http://www.joystiq.com/2013/02/18/gears-of-war-art-director-its-tough-to-justify-a-female-lead/ Yeah, I think he's gay myself. I think we can all list popular games with Strong female leads. Me, I'm more inclined to play a game with a female lead because you know.... Chicks man
yea that's horse crap especially because every guy i know that plays an MMO always chooses the sluttiest looking female regardless of stats because as a hetero male... who's ass would you rather be staring at for hours on end?
I have a rule in Fighting games where I always choose the female character first. Famale characters in Beat em ups and fighters are always the most balanced. And uh HELLO? SAMUS?
I'm with you on this one mate, I'd rather play a game with main female characters than some dude, unless it's GTA In EVERY fighting game I play as a female character, usually they are the most agile so, easier for me. Also boobies jiggle. lol. Oh and Samus is kickass, and will always be kick ass, apart from Other M.
How can we forget Jade, and what's her name from Mirrior's edge? Faith. Annet from El Viento Yuko From the Valis Series Samus as we've mentioned Chun Li and Cammy Nina and the Tekken girls Sarah from Vritua Fighter Lara Croft basically mainstreamized female leads Fear Effect Rolling Thunder 2 and 3 Tera from Final Fantasy VI Game may suck but Lightening in FF XIII Bayonetta Juliet from Lollipop Chainsaw Claire (Mai Waifu), and Jill from Resident Evil That's just off the top of my head
Everyone who doesn't know Metroid thinks Samus is a guy. Swear to god I've seen it too often. Also, I liked Mirrors Edge. Had a nice lookin' character in that, if I do say so myself.
My picks: Samus Aran - Metroid Jill Valentine - Resident Evil Heather Mason - Silent Hill 3 Elena Fisher - Uncharted Series Alyx Vance - Half-Life 2
I have to admit that I also enjoy playing the female character in games. Of course it depends upon the game type but I have no issue with platformers or even fighters.
Complete and total BS, some of my favorite games have a strong female protagonist: Portal 1/2 Beyond Good and Evil Mass Effect 1/2/3 (I play female Shepherd) Parasite Eve (listed above) Tomb Raider 1/2/3 (Rest Sucked) Metroid Okami (Yea even if she is actually a dog) /JK Any RPG ,that lets you create your own character, I always play as female,except online MMOs for obvious reasons... And those are just games where the main protagonist is female, there are tuns more that I play that have females as strong lead characters...
Yeah, I see you guys mention some female characters that appear on games, and in a few cases, as the lead of the game, but what the article on joystiq says... Now lets take the original OXM article that is the source of Joystiq: Perna is the Art Director at Epic, so probably the question of who would star in a game would not be entirely up to him. But his comments do raise interesting questions. It would not be unreasonable to think that he is commenting about the American scene. So let's narrow it down: Do we have that? How many? Compared to how many that only have a male character as the star (like Gears of War)? Is it true that the current American market would not buy a game with a female lead in enough quantities to make it a financial success? What does those numbers say about the people that make the games and the people that buy them? (I suspect we will get more female lead games on the PC and casual market of smartphones, but I haven't done the count yet.)
I hate double-standards: sure female characters in games are nothing like the average woman IRL, but what about men? what was the last time you went to a convention or a game store and there was a dude there that looked like Shepard? There are "booth dudes" too you know? they are models and they are hired to be there just like the babes and I saw a few real girl gamers (not failed models pretending to be geeky) taking pictures with a dude hired to play Dante. Nobody wants realistic female characters for the same reason nobody would want a balding guy in his 40s playing Drake, which is how the average explorer/adventurer looks alike. Male model guys like Drake IRL go for prepackaged "adventure holidays" where the worst that can happen is that you step on a jellyfish and have a bad day. My 2 cents...
Haha this comment on the article made me laugh "People are listening to a dev for one of the most homoerotic games where it tries way too hard to be "manly" it's actually gone full circle about what he thinks on female leads in games? Really? No, No Seriously? In 20 years people will make fun of Gear of War like they do Top Gun or the Village People today." But personally, if given a choice, I will almost always go for a female protagonist, I tend to play games to escape or distract me from the real world, what's more distant from my life than a woman... What about the girl in the Pokemon games she's a strong independent lead, if you choose her.
Hell the Valis series is what kick started puberty for me. I don't know what that has to do with anything, other than that it's a thing.
