What Happens to Female Playable Characters When Gender isn't an Issue?

Deva Gregory writes: "There are lots of games that let you play as women, but what’s worrisome is that playable female characters surprise us. What should surprise us is a game that lacks playable female characters, and more so, characters whose identity is subscribed only to their gender."

[garyanderson]

Makes me wonder when, if ever, this will ever happen.

[generic-user-name]

Why should it? The overwhelming majority of gamers are male (don't buy those 50% nonsense surveys that include candy crush). Businesses make games that will appeal to their markets. Can't blame a business for wanting to make money.

[ion666]

Your right, just go to a tournament of any kind. There is a majority male presence of roughly 85 to 90 percent male.

[zeuanimals]

Games used to be marketed towards the whole family with the Atari. This all changed after the video game crash in the 80s and the rise of Nintendo. At this point, stores started to move the video game's section to the toy aisle rather than keep it in the electronics aisle, and the toy aisle was split between boys and girls. Nintendo then had to choose which aisle to place the NES in, and they chose the boy's aisle and they heavily marketed their games toward boys. Since then, games have moved out of the toy aisle but the idea that games are for boys due to marketing has stuck. It's not Nintendo's fault, but it is dumb that it stays like that.

So yeah, the majority of gamers are male, but there's a ton of potential sales that devs aren't getting because of the idea that games are for boys. If they can change that perception, then they could essentially double the number of people who play console and PC games, meaning more money. Remember, "can't blame a business for wanting to make money", exactly. Somehow, the film industry has figured out how to have large female audiences for films that are typically targeted towards men, and I'm sure if the games industry tried, they could do the same too. The make it or break it scenario in gaming will significantly reduce if the audience grew due to having more female members, meaning so many studios won't go under anymore.

[wolokowoh]

While there are factually more males than females playing games. I'm not arguing a percentage but there are certainly a lot more than previous generations. The gender role thing that is slowly dissolving away not just in gaming but everywhere. My nieces play with G.I. Joes and watch DBZ. Am I responsible for making the introduction? Yes, but if they didn't like why are they doing when I'm not around?

Assuming that it has to be a male character is stupid on the industry's part. I'm male and usually play as female when given a choice. I don't have gender identity issues, I just prefer it that way. Possible two reasons: If I have to play a game for x amount of hours I'd rather be looking at a female body because heterosexual male. A character doesn't have to be my sex for me to be able to identify with them, assuming I do at all.

My question is "How does having all male leads appeal to guys? " I can't identify with current iterations Marcus from GeOW or Kratos from GOW on any level other than their grief. However if the characterization is done well in a game, it doesn't really matter male or female or hell gay or transgender whatever they call themselves. If the character is meant to identified with and that is executed well, I identify with them on a human level. Now if its shoehorned in there for the sake of pandering to SJWs like Marvel is doing that a whole other thing. That's lazy. Horizon and Tomb Raider is how you do it right. They're female because they were always intended to be women.

[UCForce]

I don't mind playing female protagonist. But all I care is character development.

[robtion]

Some of my favourite games have female playable characters, for example Alice Madness Returns, Beyond Good and Evil, Tomb Raider, Remember Me. I don't think there is an issue. Perhaps just people who think about this stuff too much and make a storm in a teacup for themselves.

[drizzom]

Bingo. It becomes all you think about and it ends up consuming you and coloring the way you see the world around you. And now that your psyche is all screwed up, you start to see issues where in reality there really isn't any. Its something people can rarely detect in themselves and they live their whole lives trapped inside their own mind.

[garyanderson]

I think the issue is that there's so few of them.

[Vits]

And that really isn't a issue, when you consider that most people who buy these games are men and supposedly the player must identify with the protagonist.

The only point of this article that I agree with, is that the players were surprised to find that Samus was a woman. But that was in 1986, a time when female protagonists in games was indeed rare, but that does not resonate with the times we live in today.

[Princess_Pilfer]

I got as far as the word patriarchy before I stopped reading. That term is almost always a direct indicator that it's 3rd wave feminist nonsense, playing into their little victim cult.

(I'm a half black lesbian, lest someone think I'm a straight white male trying to hold onto my "privelage" or some crap.)

I'd love more female characters, and I do feel that in any game where the protagonist isn't a set character for plot reasons should allow me to play one. That said, I'd rather have good characters than female characters. Seeing as most developers are guys (and based on women in generals lack of interest in tech fields that's not changing,) and most of the AAA target audience are guys, expecting AAA studios to write many female main characters in the first place is iffy, and expecting them to consistently do it well is downright dumb. It takes a particularly good writer to be able to write a character who was socialized essentially from birth (and has natural tendancies towards much of that behavior to begin with) in a way completely different from them, so it's unreasonable to expect most male writers to be able to write good female characters unless you're in a "gender blind" universe where being male or female (for some reason) doesn't have an impact on their personality and how they were raised.

You wanna see it done right? If you're a dude, go play Life is Strange and contrast all the subtle ways she acts and is reacted too differently than you might be because she's a woman, right down to how her social circles work. That is a good female character by a good writer who knew that while being a woman should be pretty far down the list in terms of important character traits it *is* a character trait (in part because of biology and in part because of how we're raised) and it reverberates through not just all of the more important things but also how people respond to whatever we happen to be doing.

Then compare that to a Dragon Age Inquisition, and laugh at how comparatively shallow the characters and society are by pretending that a major aspect of every person in their world (their gender) just doesn't exsist the vast majority of the time, and so has little impact on their society. Not that Bioware games have bad writing, they don't, just that it's recently it's very simplistic by comparison.)

Point is, I'd take 1 Max, Yuna or Chie (Or indeed Joel, Squall or Ceaser) every 2 years over 50 Sara every 6 months because Sara is a good character who so happens to be female, Chie is a good female character (and Joel a good male character,) which means with all the cultural stuff and societal expectations baked in, and there is a big freaking difference. A difference I just don't think most (even most good) writers are actually capable of reflecting properly with female characters because *they haven't experienced something like it,* which means it takes a lot of imagination and empaty, as well as skill, for the (mostly male) writers to get it right.

I think I went overboard with my rant. Sorry.

[Red_Renegade]

very well said.

[carcarias]

No need to apologise, sometimes the most well thought out comments require more writing in order to fully flesh out the points one is trying to make....and you made several good ones.

I think people who assume, or push, that gender and sexual orientation are the main priorities in determining the way to create a character's personality and motivations are actually belittling the diversity we have as human beings, as individuals, and are therefore missing the whole point of creating good, compelling entities.

[Lukejrl]

I agree with some points of this article. I guess i never viewed playing as a female character a problem once i passed 8 years of age so i never really though about it. But i find that if all you do is focus on the negative you will find something to complain about. We are constantly changing our viewpoints. Things are getting better not worse.

[sdcard4gb]

Better ? We are shoulder-deep in DLC and pre-order bullshit culture with games taking almost 100 million dollars and half a decade to make into a formulaic samey soulless product and you call this better ?

[Kokyu]

This guy gets it

[FullmetalRoyale]

While I am no advocate of preorder nonsense, that is not at all what this discussion is about. You are retorting to something that is not being discussed.
-When it comes to the topic at hand(which might be getting a little long in the tooth), we have examples of great characters. Though I don't think it was a huge problem to begin with, and no doubt part of it comes from the technology we have today, we do see improvements.
-When it comes to characters; I like good characters. Be them black, white, teen, adult, male, or female. A character like Ellie from TLoU is well wrtitten and acted, and it makes her a compelling character. I think it's a problem when a character is just a checkbox. Lee Everett is a good character that is black. I don't see him as a black character, it's not what defines him to me. Same with Ellie, Triss, Liara, Clementine, and Yennifer are greatly realized characters first.

[Scatpants]

Blanket statement is inaccurate.

[_-EDMIX-_]

Might as well quit gaming bud.

Yes... a company will charge you for extra content.

You don't need to buy DLC, you don't need to pre order anything you don't want too.....I mean that is up to you. I don't see that stopping and I barely see that as "worse" when its 100% up to you to either buy or not buy. If you feel this way like you keep spamming on here to oblivion...make your own game with zero DLC, zero pre-order content, less then 100 million and in less then 5 years.

Enjoy lol. MOST of us play games for fun, not for political reasons or moral reasons etc.

Thats......thats just strange. Do you buy bad games because they have no dlc, no pre-order content, cost less then 100 mill etc?

Unless you are doing that, its hard to see your issue with those features if you may not even be prepared to BUY something out of this strange freedom fighter concept.

No one is buying BAD games for principle or for gamer peace and being fair etc. Those concepts don't exist in business, sounds like stupidity to me bud. How many honest developers are you going poor to buy content form regardless of actual quality or if you even like it?

Again...I question why you even play games, if those optional things are issues to you. Better is subjective, not all are seeing gaming as this doom and gloom. You seem to paint the world as if hell has frozen over lol.

Why even keep coming on here if you hate the state of gaming so much? Maybe this hobby is dead to you then bud, don't know what to say. Not sure how many developers will keep gladly getting paid the same thing for 10 years with a smile.

Would you work for over 10 years for the same pay while having MORE work?

[BrandanT]

I have a feeling that if these female characters were more traditionally feminine, they'll be ridiculed for being stereotypes or being confined to gender roles or something like that. But if we were to take all that away, it'll be ridiculed for lacking a female identity and not feeling too natural.

I don't get what people want nowadays.

[sdcard4gb]

Neither do they.

[Scatpants]

They want to complain. It has very little to actually do with games.

[Ristul]

Exactly, for as long as they have something to complain about, there is money for them to be had in the system. Feminism had a role to play, and now that it has played it's part and there are less and less actual issues to consider and deal with, they find themselves clinging to their superfluous jobs in any way they can - even if it means fabricating or exaggerating a problem.

[madpuppy]

It's become a career for some people, take Anita Sarkeesian for example, have you ever heard the gobbledygook that comes out of her mouth? It would give a College Professor a Migraine. But, she has made a very profitable career out of it, even being invited on talk shows and college campuses to speak.
Anyone that uses gender or race as a means to become rich is deplorable.

[_-EDMIX-_]

"I have a feeling that if these female characters were more traditionally feminine, they'll be ridiculed for being stereotypes"

Let them. Females just like males come in all forms. How is really traditionally male or female anyway? We have so many different forms of people that I think developers are free to explore those ideas with their characters and add life to them.

[Red_Renegade]

i don't get the question. isn't gender only an issue because people are making it an issue? and who's surprised at playable female characters? this is all so weird.

[Godmars290]

Its that female characters are considered to be objectified for being female characters by people who largely only see female characters as being objectified.

[ravinash]

It's not so much the gamers who have an issue but rather the people marketing them.
Their the ones who still think gamers are all young or teenage white guys.

[sdcard4gb]

People give waaaaaay too much attention to what's dangling between playable character's legs... This industry should be much more concerned about rising development costs and development cycles for games that generate loads of hype and in the end look shiny but formulaic and devoid of soul.
Nope, we're gonna give unprecedent ammount of time to shit like "objectification" and "gender politics"... Please, just stop, gaming industry, you have your head neck-deep in the wrong arse.

[shammgod]

The Last of Us and Life is Strange are two of my favorite games. i look forward to playing Rise of Tomb Raider and Dishonored 2 coming in the next months. I don't think most gamers dwell on this topic too much. It's a very small minority of people that this truly affects. people that are truly affected by this have other deeper problems

Edit. Oh, i forgot, gravity rush 2 also.

[dumahim]

The Walking Dead

[Relientk77]

Can't wait to play as Emily in Dishonored 2 and Aloy in Horizon Zero Dawn

[GregMicek]

Second that! Stoked for both.

[Zorkaz]

I think things are improving in general on that front. To be fair we're not even that far behind film. Female protagonists may not always surprise us but will definitely be noticed, but mainly only in an action game context. Nobody batted an eyelid for games like Life is Strange, though despite Lara Croft always having been a woman, many people couldn't help complaining about the sounds of her grunts or her cleavage (I mean for crying out loud you're seeing her back most the time anyways). This isn't true in all games, and Tomb Raider probably wasn't the best example, as I personally thought they nailed it pretty well, but my point is that, like in real life, action roles are often automatically attributed to men in our brains. It's not just a conception, seeing as most soldiers are men for instance, but the fact is it will often make some people look twice, especially if they retain their sexuality (like in Bayonetta, though that's just ... japanese).
To be honest, while things can definitely get better, you've got to admit that things aren't really that bad. Female protagonists, like males, are tough, and can kick ass better than anybody else in the game(as playable characters do). I think when approaching the question of their character, people will often complain, though failing to consider that here the goal is really equality, and let's be honest here, men have sexuality too. Many people seem to ignore this, but this is really the standard. How many thousands of male protagonists are emotionless slabs of muscle, doing manly things with manly guns? Sure, since there are tons more of them, there's that much more chance that they be real characters, but this is yet another point. If there are 9 men and 1 women, because she's gonna be the only one, like in film, devs will often make the mistake of trying to make her tough because they don't want to be sexist, but still a potential damsel in distress for the main character, with enough sexuality to be a love interest (because god forbid the protagonist to be gay, I think that's a bigger issue in gaming). Funnily enough, when the female's the protagonist, you sometimes get the opposite phenomenon, because for some reason, when you're a female, most of the other main characters have to be too.
Anyway I've just reread this whole thing and realized that it's basically an uncut and unrefined stream of thought spat onto a comment section, but I can't be bothered to redo it to make sense to deal with it. I'll post it anyway in case somebody vaguely sees my point ...

[Kokyu]

What happens when sites stop pushing click bait and SJW stop trying to push their ideas into gaming and devs, publisher and artists are allowed their vision for their creation? The answer good products that people want.

[Kratos0289]

I'll never understand why so many in the industry care about this, the majority of gamers couldn't care any less about the gender/race/age etc the character is all we care about is if the game is good

[IxWoodstockxI]

I hate the Internet so much

[DragonKnight]

Playable female characters do not surprise us. They've been around literally since the beginning.

A game with no playable female characters should not surprise us. Playabale characters are playable due to story. If the story has no women, oh well.

These are not real people. They are strings of data.

[Nathan_Hale53]

Agreed. The only time it was a surprise was Samus' reveal in the original Metroid back in 86. This stuff is driving me insane now.

[REDDURT]

I always thought if I was going to look at a character's ass all day it should be a female. I know what your thinking and that is on you.

[ExteriorKnight]

I find it kind of funny that 2 out of the 3 comments at the bottom of the article on the site are from the staff members of the website. I don't agree with the article. Making characters women for the sake of making them women isn't a very good reason. Making them men for the sake of having a male character isn't good either. I personally don't care whether a character is male or female because it really doesn't matter. Anyone can have role models regardless of gender and women shouldn't need more women in media to represent them. Look up to any character that amazes you regardless of gender. It really doesn't matter which bits they have as long as you can connect to them.

[medman]

I love Ellie. She is my favorite character from games I have played over the last ten years, probably even longer than that.

[Surt]

Write what you want. Don't just check off a list.

[Night99]

Most games are about war or have at least a guns a weapon or you fight to kill someone and war always will be and always was male-dominated. How is the gender ratio within the armys of our world? If you know the answer to this question you know why most Playable Characters in games are males. And this is not because the society would not let females work as soldier femalse simply have way less interrest to become a soldier than males.

[FallenAngel1984]

When has this been an issue? We already have various games where a female character is the main lead

[opinionated]

I can't wait until we are truly equal and every game has chosen a female protagonist. I wonder if these same morons will come around asking "where are the white male protagonists?". My guess is no..

[ClickbaitAF]

Why are people so focused on the gender of a character is just beyond me.

[NotEvenMyFinalForm]

wrong reply

[AuToFiRE]

Many exceptions to this.

[Scatpants]

This is stupid. Not every game has to have a playable female character, and why are you surprised about playable female characters? They're in tons of big games. Put playable female characters in all the cell phone games if you want. Those are the games women play anyway. Can't games just be fun to you? Does the character you're playing have to have a vagina for it to be fun? Personally, I'll play whatever and I'm not concerned with what gender the characters are at all. It's like people get all into this new age feminism nonsense and then their entire lives have to revolve around gender issues. Get over it and quit trying to strong arm artists into changing their art.

[dumahim]

"The consensus is also that when there are playable female characters, they are (by and large) reflective of gender stereotypes including sexual objectification and the damsel that needs saving. "

So help me out here. When is a playable female character the damsel that needs saving? I can't think of one right now.

[Kurdishcurse]

all them children complaining about gender roles and here i am playing dark souls.

[stalepie]

It's never been an issue.

[Adrian_v01]

While gender is still an issue, playable female characters aren't, this is easily shown by the anticipation and popularity of Horizon (as far as I know no one complained about the lead being female). I don't actually think there would be a problem if people wouldn't market the characters as just that, female. That's why i don't get this article, they want gender to be a non-issue yet they themself make it an issue.

There have been many great female protagonists so far, Tomb Rider, Clair from Resident Evil, Zoe from The Longest Journey, Ellie of course and more. I really don't see an issue with any of them. The writer then bashes characters from Dead or Alive and Soul Calibur, but sorry i don't get it. Everyone knows how sexual man can be, why wouldn't attractive women use that as an advantage? In a fist fight I'm sure every guy would lose focus if the woman opposing him was naked lol

Also, as a guy who's not intrested in woman (hence i can't sexualize them) i like playing Eve from SC simply cause she's badass. Isn't that a good thing, a character being perceived as badass?

Lastly, most game developers are male. Each person's idea of the opposite sex isn't accurate. When guys write girls you get characters attractive above average, when girls write guys you get characters who are more emotional than usual (Twilight much?). So I am content with what i get. Depending on the developer or team I'd rather have a character the developer is satisfied with and comfortable writing than some shallow underdeveloped stereotype.

[ShadowWolf712]

"Everyone knows how sexual man can be, why wouldn't attractive women use that as an advantage? In a fist fight I'm sure every guy would lose focus if the woman opposing him was naked lol "

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that the actual given reason why Mai from King of Fighters dresses the way she does?

[Ogygian]

I prefer male characters myself. I find it far easier to immerse myself because the fact is that identity is inextricably linked to gender.

I don't mind the odd female character like Lara Croft, but she should have flaws like any good character, and not be a Mary Sue.

Perhaps rather than deciding that everything which doesn't fit one's worldview is a "problem", thought should first be given to why the status quo exists (without jumping to conclusions about evil misogynistic cabals).

[Dunban67]

who pens this trash and do they actually believe it or are they just trying to "stir the pot" for attention and clicks?

[AgentSmithPS4]

Gender is only an issue if you make it one. I'm male and I like playing as attractive females, because I am genetically programed to enjoy looking at them. Having them in the game adds another source of entertainment. It'd be great if people focused on real issues that effect real people.

[senorfartcushion]

Come back to me when there isn't as much sexism in male-nerd culture.

[Red_Renegade]

male nerd culture? what is that?

[Chaosdreams]

Damned if you do. Damned if you don't.

[madpuppy]

This reminds me of environmentalists, They want more alternative energy solutions. Then complain that Windmill farms are killing birds by the hundreds of thousands. or that the materials to make solar panels are bad for the environment. To me that is proof that some people will NEVER be satisfied with anything. Or, for some, Protesting becomes the goal rather than the means.
Personally, I don't care about the gender of a character, but, there are times thematically, that it matters and that is where we could get caught in the slippery slope of trying to assuage special interest groups by sacrificing what a game is into a political statement. and the last time I checked, Political statements make really bad games.

[Adrian_v01]

That's the problem. Always has been, most of the times at least. People think if they're vocal about a problem it needs ti be fixed. Sorry but no one deserves anything for just screaming around. Get your butt up and do something. You're a minority and want someone to fight for your rights? Enter politics and work up to a position where u can do it. Want enviroment friendly solar cells? Get a degree in engineering and develop some. Want more good female leads? Do game development and create them. Why do people think someone else will do the job for them?

[immabadguy]

Holy shit, has the author ever heard of target audience before?

[teo72]

Whatever is right for the story. Gender should not matter outside of this

[Gh05t]

Maybe all the male characters are really females that believe they are males and dont want to talk about it and if you respect them you will never bring it up, as its their choice if they want be be males, right. So yeah by that logic go pound sand almost all games have female/male characters and prove to me its not that way.

and some day all you people who try to tell me "gender" is societal and doesn't matter will stop complaining about GENDER! You people are freaking on BOTH sides of every damn argument! Everything you people believe is a contradiction when played out to its end.

[Nathan_Hale53]

I never really payed attention to the gender of a character as a kid. I Don't really now. I will if the character made is terrible, such as 99% of the characters in Inquisition because of how forced everything was. But a great female character, such as Lara Croft, Yennefer, Trish, Samus, or Ellie, really shine to me. I don't give them props for being a good female character. I give them props for being great characters in general, and their gender shows slightly different point of views which makes them stand out to me if written well.

I am sick of people wanting games to forcibly add female characters, and they have to be a strong female lead, otherwise it is sexist, and anyone forced into a story always falls flat and breaks a lot of immersion. It annoys the hell out of me that people will bitch if they are portrayed as weak, even if it is a major part to the story, they'll call "sexist!" There are purposely weak male and female characters in games and I don't freak out over the super muscular, attractive men, nor do I freak out over the alcoholic man-slave. It especially pisses me off since the market is dominated by men, and yet they claim that there are almost equal amount of male/female gamers, simply because most of those girl "gamers" play candy crush 20 minutes a day, yet they'd never buy any of the games they cry and moan about.

I just want this censorship and forced characterization to stop. Censorship will lead to worse cases of it, and the forced characters are just lame and does more harm than good.

[hahaha]

The gender bender!

[SlightlyRetarted]

I don't give a damn about characters gender. Not as a kid when i played the first Tomb Raider, not now. I'm going to play my first playthrough of Dishonored 2 as Emily. Why? Because she has a completely new set of abilities. I won't play Corvo just because he has a leather ding dong in his pants.
What i hate is when devs put female and minority characters into the game, just for the sake of having them in the game (these devs like to be high and mighty on social media and think they are better people than anyone else). Hell, some of the Bioware characters seem to tell you that they are sexual minority before they even tell their name. I don't care about characters sexuality if it doesn't have anything to do with the story. "My name is Kratos, i'm a hetero sexual!" Sounds so silly if you flip it around. And it's worrying that devs like Naughty Dog has said that their games will feature a lot of minorities, just so games will have minorities. If you don't write a characters naturally but give them pre-sets, i don't think they will be good characters.

[JokerBoy422]

Oh yay!!! More pandering!!!

[annoyedgamer]

How did this garbage get to the front page?

[LAWSON72]

I only pay attention to if a game is good or not, would not give two craps if the main character was some heavy set lady for example. I am sure most gamers feel the same way. Just let devs do what they want, if they are content with good looking brown haired white guys so be it that is their decision. They certainly are not sexist or racist for whatever decision they make nor should you try and call them out on it either.

[TWB]

I think it will always mater to an extend. Good characters are in some way always relatable, and alot of times I think those are based on stereotypes which represent large portions of people, but not the majority.

Basicly, there are different stereotypes between the genders, and different cultural backgrounds/races. So if you build your characters based on these details, you really cant have a convincing character that just allows you to toggle its gender between the two.

You have to specificly create a base character for that.

[extermin8or]

Imo they start to look more you know normal - appearance wise. (None of the oversexualised crap. Like og lara Croft....) ironically I think personally that a normal and realistic design makes them look more attractive than the over sexualised ones. U'd rather have a character that looks like someone you could bump into on the street and has an interesting story arc and a well developed character....... Industry is getting there.

[Mexxan]

I wish this was all about equality, sadly it's not.