when a story is written, it's written with a character in mind. The writers of GTA V obviously weren't thinking of a female lead role.

Nothing good or bad about it, just what is. Thus the valid reason is that the writers had a story, and it didn't involve a female lead.

[Inception]

And when someday R* made women as the main protagonist in GTA, than the feminazis still complaining about how sexist R* potrayed her. Geez, seriously, i'm tired with this sexist bullshit from the feminazis :(