GameGirl

You said this so perfectly, that I couldn't agree more.

I'm in awe at how much your opinion matches mine. Balance in EVERYTHING is key. And I always viewed women such as Bayonetta as someone in control of herself as well.. She doesn't need a man or anyone else to get her through because she's independent. I think more women STRIVE to be like that, rather than the scantily clad females we typically see (which aren't an issue either, except giving young girls the idea they need to look like that to get anywhere.)

Gaming is evolving so quickly. I, too, was criticized in high school for gaming. I was a closet gamer for a few years, even. Now all of a sudden it's 'hott' if a girl plays video games. I feel like venting more but I have to leave for work soon -_-;

Fantastic article, Ashley. I really love that you went out of the typical 'article' format and spoke your mind. Keep on trekkin' :]

Absolutely fantastic. I feel the same way. At one point, when women (like those found in DoA) were only as good as how much their boobs bounced, I could care less about female characters. Today there are so many strong, sexy women that I absolutely love. I am all for being independent and not afraid to enjoy any hobby, regardless of socially bound gender exclusivity. When I was younger, I would balance my love of things that was "for boys" and those "for girls." Today, all my hobbies are my own, and not confined by gender in anyway.

Where all my rambling is leading is this: I think that if game developers want to pull in women gamers, this is a fantastic direction to take. Think of all the women in corporate America? Most of them fall under the very same descriptions: strong, sexy and independent.

Simply put, cheers.

Great Article. I agree, but I also feel just because a female wears shorter outfits, or tight clothes, doesn't make them a strong character. Yes, someone made Lara Croft in the image above without a shirt on. But she is still a girl character who shows strength, skill, and determination. (Or at least she does to me.)

Plus just like you said. It's also not just the females. Well they do take it further with females (as you don't see men in their underwear walking around a video game). But look at the male characters, Batman wears tight clothing. (Oh but he's a super hero. So what, he's still got tight clothes on. I don't hear complaints on that.)

I think they need to look at the bigger picture. Look at what their going to accomplish. So what if some designer made a pic of Lara Croft without a shirt, any artist can change an image to be what they want it to. But look at what Lara Croft has done for the women protagonists. She is one of the main women lead characters to date. She has also helped show that women can succeed in a male dominated field (even if she isn't real). So look at the big picture.

Again Great Article.

AWESOME ARTICLE :-D YOU GO GIRL :-D

I also agree with everything you said.

I remember asking people if they played Final Fantasy X-2 and lots of people said no because it was for girls seeing how there are no guys and the 3 main characters were smart, strong, independant ladies who kicked everyones ass. I was like how sad to deny playing a fun game, which is one of my fav games and full of cosplay potential, only because there were no guys and Riku and Paine did not care about being with a guy they were just helping their friend save the world and find her love interest which only happens if you get the 100% (which i did :-p )

excellent job keep up the awesome rock and tell it how it is you have lots of support :-)

Argh, I wrote a lengthy reply, only to realize comments have a 2000-character limit. I'll chop it down; I hope it lets me post it in succession. If not, well, tough luck. Also, if this is too much, just delete it.

I hate to be the pessimist in here, but I have to cautiously disagree. I'm not sure that things are that much better now than they were ten years ago; certainly, they seem to not be as good as one would think would be after ten years of exploring the medium.

Perhaps I should clarify that I'm seeing a trend (not only in videogames, but in other media as well, most prominently film) in the last five years or so in which works and particularly plots are being consistently dumbed down, watered down and streamlined for a pretty undemanding audience. Many of the examples you list as are actually several years old, and most of mine are from the nineties!

Metroid (1987): I don't think there's much to say here. Probably the most hardened character of them all, Samus has known pretty much nothing but conflict her entire life, honing her into the ultimate bounty hunter. If anything, we might lament that she's probably not as developed as a character as others are, precisely because of her laconic and solitary nature.

Final Fantasy IV (1991): While the main character is male, it features a really memorable character in Rydia. She (unlike Rosa) is never to be saved from anything, even as a child; in fact she herself saves the entire party from total defeat once. Portrayed as a very strong-willed and independent person, it even shows in gameplay: the standard tactic against multiple enemies is to let all other characters soak the damage while she blasts them to oblivion. In an interesting partial inversion, by the end she can't heal, while Cecil, the main, male character can (although this role is mostly fulfilled by the, again, more conventional Rosa). It also lets it perfectly clear that she is noone's love interest; at most, Edge might be HER love interest.

Final Fantasy V (1992): Of the entire party of four, three are females. While perhaps only Faris is portrayed as above-average self-reliance, it's still a pretty favorable ratio. I'm less knowledgeable here as I last played it ages ago, the original Japanese SNES cart, so my plot knowledge is mostly second-hand.

Final Fantasy VI (1994): Probably the feminist manifesto of Final Fantasy, while being mostly a choral game, the closest it has to leads are two pretty powerful female characters (Terra in the first half, Celes in the second). Not only are both characters fully fleshed out and downright memorable, the entire story revolves around Terra's origins. She also remains no-one's love interest even by the end of the game.

FFVI is no less than 15 years old. In this time, female characters in the series have been gradually relegated to their traditional roles as love tokens and damsels in distress. This is not an isolated trend, as the entire Final Fantasy series has been overly Hollywoodified, their plots simplified to cater to wider audiences.

Xenogears (1998): For some reason, the character of Elhaim strikes me as somewhat strong and independent. Although she does have to be saved on ar least one occasion, by then the plot has taken so many turns and the entire cast has been through and done so much (not the least of all herself) that it doesn't matter that much. The unconventional love story and just plain story construct of the entire game gives her a much bigger role than just being someone's object of affection. Telling more would be spoiling the game, and although I'm most likely being overly optimistic here, I want to think there's still people who may discover this gem of a game.

Argh, I wrote a lengthy reply, only to realize comments have a 2000-character limit. I posted the first part, then somehow overwrote it with the second >_<. Here's the first part.

I hate to be the pessimist in here, but I have to cautiously disagree. I'm not sure that things are that much better now than they were ten times ago; certainly, they seem to not be as good as one would think would be after ten years of exploring the medium.

Perhaps I should clarify that I'm seeing a trend (not only in videogames, but in other media as well, most prominently film) in the last five years or so in which works and particularly plots are being consistently dumbed down, watered down and streamlined for a pretty undemanding audience. Many of the examples you list as are actually several years old, and most examples I could come up are from the nineties!

Metroid (1987): I don't think there's much to say here. Probably the most hardened character of them all, Samus has known pretty much nothing but conflict her entire life, honing her into the ultimate bounty hunter. If anything, we might lament that she's probably not as developed as a character as others are, precisely because of her laconic and solitary nature.

Final Fantasy IV (1991): While the main character is male, it features a really memorable character in Rydia. She (unlike Rosa) is never to be saved from anything, even as a child; in fact she herself saves the entire party from total defeat once. Portrayed as a very strong-willed and independent person, it even shows in gameplay: the standard tactic against multiple enemies is to let all other characters soak the damage while she blasts them to oblivion. In an interesting partial inversion, by then she can't heal, while Cecil, the main, male character can (although this role is again mostly fulfilled by the, again, more conventional Rosa). It also lets it perfectly clear that she is noone's love interest; at most, Edge might be HER love interest.

Resident Evil 2 (1998). By far the two strongest female characters in the series originate from this very game. Claire Redfield, easily my favorite Resident Evil character, superficially fills the same niche as Jill Valentine in the first game, yet manages to be her polar opposite. It might have a lot to do with the voice acting, which as pretty shaky (in all senses of the word) in the case of Jill, and consistently solid (again, in both senses) in Claire's. Still, one can't help wondering why this random civilian is so much tougher than the special ops-trained Jill.
The other character I referred to, Ada, has remained one of the most mysterious characters in the series, but if one thing is clear, is that she has her own unique goals and the means and skills to fulfill them.
Hell, the game even has another unusual and interesting character (and very complex, for the little screen time she's given) in Annette Birkin. This game really hit the jackpot, not only in terms of gameplay (the dual scenario system was simply genius) but in character design. To this date, I find Leon to be the most tolerable RE male lead.
Note: I haven't played RE5 yet, so I can't comment on it.

Parasite Eve (1998). An interesting game (actually a sequel to a Japanese novel and its movie adaptation), main character Aya Brea is a very competent cop which doesn't mind going head-to-head with some of the most hideous monstruosities this side of Resident Evil. To note, the main antagonist is also female; in a game based around the concept of mitochondrial Eve, that's bound to happen.

Starcraft (1998): A pretty interesting character from the get-go, Kerringan only gets that much better after her transformation. Pretty much the epitome of ruthless and cunning, it almost seems a matter of time until she rules the universe with an iron (or techno-organic bone) fist.

(side note: Man, 1998 was a GREAT year for games. I always associate it with Xenogears, I didn't realize so many pivotal works of art were released that very year too).

Notice that all of these examples are from the nineties, over a decade ago. In a media as young as gaming, that's almost ancient history. You may be thinking I purposedly conjured older examples, but I just listed the games as they came to my mind, and then reordered them by date. To be fair, I'm probably a more of an old-school gamer. The only post-2000 examples I could think of are listed below:

Metal Gear Solid 3 (2004-2005): I have to admit that Boss is probably the ultimate example of what a truly great female character is. She's so perfect that I don't even know where to begin; also, the finer points would be heavy spoilers. Suffice to say, by the time the game ended, I realized she was probably the greatest woman ever portrayed in a game. Will you marry me, Boss? Oh, right, she's fictional. And lived in the 60's. Damn.

Devil May Cry 3 (2005) features probably the strongest and most interesting female character in the series. Covered in scars, fully determined, and a clear example of the Badass Normal, she's the only human in history to stand toe-to-toe against Dante without any kind of magic or tricks (!). Her character design seems to reinforce this, with a pretty reasonable outfit and features, and heterochromic eyes (red and blue) that give her a really unique, hypnotic gaze.
But in fact, this kind of proves my point, actually. Come Devil May Cry 4 (2008), and she's become E-cup (while her shirt has shrunk proportionally) with none of her defining traits. Hell, they put on SHADES on her the entire game to hide her eyes! Needless to say, neither her nor any of the rest of the female characters do almost anything action-related onscreen, except when it's to exacerbate the fanservice (the least said about Gloria, the better).