Do video games need more female characters?

2014-02-20T18:25:54+00:00

The thing is, feminists will always find a reason to bitch about a female character

Dressed scantily: Sex object!

Dressed conservatively: Slut-shaming!

Takes action, is tough: Man with boobs!

Weak, needs protection: Damsel in distress trope!

And the list goes on

laurence88 · 2014-02-20T19:41:08+00:00

Better yet, why don't women create their own video game? This way they control every facet of how women should appear/act

Sarstan · 2014-02-21T01:23:18+00:00

I agree. Video games do need more female characters. Ones that are part of the cannon fodder. When's the last time you played an FPS and shot a woman?
The only exception to this that comes to mind is with Bethesda's Elder Scrolls and Fallout games, but those aren't exactly set in the realm of reality.
Assassin's Creed's main director is a woman and they've pain stakingly worked with this issue. Women, historically, have no place in battle. You have a couple of exceptions here and there (in the first Assassin's Creed, one of the toughest opponents is a female disguised as male who later turns out to be a love interest for Altair), but they stick to mostly realism, for better or worse. What's the result? Women that you interact with are largely in the sex trade (prostitutes or brother owners) or have a relationship with a powerful/wealthy/politically strong man.

Until we see something like CoD start pulling out women as cannon fodder alongside men, I just can't see justifying the idea that we need to also provide more female lead roles.

rexxthunder2020 · 2014-02-20T19:04:21+00:00

These arguments are so stupid it borders on ridiculous. The ones in the article, I mean.

2014-02-20T18:09:34+00:00

Every novel needs to have a female and male option for the protagonist so I don't feel slighted as a reader, you know?

TheRabid · 2014-02-20T18:16:23+00:00

Why not just have some of them have a female character and see which ones sell?

m1k3tv · 2014-02-21T02:43:26+00:00

Videogames need better characters... period.

PeterArching · 2014-02-21T16:54:37+00:00

Thousands more, in the background, so they can die nameless and unmourned exactly as often as men do in video games.

giegerwasright · 2014-02-20T22:15:52+00:00

I always like the customizable character options. The player gets to pick. They can be their own gender, they can be the opposite gender. I'm sure in the near future, there will be demands for transgendered game characters and it will be silly to watch devs struggle with that minefield of eggshells.

jojotmagnifficent · 2014-02-21T05:57:33+00:00

Would it hurt? No. Is it needed? Also No. April Ryan from The longest Journey is one of my most favorite protagonists in gaming (and it's a one of my top 5 games), but that has nothing to do with her gender and everything to do with her being well written and realistic. I don't really care about the gender of a character I play so long as it's a good role. Hell, I tend to pick female characters in RPG's as a form of power gaming as they are almost always exactly the same as male characters but they get bonus conversation options based around flirting. Arcanum is the only one I can think of where they don't get equal stats to men (but for character system depth I don't think any other game actually compares with Arcanum really).

I am not a typical gamer though, and most gamers will simply think "I am not a chick and I have no interest in being one. I want to be a big burly dude that rolls around with other big burly dudes (no homo) and blows shit up so I can feel like a badass because I will never actually be one". And thats fine, they are allowed to have preferences that exclude certain things (duh, thats kinda the point of preferences).

If women want more representation they should start contributing tot he point where they are a notable demographic. If they see a hole in the market in need of filling then they should fucking fill it like every guy making games has done since gamings inception. They want what we made? They can make it like we did. This shit doesn't just fall of fucking trees like they seem to think it does.

2014-02-20T22:18:51+00:00

Do video games need more Down's Syndrome characters?

Do video games need more Jewish African transmen?

Do video games need more rabbits?

Where do we draw the line?

Title	Do video games need more female characters?
Author	laurence88
Upvotes	3
Comments	15
Date	February 20, 2014 5:22 PM UTC (12 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/mensrights/comments/1yge96/do-video-games-need-more-female-characters/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/do-video-games-need-more-female-characters.1614802 https://theredarchive.com/post/1614802

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