Poll: Overcritical: Female Leads

[JMeganSnow]

Since most games have phenomenally bad writing, most of the characters are misused.

 

[Calax]

I think it comes from the fact that every girl is a "Bad Ass action girl!" they all are combat competent in the extreme, and can mop the floor with various enemies. I think what IGN wants is more characters like Farah, who aren't necessairly good at fighting but have a different aspect through which to help you.

 

[Bagmun]

I read an article on IGN recently about the top ten trends that are destroying video games. I was happy to see Gears of War prominently featured in more than one of these trends but thoroughly confused--as I usually am--by their "female leads" entry, where they pan a number of games for their use of leading female characters. To quote:

"It's not clever anymore; it's not special. It's become a bad cliche that is as predictable as it is ultimately degrading. Let's stop pretending that's it's still a unique feature."

It was difficult to tell what the writer was objecting to. On one hand it starts by picking apart the characters' physical appeal and fingers game companies for using them as a lure for horny gamers as Yahtzee does with the most recent Tomb Raider game. On the other hand the "worst recent offenders" listed are Mirror's Edge, Prince of Persia, and Resident Evil 5.

I read this article. I'm guessing either the man suffered some sort of stroke mid-way into writing, or just had brain damage the entire time. The jack-ass called Mirror's Edge's main protagonist (Faith) a pathetic marketing ploy, while glorifying Tomb Raider's Laura Croft as some sort of perfect icon for the strong willed, independent woman. What the fuck? Really?

 

[Bagmun]

Faith is a pathetic marketing ploy though.

HAHAHA

 

[Erana]

So, when can I go kick some Asian pedophile ass?
Wait, what were we talking about?
Oh yeah.

Well, considering that a female lead is now considered a, "Feature," there's something wrong with the whole thing.
Of course, I don't really understand the omnipresent sexuality that people, especially men, have, so I can't conceive of people being sexually distracted by the person they're controlling.
Oh, and I just found the mere concept behind this list [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_computer_and_video_games_with_female_protagonists] to say so much about gaming society.

 

[Sewblon]

Game developers have used sex appeal in female characters to distract players from gameplay and story flaws, I of course mean Tombraider, but they have also had male characters act as idealized testosterone filled proxies for players to do the same, I of course mean Gears of War. The issue is they need to hire reputable writers to produce their scripts and dialogue instead of the fan fiction enthusiasts they employed to write Gears of War, GTA, Halo and Crysis.

 

[twilinova07]

i thought the point being made by the author in that article was that the strong, independent, and serious women character type was being so over used that it had basicly lost any respect or importance, being equal to the muscular meathead males. if it was damaging the games industry in any way, it would be that designers dont experiment in the female character anymore and are satisfied with bad ass action girls and damsels in distress.

but for your question, were basically blowing this out of proportion.

and i found faith as charismatic as a cucumber.

 

[fishman59]

who cares?
both male and female characters are exaggerated in games and made to look completely ridiculous.
i find myself being distanced from ANY game character i play as or see, whether they are a serious character or not.
in the end its just a game. if the character doesn't suit your ideal of an "X" or "Y" type of person, then maybe you yourself are stereotyping a particular group and should step back and give the character designers a little more freedom to create whatever style character they want.
games, like movies and cartoons, are a product of somebody's imagination, so let them express themselves.
if you dont like it, make your own game/movie/whatever and portray your own characters.
people complain too much

 

[scotth266]

Game developers have used sex appeal in female characters to distract players from gameplay and story flaws, I of course mean Tombraider, but they have also had male characters act as idealized testosterone filled proxies for players to do the same, I of course mean Gears of War. The issue is they need to hire reputable writers to produce their scripts and dialogue instead of the fan fiction enthusiasts they employed to write Gears of War, GTA, Halo and Crysis.

Not all the plot points of those games were bad, you know.
But yeah, you made my point for me. Characters in games are designed to sell the game to the target audience. If the audience is teen males, you get T&A and football players.
'Nuff said.

 

[Tarmon'gaidin]

You shouldn't think to hard about what the people of IGN say.

 

[cobra_ky]

<a href=http://games.ign.com/articles/944/944826p1.html>here's the article, btw.

there's a few other gems in there, like arguing that instead of declaring a trilogy of half-life 2 episodes, valve should have focused on "getting the first game right and then let the market decide if it actually wants a sequel" (um, i think they did that.)

the fact of the matter is that people relate more to physically attractive characters. that's just human nature. that said, you can make characters attractive without sexualizing them. alyx vance is probably the perfect example of this. i don't know which alyx this guy was looking at, but she's about as plain as can be while still making sense as gordon's sort-of love interest. gordon freeman saved the goddamn world like three times, he shouldn't have to settle for an ugly chick. she's also one of the few video game characters of either gender who believably displays both capability and vulnerability. i am pretty sure this guy did not even play half-life 2.

and then he brings up yuna in FFX-2 as a STRONG character? seriously? at least in FFX she had conviction and a sense of self-awareness and decency. in X-2 square decided that since she became the de facto spiritual leader of the world and lost her love interest, the most reasonable way to develop her character was to have her traipse around the world three-quarters-naked, barely taking the plot of her own game seriously until the end, when it looks like something sad and dramatic might happen. then yuna LITERALLY says

Spoiler

"No! This ending sucks. I'm changing it."

and then the fabric of reality warps around her so the story can have a happy ending. where no one gets hurt or feels bad. what a crock.

/rant. anyway the sad thing is he makes some good points, he just picks godawful examples (Nariko from Heavenly Sword would have been perfect imo.)

 

[Jandau]

There is no chauvinism in games. In fact, there is rampant feminism, where all the buffed up male leads serve as objects of lust for the hordes of secret female gamers. Marcus Fenix is no different from Lara Croft!

Seriously now, the article is retarded. Of course there will be a male-oriented character design. Males still make a majority of the customer base. Also, using Prince of Persia as an example? Seriously? The female character was dressed and not unnaturally endowed. And any comments about what little her shirt reveals should be considered along with the Prince's prominently displayed washboard abs...

Why do you read IGN? Just don't do it to yourself...

 

[defcon 1]

After reading this article, I have gained a burning desire to kill this guy. Just in the ?Strong female lead? point, how can that one point spout so much fail in a few short paragraphs!?

Take Mirror's Edge's lead character, Faith; Asian to appeal to the Asian markets, female to soften up the lads and potentially sell to a female audience too.

Appeal to Asian markets? I'm pretty sure more than just Asian guys like Asian girls. If you're saying this is sexist against women than how can it appeal to a female audience? Just a tip, if you want a fair number of girls to play our game, the last thing you want to do is sexually exploit them.

Final Fantasy XIII

Not even out yet! Nothing degrading from what I've seen in the trailers.

Lara Croft still kicks around, as does Samus. But alongside those two comes Alyx Vance (Half-Life 2), Joanna Dark (Perfect Dark), Rayne (BloodRayne), The Boss (MGS), Zoe and April (Dreamfall: The Longest Journey), Jill, Claire and Ada (Resident Evil series), Elika (Prince of Persia) and the list goes on. It's not clever anymore; it's not special. It's become a bad clich? that is as predictable as it is ultimately degrading. Let's stop pretending that's it's still a unique feature.

I want to pretend I didn't just read that. So what about having males as the lead role, is that cliché? Alex Vance, The Boss, Zoe is Degrading... I don't even know how to respond to this stupidity. Unique feature, not all of these characters are intended to be unique features. Yes, buy Half-Life 2, comes with your very own female character. If he's going to mention MGS3, why did he mention the Boss and not Eva?

 

[ElTigreNegro]

Do i mind female characters that look good in a game? Not at all, do i mind when they're annoying and usless? Certainly. If you don't know how to use a character or where to put it then just don't use it at all.

Also, ign most of the time has no idea of what they're talking about, so i wouldn't pay a lot of attention to them.

 

[Copter400]

The thing that really gets my goat is that every hit the page gets is one that could have gone to the far superior article, [a href=http://www.cracked.com/article_15748_gamers-manifesto.html]A Gamer's Manifesto.[/a] An article which also mentions important issues like short-sighted business instead of relying solely on half-baked game design flaws.

 

[Grubnar]

I can see a woman in Marcus Fenix's shoes. Easy.

The worst recent example I can think of right now is Red Alert 3.
The best is Left4Dead.
Somewhere in between is the character you play in Portal, who has no character, but is clearly feamale.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

This is the same IGN that give all of their games 75% or over?
The top ten reasons why games are dying despite seeing huge increases?

Good to see they've not lost any of their journalistic integrity.