I think you can have it both ways as well, with the game being fun and great in its design and execution while also having a character that happens to be a female (biological or otherwise) and a well written and developed character. The protagonist can be tied to their gender/ sex/ gender identity and still come off as realistic and not a caricature or an obvious programmed anomaly with no distinctions that would make them seem like they could actually exist.
I think that the idea of females within video games, not only as the main characters but as other players that donāt pertain to them simply being a sex symbol or product of sexism in general is getting easier and easier to implement and we are seeing them more often, and I can only hope that the industry continues on this path, as I am a bit tired of seeing a female within a game only for them to be barely 1-dimensional in their presentation.
Thanks for those thoughts, Prin. The whole issue has hit me more personally as Iāve begun raising my two daughters. I hope they can both learn to love video games (though, really, the eldest already does), but stereotypes of whatever type really have a large effect on them, even at a young age. My five-year old really, really likes Mega Man, but she noticed pretty early on that most of the robot masters were men. We made up our own robot masters, and she has a fair smattering of male and female robots, though for one āgameā she had everyone as female. Iām not sure what a āfemale robotā is, but I note that sheās already thinking about gender, even at the age of five. And thatās not even getting into good and bad role models, non-binary gender, and the like.
Oh, and:
Xenosaga (Shion, though sheās not a great character)
You are welcome. I have two daughters and a son, all under 5 and in this day and age, it has become harder and harder, nigh impossible to not think about sex, gender, and the ways in which they are being presented. Even with a game such as Minecraft which my eldest has been getting into for a month or so now, she still prefers to have her character look like Jesse instead of Steve, even though it is simply cosmetic.
Having a minor in Women and Gender Studies, I canāt help but see it all around. Itās like the glasses from They Live at this point.
Also, in regards to Mega Man, I feel that they have had a couple robot masters that were portrayed as female, with Splash Woman being the most prominent in Mega Man 9, but Capcom still have a long way to go unfortunately with decent representation.
Yes, my daughter is into Minecraft as well. Itās fun to join her and help her understand how to think about games. Itās a great first step and really easy to enjoy with her, too.
Yes, Splash Woman was the first and, so far, only female robot master. But I feel like ārepresentationā is on the low end of the stick. Representation is great, but asking questions of identity is something that both fantasy/sci-fi and gaming are very good at. Fantasy can leave such questions open-ended, or provide various answers - something that I think we need more now than a steady direction. But these thoughts are coming from a straight, white, male; perhaps representation is more important to those who donāt see their particular identity represented well.
Not to derail the thread, but you donāt know how happy was I when Star Wars started to have a lot of latino actors (Oscar Isaac, Diego Luna, Pedro Pascal). Iād love to see the same in videogames.
In terms of charactersā¦ and their importanceā¦ Metroid i think samus aran is the supreme one. itās the character that few knew was female and was basically āa secretā then as the series moved forward it become a more known thing.
i always kinda wondered about that, like why did they make it a secret. was it political? would it not be accepted? would boys not wanna play it? lol
In terms of pure characters and me liking them Guardian Legend! (hence the profile pic)
in terms of just games with girl PCsā¦ I think probably Aliceā¦ That game just wouldnt work without her LOL.
