Will Grand Theft Auto ever have a female protagonist?
- Thread starter chuckman1
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I find it astonishing that there are still people who consider gamers wanting equal represation of fully half of our species as a "gimmick".mad825 said:
OT: I doubt it, for many of the reasons already put forth. There's still a lot of cultural bias towards the general sphere of the games - crime and violence - being male dominated. We don't want to see women doing these things, because it's not feminine, etc etc. Rockstar could take a stand on this and try it anyway in a DLC, but to much of the insecure teenage boy portion of the fanbase this would probably be viewed as icky. Imagine the outcry if there were a female character running around dating several men, using them for sex and whatever benefits they provide, and now imagine gamers who were controlling this female character having to actively seek out sexual activity with male characters.
I can almost hear the gay panic already.
If Rockstar sticks to being as close to real life as possible it might not happen, the whole thing about being politically correct hasn't really broken through to the criminal.... underground (I actually feel a bit smug for that)
They could probably make it fit an interesting narrative of some kind, but like I said they would have to address it every single point in the story to be realistic, female muscle would probably be a complete novelty within organised crime.
They could probably make it fit an interesting narrative of some kind, but like I said they would have to address it every single point in the story to be realistic, female muscle would probably be a complete novelty within organised crime.
There is a cultural bias in reality! I have never heard of a female mobster or gangster in any crime syndicate. Like I wrote before political correctness is far far from the minds of actual real life criminals, and Rockstar is trying to get the GTA series to be adjacent to reality.SonicWaffle said:
Would be really neat to see a DLC for GTA V where the protagonist is female, at least. Or maybe we'll see something like that for GTA VI? That one girl from The Wire, tha'ts kinda "part of the gang", I don't remember her name. The one with the nailgun that goes around killing people and sticking them in abandoned houses.
*ahem* Anyway, I see plenty of room for a female criminal type, and I also think there is a LOT of interesting stuff to explore there. Since GTA IV Rockstar has taken a more serious and story-driven path with their games, and I would hope after they finish up with the 3 male characters in V we'll get a female one in the next one. Maybe I'll be in an inbetweeny thing, like Vice City and San Andreas kinda was. As long as it is released for the PC or PS3, cause those are the only platforms I have available to me!
*ahem* Anyway, I see plenty of room for a female criminal type, and I also think there is a LOT of interesting stuff to explore there. Since GTA IV Rockstar has taken a more serious and story-driven path with their games, and I would hope after they finish up with the 3 male characters in V we'll get a female one in the next one. Maybe I'll be in an inbetweeny thing, like Vice City and San Andreas kinda was. As long as it is released for the PC or PS3, cause those are the only platforms I have available to me!
And since when would they actually need to worry about political correctness? The prevailing theme of the GTA series is wanting and therefore taking; money, power, revenge etc with little to no regard of how other people feel about it. No GTA protagonist is going to give up because the deck is stacked against them, they're just going to do whatever the fuck they want anyway and whoever disagrees is going to get an RPG to the face.O maestre said:
Surely the fact that other criminals, particularly organised ones, have a specific bias against a female character for gender reasons is catalyst for a better underdog story than the simple progression of foot soldier to mob boss that we've seen before?
Nobody has mentioned doing it for the sake of doing it. The original example mentioned, Colonial Marines, is based on a series which A) tends towards female protagonists and B) has shown that women can and do serve alongside men within the titular organisation. How can it possibly be described as a gimmick to have a female character when the canon has a long tradition of female characters?matthew_lane said:
In GTA, a female character breaking into a male-dominated underworld which is biased against her based on gender is going to provide a major plot point, and can hardly be written off as "wimminz for the sake of wimminz". Since GTA tends to be about starting out with very little and gradually fighting your way to the top of a hostile culture, having a woman in the lead role would not only be an interesting new development but a way to revitalise a rather stale rise-and-fall narrative.
I have to say that GTA has not had very good female characters by any means. If they were to make one she could not be too perfect or it would be grating. She should have faults and a sense of humor most importantly, otherwise it would get old real quick playing some odd female empowerment character or a character with no personality at all. But a sense of humor would be the most important!
But given rockstars track record with female characters I doubt it will ever happen and if it did I would be very surprised and impressed.
But given rockstars track record with female characters I doubt it will ever happen and if it did I would be very surprised and impressed.
I imagine there will be a female protagonist at some point soon, but it's a risky move. Apparently publishers don't like female protagonists, some insecure gamers might be put off and there's always the chance of creating a massive controversy because this is GTA and that's what GTA does.chuckman1 said:
I'd love to see it though. I think it would make for an interesting twist on the series.
I'd like there to be a female main character, but I won't be holding my breath whilst I wait for it to happen. It seems like the protagonists of the series are geared towards the white straight male demographic as with most other games, so that is what we will be getting. Although wasn't there a GTAIV DLC which was lead by a gay character?
If we do get a ladygirl crim to play as then I'd expect it to be in DLC rather than as a standalone title. I'd buy it in a heartbeat though.
If we do get a ladygirl crim to play as then I'd expect it to be in DLC rather than as a standalone title. I'd buy it in a heartbeat though.
It sounds interesting enough, but there would have to be a credible (back)story and decent character development.Belaam said:
With regard to Long Kiss Goodnight/ Nikita, wouldn't that be a slightly different type of game? More like Watch Dogs, with a greater emphasis on infiltration/ stealth? Big crime tends to draw a lot of attention from the authorities. Unwanted attention from the perspective of someone trying to keep a low profile.
Getting caught up in something bigger (like witnessing/ overhearing something one shouldn't have) is a pretty good way to start, IMO, as there is potential for character development. At first, the main character has to flee/ survive while figuring out what the hell is going on and then working up the will/ determination and resources to fight back.
Children.
Grand Theft Auto 1 and 2 had an androgyne player character model (well, sprite), and you could pick a representative avatar for it from a selection of men and women of various races and styles. The NPC script was crafted to mostly cater for that, though there was occasionally a slip that may suggest the female characters were lesbian ... or the Big Gay Mobster was actually straight, just a bit camp and perverted.
How quickly we forget.
The question is, whence came the creative or market forces that then distilled the PC into a single gender, race and background?
I'd be interested to see a multifaceted story where you have to play through at least twice, maybe three times as different characters to see all of what goes on, as your backstory and several of the individual missions would be different, and combinations of you would only come together in particular cutscenes or co-op (multiplayer or AI assisted) missions. Which sort of then diminishes the usual argument that allowing different options for player characters in a tightly story-focussed, closed-ended narrative greatly increases the amount of work that has to go in building their models, changing NPC's reactions to them, remodelling bits of the storyline to suit etc without adding anything concrete. Instead, they're all necessary parts of the whole - you can "finish" the game whilst only playing one character, but you don't get full completion or value that way - and thus everyone gets to experience the story from both a familiar and a more alien perspective.
Naturally there wouldn't be any enforced order to the way you do things; you could pick any character to play first (and second, and...). The only difference might be that it may record your actions in particular collaborative scenes and then play them back. The ontological order of things might get a bit tricky (as you may do things in the "first" body that rely on the other PCs being in a particular place or doing certain things, that you then would either be forced to do when in THAT body, lest things get weird), but it could probably be made to work, even if it's a handwave such as "it's a game, whaddya want from us?". Also there's the Assassin's Creed "thing", and that odd one from a couple years ago (Messiah?) where you could take over NPCs' bodies...
I'm sure I've seen RPGs do something similar before, so why not a more action-focussed title?
And anyway, just how many people played Mass Effect as the opposite gender? C'mon.
Edit/PS: Surely there must be a mod for this if nothing else; I've seen people playing GTA as a HORSE after all... and if there's a mod, that implies that it could therefore be replicated in DLC, or an additional "Episode" that comes out later (something GTA is not unfamiliar with)...
Grand Theft Auto 1 and 2 had an androgyne player character model (well, sprite), and you could pick a representative avatar for it from a selection of men and women of various races and styles. The NPC script was crafted to mostly cater for that, though there was occasionally a slip that may suggest the female characters were lesbian ... or the Big Gay Mobster was actually straight, just a bit camp and perverted.
How quickly we forget.
The question is, whence came the creative or market forces that then distilled the PC into a single gender, race and background?
I'd be interested to see a multifaceted story where you have to play through at least twice, maybe three times as different characters to see all of what goes on, as your backstory and several of the individual missions would be different, and combinations of you would only come together in particular cutscenes or co-op (multiplayer or AI assisted) missions. Which sort of then diminishes the usual argument that allowing different options for player characters in a tightly story-focussed, closed-ended narrative greatly increases the amount of work that has to go in building their models, changing NPC's reactions to them, remodelling bits of the storyline to suit etc without adding anything concrete. Instead, they're all necessary parts of the whole - you can "finish" the game whilst only playing one character, but you don't get full completion or value that way - and thus everyone gets to experience the story from both a familiar and a more alien perspective.
Naturally there wouldn't be any enforced order to the way you do things; you could pick any character to play first (and second, and...). The only difference might be that it may record your actions in particular collaborative scenes and then play them back. The ontological order of things might get a bit tricky (as you may do things in the "first" body that rely on the other PCs being in a particular place or doing certain things, that you then would either be forced to do when in THAT body, lest things get weird), but it could probably be made to work, even if it's a handwave such as "it's a game, whaddya want from us?". Also there's the Assassin's Creed "thing", and that odd one from a couple years ago (Messiah?) where you could take over NPCs' bodies...
I'm sure I've seen RPGs do something similar before, so why not a more action-focussed title?
And anyway, just how many people played Mass Effect as the opposite gender? C'mon.
Edit/PS: Surely there must be a mod for this if nothing else; I've seen people playing GTA as a HORSE after all... and if there's a mod, that implies that it could therefore be replicated in DLC, or an additional "Episode" that comes out later (something GTA is not unfamiliar with)...
I don't care, but it would bring an interesting perspective and open up opportunities for a subversion of series tropes. But it would only work as a once-off. Simply put, most criminals and people who involve themselves with criminals are males.