If more people are more vocal about wanting it, it will happen. As simple as that. Also lets not forget that a vast amount of games lets you pick whether to be male or female, especially in the rpg department.
Uh... There's NILLIN in Remember Me and there's Terra in Final Fantasy 6.
There is also a bunch of cool dating games where you play as a female, lol. You might think that's weird, but DATE WARP on Steam has a pretty kickass story.
Don't care. All that matters is if the game is good, the protaganist is simply the median for the story. I think they are predominantly male because more men play those types of videogames and make those kinds of videogames so they simply go from a male perspective instinctively. Also their are quite a lot already, maybe not fifty fifty but still their are quite a few.
There's WAY fewer female characters than there are female gamers, in terms of proportions. And "a few" doesn't cut it, not when we're talking about hundred and hundreds of games.
@cipher42 Well first off women tend to play more on their smartphones, androids and tablets. Second, something that has been repeated to you all too often, gaming industries are focused on a target demographic and already have made plenty of female characters.
@wombraider: actually, even in regards to PC gamers the makeup is nearly evenly split. And it's been found that more women than men actually own gaming consoles as well. So you're pretty incorrect all around.
I play many different video games and yea although there's few female protagonists I don't think it matters all that much. I'll play as anything for the video game, and a lot of the time games have options between playing as a male or female. When they give options I usually choose the one with better stats or better looks if there are no stats.
I voted that there should be more but im fine with how it is now. I've seen plenty of female protagonist and options to be male, female, gay or bi in games (dragon age etc). Maybe games with more realistic female backgrounds since a lot of female protagonists are sexualized for the male audience
Female protagonists? Chick with guns? Nice boobies? Hot bodies? Yeah!!!
Female protagonists who will act like women and get all giddy over hot guys? Getting worried about 'he loves me, he loves me not' and get pregnant... Eh... no.
Like it or not. I don't think people want female protagonists who act like females. A lot of guys just like hot women acting like guys. Heroic, tough and cool.
You're kidding right? 1. Samus Aran - Metroid 2. Faith - Mirrors Edge 3. Joanna Dark - Perfect Dark Series 4. Jade - Beyond Good and Evil 5. Bayonetta - Bayonetta Series 6. Lara Croft - Tomb Raider 7. Jeanne d'Arc - Jeanne d'Arc Games 8. Princess Peach - Yup has her own game on the Nintendo DS 9. Yuna - Final Fantasy X2 10. Sam - Grey Matter Game (2011 I think) 11. Hana - Fear Effect 12. Konoko - Oni Game 13. Aya Brea - Parasite Eve Game 14. And Lightening - Final Fantasy XIII
And that's just off the top of my head, expand your gaming experience people.
Every Pokemon Game past Gold and Silver you can be a female, in The Elder Scrolls, and Fallout games past like tactics you can be female, FF6 has 2 female main charcters cuz Terra is the MC for the first half Celes is the MC for the 2nd half, 13 has lightning, 13 2 has Serah, and Soul Caliber V Pirrah is one of the MC's the other one being Petrocolose her brother, and there are ton of secondary characters and Deuteragonists, and more
Overall I think there are quite a few cool female videogame characters, I wouldn't be opposed to more as long as it's not forced or badly done. I care the most about a good story not about the gender of the character. Same goes for tv shows, I've watched Agent Carter, Bones, The Good Wife, Fringe, Veronica Mars, Grey's anatomy, How to get away with Murder and probably a few more that I didn't continue watching or forgot about. So as long as the story is good idc that's my position ;). i.i.cbsi.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2013/02/06/011.jpg
The sequel is gonna come out soon. I played the first game and I thought it was quite good, maybe it needed work but it was innovative and I had fun. I don't think it's fair to say it failed at all, the game has many fans and a lot of people are excited for the sequel. We'll see how that's gonna be :). Sry I didn't answer your question really in my first comment so I made a reply. But then you'd already read my comment haha.
I don't see it as a topic of political correctness.
"Should" there be more? No. It's not required. "Should" there not be more? No, because being male is not required.
If you care that much. Write a good story and make the protagonist female. Star Wars 7 was awesome. I loved Rey. Not because the protagonist was a girl, but because she was good and it was a good story. Gender wasn't the defining point.
The issue isn't about requirements, and it's not about people intentionally making characters a certain gender to fit quotas. Not like that anyhow. It's about the fact that it seems to be a sign of societal sexism that so few characters (or protagonists in basically whatever kind of media) are female.
The moment you say "should", you're implying that they have to otherwise they are sexist or may be viewed as sexist. Maybe it's nothing to do with gender and the story how it came about in the writers mind was a male character.
Also keep in mind that the percentage of women suddenly becoming interested in videogames as much as they have is a relatively new thing. It's a male dominated field, because for decades girls didn't like video games and even joked men for enjoying them. The fact that more girls like them now should not be a call to designer's (who already have a loyal fan base ) to change their product. In marketing there's a concept that you cannot be all things to all people if you want to be successful.
Making female leads for the sole purpose of meeting a political idea is attempting to do just that. The goal is make a great story and be true to the story. If that means a female character, then great. If that means a male character, then great.
Personally I perfer games that give you option to play as either gender without it changing the gameplay or storyline to much. There are a few games like this out there, but sadly not enough.
A lot of the time when they do that. They tend to end up making both the male and female protagonist lack a personality. Then the interactions with either protagonist with NPC's end up not being that much fun either. Just wish they could do a better job with that.
I would love if more women protaganist in games, especially bayonetta who is badass and Kerrigan from Starcraft too, making women a force to reckon with rather than save them from a castle, I'm look at you peach
I prefer male protagonists. When people script female protagonists, like in The Last Of Us or Resident Evil or even Tomb Raider, they tend to do a bad job.
But that in and of itself is a problem; if the protagonist has to not talk in order to maintain the respect of the player that means that the scripting was too poor or the mainstream expectations too sexist.
I mean there actually a TON of female protagonists whether you're looking at Heavenly Sword or Assassin's Creed or older to Blood Rayne but they all have the same big boobs, quirky character issues. Even modern games like Life is Strange have this issue and don't get me started on Japanese titles because even Japanese Horror (Fatal Frame) has this issue.
Oh, and that comma needs to be a slash between big boobs and quirky behavior; female protagonists tend to only be "interesting" if they are simply really, really far out there; or are written as such.
Makes me like the Armored Core protagonists more though.
YES mostly because I ALWAYS PLAY AS A FEMALE CHARACTER. I don't like being male characters in video games because I'm a dude IRL. It's fun to roleplay as a fantasy character that I'm nothing like IRL.
Battlefield with female soldiers would be awesome - women serve in the military too and deserve to be represented - There are women who have more guts than some men after all ^^
You feminists are always complaining before researching the facts. There's plenty of female protagonists and all you feminazis are doing is making men become chauvinists against female gamers.
I am not a feminist. Was just curious about what others thought. Plus I only know of 3 because either I heard about the game they are from or I actually played it. So most of the games I played doesn't have a single female protagonist.
But that doesn't mean there is a "sea of male protagonists" and it doesn't mean there should be more female heroes in games. Just because you haven't heard of all the female heroines doesn't mean they don't exist. The gender thing is equally balanced with the only problem being that people don't find most of the female heros to be cool. So it's the consumer's choice, not the game companies.
I guess it causes issues with the controls? Like on the wii they had to change link to being right handed. I forgot which game it was. It was basically to make it so the controls didn't seem weird for if you played with you right but seeing Link using his left.
Fact is there are more men who play video games than women, and so gaming industries will choose their main characters in accordance with its main purchaser: men.
Don't be salty.
Just look at the fashion industry as another example. Why are there more clothes for women than men? Same reasoning.
Some people rather play a single player game. Though in most of them you don't get a choice. From what I've played it's normally just males.
I have fun playing as a male in video games. I love fucking with the female NPC's in them which makes it pretty funny. Though it would be fun to be able to do that as a female too. Sadly that doesn't really exist. :(
Elle from Last of Us (and her friend in the prequel), Jodie from Beyond Two Souls, Kara from Detroit, Elena and Chloe from Uncharted. You can also play a female in Skyrim and Fallout 4. These are all games from the past 5 years and critically acclaimed pretty unanimously. Except Detroit, which will be released in the future but is highly anticipated.
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Demand and supply, demand and supply.
If more people are more vocal about wanting it, it will happen. As simple as that.
Also lets not forget that a vast amount of games lets you pick whether to be male or female, especially in the rpg department.
Uh... There's NILLIN in Remember Me and there's Terra in Final Fantasy 6.
There is also a bunch of cool dating games where you play as a female, lol. You might think that's weird, but DATE WARP on Steam has a pretty kickass story.
Haven't had a chance to play final fantasy 6 yet.
Has the best story but Square Enix is being a little bitch and still haven't bothered to make a 3D adaptation
out of the final fantasies I've played. Final fantasy 10 has the best story line to me.
I've lost faith in the people who work on final fantasy games. Ever since the person who created the games left.
Yeah same although I am somewhat curious about typezero
Haven't heard of that one. So I'm watching reviews on it right now.
Don't care. All that matters is if the game is good, the protaganist is simply the median for the story. I think they are predominantly male because more men play those types of videogames and make those kinds of videogames so they simply go from a male perspective instinctively. Also their are quite a lot already, maybe not fifty fifty but still their are quite a few.
There's WAY fewer female characters than there are female gamers, in terms of proportions. And "a few" doesn't cut it, not when we're talking about hundred and hundreds of games.
@cipher42 Well first off women tend to play more on their smartphones, androids and tablets. Second, something that has been repeated to you all too often, gaming industries are focused on a target demographic and already have made plenty of female characters.
@wombraider: actually, even in regards to PC gamers the makeup is nearly evenly split. And it's been found that more women than men actually own gaming consoles as well. So you're pretty incorrect all around.
@cipher42 You're talking so much shit. You won't even source your claims.
www.statista.com/.../
www.theesa.com/.../ESA-Essential-Facts-2015.pdf
@cipher42 gender parity does not mean gender equality just because their is a difference does not mean their is a gian global conspiracy against women. Here are two lists: geekfeminism.wikia.com/.../List_of_Women_Characters_in_Video_Games
en.wikipedia.org/.../Category:Video_games_featuring_female_protagonists
As for games themselves, just because more women have consoles does not mean they play more frequently, in fact this is proven to be false. Women also play different kinds of games then men, usually the ones that are mainstream are action oriented and therefore primarily played by men: usabilitynews.org/.../
I play many different video games and yea although there's few female protagonists I don't think it matters all that much. I'll play as anything for the video game, and a lot of the time games have options between playing as a male or female. When they give options I usually choose the one with better stats or better looks if there are no stats.
I voted that there should be more but im fine with how it is now. I've seen plenty of female protagonist and options to be male, female, gay or bi in games (dragon age etc). Maybe games with more realistic female backgrounds since a lot of female protagonists are sexualized for the male audience
Female protagonists? Chick with guns? Nice boobies? Hot bodies? Yeah!!!
Female protagonists who will act like women and get all giddy over hot guys? Getting worried about 'he loves me, he loves me not' and get pregnant... Eh... no.
Like it or not. I don't think people want female protagonists who act like females. A lot of guys just like hot women acting like guys. Heroic, tough and cool.
You're kidding right?
1. Samus Aran - Metroid
2. Faith - Mirrors Edge
3. Joanna Dark - Perfect Dark Series
4. Jade - Beyond Good and Evil
5. Bayonetta - Bayonetta Series
6. Lara Croft - Tomb Raider
7. Jeanne d'Arc - Jeanne d'Arc Games
8. Princess Peach - Yup has her own game on the Nintendo DS
9. Yuna - Final Fantasy X2
10. Sam - Grey Matter Game (2011 I think)
11. Hana - Fear Effect
12. Konoko - Oni Game
13. Aya Brea - Parasite Eve Game
14. And Lightening - Final Fantasy XIII
And that's just off the top of my head, expand your gaming experience people.
Every Pokemon Game past Gold and Silver you can be a female, in The Elder Scrolls, and Fallout games past like tactics you can be female, FF6 has 2 female main charcters cuz Terra is the MC for the first half Celes is the MC for the 2nd half, 13 has lightning, 13 2 has Serah, and Soul Caliber V Pirrah is one of the MC's the other one being Petrocolose her brother, and there are ton of secondary characters and Deuteragonists, and more
I don't wanna point out the obvious but ehem
cdn3.dualshockers.com/.../..._Video_Desktop_v3.jpg
From the reviews I watched on youtube. The game mechanics are pretty bad. They had a great idea but failed to deliver.
Overall I think there are quite a few cool female videogame characters, I wouldn't be opposed to more as long as it's not forced or badly done. I care the most about a good story not about the gender of the character. Same goes for tv shows, I've watched Agent Carter, Bones, The Good Wife, Fringe, Veronica Mars, Grey's anatomy, How to get away with Murder and probably a few more that I didn't continue watching or forgot about. So as long as the story is good idc that's my position ;). i.i.cbsi.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2013/02/06/011.jpg
The sequel is gonna come out soon. I played the first game and I thought it was quite good, maybe it needed work but it was innovative and I had fun. I don't think it's fair to say it failed at all, the game has many fans and a lot of people are excited for the sequel. We'll see how that's gonna be :). Sry I didn't answer your question really in my first comment so I made a reply. But then you'd already read my comment haha.
I don't see it as a topic of political correctness.
"Should" there be more? No. It's not required.
"Should" there not be more? No, because being male is not required.
If you care that much. Write a good story and make the protagonist female. Star Wars 7 was awesome. I loved Rey. Not because the protagonist was a girl, but because she was good and it was a good story. Gender wasn't the defining point.
The issue isn't about requirements, and it's not about people intentionally making characters a certain gender to fit quotas. Not like that anyhow. It's about the fact that it seems to be a sign of societal sexism that so few characters (or protagonists in basically whatever kind of media) are female.
The moment you say "should", you're implying that they have to otherwise they are sexist or may be viewed as sexist. Maybe it's nothing to do with gender and the story how it came about in the writers mind was a male character.
Also keep in mind that the percentage of women suddenly becoming interested in videogames as much as they have is a relatively new thing. It's a male dominated field, because for decades girls didn't like video games and even joked men for enjoying them. The fact that more girls like them now should not be a call to designer's (who already have a loyal fan base ) to change their product. In marketing there's a concept that you cannot be all things to all people if you want to be successful.
Making female leads for the sole purpose of meeting a political idea is attempting to do just that. The goal is make a great story and be true to the story. If that means a female character, then great. If that means a male character, then great.
Personally I perfer games that give you option to play as either gender without it changing the gameplay or storyline to much. There are a few games like this out there, but sadly not enough.
A lot of the time when they do that. They tend to end up making both the male and female protagonist lack a personality. Then the interactions with either protagonist with NPC's end up not being that much fun either. Just wish they could do a better job with that.
I would love if more women protaganist in games, especially bayonetta who is badass and Kerrigan from Starcraft too, making women a force to reckon with rather than save them from a castle, I'm look at you peach
I prefer male protagonists. When people script female protagonists, like in The Last Of Us or Resident Evil or even Tomb Raider, they tend to do a bad job.
That's the best thing about samus in most of the metroid games. She doesn't talk so it's more fun to imagine what kind of person she is like.
But that in and of itself is a problem; if the protagonist has to not talk in order to maintain the respect of the player that means that the scripting was too poor or the mainstream expectations too sexist.
I mean there actually a TON of female protagonists whether you're looking at Heavenly Sword or Assassin's Creed or older to Blood Rayne but they all have the same big boobs, quirky character issues. Even modern games like Life is Strange have this issue and don't get me started on Japanese titles because even Japanese Horror (Fatal Frame) has this issue.
Oh god. Now I'm interested. I'll be quiet.
Oh, and that comma needs to be a slash between big boobs and quirky behavior; female protagonists tend to only be "interesting" if they are simply really, really far out there; or are written as such.
Makes me like the Armored Core protagonists more though.
Link doesn't talk and he's been a huge hit since the 1980's. Plus it's annoying to hear people talk at times and most voice actors do a shitty job.
Certain "grandfathe"... What I mean is, "Yes. You are right. I must stop thinking about this. Goodday."
YES mostly because I ALWAYS PLAY AS A FEMALE CHARACTER. I don't like being male characters in video games because I'm a dude IRL. It's fun to roleplay as a fantasy character that I'm nothing like IRL.
Battlefield with female soldiers would be awesome - women serve in the military too and deserve to be represented - There are women who have more guts than some men after all ^^
1. Jill Valentine
2. Bloodrayne
3. Claire Redfield
4. Kasumi
5. Juliet Starling
6. Joanna Dark
You feminists are always complaining before researching the facts. There's plenty of female protagonists and all you feminazis are doing is making men become chauvinists against female gamers.
I am not a feminist. Was just curious about what others thought. Plus I only know of 3 because either I heard about the game they are from or I actually played it. So most of the games I played doesn't have a single female protagonist.
But that doesn't mean there is a "sea of male protagonists" and it doesn't mean there should be more female heroes in games. Just because you haven't heard of all the female heroines doesn't mean they don't exist. The gender thing is equally balanced with the only problem being that people don't find most of the female heros to be cool. So it's the consumer's choice, not the game companies.
What I don't get is why there are so few left-handed characters. I mean, name one other than Link.
I guess it causes issues with the controls? Like on the wii they had to change link to being right handed. I forgot which game it was. It was basically to make it so the controls didn't seem weird for if you played with you right but seeing Link using his left.
What a biased poll.
Fact is there are more men who play video games than women, and so gaming industries will choose their main characters in accordance with its main purchaser: men.
Don't be salty.
Just look at the fashion industry as another example. Why are there more clothes for women than men? Same reasoning.
So? I've seen a lot of guys play games by making their characters female. When ever the game gives them that choice.
But do we complain about there not being a main female character? No.
RPGs are there just for that; choosing your sex in RPGs is normal and part of the damn genre.
Some people rather play a single player game. Though in most of them you don't get a choice. From what I've played it's normally just males.
I have fun playing as a male in video games. I love fucking with the female NPC's in them which makes it pretty funny. Though it would be fun to be able to do that as a female too. Sadly that doesn't really exist. :(
There's a reason why it doesn't exist and that's because no one would buy it, or only a small handful of people. Game companies want to make money.
Elle from Last of Us (and her friend in the prequel), Jodie from Beyond Two Souls, Kara from Detroit, Elena and Chloe from Uncharted. You can also play a female in Skyrim and Fallout 4. These are all games from the past 5 years and critically acclaimed pretty unanimously. Except Detroit, which will be released in the future but is highly anticipated.
There are loads, apparently. I've not heard of most of these but here you go...
en.m.wikipedia.org/.../Category:Video_games_featuring_female_protagonists
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