Will Grand Theft Auto ever have a female protagonist?

[tahrey]

Most, but not all. Otherwise there would be no women's prisons - yet there are enough women criminals that we were once witness to a terrible TV soap opera set within the confines of such a place. There are female thieves, brawlers, murderers, gangers, even bosses... and certainly pimps (something GTA would definitely be in tune with), aka Madams.

Just fewer of them, for whatever reason.

Out of a series that's had five main installments so far (albeit, as noted, two of them being androgynous) and countless sub-episodes, is there no room for even one female lead? It doesn't need to be a huge in-your-face feminist screed that scares off anyone with external gonads. Just... change the lead PC, and make a realistic treatment, or at least, as realistic as all the other GTA characters to date. Take a chance. See what happens.

They had a gay mob boss already, right?

 

[Hazy]

Not if I have anything to say about it

All jokes aside, no, I don't see it happening. Not that there's anything inherently wrong with it, I just don't see it as a design choice Rockstar would make.

 

[blackrave]

Screw GTA
What we need is Urban Chaos 2

 

[O maestre]

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.

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.

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?

You have to read my comment again more carefully.

Yes it would be a good story, and like I wrote a female protagonist would have to have her gender addressed several times in the narrative, since it is such a peculiar thing in the real world. The reason behind this is that the GTA series tries to emulate the real world as much as possible, so it would be a peculiar thing in the world of GTA as well.

What I meant about political correctness was that organised crime, and criminals in general don't really give a fuck about it, so they wont be having meetings discussing how there are no women in their leadership. Likewise you wont find a gang lamenting the lack of ethnic diversity in their gang.

Having a female protagonist in an almost exclusively male role (the muscle) in a piece of media, could be seen as a convention of political correctness. Just like how in cartoons criminal gangs were usually depicted as being multi ethnic and had both genders, something that hardly reflects reality, where race or ethnicity usually is the pillar of a gang. The same thing applies for gender.

Mind you I am not saying they shouldn't do it, but it would be hard to buy unless they addressed it and made it part of the narrative, instead of having a female protagonist and every other character being cool with it. Kind of like how in almost every Arnold Schwarzenegger movie we are suppose to buy that he is an american despite his obvious accent.

In short they can't add a female character as a protagonist without her gender being a major subject of the story narrative.

 

[PoweD]

Do you know how much I would love to play as some scummy criminal woman who runs around cursing at cops and groping sexy men? Do you know how long I've waited to do that!?!

I've done the opposite. I've done it SO many times. And I'm tired of it. Just once I wanna be that funny-looking chick who takes what she wants and doesn't care what anyone thinks instead of that one funny-looking guy. *Sniff* Just... once...

I don't think it'll happen in my lifetime, but if it did, I would buy it twice. Just because.

I'm picturing Deb from Dexter in this scenario...it's fucking funny.

I'd love to see Rockstar pull that one but it would depend heavily on what kind of organized crime they're tackling. The Italian Mafia has no place and very little regard towards female members, if The Godfather, Goodfellas and The Sopranos are anything to go by (the only female "made (wo)man" we see in The Sopranos lasts two eps and gets clipped with severe prejudice against her sex). The whole ghetto culture thing they had going on in San Andreas is also incredibly sexist. Most female characters in San Andreas are either mistresses (Maria from III), porn stars (Mercedes from Vide) or booty calls (CJ's girls in San Andreas). Same-ish with IV and onwards. As power figures we had Asuka in III (arguably shared with her bro through heritage) and the Poulet lady from Vice, who I think took some heat for being a stereotype.

Taking into consideration the mob cultures sampled by GTA, ladies receive very little prominence in organized crime, and going up the proverbial ladder. I'd like to see them make it happen, but I can't think of any mob org. right now where women get as many opportunities as men do. It's a pretty chauvinistic underworld.

How many characters in the GTA games were actually part of the crime families? Apart from CJ, didn't the protagonist just do certain jobs for whatever crime families?

Tommy was with the Forellis (until Sonny crossed him anyway). But the point is, the Italian mafia doesn't take female soldatos, or capos, or any of that. Best case scenario, you're related to the boss and enjoy certain privileges. Same thing with most organized crime, I think, it's a man's world most of the time. But I'm not an authority by any means, I'm just voicing my impressions on the subject based on a mix of movies, literature and vox populi.

They've already done the Italian Mafia though. Notice how Rockstar doesn't re-tread old ground?

GTA III from what I remember was mainly about the Yakuza and Drug Cartels (it's been years since I played it)

Vice City was...the Mafia and 80's ethnic gangs from what I recall?

San Andreas was typical suburban American street gangs from the 90's. Heavily influenced by the Bloods and Crips wasn't it?

IV and it's expansions had the Russian Mob, family of Irish criminals, Bikers and Club owners trying to double cross eachother.

They actually do re-tread old ground.
GTA III did have Italian mafia, just like Vice City, San Andreas and IV. All of them had the Italian mafia in some big part of the plot.

But you were only directly a part of them in Vice City. The rest you were just doing odd jobs for them. I can't recall much of GTA3 but wasn't the main premise of the story trying to find Catalina who double crossed you?

Vice City was directly about the Mob, but I honestly can't recall much of it.

San Andreas was about Big Smoke and the other guy from your gang.

IV started off as trying to make it in American, then a whole mess of shit to do with Russians and a personal vendetta.

in GTA3, the entire first island is based on them(very similar how Russian mafia is in GTA IV)
San Andreas had them as main baddies in Las Venturas
GTA IV had at least 30% of missions surrounding the Italian Mafia.

GTA IV gave up on the Russian mafia way after leaving first island(Broker), and only time they are encountered again is at the end. Similar situation happened in GTA 3 and the Italian mafia.

 

[Smeatza]

I think it would take some really, really good writing to have a female protagonist in a GTA game (without making the protagonist out-of-place or fundamentally changing the series). A level of writing I don't think (as far as I'm aware) Rockstar have displayed before.

 

[Something Amyss]

It's unlikely we'll ever see one, as the series is primarily aimed at adolescent boys. The best we might get is selectable gender from a created character, but that's only if they drop the pretense that there's any depth to their stories and that they need to unfold like movies.

I don't see either happening any time soon.

people just kinda assumed GTA5 would have a female lead, and when it did not happen, people got mad, i dont understand it.

I didn't see any of this. Huh.

 

[Belaam]

It sounds interesting enough, but there would have to be a credible (back)story and decent character development.

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.

Yeah, those two would be a bit over the top. Rockstar loves their political commentary too, so I could also see them running with a scenario where, say... you are an unwitting drug mule (i.e. someone planted drugs in your luggage) who gets stopped by TSA and is assumed guilty. Mid arrest, the gang that planted it shows up to rescue you/the item. They agree to explain that you were innocent if you do X for them, then escalate what X is while you look up seedy connections and eventually shadowy government types to help clear your name. Pretty much any race/gender combination would work there.

 

[Daft Time]

Or even in one of the dlcs.

If it ever happens - and I hope it will - it will only happen in an expansion. Too much of GTA's audience is the stupid "dude bro!" group who'd think it's "gay" to play as a "chick". Rockstar are still a company, and potentially losing such a large number of sales is something they will never do for a main release. It's a shame, but so very true.

I think it'd work great if they did. A female protagonist in a game about vice gives a unique perspective that we so rarely in any media, let alone games. It's an area dominated by men and where the outside world can barely even picture a woman fulfilling the same roles as you see from any of the other GTA leads. I think there is a ton of potential for a decent writer to create an interesting story.

It's less to do about it being gay and more to do with the particular world their generally portraying (gangs/mafia etc) are very much a male dominated errr.... profession? That's not to say women can't be portrayed, but it wont be as believable without touching on sensitive topics. Simply put its easier for Rockstar to just go with a man, since society considers us as monsters and expendable anyway most of the time (quite depressing really) compared to the opposite gender.

No. The "dude bro" audience wont touch a female protagonist for exactly the reason I stated. I covered the gender issues with crime in my second paragraph - yes, it would be easier just to write male leads - but it's not why they'd lose that particular audience. It's not "realism" to be a man either, unless Rockstar entirely fails to address the social pressures and perception behind women in violent vice. Just because it's more common for it to be a man, doesn't stop it being realistic to be a woman.

 

[FFP2]

Because it wouldn't fit into the story. Rockstar wouldn't add in a female PC just for the sake of having a female PC.

And couldn't you play as a female in the GTA IV multiplayer? I'm okay with that.

 

[Milanezi]

Maybe, when all the Sarkesian lovers quit their non-sense, otherwise as soon as it hits the selves it will be like "HELL that woman is being exploited towards becoming a crime boss! This depiction of women as potential criminals is preposterous!" And obviously, as soon as the main she-character gets beaten up in a cinematic "BRUTALITY AGAINST WOMEN!!!" and last, but not least, when the character gets rescued by someone else "SEE?! They're saying women can't fend for themselves, sooner or later they'll need somebody's help"...

EDIT: mostly, GTA (apparently not V, but the other ones) is more about the game and the character's background, meaning it would be nice to give US the option to choose gender, certain features etc, small choices, sorta like in Borderlands and Saints Row, just so people who want a female can get a female, with whatever haircut they wish, and tattoos; maybe block some options in order to maintain story cohesion - like in GTA IV, you're constricted to create an avatar who's white with "Russian" facial features, since the whole stereotype thing is so important in GTA.

 

[Lt._nefarious]

Maybe, when all the Sarkesian lovers quit their non-sense, otherwise as soon as it hits the selves it will be like "HELL that woman is being exploited towards becoming a crime boss! This depiction of women as potential criminals is preposterous!" And obviously, as soon as the main she-character gets beaten up in a cinematic "BRUTALITY AGAINST WOMEN!!!" and last, but not least, when the character gets rescued by someone else "SEE?! They're saying women can't fend for themselves, sooner or later they'll need somebody's help"...

*Takes of feminism T-shirt*

Yeah, that Anita lady... We don't like her, no sir... I have to go... Unsubscribe to... Something.

OT: I'd like a female lead in a GTA game but, I don't know, it's hard to imagine a woman being the muscle in a criminal operation. I mean, I'm sure they are, but people like Niko "ees your coouseen" Bellic doing that sort of dirty work. Although Rockstar do make very strong stories and characters so I'm sure they could do it.

Although before they start focusing on the next GTA protag they should start thinking about Manhunt 3, that's what we all want... Right? That's what I want.

 

[Charli]

Yes come on, write some Harley Quinn-esque ***** with a chip on her shoulder (Write a new story), I might actually BUY a GTA Game. (I love racing sandbox games but this is the epitome of boys club only shite, even some of the boys I've babysat say it bold facedly, "You can't play it because this game is for boys." I laughed but honestly it made me look at the series and realize 'yep, it's not for me.')



If you don't think women don't get reckless and involved in crime you haven't met some of the screwed up ladies I've met. Honestly I think some Chavy-british messed up ***** could fill the slot.


Anyway I doubt it, that shit has been male power fantasy (Destructive and reckless behaviour and crime in a relatively consequence free environment is pretty much the definition) fodder since the dawn of time. They're not going to take that risk just because I want it.

I have cars on the brain today anyway (assignment) maybe one day I'll make something like that.

 

[Vern5]

You are forgetting Catalina, she really tore shit apart in the other games and was just as crazy as the other male characters. She can be compared with the crazy dude from GTA V

Catalina is still a sexual stereotype if she's as crazy as you say. She's the Psycho-***** incarnate. Most GTA Protagonists are generally the straight man or Only-sane-man when compared to the rest of the cast. That being said, you can't have a psycho ***** lead the cast of a GTA game or perhaps ANY game.

 

[The Inquisitive Mug]

I would absolutely love it if there were a female protagonist. She doesn't even have to be "butch", just badass. It would be awesome.

 

[chuckman1]

They're not exactly the OG's of the gang usually or even on the same level, but Bloods and Crips both recruit women. I'm not sure about Crip girls but Blood girls are basically property of the gang even though they'll happily shoot anyone coming for them. Maybe as progress happens eventually crime will be more equal opportunity and we'll see this as a possibility.

 

[aguspal]

No. The "dude bro" audience wont touch a female protagonist for exactly the reason I stated.

Yep, because Portal was so not touched by Dude-Bros that it didn't even get a sequel... An Lara croft... Those Dude-Bro's hated her so much her series of games never existed. BULLSHIT

*ahem*

Can well please stop talking shit now. The reason this game series does not work with a female protagonist at this point is that it doesn't happen in real life that way, nor has it happened historically in real life that way. Until it does, it is unlikely to happen like that in a GTA game.

Hey, I dont want to sound harsh of anything but...

Portal: Well, its in first person and you could be perfectly excused for not even knwoing than the MC is female. In fact, it as literally no meaning at all... not even talking or something. So may as well be male. Or an alien or a robot for that matter, lol.


Tomb Raider: Well, Its Tomb Raider. Lara Croft. That one hot chick and all of that, wont say it counts, even if the latest game did fix this somewhat.