Poll: Female protagonist day.

[BartyMae]

Honestly speaking, I don't know of too many games I'm interested in that feature a female protagonist. In fact, let's see...

1. Portal (own it - barely counts)
2. Portal 2 (also own it - also barely counts)
3. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (own it - debatable)
4. Mirror's Edge (own it)
5. ...Kameo? (own it)
6. ...Banjo-Kazooie? lol

Three of these are barely even valid examples, and one of them, (Zelda), is debatable, (though I consider it to be a valid example. Midna is just as much as the protagonist as Link is!). Other games that I know of but have absolutely no interest in:

Tomb Raider
...Perfect Dark Zero?
...Lollipop...Chainsaw, I think it's called? Whatever.

Yeah, I can't think of any more. But then again, I mostly play first person shooters, real time strategies, and Western RPGs...of which one genre (FPS) the gender of the protagonist barely matters, another of which there isn't generally a real protagonist at all...and the last genre only rarely forces a specific gender.

 

[DaphneRose]

Huhh, honestly, wonderful idea. I think it'd definitely be a message to developers and it'd draw the right sort of attention.

There's a lot of hee and haw'ing from some naysayers, and their criticism is at least somewhat valid. But... I don't think publishers are going to release a game with a female protagonist once a year because of it (that's... absolutely ridiculous). If anything, there might be more games released with ladies on the cover.

As to why there's an assumption that they'd be poorly written, I don't know. There are games that exist that have well written women. Just... buy those? And ignore the ones that aren't? Sort of like how people do for main characters that are men. What's more, I don't see why people have to buy games that are just released. Maybe that day would be an excellent time to buy a game in the Metroid series, or something.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

While I support...er, supporting female protagonists, I don't think a miniscule bump in sales of what are typically a small division of games on one random day in the year is gonna grab anyone's attention. Like at all. I'm not saying the intention isn't worthwhile, but unless you get a hell of a word of mouth viral twitter bullshit going on it won't amount to anything.

And even if you DID manage that much, you would see nothing but divisive sexist hatred from all sides, for all kinds of perceived reasons, with painfully illogical and trollish justifications. Until, like all well meaning causes started on the internet, it becomes a complete clusterfuck and no one remembers what they were supposed to do.

But say the miracle does happen, and people come together as a group, in enough numbers, and they DO buy all the female etc etc games they can find...this does what exactly?

Gets companies attention so that they make more games with female leads? Thats good in theory. For me personally I'd love it if EVERY game had at least the option to have a female character if there isn't any voice acting or it really wouldn't fit the character. If I have the option I ALWAYS choose female with the exception of if the only female options are lolis, gratuitous fan service (I like a lil fan service so it would need to be REALLY bad), or I just don't like them for some other reason.

This leads me to the most salient point. WHAT KIND of female lead do you want to be supporting?

If the only games people end up buying are Onichanbara, DoA, Lollypop Chainsaw, Bayonetta, and the old school Tomb Raider games, then how is that a positive result? Do we need more crap like that?

Growing up I always thought it was awesome that Samus Aran existed. That there was a powerful, intelligent, badass woman that was the lead and sole character of an entire videogame series. And a hugely successful one at that. Hell, I still want to be her even now because she is just that cool.

Then Other M happened... *twitch*

I also liked Rydia, Faris, Terra, and Celes. Pretty much every FF female really.

Nariko in Heavenly Sword, Jen in Primal, even Princess Zelda are all awesome. In games like RE or Silent Hill, or Siren you play as both sexes. In Dark Souls, Borderlands, Skyrim, Etrian Odyssey, and Dragon's Dogma it doesn't matter what sex you are.

And it shouldn't in most cases.

I think some AAA games would work well with a female lead. Dead Space for example would be cool. I think they almost did that for DS2.

In the end I'd rather just support GOOD games though.

 

[Snotnarok]

I'm not so sure publishers are exactly 100% wrong on this, I know quite a few people who have no interest in playing titles where you're a female protagonist for the most part and they find it weird I play femShep and such. Not saying, "hey my friends make up a majority of the market!" but I don't know if many men find it appealing to play a female role. I don't know why it matters to them that much, hell my 1 friend wouldn't bother with Heavenly Sword because the role was a "unlikeable female Kratos".

Your 'support female roles day" may be best on a steam sale :B

I think the cover art needing a male role is absolutely dimwitted but whatever on that.

 

[DoPo]

They piled on me too.

You got quoted three times by two people in total. Your definition of "piling" is flawed. Your definition of "everybody is ranting" is also flawed. Which is what was pointed out to you. You are way misrepresenting what is going on, I dare say you are lying, in fact.

 

[Teoes]

This is a fantastic suggestion in respect of certain people seeming to take it from the perspective of "Either you're with us or you're a dirty scumbag woman-hater!"

OT: No. For reasons already posted. I don't want to encourage devs to farm out 'cash-in' games with female protagonists timed with the day in order to trawl sales; I want well-written protagonists with their gender being an aspect of their character, not their character's defining trait.

Yes I want to see more good female characters in games. Yes I generally choose a female character in games that let you pick the gender - because they're a rarer sight, not just cuz dat ass :3 No I do not think "Female Protagonist Day" is the way to go about it. I don't think it would work in respect of actually getting the movement organised and I don't think it would have the desired effect. It would either send the wrong message and/or the message would simply be ignored.

Like others have said, if/when a game comes along that I want to buy because it has interesting/well-written characters (gender irrelevant), then I will buy that game when it is released or when I can afford it. Everyone doing this is the way to get the correct message across.

See how calm I am?

 

[itsthesheppy]

They piled on me too.

You got quoted three times by two people in total. Your definition of "piling" is flawed. Your definition of "everybody is ranting" is also flawed. Which is what was pointed out to you. You are way misrepresenting what is going on, I dare say you are lying, in fact.

Your objective in making it seem like I'm overreacting to focused, instant and overblown criticism is somewhat undermined by your own enthusiastic efforts to jump on me twice now for things I haven't said about you. Unless you're internalizing what I'm saying which kinda goes back to my original point. It's a trap!

Or maybe you think I'm totally cool and this is like putting gum in the girl's hair on the playground. It looks antagonistic but really you're just looking for companionship. Wanna hang out sometime? I'm 30/M/NH

 

[The_Echo]

No. Why not? Two words:

Positive sexism.

 

[hazabaza1]

Okay, brb, buying X-Blades, Blades of Time, Ominusha Bikini Samurai Slayers (or whatever the fuck), DoA Xtreme Beach Volleyball 1+2, Dead Island, N3 Ninety Nine Nights (I could go on forever here)
Oh wait, having a character being female doesn't mean they're good and we should start encouraging good writing before specifying a certain type of character because... because.

 

[DoPo]

They piled on me too.

You got quoted three times by two people in total. Your definition of "piling" is flawed. Your definition of "everybody is ranting" is also flawed. Which is what was pointed out to you. You are way misrepresenting what is going on, I dare say you are lying, in fact.

Your objective in making it seem like I'm overreacting to focused, instant and overblown criticism is somewhat undermined by your own enthusiastic efforts to jump on me twice now for things I haven't said about you. Unless you're internalizing what I'm saying which kinda goes back to my original point. It's a trap!

Or maybe you think I'm totally cool and this is like putting gum in the girl's hair on the playground. It looks antagonistic but really you're just looking for companionship. Wanna hang out sometime? I'm 30/M/NH

I've got no clue what you're on about. Here is how it goes - I see somebody grossly misrepresenting stuff, I call them out on it because I do not like it and I wish nobody did it. Example - my first post in the thread. So far you have this twice, hence I called you out twice.

 

[itsthesheppy]

If the only games people end up buying are Onichanbara, DoA, Lollypop Chainsaw, Bayonetta, and the old school Tomb Raider games, then how is that a positive result? Do we need more crap like that?

I think you may have misread the character of Bayonetta. She's actually one of the more progressive female protagonists for one simple reason: agency. She has loads of it.

Yes, she's leggy and and sexualized. That's not necessarily a bad thing and if you're at all a study of feminist literature I think you'll find that, while of course not universal, the majority opinion is that depicting women as fit, curvy, and otherwise physically attractive is not in itself negative; it's all in how those traits are used in the character. Throughout the game, Bayonetta makes it very clear that she is sexy for her, not for you. Her character is about gratifying herself, about using her sexuality for her own benefit and of her own volition.

In fact, the supporting male characters in the game are largely submissive to her. She tolerates them but there is never any confusion as to who is in charge; she is the maker of her own destiny, makes her own decisions, and pursues her own goals. She's not out to impress men, but she doesn't hate them either.

Really, we could do much worse than a character who is sexualized and yet retains full agency. Bayonetta is a doer; she sets goals and accomplishes them, she confronts challenges and overcomes them based on her own talented abilities. Male characters orbit her in a supporting role but she is the driver of her destiny and the shaper of her world.

 

[Charli]

No we need female developers and video game makers. More of those and the demographic will slowly but surely swell.

Publishers do not help matters. This much is true, their 'market research teams' are pretty much all they want to hear and the 'ching ching' of the money that comes from the highest grossing demographic. To back anything else at that level of time and resource consuming development is a risk.

So the place to crawl into is the industry itself, and women who want to see their visions fulfilled in this manner should be working toward that.

I am one. I won't whine about anything until I am shoving my creations down publishers throats in person. And even then I don't think I'd start there, I'd create independently first and just get it out there. There's too much of a load of bullshit to wade through to pass anything more than what is 'expected' from a best selling video game at the top.


But for all the 'cries of the consumers' it doesn't change what is still 4/5th of the demographic and what most of them are comfortable purchasing without prompt from word of mouth. While members of the escapist may be a sheet higher in mental capacity to not 'judge by what's on the box/trailer', average-jonny and little timmy aren't so much.