Portrayal of women in video games
Encyclopedia
The portrayal of women
in video games has often been the subject of both academic
studies and controversy
. Two recurring themes are the level of independence of female character
s from their male counterparts, and their objectification
and sexualization
.
Early portrayals presented women in subsidiary roles, dependent of a male protagonist. More modern video games have evolved to include women in active and self-reliant attitudes, but in some cases have also increased the level of physical attractiveness catering to the audience of male players. Controversy centers on the same lines of the portrayal of women in general media including the girl treated as an archetype
, sexism
, and violence towards women. The latter has been perceived as being aggravated by the interactivity
inherent to the media.
s, some games include women in a prominent role within the storyline.
Female characters are often cast in a role of damsel in distress
and their rescue as the final objective of game, including Princess Zelda
in the early The Legend of Zelda
series and Princess Peach
through much of the Mario
series (both of them, however, became playable in the later games of their series), and Elaine Marley
in the Monkey Island
series.
A number of games will feature a female character as an ally or sidekick
to the male hero, such as it is in the case of Ada Wong
in the Resident Evil series (a double/triple agent, later also a player character
), Mona Sax
in the Max Payne
series (a player character in the second game), Cortana
in the Halo
series, and Chloe Frazer
and Elena Fisher
in the Uncharted
series. Alyx Vance
, a supporting protagonist of Half-Life 2
, was praised for her "stinging personality" and intelligence, developing a close bond with the player without simply being "eye candy".
Some games feature female characters as major enemies or even main villains, such as Dark Queen in the Battletoads
series, Elexis Sinclaire
in the SiN series, Franziska von Karma
in the Ace Attorney series, and Sarah Kerrigan
in the StarCraft
series.
s, including the popular Dead or Alive (Ayane
, Kasumi
), Darkstalkers (Felicia
, Morrigan Aensland
), Mortal Kombat (Jade
, Kitana
, Mileena
, Sonya Blade
), Street Fighter
(Cammy, Chun-Li
, Elena
, Ibuki
, Juri
, Makoto
, Sakura Kasugano
), Soul
(Hildegard von Krone
, Ivy Valentine, Sophitia
, Taki
, Tira), Tekken
(Alisa Bosconovitch
, Christie Monteiro
, Nina Williams
) and The King of Fighters (Athena Asamiya
, Blue Mary
, Mai Shiranui
, Yuri Sakazaki
) series, where the women are most often fighting against male characters as equals.
Role-playing-games
offer the player the choice to assume the role of a female character (in addition to featuring the established female characters, usually as the party
members, such as Aerith Gainsborough
, Tifa Lockhart
, Yuffie Kisaragi
, Lulu
, Rikku
, Yuna
and Lightning
in the Final Fantasy
series or Xion
in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
). The effects of choice of male or female gender in most games are often limited to the appearance of the character and responses from non-player characters and rarely affect the attributes of the character, like in Pokémon Crystal and the games following it. However, certain RPGs have character classes of which some are exclusively female and featuring unique abilities and attributes, such as in the case of Diablo 2.
Among real time strategy games, some games include female units that can be created (or recruited) and controlled by the player and also include female characters as part of the storyline. While Warcraft III (2002) features a fair share of female combat units, earlier titles like Age of Empires lacked female units altogether, though they appeared later in this series as well.
Other notable player characters include Ayame
in the Tenchu
series, and Claire Redfield
, Jill Valentine
, Rebecca Chambers
and Sheva Alomar
in the Resident Evil series.
s in modern games. In the 1980s, outside of a few Japan
ese arcade and console titles, such characters were featured mostly in the role-playing and adventure game
s (the first western action game
with an exclusively female hero was Saboteur II: Avenging Angel in 1987), but this has changed through the 1990s and 2000s. Notable examples of such characters include Aya Brea
(the Parasite Eve series), Chell
(Portal), Lara Croft
(the Tomb Raider
series), Samus Aran
(the Metroid
series), Rayne
and Bayonetta
starring in the games that are named after them.
Samus Aran
is held up as a positive example of women protagonists in video games, as players were unaware that the protagonist was female until the end of the first Metroid game, due to a heavy suit of mechanical armor, which she wears for the majority of the game. Thus, her female characteristics were at first not emphasized over her viability as a character.
Lara Croft is the best known in a trend of strong, beautiful women in a variety of media that do not depend on men to achieve heroic deeds, with ambivalent reception for their independence as action heroines and their eroticized portrayal. April Ryan
, protagonist of The Longest Journey
, has been compared to Lara Croft in that respect, as she shows less prominent physical feminine attributes than Lara but more feminine psychological traits, as contrasted with Lara's masculine connotations like aggressiveness and force. Contrarily, Jade
, the protagonist of Beyond Good and Evil
, was widely recognised as a strong and confident female character lacking any overt sexualisation and Chell
, the main character of Portal was noted for the fact that she was neither in third-person or sexualised unlike most female characters in first-person shooters.
. At its core is a fundamental perception of "the woman" as an archetype in and of itself, and simply being female being considered enough of a "trait" in comparison to the male "norm". Unlike with male characters, who are defined by what they do (i.e. the way they interact with the world surrounding them), excessive emphasis is given on what "the woman" is, sometimes going as far as negatively influencing their character proper in stereotypically "female" ways.
. A number of female enemies in the Japanese beat'em up games were also either gender-changed or removed in the export versions.
, reward, or something else), "the woman" will virtually always find herself serving the male players through the systematic enforcement of sex appeal, with rarely much regard to how gratuitous, out-of-place or out-of-character such appeal might be (e.g. high heels in armed combat). Another common feature often used for sex appeal is the use of "jiggle physics," when a female character's large breasts bounce, sway, and make various other random movements. Like with many other media, complaints have been made regarding a perceptible underlying implication that there is quite simply no point for a female character to even exist if her presence does not in some way entail the sexual pleasure of male consumers.
Since her introduction in 1996, the character of Lara Croft
from the Tomb Raider
series in particular has been criticized for her unrealistic breast size; Lara was claimed personify "an ongoing culture clash over gender, sexuality, empowerment, and objectification." However, the game's creators maintain that she was not designed with marketing in mind, and have claimed to be rather surprised at her pinup-style adoration; in fact, it has been claimed that this fandom
objectification is harmful to the character (in Tomb Raider: Legend, Lara underwent a radical redesign, ostensibly to make her less sexualized).
Similarly, Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball
has been criticized as being more about eye candy than it is about the sport of volleyball, having been created merely for the purpose of displaying women's breasts. In two sequels of fighting games Soul Calibur
and Tekken
that take place several years after the original issue, recurring male characters were allowed to age but all female characters were kept the same age or replaced by their daughters.
was first noted for containing elements of rape
and some Native American groups and the National Organization for Women
have criticised this as well as alleged racism
. More recently, major controversies were sparked by some Japanese games such as RapeLay
and Battle Raper.
series; however, some sources have specifically condemned the series and similar games for promoting violence against women.
has formed a group of female gamers called the Frag Dolls
; the intent is to create "role models for a whole legion of girls out there who may have been too intimidated to play games online - or even play at all". In addition, to attract female gamers to a generally male-dominated market, many game companies are becoming more family-friendly.
Woman
A woman , pl: women is a female human. The term woman is usually reserved for an adult, with the term girl being the usual term for a female child or adolescent...
in video games has often been the subject of both academic
Academia
Academia is the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research.-Etymology:The word comes from the akademeia in ancient Greece. Outside the city walls of Athens, the gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning...
studies and controversy
Controversy
Controversy is a state of prolonged public dispute or debate, usually concerning a matter of opinion. The word was coined from the Latin controversia, as a composite of controversus – "turned in an opposite direction," from contra – "against" – and vertere – to turn, or versus , hence, "to turn...
. Two recurring themes are the level of independence of female character
Character (arts)
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
s from their male counterparts, and their objectification
Sexual objectification
Sexual objectification refers to the practice of regarding or treating another person merely as an instrument towards one's sexual pleasure, and a sex object is a person who is regarded simply as an object of sexual gratification or who is sexually attractive...
and sexualization
Sexualization
The definition of the term, Sexualization has been the subject of debate and dispute. It has been described as the act or process of sexualizing. It refers to the making of a person, group or thing to be seen as sexual in nature or a person to become aware of sexuality...
.
Early portrayals presented women in subsidiary roles, dependent of a male protagonist. More modern video games have evolved to include women in active and self-reliant attitudes, but in some cases have also increased the level of physical attractiveness catering to the audience of male players. Controversy centers on the same lines of the portrayal of women in general media including the girl treated as an archetype
Archetype
An archetype is a universally understood symbol or term or pattern of behavior, a prototype upon which others are copied, patterned, or emulated...
, sexism
Sexism
Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is the application of the belief or attitude that there are characteristics implicit to one's gender that indirectly affect one's abilities in unrelated areas...
, and violence towards women. The latter has been perceived as being aggravated by the interactivity
Interactivity
In the fields of information science, communication, and industrial design, there is debate over the meaning of interactivity. In the "contingency view" of interactivity, there are three levels:...
inherent to the media.
Non-player characters
Apart from roles as ancillary non-player characterNon-player character
A non-player character , sometimes known as a non-person character or non-playable character, in a game is any fictional character not controlled by a player. In electronic games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer through artificial intelligence...
s, some games include women in a prominent role within the storyline.
Female characters are often cast in a role of damsel in distress
Damsel in distress
The subject of the damsel in distress, or persecuted maiden, is a classic theme in world literature, art, and film. She is usually a beautiful young woman placed in a dire predicament by a villain or monster and who requires a hero to achieve her rescue. She has become a stock character of fiction,...
and their rescue as the final objective of game, including Princess Zelda
Princess Zelda
is the name of a fictional character in The Legend of Zelda series of video games. The name has applied to every female member of Hyrule's royal family, which includes several distinct characters in Hyrule legend. Though she is the eponymous character, the player controls the main protagonist, Link...
in the early The Legend of Zelda
The Legend of Zelda
The Legend of Zelda, originally released as in Japan, is a video game developed and published by Nintendo, and designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. Set in the fantasy land of Hyrule, the plot centers on a boy named Link, the playable protagonist, who aims to collect the eight fragments...
series and Princess Peach
Princess Peach
is a character in Nintendo's Mario series of video games. She is the Princess of the fictitious Mushroom Kingdom, and often plays the damsel in distress role within the adventure series. In 2007, Princess Peach landed on Forbes magazine's Wealthiest Fictional People list, with a fortune upwards of...
through much of the Mario
Mario (series)
The video game series, alternatively called the series or simply the series, is a series of highly popular and critically acclaimed video games by Nintendo, featuring Nintendo's mascot Mario and, in many games, his brother Luigi. Gameplay in the series often centers around jumping on and...
series (both of them, however, became playable in the later games of their series), and Elaine Marley
Elaine Marley
Elaine Marley–Threepwood is a fictional character in the Monkey Island series of graphic adventure video games. Created by Ron Gilbert for LucasArts, the character first appears in The Secret of Monkey Island and is one of the core characters in the franchise...
in the Monkey Island
Monkey Island
-Places:* Nanwan Monkey Island, a nature reserve in Hainan, China* Monkey Island, North Carolina, a remote, natural island located in Currituck Sound, North Carolina* Monkey Island, in the Grand Lake o' the Cherokees in northeast Oklahoma...
series.
A number of games will feature a female character as an ally or sidekick
Sidekick
A sidekick is a close companion who is generally regarded as subordinate to the one he accompanies. Some well-known fictional sidekicks are Don Quixote's Sancho Panza, Sherlock Holmes' Doctor Watson, The Lone Ranger's Tonto, The Green Hornet's Kato and Batman's Robin.-Origins:The origin of the...
to the male hero, such as it is in the case of Ada Wong
Ada Wong
is a game character in the Resident Evil series. The film version of Ada appears in Resident Evil: Retribution, where she is played by Li Bingbing.-Creation and development:...
in the Resident Evil series (a double/triple agent, later also a player character
Player character
A player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
), Mona Sax
Mona Sax
Mona Sax is a fictional character in the first two Max Payne video game series , as well as in the 2008 film.-In video games:...
in the Max Payne
Max Payne (series)
Max Payne is a video game series developed by Remedy Entertainment and recently, Rockstar Vancouver. The series is named after its protagonist, Max Payne, a New York City police officer...
series (a player character in the second game), Cortana
Cortana
Cortana is a fictional artificially intelligent character in Bungie's Halo video game series. Voiced by Jen Taylor, she appears in Halo: Combat Evolved and its sequels, Halo 2 and Halo 3, in the prequel and epilogue of Halo: Reach, as well the novels Halo: The Flood, Halo: The Fall of Reach, ...
in the Halo
Halo (series)
Halo is a multi-million dollar science fiction video game franchise created by Bungie and now managed by 343 Industries and owned by Microsoft Studios. The series centers on an interstellar war between humanity and a theocratic alliance of aliens known as the Covenant...
series, and Chloe Frazer
Chloe Frazer
Chloe Frazer is a fictional character in the Uncharted series, and serves as a female protagonist of the 2009 video game Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Frazer was designed to provide a darker counterpart to main series protagonist Nathan Drake, and to highlight these facets of his personality. She is...
and Elena Fisher
Elena Fisher
Elena Fisher is one of the protagonists of the Uncharted series created by developer Naughty Dog. Fisher appears in all the three video games in the series: Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, and Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. While not a playable character, Fisher acts as...
in the Uncharted
Uncharted
Uncharted is an award-winning series of action-adventure/platform/third-person shooter video games developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment exclusively for the PlayStation 3 video game console. The series follows modern-day treasure hunter Nathan "Nate" Drake as he...
series. Alyx Vance
Alyx Vance
Alyx Vance is a non-player character in Valve's 2004 first-person shooter computer game Half-Life 2, and its following episodes: Half-Life 2: Episode One and Half-Life 2: Episode Two...
, a supporting protagonist of Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2 , the sequel to Half-Life, is a first-person shooter video game and a signature title in the Half-Life series. It is singleplayer, story-driven, science fiction, and linear...
, was praised for her "stinging personality" and intelligence, developing a close bond with the player without simply being "eye candy".
Some games feature female characters as major enemies or even main villains, such as Dark Queen in the Battletoads
Battletoads
Battletoads is a platformer video game created by Tim and Chris Stamper and developed by Rare. Starring three anthropomorphic toads named after skin conditions , the game was created to rival the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games....
series, Elexis Sinclaire
Elexis Sinclaire
Elexis Sinclaire is a fictional character and main villain in the SiN video games series by Ritual Entertainment and SiN the Movie, a 60-minute anime OVA by ADV Films and Ritual Entertainment.-In video games:...
in the SiN series, Franziska von Karma
Franziska von Karma
Franziska von Karma, known as in Japan, is a fictional character in the Ace Attorney series. She is a prosecuting attorney, first appearing in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice for All. She later appears in the sequel Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations and the spin-off, Ace...
in the Ace Attorney series, and Sarah Kerrigan
Sarah Kerrigan
Sarah Louise Kerrigan, the self-styled Queen of Blades, is a major character and the predominant villain in Blizzard Entertainment's StarCraft series of video games and novels. The character was created by Chris Metzen and James Phinney, and her appearance was originally designed by Chris Metzen...
in the StarCraft
StarCraft (series)
StarCraft is a military science fiction media franchise created by Chris Metzen and James Phinney, and owned by Blizzard Entertainment. The series centers on a galactic struggle for dominance between three species—the adaptable and mobile Terrans, the insectoid Zerg, and the enigmatic Protoss—in a...
series.
Player characters
Many video games include selectable female characters. This is especially prominent in fighting gameFighting game
Fighting game is a video game genre where the player controls an on-screen character and engages in close combat with an opponent. These characters tend to be of equal power and fight matches consisting of several rounds, which take place in an arena. Players must master techniques such as...
s, including the popular Dead or Alive (Ayane
Ayane (Dead or Alive)
is a player character in the Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden fighting game series by Team NINJA and Tecmo Koei. Ayane has also a complex relationship with Kasumi, the leading heroine of the Dead or Alive series, ever since they grew up together...
, Kasumi
Kasumi (Dead or Alive)
is a player character in Dead or Alive fighting game series by Team Ninja and Tecmo. Kasumi has served as the main character of the Dead or Alive franchise since its beginning in 1996, being the official protagonist in the first two main games in the series, and playing very important roles in the...
), Darkstalkers (Felicia
Felicia (Darkstalkers)
is a fictional character in the Darkstalkers series of fighting game by Capcom She first appeared in the 1994 game Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors and its subsequent sequels, later appearing in other Capcom games outside of the Darkstalkers series and related media and merchandise.-Conception and...
, Morrigan Aensland
Morrigan Aensland
is a video game character from the Darkstalkers series of fighting games developed by Capcom. She is voiced by Yayoi Jinguji in many of her video game appearances, except in Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds where she was voiced by Rie Tanaka....
), Mortal Kombat (Jade
Jade (Mortal Kombat)
Jade is a fictional character from the Mortal Kombat fighting video game series. She debuted in Mortal Kombat II , at first as an unplayable secret character and became a player character in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3...
, Kitana
Kitana (Mortal Kombat)
Kitana is a recurring player and a one-time boss character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. One of the lead characters of the Mortal Kombat saga, Kitana is the princess of the otherdimensional realm of Edenia and the daughter of Queen Sindel...
, Mileena
Mileena
Mileena is a player and boss character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. Mileena was originally known as the personal assassin of the Outworld's evil emperor Shao Kahn and twin sister of his stepdaughter Princess Kitana, but in a truth she is a deformed clone of her created by the sorcerer...
, Sonya Blade
Sonya Blade
Sonya Blade is a player character from the Mortal Kombat series. She is portrayed in the games as an officer of the United States Special Forces.-In video games:...
), Street Fighter
Street Fighter
, commonly abbreviated as SF, is a series of Fighting Games developed in Japan in which the players pit the video games' competitive fighters from around the world, each with his or her own unique fighting style, against one another...
(Cammy, Chun-Li
Chun-Li
is a video game character produced by Capcom. First introduced in Street Fighter II, she has since appeared as a player character in nearly all subsequent games....
, Elena
Elena (Street Fighter)
is a fictional character in the Street Fighter series. She first appeared in the arcade game Street Fighter III: New Generation, and appeared in several revisions of it, including Street Fighter III, Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact, and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike...
, Ibuki
Ibuki (Street Fighter)
is a video game character from the Street Fighter fighting game series. She along with Elena were the lone female characters in the Street Fighter III series, until 3rd Strike, where they were joined by Makoto and Chun-Li...
, Juri
Juri (Street Fighter)
, is a fictional character in the Street Fighter series. She is a South Korean fighter who first appears in Super Street Fighter IV. She is a member of the organization S.I.N...
, Makoto
Makoto (Street Fighter)
is a fictional character from the Street Fighter video game series. She is a Tosan fighter and a Rindōkan karate expert from Japan. She first appeared in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, and again in Super Street Fighter IV. She wears a white dougi and a yellow hachimaki around her neck, intended to...
, Sakura Kasugano
Sakura Kasugano
is a player character in the Street Fighter series of fighting games. Sakura is portrayed in the series as a young Japanese schoolgirl who idolizes Ryu, whom she wants to be trained by.-In video games:...
), Soul
Soul (series)
The is a weapon-based historical fantasy fighting game series by Namco Bandai Games. The series revolves around a sword that, after years of bloodshed and hatred, gained a soul of its own, the Soul Edge, and the sword forged to counter it, Soul Calibur. The series is special in that each character...
(Hildegard von Krone
Hildegard von Krone
, for short, is a fictional character in the Soul series of video games. Created by Namco's Project Soul division, she first appeared in Soulcalibur IV and its subsequent sequels, later appearing in various merchandise related to the series...
, Ivy Valentine, Sophitia
Sophitia
is a fictional character in the Soul series of video games. Created by Namco's Project Soul division, she first appeared in Soul Edge and its subsequent sequels, as well as appearing in various merchandise related to the series.- Creation and conception:...
, Taki
Taki (Soulcalibur)
is a fictional character in the Soul series of fighting games by Namco. Taki, one of the series' good characters, is a demon huntress and a runaway kunoichi whose motive is destroying the evil sword known as Soul Edge....
, Tira), Tekken
Tekken
is an arcade fighting game franchise created and developed by Namco. Beginning with the original Tekken arcade game released in 1994, the series has received several sequels, as well as various home conversions and spin-off titles released for consoles...
(Alisa Bosconovitch
Alisa Bosconovitch
is a video game character from the Tekken fighting game series developed by Namco Bandai, first appearing in Tekken 6 Bloodline Rebellion. Alisa is an android with detachable body parts. She was created by Dr. Boskonovitch. Alisa and Lars Alexandersson are the main protagonists of the console...
, Christie Monteiro
Christie Monteiro
is a character in the Tekken fighting game series. Christie is the granddaughter of the Capoeira mestre who taught Eddy Gordo the art of Capoeira during his incarceration in prison...
, Nina Williams
Nina Williams
is a character from Namco's Tekken game series. She is known to be a cold-blooded assassin who had made her very first appearance in the original Tekken game and since has appeared in every Tekken game released...
) and The King of Fighters (Athena Asamiya
Athena Asamiya
is a character originally from the former SNK's video game Psycho Soldier and a descendant of Princess Athena in its Athena. She later appears in The King of Fighters series of fighting games as a female fighter character and has appeared in each of its thirteen editions...
, Blue Mary
Blue Mary
, real name , is a video game character from both the Fatal Fury and The King of Fighters series of fighting games developed by SNK Playmore . Blue Mary's first appearance was in the arcade and console game Fatal Fury 3: Road to the Final Victory which introduced her as an agent who investigates...
, Mai Shiranui
Mai Shiranui
is a player character in both the Fatal Fury and The King of Fighters series of fighting games by SNK and in related media, also appearing in a large number of other games...
, Yuri Sakazaki
Yuri Sakazaki
is a video game character from SNK Playmore's Art of Fighting series. She first appears in the original Art of Fighting being kidnapped by Mr. Big, a criminal from the fictional city of Southtown. The players, Yuri's brother Ryo and his friend Robert Garcia spend the game searching for her...
) series, where the women are most often fighting against male characters as equals.
Role-playing-games
Role-playing game (video games)
Role-playing video games are a video game genre with origins in pen-and-paper role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, using much of the same terminology, settings and game mechanics. The player in RPGs controls one character, or several adventuring party members, fulfilling one or many quests...
offer the player the choice to assume the role of a female character (in addition to featuring the established female characters, usually as the party
Party (role playing games)
A party is a group of characters adventuring together in a role-playing game. In tabletop role-playing, a party is composed of a group of players, occasionally with the addition of non-player character allies controlled by those players or by the gamemaster. In computer games, the relationship...
members, such as Aerith Gainsborough
Aerith Gainsborough
— spelled Aeris Gainsborough in the English releases of Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy Tactics — is a player character in Square's console role-playing game Final Fantasy VII...
, Tifa Lockhart
Tifa Lockhart
is a player character in Square Enix's role playing game Final Fantasy VII. Created by character designer Tetsuya Nomura, she has since appeared in the fighting game Ehrgeiz and cameo appearances in other titles, as well as the CGI film sequel to Final Fantasy VII, Advent Children and related games...
, Yuffie Kisaragi
Yuffie Kisaragi
is a fictional character in the Final Fantasy video game series. She was first introduced as a secret character in the role-playing video game Final Fantasy VII in 1997 and since then also made appearances in the CGI movie Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, the Final Fantasy VII spinoff games...
, Lulu
Lulu (Final Fantasy)
is a fictional twenty-two-year-old black magic user in the Final Fantasy series, and one of the main characters in Final Fantasy X. She was voiced by Paula Tiso and Rio Natsuki in the English and Japanese versions respectively. She appears as the guardian to the lead female protagonist, Yuna, and...
, Rikku
Rikku
is a player character in the Final Fantasy series, and a protagonist in both Final Fantasy X and X-2.-Concept and creation:Rikku was designed by Tetsuya Nomura, who also designed other characters from Final Fantasy X and X-2. She is voiced by Tara Strong and Marika Matsumoto in the English and...
, Yuna
Yuna (Final Fantasy)
is a player character in the Final Fantasy series. She is the female protagonist of Final Fantasy X and the main protagonist of the sequel Final Fantasy X-2. She was designed by Tetsuya Nomura and voiced by Hedy Burress and Mayuko Aoki in the English and Japanese versions, respectively...
and Lightning
Lightning (Final Fantasy)
is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the video game Final Fantasy XIII developed and published by Square Enix. She was created by Motomu Toriyama, the game's director and scenario writer, and designed by Tetsuya Nomura...
in the Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy
is a media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi, and is developed and owned by Square Enix . The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and science-fantasy role-playing video games , but includes motion pictures, anime, printed media, and other merchandise...
series or Xion
Xion (Kingdom Hearts)
is a fictional character from Square Enix's video game franchise Kingdom Hearts. She was introduced in the 2009 game Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days as the newest and fourteenth member from the group Organization XIII which is composed of Nobodies, beings created from people who lost their heart...
in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
is an action roleplaying game developed and published by Square Enix for the Nintendo DS with assistance from h.a.n.d. It is the fifth installment in the best-selling Kingdom Hearts series, and serves as an interquel beginning near the end of the first game, Kingdom Hearts, and covering the period...
). The effects of choice of male or female gender in most games are often limited to the appearance of the character and responses from non-player characters and rarely affect the attributes of the character, like in Pokémon Crystal and the games following it. However, certain RPGs have character classes of which some are exclusively female and featuring unique abilities and attributes, such as in the case of Diablo 2.
Among real time strategy games, some games include female units that can be created (or recruited) and controlled by the player and also include female characters as part of the storyline. While Warcraft III (2002) features a fair share of female combat units, earlier titles like Age of Empires lacked female units altogether, though they appeared later in this series as well.
Other notable player characters include Ayame
Ayame (Tenchu)
Ayame is a player character in the Tenchu video game series, and on of its two main characters along with Rikimaru. She is featured in all Tenchu games except of Tenchu Z.-Character biography:...
in the Tenchu
Tenchu
Tenchu is the title of a stealth game series of video games originally developed by Acquire wherein the player assumes the role of a ninja....
series, and Claire Redfield
Claire Redfield
is a player character appearing in the Resident Evil series of survival horror video games.Claire is the younger sister of Chris Redfield, the protagonist of the first Resident Evil game...
, Jill Valentine
Jill Valentine
is a fictional character in the Resident Evil survival horror series by Capcom.Jill is one of the two protagonists of the original Resident Evil game, where she was introduced as a member of the Raccoon Police Department's Special Tactics And Rescue Service , trapped in a secret research complex of...
, Rebecca Chambers
Rebecca Chambers (character)
is a player character in the Resident Evil survival horror video games, first introduced in the first game in the series in 1996. She is also one of the main characters in the Resident Evil novels.-Character design:...
and Sheva Alomar
Sheva Alomar
is a fictional character in the Resident Evil survival horror series by Capcom. She was introduced in 2008 as an operative of the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance and the new partner of Chris Redfield.-Character design:...
in the Resident Evil series.
Female protagonists
There has also been an increasing trend for women to be used as the sole protagonistProtagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
s in modern games. In the 1980s, outside of a few Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese arcade and console titles, such characters were featured mostly in the role-playing and adventure game
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
s (the first western action game
Action game
Action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes diverse subgenres such as fighting games, shooter games, and platform games, which are widely considered the most important action games, though some...
with an exclusively female hero was Saboteur II: Avenging Angel in 1987), but this has changed through the 1990s and 2000s. Notable examples of such characters include Aya Brea
Aya Brea
Aya Brea is a player character in the Parasite Eve video games by Square.-In the Parasite Eve series:Aya Brea was born in Boston, Massachusetts on November 20, 1972. She is of mixed ethnicity: her father , who is a journalist, was of European descent, her mother was Japanese...
(the Parasite Eve series), Chell
Chell (Portal)
Chell is the protagonist and player character of the Portal series. Chell first appears in Portal, where she is taking part in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center's test under supervision by GLaDOS. GLaDOS tries to kill her as Chell then tries to escape the Enrichment Center, attempting to kill...
(Portal), Lara Croft
Lara Croft
Lara Croft is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Square Enix video game series Tomb Raider. She is presented as a beautiful, intelligent, and athletic British archaeologist-adventurer who ventures into ancient, hazardous tombs and ruins around the world...
(the Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider is an action-adventure video game developed by Core Design and published by Eidos Interactive. It was originally released in 1996 for the Sega Saturn, with MS-DOS and PlayStation versions following shortly thereafter...
series), Samus Aran
Samus Aran
is the protagonist of the Metroid video game series. Introduced in the 1986 video game Metroid, Samus is a female ex-army soldier bounty hunter usually fitted with a powered armor suit with weapons that include beams and missiles...
(the Metroid
Metroid
is an action-adventure video game, and the first entry in the Metroid series. It was co-developed by Nintendo's Research and Development 1 division and Intelligent Systems, and was released in Japan in August 1986, in North America in August 1987, and in Europe in January 1988...
series), Rayne
Rayne (BloodRayne)
Rayne, sometimes called Agent BloodRayne, is a fictional character in the BloodRayne series of video games. Created by Majesco Entertainment, she is the series' titular protagonist, appearing in both games and later extended media, such as comic books and films related to the series...
and Bayonetta
Bayonetta (character)
is a fictional character in the video game Bayonetta. Created by Hideki Kamiya for Platinum Games and designed by Mari Shimazaki, she has also appeared in promotions and other media related to the title...
starring in the games that are named after them.
Samus Aran
Samus Aran
is the protagonist of the Metroid video game series. Introduced in the 1986 video game Metroid, Samus is a female ex-army soldier bounty hunter usually fitted with a powered armor suit with weapons that include beams and missiles...
is held up as a positive example of women protagonists in video games, as players were unaware that the protagonist was female until the end of the first Metroid game, due to a heavy suit of mechanical armor, which she wears for the majority of the game. Thus, her female characteristics were at first not emphasized over her viability as a character.
Lara Croft is the best known in a trend of strong, beautiful women in a variety of media that do not depend on men to achieve heroic deeds, with ambivalent reception for their independence as action heroines and their eroticized portrayal. April Ryan
April Ryan
April Ryan is a fictional character from the adventure game The Longest Journey and its sequel Dreamfall: The Longest Journey . In the former, she is the protagonist, and in the latter, one of the three primary characters. In both games she is voiced by Sarah Hamilton.-Background:April Ryan is a...
, protagonist of The Longest Journey
The Longest Journey
The Longest Journey is a point-and-click adventure game developed by Norwegian studio Funcom for the PC. First published by IQ Media Nordic in Norway in 1999, it was later localized for and released in France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada, Spain, Denmark,...
, has been compared to Lara Croft in that respect, as she shows less prominent physical feminine attributes than Lara but more feminine psychological traits, as contrasted with Lara's masculine connotations like aggressiveness and force. Contrarily, Jade
Jade (Beyond Good & Evil)
Jade is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the action-adventure video game Beyond Good & Evil. She is a photo journalist, and was created by Ubisoft developer Michel Ancel, who had the intention of creating a character who resembled a real person rather than a "sexy action woman." In...
, the protagonist of Beyond Good and Evil
Beyond Good & Evil (video game)
Beyond Good & Evil is an action-adventure video game developed and published by Ubisoft and released in late for the GameCube, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, and Xbox platforms. The story follows the adventures of Jade, an investigative reporter and martial artist, who works with a resistance...
, was widely recognised as a strong and confident female character lacking any overt sexualisation and Chell
Chell (Portal)
Chell is the protagonist and player character of the Portal series. Chell first appears in Portal, where she is taking part in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center's test under supervision by GLaDOS. GLaDOS tries to kill her as Chell then tries to escape the Enrichment Center, attempting to kill...
, the main character of Portal was noted for the fact that she was neither in third-person or sexualised unlike most female characters in first-person shooters.
"The girl" as a character archetype
Many of the flaws regarding the portrayal of women in video games mirror that of comic booksPortrayal of women in comics
Women have been portrayed in comic books since the medium's beginning, with their portrayals often the subject of controversy. Sociologists with an interest in gender roles and stereotyping have outlined the role of women as both supporting characters and as potential leaders struggling to be...
. At its core is a fundamental perception of "the woman" as an archetype in and of itself, and simply being female being considered enough of a "trait" in comparison to the male "norm". Unlike with male characters, who are defined by what they do (i.e. the way they interact with the world surrounding them), excessive emphasis is given on what "the woman" is, sometimes going as far as negatively influencing their character proper in stereotypically "female" ways.
Gender discrimination and censorship
The titular hero in the Japanese game Ninja Princess was turned into a male character in the English version of the game, re-titled as Sega NinjaSega Ninja
Sega Ninja is a 1985 arcade game released by Sega. The game features Princess Kurumi , the titular female ninja, battling enemies using throwing knives and throwing stars.-Story:The game us set during Japan's Edo era, in about the year 1630, in a province called Ohkami in the western region,...
. A number of female enemies in the Japanese beat'em up games were also either gender-changed or removed in the export versions.
Objectification and sexualization
Female video game characters tend to suffer from a particularly extreme manifestation of the male gaze — even when not serving the male characters (be it as a plot devicePlot device
A plot device is an object or character in a story whose sole purpose is to advance the plot of the story, or alternatively to overcome some difficulty in the plot....
, reward, or something else), "the woman" will virtually always find herself serving the male players through the systematic enforcement of sex appeal, with rarely much regard to how gratuitous, out-of-place or out-of-character such appeal might be (e.g. high heels in armed combat). Another common feature often used for sex appeal is the use of "jiggle physics," when a female character's large breasts bounce, sway, and make various other random movements. Like with many other media, complaints have been made regarding a perceptible underlying implication that there is quite simply no point for a female character to even exist if her presence does not in some way entail the sexual pleasure of male consumers.
Since her introduction in 1996, the character of Lara Croft
Lara Croft
Lara Croft is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Square Enix video game series Tomb Raider. She is presented as a beautiful, intelligent, and athletic British archaeologist-adventurer who ventures into ancient, hazardous tombs and ruins around the world...
from the Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider is an action-adventure video game developed by Core Design and published by Eidos Interactive. It was originally released in 1996 for the Sega Saturn, with MS-DOS and PlayStation versions following shortly thereafter...
series in particular has been criticized for her unrealistic breast size; Lara was claimed personify "an ongoing culture clash over gender, sexuality, empowerment, and objectification." However, the game's creators maintain that she was not designed with marketing in mind, and have claimed to be rather surprised at her pinup-style adoration; in fact, it has been claimed that this fandom
Fandom
Fandom is a term used to refer to a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of sympathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest...
objectification is harmful to the character (in Tomb Raider: Legend, Lara underwent a radical redesign, ostensibly to make her less sexualized).
Similarly, Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball
Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball
is a beach volleyball game by Tecmo released in 2003 exclusively for the Xbox. The game is a departure from the rest of the Dead or Alive series which otherwise consists of fighting games and marks the first game in the series to have a Mature rating due to the very revealing swimsuits featured in...
has been criticized as being more about eye candy than it is about the sport of volleyball, having been created merely for the purpose of displaying women's breasts. In two sequels of fighting games Soul Calibur
Soul Calibur
is a 3D, weapons-based fighting game developed by Project Soul and produced by Namco. It is the second game in the Soul series, preceeded by Soul Edge. It was released in arcades in 1998, and it ran on the Namco System 12 hardware. In 1999 it was ported to the Dreamcast with improved graphics and...
and Tekken
Tekken
is an arcade fighting game franchise created and developed by Namco. Beginning with the original Tekken arcade game released in 1994, the series has received several sequels, as well as various home conversions and spin-off titles released for consoles...
that take place several years after the original issue, recurring male characters were allowed to age but all female characters were kept the same age or replaced by their daughters.
Rape
1984's Custer's RevengeCuster's Revenge
Custer's Revenge is a controversial video game made for the Atari 2600 by Mystique, a company that produced a number of adult video game titles for the system...
was first noted for containing elements of rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
and some Native American groups and the National Organization for Women
National Organization for Women
The National Organization for Women is the largest feminist organization in the United States. It was founded in 1966 and has a membership of 500,000 contributing members. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S...
have criticised this as well as alleged racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
. More recently, major controversies were sparked by some Japanese games such as RapeLay
RapeLay
is a 3D eroge video game made by Illusion, released on April 21, 2006 in Japan. Compared to Illusion's previous games, the main story is shorter, it features an improved 3D engine, and is mainly played through mouse control. The game centers on a male character who stalks and rapes a mother and her...
and Battle Raper.
Violence
Violence in video games is a hotly debated topic, especially with regards to the Grand Theft AutoGrand Theft Auto (series)
Grand Theft Auto is a multi-award-winning British video game series created in the United Kingdom by Dave Jones, then later by brothers Dan Houser and Sam Houser, and game designer Zachary Clarke. It is primarily developed by Edinburgh based Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games...
series; however, some sources have specifically condemned the series and similar games for promoting violence against women.
Reactions
UbisoftUbisoft
Ubisoft Entertainment S.A. is a major French video game publisher and developer, with headquarters in Montreuil, France. The company has a worldwide presence with 25 studios in 17 countries and subsidiaries in 26 countries....
has formed a group of female gamers called the Frag Dolls
Frag Dolls
The Frag Dolls are a group of girl gamers recruited and employed by Ubisoft with the aim of promoting women in gaming and in particular the promotion of games made by Ubisoft. The Frag Dolls are all avid gamers...
; the intent is to create "role models for a whole legion of girls out there who may have been too intimidated to play games online - or even play at all". In addition, to attract female gamers to a generally male-dominated market, many game companies are becoming more family-friendly.
See also
- Girl gamerGirl gamerA girl gamer is a female who regularly engages in the playing of video games, role-playing games, or other games...
- LGBT characters in video games
- Video game controversyVideo game controversyViolent video game debates often center on topics such as video game graphic violence, sex and sexism, violent and gory scenes, partial or full nudity, portrayal of criminal behavior, racism, and other provocative and objectionable material. Video games have been studied for links to addiction and...
- Portrayal of women in comicsPortrayal of women in comicsWomen have been portrayed in comic books since the medium's beginning, with their portrayals often the subject of controversy. Sociologists with an interest in gender roles and stereotyping have outlined the role of women as both supporting characters and as potential leaders struggling to be...
External links
- The 50 Greatest Female Characters in Video Game History, Tom's Hardware, 21 February 2007
- Top 9 greatest video game heroines, San Francisco ChronicleSan Francisco Chroniclethumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
, February 17, 2009 - Giant BombGiant BombGiant Bomb is an American video game website and wiki that includes gaming news, reviews, commentary, and video, created by former GameSpot editors Jeff Gerstmann and Ryan Davis in collaboration with Whiskey Media...
video game concepts: Female Protagonists, Female Antagonists, Damsel In Distress Strong Women, Sexualized Women