Let’s face it; video game characters live within a male-dominated universe. Since the dawn of time- well, more like the beginning of the home console era- the majority of video game protagonists have been men. While there are exceptions- Samus Aran being one- it wasn’t until the late 90’s where women began to take the lead role in some franchises. Some of the industry’s iconic females include Rayne, Lara Croft and Joanna Dark. However, even with the push for more women in video games, many roles fall victim to sterotypes and blatant sexualization. Again, the industry has been slowly pulling itself out from this hole, but some gamers and feminist groups have yet to be pleased.
Is it really so difficult to create the “perfect woman”? Can developers actually give birth to digital women who are above stereotypes and tropes?
I have a few theories as to why women have such a bizarre representation in the video game industry. As previously mentioned, male protagonists utterly dominate the video game universe; they have since the days of Atari, and continue to do so today. Perhaps it’s because men are seen in media as strong, confident and heroic. I’m not simply going off of early video games here, as this extends well into the depths of older movies, TV shows and comics. Whether you like it or not, men have been at the forefront of films, always depicted as the hero of the story- women were always cast as the “damsel in distress”. While the guys were out doing all of the “cool” things, like running on top of train cars, or escaping from an ancient gauntlet of traps, the ladies were always hostages, prisoners, or tied to railroad tracks. With characters like The Lone Ranger, the incarnations of James Bond, and any character portrayed by Harrison Ford, there’s a hefty backlog of characters to draw inspiration from when creating a video game hero. The blueprints for an action star, detective, political villain or ancient explorer have already been created by older media…Sadly, most of these references and influences just gravitate towards male characters.
When you work with a limited amount of technical resources, what’s the easiest way to distinguish genders? Quite often, the answer is a result of over-sexualization, or the usage of an obvious trait and/or stereotype. Think about this; the logos for the men’s and women’s restroom use the same character model…except one of them is wearing a dress, and has “long hair”. When the original Metroid released in 1986, many players believed that they were controlling a man, blasting his way through an alien environment. Upon completion, Samus removes the Varia Suit helmet, revealing…long, wavy golden hair? Surprise. Finishing the game with a higher completion percentage and faster time gives players a shot of the pixelated hero in a bikini.
…Unless there’s some weird Rocky Horror Picture Show nonsense going on, I’m pretty certain that a bikini can be used to identify a feminine character.
In the olden days of 8-bit- and whatever the Atari and Commodore systems were- developers more than likely had to resort to sexual tropes in order to differentiate male and female characters. While that may have been “acceptable” in the past, as graphics and the visual quality of games have improved over the decades, some developers are still resorting to use sexuality as an identifier for female characters. The release of Dragon’s Crown was overshadowed by ridiculous outrage over a few character designs…more specifically, the Sorceress. Atlus and developer Vanillaware faced backlash from concerned audiences, as the Sorceress’s model features impossibly large breasts…Personally, I found the backlash to be absolutely ridiculous; apparently those who were angered by her design have never played a Team Ninja game. Some would say that the only reason the Dead or Alive series is still alive, is because it rides on the buoyancy of its female cast.
I haven’t even touched on Japanese games; many of which, I feel like I’d need to conceal in a brown paper bag upon leaving GameStop…
Quite possibly the most common complaint towards female characters, is that they’re too sexy- “stripperific” is the internet’s word-of-choice. While it is a problem, and will probably continue to be a problem for many ages, I don’t believe developers should simply cease all elements of sex-appeal in their character designs. Attractive, sexy, seductive characters in video games need to exist: While the idea is left open for personal interpretation, there should be some kind of limit as to how much sex-appeal is “too much”. Some developers still feel it’s necessary to slap a pair of stripper-esque breasts onto a woman, just to say “Look, we made a female character!” The seductiveness of a female character extends beyond her visual design; positions of power (i.e. The Boss), intelligence and confidence can all be used to create a character with some level of attraction and sexiness.
The same can be said for male characters, as I’m sure several people are tired of playing as “Generic Chiseled White Male #84“.
It can’t be that hard to create a new breed of women in video games, can it? Is it really so difficult to abandon the old ways of developing the “bimbo in distress”, in exchange for a strong, “modern” woman? Apparently not, as studios have been doing this for well over the past decade. While it may have taken a while to do so, the past two generations of gaming have given us a slew of strong female characters who break previously established archetypes. Valve gave players a strong, collected and brilliant sidekick in Half-Life 2 with Alex Vance. To this day, she’s still considered to be one of the most “real” women in the video game universe. Hideo Kojima gave rise to one of the most iconic soldiers in gaming, “The Boss”- mentor to the man who would become Big Boss.
To say that it’s “difficult” to create a female character in a video game is understandable; because of cultural and social stigmas, female character designs often have to meet higher expectations from audiences. The sadistic reality however, is that no matter how a woman is designed for a video game, it is ultimately impossible to please or satisfy everyone. Even with the internal difficulties and facing possible backlash from gamers, just because it might be harder to develop a woman, that isn’t an excuse to just skip doing so altogether.
