Girls in Games

In our industry of video games, there are certain…stereotypes that we need to see broken. Think about it. How often do you see a female portrayed in a video game in a non-sexual way, or even a normal girl? You might be able to think of a few, like Alyx Vance from the Half Life series. It’s not impossible for a game to have a non-stereotypical female character, but the ratio is too great for typical females.

Now, you might ask/think why does this matter? I like sexy girls in games; it’s not hurting anyone. Truth is: this stereotypical female is holding back our medium. When our industry is accused of being immature, or corrupting the children of the world. How can we defend ourselves when every female is being portrayed as a girl who can’t deicide whether to wear a bikini, or even wear cloths at all?

Take the old series of Tomb Raider. Lara Croft was always seen wearing the same outfit, the cutoff shorts, and her shirt that was many sizes too small. She became a symbol of sex. This inlays the problem. Her idea of a character was great. A tough girl exploring caves and ruins for priceless treasure, and running into ancient curses and monsters in doing so. None of that needed the visualization of a girl with short-shorts and a tiny shirt. That was added just to make the game sell better, and it definitely did. This can’t continue to happen. It’s holding our industry back. Females always see games as a guys’ way to see scantly clad girls dance around on the screen. I stand against this reasoning. I want to keep seeing more girls like Zelda. She fights her own fights. She might be a princess, but she also has the ninja side to her too, Shiek. If our industry would make more characters like that, we’d see a vast increase in the diversity of both games and it’s players.

Sheik (AKA Zelda) from the Legend of Zelda series

This is why if we could see this change, it could reshape what people think about games. Wouldn’t it be great to have your girlfriend play more games with you because she doesn’t have to see girls like Ivy, From the Soul Caliber series, all the time? I’m not saying we can never have a sexy girl in a game again. Look at Beyonetta, or Catherine. Both of those games have a sexy female protagonist, and both still make great games.

Lastly, you might be thinking. What can I do? Small town Owensboro, no one notices anything I do. Wrong. Boycott certain games. If a game is just a sex appeal game – don’t buy it. Don’t rent it. Don’t borrow it. Try and convince others not to. It will diminish the sales of that game, and as much as it pains me to say it. That’s what drives our industry. Then when those jewels show up, buy those games. Games like Half Life, or Portal; both have strong female protagonists. If more and more people do this, then we could see a change in our industry. Making it all the greater in its ability to tell a story with truly defined and carved out characters.