The Portrayal of Male Characters in Video Games.

[Moonlight Butterfly]

I have noticed that while Female characters are a hot button topic when these issues are discussed many male gamers come forward with how they are very unhappy with their male counterparts.

I personally can understand this as male video game characters are often as stereotyped as women. Despite the fact I see this as more of 'Power Fantasy' stereotype rather than how women are often hyper-sexualised I can understand that this is probably just an annoying!

When discussion about female characters erupt discussion about improvements to male characters are often put aside for another time. Well I would like to have that 'other time' So guys what are your current problems with video game dudes.

Personally I think the biggest problem is the portrayal of the action hero stereotype as the be all and end all of the male power fantasy. Characters like George Stobart the intelligent, humorous lawyer from Broken Sword or Max Payne, a guy who actually seems to have some emotional range other than 'lolshootthings' are just as valid as the Marcus Fenixs' (Fenixi? Fenixises?) of gaming.

Honestly I had trouble thinking up characters who break the norm and that is a problem... perhaps you guy can do better with a description of what YOU want from your protagonists (or even villains) rather than what the devs think you want!

 

[Vanitas likes Bubbles]

Seriously, I want more "dudebros" to show more emotion. Other than the "arg..... why must life be pain" emotions. There are more emotions other than that.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

I agree with emotional range being one of the biggest problems someone said that Lara Croft's trial by fire would be never done to male protagonist perhaps it should...

The Brown hair white male 30 something is annoying too. I'm pretty sure men come in more flavours than that.

Personally I would love a game where you play as a normal guy caught up in some crazy stuff ala Stargate Universe. Perhaps a chubby science teacher caught in a zombie apocalypse.

Not enough chubby guys in gaming beyond humorous side characters.

I also thought up a game about a cynical wheelchair bound guy who gets sucked into a dungeon dimension and makes steampunk upgrades to his chair to fight the lovecraftian horrors. (Not at all based on my best mate >_>)

 

[Hagi]

I think in order for the characters to change the stories being told in games also need to change.

A lot of the attributes of the stereotypical male suit the story being told in most games. Most games revolve around some sort of major threat that requires some sort of super soldier to face the odds and come out on top where nobody else could.

An extremely smart but physically inferior guy wouldn't fit in such a story. He wouldn't face odds he couldn't beat, he'd figure out a way to tip the odds heavily in his favour first whilst laying low and only then make his move.
A socially gifted, pleasant and idealistic guy wouldn't fit in such a story. He wouldn't beat the enemy by something as counter-productive as killing them (meaning their kids will hate you and the whole thing goes on forever) instead he'd seek peace through negotiation and peaceful protest.

With video-game stories being as they are you NEED a jarhead hero. No other type of hero would launch the 1-man assaults on enemy fortifications that we're so fond of seeing in games. No other type of hero would would shoot every single enemy they came across. No other type of hero would go in guns blazing when all logic tells you that single fight is lost and you should retreat.

So yeah, give us a story that doesn't revolve around a lone hero (with possibly a few friends) facing insurmountable odds that can apparently only be beaten by killing just about everyone.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

SNIP

Hmm that's very true. Broken Sword allowed George Stobart to beat the enemy through his wits rather than his muscle just due to how the game played out.

 

[NewClassic_v1legacy]

My biggest problem, in all honesty, is that people are paying attention to the sex of their protagonist. It's the same with any social issue. It's not that we have too many weak male or female characters, it's that we have too many weak characters. This goes for male protagonists, female protagonists, and side characters. Just, in general, characters tend to lack good writing and solid bases for their personalities, emotions, wants, and desires. Most characters lack any such when taken out of the context of the game.

So, when I see things like this that single out a gender, then I think back to all of those articles a few months back asking for stronger black characters who aren't thieves or criminals. Or the ones that crop up occasionally asking for stronger LGBT role models. Lots of back-and-forth bickering and discussion often comes from them, but they go nowhere because anything that's put in due to a nature of needing to be a strong x lead is going to end up feeling forced.

So instead, we need to start taxing writers with coming up with strong, well-written, highly empathetic characters. That way, it doesn't matter if they're male or female, or gay or straight, or anything, because they're naturally solid characters. People (not just women, or men, or homosexuals, or any other group who feels the need to have a media-based role model) will be able to connect with them.

And for anyone who wants a stronger character, the first step is producing media about these stronger characters. I write what I know, most writers do. So, if you know a certain outlook better, and feel you can make more solid characters under a set of conditions you feel is underrepresented in media, then represent it yourselves. It's not perfect, but the more media we expose to the population at large (and indirectly, the writers who may end up trying to introduce them into newer, wider media forms), the more likely we are to have solid characters who are female, or a minority group, or gay. Instead of having a female, or minority, or homosexual who also happens to be a strong character.

 

[ChupathingyX]

We need more Zhang He's...

Spoiler

Personally I don't really care if a male character is super buff or a slender guy who wears pink armour adorned with butterflies. As long as the character is entertaining and has something memorable about them then I'm fine.

On a more serious note good character development, good writing, flaws and all that stuff apply too but that applies to all characters and not just males.

 

[Hjalmar Fryklund]

snip

We actually had a recent, if a tad short thread about this subject. Asked some questions that nicely complements your OP's.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.378512-The-Portrayal-of-Men-and-Masculinity-in-Video-Games?page=1

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

snip

We actually had a recent, if a tad short thread about this subject. Asked some questions that nicely complements your OP's.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.378512-The-Portrayal-of-Men-and-Masculinity-in-Video-Games?page=1

Thanks I hadn't noticed that I will check it out

 

[Don Savik]

I'll post this so no one else has to.

Yep, there is hardly much variety when it comes to guys in games, it's a shame. At least Mario is fat, he has that going for him.

There are many games that encompass that, but also an equal amount that don't. Its really only a big offender with the more triple A titles to be honest. RTS, most platformers, racing games, mmos, make-your-own-character rpgs, etc don't have this problem. It seems to only be a shooter/action game thing.

Also, I hate most if not all those characters in the picture. We aren't very well represented in gaming as much as people think we are.

 

[SpectacularWebHead]

I'm personally of the belief that western male main characters don't/can't show emotion because the Japanese characters are hogging it all. JRPG characters alone are so angsty it pretty much makes up for the lack of emotion displayed by every shooter character ever.
(Aside from anger. Western characters have the monopoly on anger)

 

[Hjalmar Fryklund]

We actually had a recent, if a tad short thread about this subject. Asked some questions that nicely complements your OP's.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.378512-The-Portrayal-of-Men-and-Masculinity-in-Video-Games?page=1

Thanks I hadn't noticed that I will check it out

Don't mention it.

On-topic: I tend to find male main characters rather emotionally disjointed and as a result, difficult to root for at times. They respond to their feelings in a rather exaggerated and almost theatrical manner that often goes against their established character.

Conversely, male supporting characters (or even secondary or tertiary main characters) tend to fare a lot better in this particular regard, they often come off as more emotionally wholesome.

I think this is actually a result of pandering to what is perceived to be the mainstream market (depending obviously on what the main market is for the game). The main character has be a safe bet, according to marketers, which in the case of males means emotionless and stoic. But! They must show some kind of feeling lest they be branded as bland.

This in turn leads to taping on jigsaw pieces of emotion that don't really fit with the main personality of the main character. It creates a primarily colorless character with some blips of extremely saturated colors of emotion sprayed on here and there, which makes for a rather garish image of its personality.

...Reflecting on what I've written right now, I realise I've qualified myself rather poorly. Nevertheless, such are my thoughts on the matter.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

snip

Not at all it makes a lot of sense.

Like the writers are trying to put some false character into an otherwise bland brown haired white 30 something bro.

 

[Hjalmar Fryklund]

snip

Not at all it makes a lot of sense.

Like the writers are trying to put some false character into an otherwise bland brown haired white 30 something bro.

Oh, well all right then.

I would definitely say that the real problems with male characters tends to rear their heads when the character takes the role of the protagonist. You look at the supporting cast and you will not find the same problems as bad, if you're even finding a problem at all.

Now, since my system of choice is the DS I do not really find these issues that annoying. As games for the platform were and are quite cheap to produce, writers are often kept on a longer leash.

Funny how many problems in this industry ties back to production costs and profit margins (though the latter doesn't exactly relate to what I am talking about).

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

I agree with emotional range being one of the biggest problems someone said that Lara Croft's trial by fire would be never done to male protagonist perhaps it should...

Ethan Mars and Lucas Kane begs you to think otherwise. Granted they are both from Quantic Dream, the company which seems to have made it their deal to try and re-shape storytelling in gaming. Still, both of them go through a journey where they have to test their own limits, face their own shortcomings and risk everything. Most importantly, they are both portrayed as emotionally effected by what they go through and their emotional journey is the driving force in both Fahrenheit and Heavy Rain.

If anything Quantic Dream only highlight what NewClassic already pointed out: that the problem in gaming today isn't related as much to gender as it is an all around problem of weakly written characters. The female characters only stand out more because the contemporary discourse has made us more aware of the negative portrayal of women, whereas the male stereotypes hasn't been scrutinized nearly as much.

So perhaps it is time for all these guys that play computer games to start analyzing male characters just as female gamers are deconstructing the female characters. Or maybe it is just time that we started demanding a higher standard in character writing.

 

[Enthuril]

Ha, this kind of relates to the conclusion I came to in one of the threads about women in games. The stereotypes exist for literally everyone involved, and quite honestly they suck for everyone. Men don't want to be stuck between brown-haired 30-something white males and extremely effeminate boys, women don't want to be used as something that's just there to be looked at and have no real character representation, black people don't want to just be stuck with the black stereotype... I could go on, but the point is there.

More than anything, I feel the issue that we have now is not one of discrimination but one of poor writing. The writers seem to see it as a kind of "why should I put effort into coming up with a character when there are already pre-established character types I can work with?". You see this attitude a lot in games, and it's actually clear to me that the effort usually just isn't made. There are some exceptions though, like in the Persona series which actually seems to handle minorities fairly well in some ways. The female characters in those games seem really well made, and their dealing with issues of sexuality and such in Persona 4 is apparently really good though I'm yet to actually play it.

 

[Zantos]

Whenever I get the chance to make my own character he always turns out ginger. I have no idea why, but it always looks better.

I think what we're seriously missing from the white 30 something male demographic is epic facial hair. Captain Price's moustache was a good start, but we normally only ever get some stubble or maybe a goatee. Why can't we have a hero with a wizardly level beard, it's not like it'll get in the way.

Yes, my solution to the portrayal of male characters is "More epic beards!". I see nothing wrong with this.