{"id":95580,"date":"2020-10-23T01:16:50","date_gmt":"2020-10-22T22:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/why-is-it-so-rare-to-have-a-woman-leading-a-game\/"},"modified":"2020-10-23T01:16:50","modified_gmt":"2020-10-22T22:16:50","slug":"why-is-it-so-rare-to-have-a-woman-leading-a-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/why-is-it-so-rare-to-have-a-woman-leading-a-game\/","title":{"rendered":"#Why is it so rare to have a woman leading a game?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a4114c98d4d8\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a4114c98d4d8\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/why-is-it-so-rare-to-have-a-woman-leading-a-game\/#A_brief_history_of_women_leading_games\" >A brief history of women leading games<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/why-is-it-so-rare-to-have-a-woman-leading-a-game\/#%E2%80%9CIt_has_to_be_a_male_character_simple_as_that%E2%80%9D\" >\u201cIt has to be a male character, simple as that.\u201d<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/why-is-it-so-rare-to-have-a-woman-leading-a-game\/#Games_for_girls_girls_for_games\" >Games for girls; girls for games<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/why-is-it-so-rare-to-have-a-woman-leading-a-game\/#All_things_being_equal\" >All things being equal<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;<strong>#Why is it so rare to have a woman leading a <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/game\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"7\" title=\"Game\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">game<\/a>?<\/strong>&#8221;<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2020\/10\/Women-in-Games-Featured-796x417.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n                            <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 1986, a game was released called <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Metroid<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. A dark, challenging <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/sciencee\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"5\" title=\"Science\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">science<\/a> fiction platformer which owed more than a little to the Gigerian horror of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Alien<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Metroid<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> starred a bounty hunter named Samus Aran, outfitted from head to foot in power armor. At the end of the game, Samus would doff the massive orange-and-green armor, revealing long, flowing hair and a red bikini. For less than a minute, the player sees the outcome of\u00a0<\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/bbcthree\/article\/39a1b88f-79dc-4602-8207-f86918afd457\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">one of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Metroid<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2019s directors<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> saying, \u201cWouldn\u2019t it be kind of cool if it turned out that this person inside the suit was a woman?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Judging by the fact that, as of 2020, gamers are still eagerly awaiting Samus\u2019 next adventure, it turns out the answer is: yes, it would be pretty cool.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Metroid: Samus Returns - Official Game Trailer - Nintendo E3 2017\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UhOx-FpEAQk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yet Samus was virtually on her own in 1986, holding up the banner for women in gaming like a veritable Atlas. Even now, while her cohort of female game protagonists is on the rise, it\u2019s just not very common to put your hand into the metaphorical pool of new games and come away with a game led by a woman (and only a woman). Why is that?<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"A_brief_history_of_women_leading_games\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A brief history of women leading games<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Samus wasn\u2019t the first woman to lead her own game \u2014 that honor belongs to Ms. Pac-Man most likely, though there are <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.denofgeek.com\/games\/the-forgotten-early-heroines-of-video-games\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a smattering of lesser-known arcade games<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with women in prominent roles. The point is, female-led games were not particularly common, and the revelation that you were playing the gritty <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Metroid<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as a woman the whole time was nothing short of paradigm-shifting.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Note that I\u2019m speaking specifically of the phenomenon of playing as a woman leading a game, with no option to do otherwise. Games like <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Alone in the Dark <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(1992) and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Resident Evil <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(1996) offered you the option of playing as either a man or a woman, while fighting games of all s<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/trip-and-travel\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"10\" title=\"Trip &amp; Travel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">trip<\/a>es usually had at least one female character. But playing a game with a woman in the lead role, not sharing the spotlight with anyone, was just not a common experience \u2014 and still isn\u2019t, to a certain extent.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Following the success of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Metroid<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, several more women in games rose to prominence: Jill Valentine in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Resident Evil 3 <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(1998), Aya Brea in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Parasite Eve<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (1998), and April Ryan in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Longest Journey<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (also 1998). But the most memorable and influential female gaming lead post-Samus was undoubtedly Lara Croft.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ohzB4nzoJ-0\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ohzB4nzoJ-0<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Debuting in 1996\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tomb Raider<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Lara is notable for not keeping her femininity from the player until the final moment. While she is a competent and intelligent character irrespective of her <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>earance, her curvaceous figure is one of the most noticeable (and marketable) things about her. The urban legend is that her creator, Toby Gard, made her breasts bigger by accident and simply left them that way, but at least one programmer <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/articles\/2016-10-27-20-years-on-the-tomb-raider-story-told-by-the-people-who-were-there\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">later disputed that story to Eurogamer<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: \u201cHe always claims he slipped on the mouse and made the breasts bigger than he meant to, but how true that is, I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lara Croft set a tone for many of the women in games to come after her: to meet the standard she set, they had to be beautiful, sexy, and cool. You can see some extremes of this in the likes of Joanna Dark from <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Perfect Dark<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (2000) and Rayne from <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bloodrayne<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (2002), as well as several female playable characters in ensemble games.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then, shortly after the turn of the century, a new sort of female protagonist emerged. A more dressed-down, less-sexualized woman began to appear in leading roles. One of the first was Jade, the protagonist of 2003\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Beyond Good and Evil<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. A capable, savvy character, Jade\u2019s more conservative, realistically proportioned design was such a strong swing from what came before that she\u2019s often held up as an example of how to do female leads in games \u201cright.\u201d <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/feministfrequency.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Feminist Frequency<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> put forth Jade as a positive example of a female protagonist, with <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=wCsu3YPOw50\">host Anita Sarkeesian saying<\/a>, \u201cJade isn\u2019t designed to fulfill someone else\u2019s fantasy\u2026 she looks like she is dressed to accommodate her own needs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can see these more realistically clothed and proportioned women begin to take over a portion of the gaming market \u2014 Kate Walker in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Syberia<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (2002), Chell in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Portal<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (2007) and Faith in Mirror\u2019s Edge (2008). Even Lara herself received a more practical makeover in the 2013 <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tomb Raider <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">reboot. The sexualized female game lead never fully went away \u2014 see <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bayonetta<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, who debuted in 2009 \u2014 but the gaming industry had definitely evolved far away from Samus\u2019 red bikini.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Beyond Good &amp; Evil HD: Launch Trailer\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Wg4CDpo0aw0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That said, the number of female-led games has not risen at a rate commensurate with this evolution. Games with women as the only playable characters are still not very common. In 2012, a report from EEDAR, a video game research firm, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/lifeandstyle\/the-womens-blog-with-jane-martinson\/2013\/jun\/12\/games-industry-problem-female-protagonists\">detailed the number of games<\/a> with different gendered leads, and found that out of a sample of 669 games from the seventh console generation that had specified gender for their protagonists, only 24 had a female lead. <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/e3-2019-female-representation-videogames\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wired also charted<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the number of games with female leads debuted at E3 from 2015 to 2019 and found that the percentage of woman-led games remained rather low, with the highest percentage being 9% in 2015.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But there are signs of hope. Within the last few years, we\u2019ve seen several successful game <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">series<\/a> with female leads \u2014 either from the start or slowly shifting to female-led over time. We\u2019ve got the likes of Aloy from <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Horizon Zero Dawn<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, or Ellie from <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Last of Us Part 2<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, or Kait Diaz from <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gears 5<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 we\u2019re not exactly spoiled for choice, but it\u2019s certainly not as difficult as it used to be to find a game led by a woman.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But what is it like for the people who create those women and the games they\u2019re in?<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CIt_has_to_be_a_male_character_simple_as_that%E2%80%9D\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt has to be a male character, simple as that.\u201d<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One consistent element in the story of a female-led game\u2019s development seems to be resistance from publishers or the market. It\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">hard <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to get a game concept starring a woman off the drawing board, let alone into the hands of gamers, even (or perhaps especially) when you\u2019re working within the AAA game development system.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Earlier this year, Ubisoft became one of several gaming companies caught in the #MeToo reckoning, with several of its higher-ups named in sweeping sexual misconduct allegations. In <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2020-07-21\/ubisoft-sexual-misconduct-scandal-harassment-sexism-and-abuse\">an <span>expos\u00e9<\/span> on Bloomberg<\/a>, Jason Schreier detailed the atmosphere of hostile, arrogant masculinity that permeated the company\u2019s culture and its games. One of the casualties of this attitude was apparently an independent female lead of an\u00a0<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Assassin\u2019s Creed<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> game.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to Schreier, Ubisoft CCO Serge Hasco\u00ebt and the marketing team both had a hand in sabotaging the development of three potential games: <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Syndicate<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (originally starring Evie Frye, who had to share screen time with her brother Jacob), <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Origins<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (in which Aya effectively became a side character in her husband Bayek\u2019s story), and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Odyssey<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (which went so far as forcing a selectable gender on the player). All three of these were apparently conceived as female-led games.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I can\u2019t overemphasize how bizarre that last example is, because the series\u2019 entire premise centers around the idea of a present-day character reliving a past event that has already occurred \u2014 in the context of that narrative, a selectable character doesn\u2019t really make sense. They were so determined not to allow a woman to lead their games that they trashed the entire central conceit of the series to make it happen.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And why did Hasco\u00ebt and Ubisoft do this? According to Schreier\u2019s sources, it\u2019s because they believed \u201cfemale protagonists wouldn\u2019t sell.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No matter how successful the franchise, or how novel the game concept, add a female protagonist and developers become bearish on the game. For example, Dontnod Entertainment was hit with this while developing its 2013 game, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Remember Me<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0 The main character is named Nilin, and had always been a woman from the earliest stages of development.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Remember Me - Launch Trailer\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HFGQvvEt1zA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The game\u2019s creative director, Jean-Maxime Moris, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/2013-03-20-publishers-rejected-remember-me-because-of-female-lead.html\">said in an interview<\/a> that this caused a problem when they were looking for a publisher, as many believed the game would flop purely for that reason. \u201cWe had some [companies] that said, \u2018Well, we don\u2019t want to publish it because that\u2019s not going to succeed. You can\u2019t have a female character in games. It has to be a male character, simple as that.\u201d He and the rest of Dontnod allegedly told the publishers, \u201cIf you think like that, there\u2019s no way the medium\u2019s going to mature.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Schreier points out in his Ubisoft expos\u00e9 that this attitude about female-led games blatantly overlooks the success of games like <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Horizon Zero Dawn.<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0But not even that game, which would go on to be one of the most successful games released on the PS4, was immune to that initial response. <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/2015\/6\/18\/8802349\/sony-was-worried-about-a-female-protagonist-in-killzone-devs-new-ip\">According to Polygon<\/a>, Sony was initially \u201cnervous\u201d about a game with a young woman in the lead role. Sony Interactive Entertainment president Shuhei Yoshida said, \u201cThat has always been the vision by the team, but we had a discussion. Is it risky to do a female character?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Game publishers also tend to want to stick with what works, and can perceive gender as some radical change they\u2019re not willing to throw money behind. In the late 2000s, for example, developers Treyarch conceived a game called\u00a0<em>Black Lotus<\/em>, an action game set in Hong Kong with a female lead based on actress Lucy Liu. In <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gamasutra.com\/view\/news\/29719\/InDepth_No_Female_Heroes_At_Activision.php\">a report on Gamasutra<\/a>, Leigh Alexander writes that\u00a0<em>Black Lotus\u00a0<\/em>was presented to publisher Activision, who told Treyarch to \u201close the chick.\u201d One of Alexander\u2019s sources said the company had no successful game with a female lead with which to compare such a concept: \u201c<span>What they do have room for is, \u2018we are making an open-world game with a gangster main character who can steal cars and shoot people, but it will be in Hong Kong instead of Liberty City. And then they go, \u2018Hey,\u00a0<\/span><i>GTA IV<\/i><span>\u00a0sold 10 million copies, so that\u2019s what we expect from you.&#8217;\u201d<\/span> To that end, the game was eventually retooled into the next entry in the\u00a0<em>True Crime\u00a0<\/em>series,\u00a0<em>True Crime: Hong Kong<\/em>, before being canceled outright.<\/p>\n<p>That might sound like it makes sense, as Activision is a business, but even this supposedly rational methodology had some sexist flaws. As one source told Alexander: \u201c<span>Most of the focus tests that I have seen run at Activision are very questionable. If someone from publishing has a point to prove or can\u2019t get an idea in the game, the focus test questions are skewed, and the Activision feedback is skewed in their favor.\u201d\u00a0<em>True Crime: Hong Kong<\/em> (and, by proxy,\u00a0<em>Black Lotus<\/em>), was eventually purchased, reworked, and released by Square Enix as\u00a0<em>Sleeping Dogs<\/em>. Lucy Liu plays a side character, a musician who\u2019s prostituted by her Triad-affiliated boss, and the male lead, Wei Shen, does her the kindness of not sleeping with her \u2014 quite a fall from being the lead character herself.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>So is there merit to this argument? Do games with female player characters sell less? It\u2019s\u2026 complicated.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Assassin&#039;s Creed\u00ae Liberation HD [UK]\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zfpfhztOBVI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span>The author of the aforementioned EEDAR report, Geoffrey Zatkin, said\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.themarysue.com\/why-games-with-female-protagonists-dont-sell-and-what-it-says-about-the-industry\/\">in an interview<\/a>\u00a0that games with male protagonists do sell significantly better than those with female protagonists \u2014 up to 75 percent better. But, he points out, this could be because the latter get a much, much smaller marketing budget, roughly 40 percent that of their male counterparts. Zatkin says \u201c<\/span>I think that there\u2026 in core console land, there\u2019s a lot of marketing thought that it\u2019s hard to sell a game with a female-only protagonist in a core genre. The question is, is this something that really doesn\u2019t happen, or do marketing budgets get gimped?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span>In other words, there\u2019s a chance it\u2019s a self-fulfilling prophecy: if you believe a female-led game isn\u2019t going to sell well, and so invest less in the marketing campaign, then it won\u2019t sell well. And because these games don\u2019t sell well, publishers don\u2019t want to put money behind a game that does have a female lead, which leads to those games either swapping gender or getting their marketing budgets reduced, and on the cycle goes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To give an example from the very company that prompted the question, Ubisoft has exactly <em>one<\/em> Assassin\u2019s Creed game led solely by a female protagonist: <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Assassin\u2019s Creed: Liberation<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, starring Aveline de Grandpre<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Not only was the game released solely on the Sony PlayStation Vita handheld console at launch \u2014 a console that, while not a complete flop, was certainly no PS3 \u2014 it had to compete for marketing cash with the tentpole release, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Assassin\u2019s Creed 3<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which was released on the same day. There was very little attention left to be paid to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Liberation<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So to Serge Hasco\u00ebt, and those like him who say that games with female leads don\u2019t sell, I can only ask, \u201cHow would you know? Have you ever tried it?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Games_for_girls_girls_for_games\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Games for girls; girls for games<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Games with female protagonists don\u2019t just happen in a vacuum. Indeed, if the above examples are anything to go by, a developer must consciously decide to make a game with a female lead. And the decision to do so can often be hamstrung by a simple fact: there aren\u2019t as many women making games as there are men.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Game developers are like any other kind of storyteller \u2014 they tend to write what they know. If they have the lived experience of being a 20-40 year-old white male, that\u2019s likely to be the protagonist they create. There\u2019s nothing wrong with that, but that character is far from the only one with a story. When speaking with developers about why there are comparatively few gaming heroines, one common reason cited was that there weren\u2019t very many women helming projects or taking lead roles in game development.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">HER Interactive, the company behind the long-running <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nancy Drew<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> game series (from 1998 to the present), began making games when the market for female-led games was, to use its own words, underserved. In 1998, they say, it wasn\u2019t common to find a game that was led by a woman, or one based on a book series.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Nancy Drew: Legend of the Crystal Skull Official Trailer | Nancy Drew Mystery Games\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1f8cKVZ52xI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a spokesperson told TNW, the development staff has always been a mix of female and male, but it\u2019s not enough to simply create a female character and leave it at that:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We are seeing more female inclusion as lead characters and that is exciting, and especially in roles that are not stereotypical.<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But more women at the top-level making game design and story decisions are needed. We will then see more well-constructed female characters and a balancing of female roles with all the other game characters.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">HER Interactive\u2019s original slogan for the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nancy Drew<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> series was \u201cFor girls who aren\u2019t afraid of a mouse.\u201d It sounds rather cringe-worthy in retrospect, but an important one considering the series was, unlike many of its fellows, explicitly targeting young women.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a> launched its Women in Gaming project intended to help women break into the industry, CCO Sheryl Sandberg said, \u201cGaming doesn\u2019t fully reflect the audiences it serves in the stories it tells. Women make up only 23% of the gaming workforce and women of color are even less represented.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The lack of women in development roles and as lead characters in the games also means the young women who play these games can find it difficult to see themselves reflected in the heroes and adventurers into whose lives gaming allows us to escape. The rather loaded term is \u201crepresentation\u201d \u2014 and gamer girls haven\u2019t had a lot of it in the history of gaming.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the unspoken-but-understood components of the above-mentioned argument that \u201cGames with women in the lead role don\u2019t sell\u201d is \u201cWomen aren\u2019t buying these games.\u201d Conventional wisdom would have one believe that the market of female gamers is so comparatively small that it\u2019s not worth catering to \u2014 and making a game with a woman in the lead role has often been seen as catering to the women who\u2019d be represented by her.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"UNCHARTED: The Lost Legacy - Launch Trailer | PS4\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-PhhiKPHTWM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Women who game have often embraced the heroines who exist, sometimes in defiance of the sexist or stereotypical design choices that created them. For example, while one would think that the audience for the stunning Lara Croft would be men (and her design would seem to support that belief), to the surprise of her creators, women and girls were a huge demographic for the game (perhaps as high as 40%).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Meghan Marie, author of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">20 Years of Tomb Raider<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/uk-england-derbyshire-37619114\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">told BBC<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that she felt represented by the character: \u201cIt was really cool to see this beautiful woman who was so powerful and in control\u2026 She was a female protagonist and there weren\u2019t many.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As someone who was also inspired by Lara, what drew me to the character was her intelligence and bookishness \u2014 Lara knew everything there was to know, everything I wanted to know, about history and archaeology. If I ever noticed how often her beauty or sexiness was played up both in the games and their marketing, I think I accepted even as a child that that was the price for having her at all, and I was fine with that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There\u2019s been one slow but inexorable sea change in the world of gaming, and that\u2019s women taking over formerly male-led franchises. Ellie is now front-and-center on <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Last of Us Part II<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Chloe Frazier takes over from Nathan Drake in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Uncharted: The Lost Legacy<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and Kait Diaz is leading the squad as of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gears 5<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. In each of those cases, it feels almost as though the writers had to sneak them in by positioning them as the natural successors to the white male leads (Joel, Nate, and JD Fenix, respectively).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These changes have not come without resistance. Earlier this year, for example, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Last of Us Part II <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">became the center of controversy surrounding the new secondary protagonist, Abby \u2014 most of the dislike for her centered around an in-game event I won\u2019t spoil, but it was often expressed <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/2020\/7\/1\/21309926\/the-last-of-us-part-2-abby-body-actor-naughty-dog-ps4-playstation-sony-body-diversity\">as disgust for her appearance in particular<\/a>. Since she\u2019s much more stocky and muscular than fellow player character Ellie (or several other female game characters, for that matter), some unrepeatable slurs for trans women were often hurled her way, showing there\u2019s still room for improvement when it comes to diverse female body types.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Walking Dead: Season 2 - Reveal Trailer\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ilEB4KTTOIo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Adding to that, representing women of color is still an area where the industry could stand to do more. If women make up a small portion of gaming heroes, then women of color make up an even smaller percentage. Most of gaming\u2019s celebrated heroines \u2014 Samus Aran, Lara Croft, Aloy, Jill Valentine, Bayonetta \u2014 are white. Celebrated heroines of color are rare, and are often more ethnically ambiguous than a specific minority \u2014 see Jade, or Chell from <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Portal<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">TNW spoke with Sandra Saad, the actress who plays Kamala Khan, the hero and main player character of the recently released <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Marvel\u2019s Avengers<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, about what it means to have a character like hers, a Pakistani-American Muslim teenager, in a game:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I never thought I\u2019d be hearing an Avengers story from the perspective of a young brown girl. When I found out I was going to be in an Avengers game, I thought I\u2019d be in the smallest role, just from what we\u2019re used to seeing. That\u2019s not what [Square Enix has] in mind. They want you to see a new perspective entirely.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kamala is also singular in that she\u2019s played by an actress with a similar background to her own. It\u2019s not uncommon for female characters of color to be <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/78kv5x\/black-video-game-characters-are-still-often-voiced-by-white-actors-uncharted-4-nadine-ross\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">voiced by white actresses<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Aveline from <em>Assassin\u2019s Creed\u00a0<\/em>is voiced by Amber Goldfarb, Nadine Ross from <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Uncharted <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is voiced by Laura Bailey<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and Clementine from <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Walking Dead\u00a0<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is voiced by Melissa Hutchison \u2014 all of whom are white<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Saad said playing a character so close to herself was very important to her:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It should be celebrated to be yourself. We don\u2019t often see a story led by such a person, so we don\u2019t think it\u2019s okay or cool to be a fangirl, or to be a person of color. It\u2019s difficult and awkward sometimes, and you\u2019re just trying to fit in. I\u2019m a first-generation American and I grew up just wanting to fit in\u2026 this game has taught me that it\u2019s okay to be myself.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"All_things_being_equal\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All things being equal<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With all of the above in mind, it raises the question: will we ever achieve a state of gender parity in games? Can we reach a point where women and men can lead games in equal measure?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If there\u2019s one thing that all of the aforementioned history has taught us, it\u2019s that a major change is unlikely to happen on its own. Gamers and developers have had to fight to get women into games every step of the way, either from wary publishers, or from gamers unwilling to accept the change.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Game developers have, sometimes to their detriment, defended their female characters and protagonists. Whether it\u2019s EA\u2019s CCO <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.weforum.org\/agenda\/2018\/06\/women-in-video-games-accept-it-or-don-t-buy-the-game\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">telling gamers<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> upset to see a female warhawk in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Battlefield V<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that they have two choices, \u201ceither accept it, or don\u2019t buy the game\u201d; or Naughty Dog <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/stories\/devs-refused-to-move-ellie-to-back-cover-of-last-of-us-240444.phtml\">flat-out refusing<\/a> to move Ellie to the back of the game box of\u00a0<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Last of Us<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> when it was suggested they to do so \u2014 game developers who believe in the strength of their characters for better or worse can be the first line of defense.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Horizon Forbidden West - Announcement Trailer | PS5\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Lq594XmpPBg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Getting more women into game development is also likely to lead to more women in leading roles within games \u2014 like I said before, we tend to tell the stories we know.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We gamers get to do the rest, and to our credit, we seem to be getting there. It\u2019s less of a panic than it used to be to see a woman leading a game, or to see one taking over a major franchise from a male lead. As the success of games like <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Last of Us Part 2 <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Horizon Zero Dawn <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">prove, we\u2019re willing to accept, if not actively hunger for, games with women in the starring role.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But there\u2019s no denying that, even now almost 35 years later, it\u2019s still a surprising sight when our player characters in the power suits and armor turn out to be women.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"post-article-read-next\">\n    <b>Read next:<\/b><\/p>\n<p>        Moog built a super-fancy theremin to celebrate the instrument&#8217;s 100th birthday    <\/p><\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/technology\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Technology category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/gaming\/2020\/10\/22\/why-is-it-so-rare-to-have-a-woman-leading-a-game\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#Why is it so rare to have a woman leading a game?&#8221; In 1986, a game was released called Metroid. A dark, challenging science fiction platformer which owed more than a little to the Gigerian horror of Alien, Metroid starred a bounty hunter named Samus Aran, outfitted from head to foot in power armor. At&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95581,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/img-cdn.tnwcdn.com\/image\/tnw?filter_last=1&fit=1280,640&url=https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2020\/10\/Women-in-Games-Featured.jpg&signature=7c452f3a9738f5d11cad24b40c8c7875","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[76823,76822,76821,71907],"class_list":["post-95580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-female-protagonist","tag-lara-croft","tag-metroid-video-game","tag-play"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}