I wonder when Rockstar finally break the mold and put a strong female lead in GTA. I don't understand why they haven't done it yet as I think it presents a great opportunity for something truly fresh. I think the main problem is that while women are great part of the developers community it's still very much a "boy's club" and most developer make a lead character that they can identify with.

Now before you say that women just don't have the aggressive nature of men or the metal strength then just go a google Sandra Avila Beltran, Xie Caiping, Judy Moran, and last but not least Griselda Blanco.

What do you guys think. Would you like to see Rockstar having a go at this subject?

I know most answers would be a NO because this site is a total sausage fest but wouldn't like to see something new to that tired old formula?

GTAV is rumoured to feature multiple protagonists, so you never know. This thread may just forewarn an announcement down the line that one of them will be a woman. Most likely not, but.. maybe.

Also there was a previous thread discussing this possibility a short while ago, and a lot of people here were very open to the idea of playing as a female protagonist in a GTA game.

Define "strong female lead" as a Rockstar character. I'm not sure that they have the capacity to write one, given the nature of their male GTA protagonists.

Doesn't have to be GTA. Something in RDR or in a Bully world could work. Hell, even something like L.A. Noire set when female detectives started would be awesome.

But ... how would I sex up the hookers? :(

Hopefully not.

@Subjugation said:

But ... how would I sex up the hookers? :(

Trust me, that would still be very possible.

It would be stupid to just have a female lead for the sake of it, it would have to be believable otherwise there's no point. Also, Bully 2 with a female lead could be amazing.

I hope not

We all know women can't shoot for shit. So no.

@rebgav said:

@Aas said:

@Subjugation said:

But ... how would I sex up the hookers? :(

Trust me, that would still be very possible.

I can't believe that no-one said "strap it on."

Well, you know...

@Mordukai said:

this site is a total sausage fest

Yiiiiiihaaaaaaaaaaaa! Pull em' out and party!

@Aas said:

@Subjugation said:

But ... how would I sex up the hookers? :(

Trust me, that would still be very possible.

I'd definitely love to see Rockstar handle a female lead, I think they'd be great at creating one that isn't stupidly over sexualised or unrealistic in her behaviour.

It'd be interesting to see the reaction from people, if nothing else.

I wish Rockstar would let us have a create-a-character. Give us a blank slate lead like Claude from GTA III and then male/female hardly matters.

That said, the stories they tell tend to work better with male leads. The GTA games have all been about dudes doing dumb shit to prove how manly they are. It's pretty easy to write. Putting in a female lead would require some writing that's a lot more deft than Rockstar can pull off, imo. For example, Bonnie in RDR was strong, but she also annoying as crap.

@Red12b said:

@Aas said:

@Subjugation said:

But ... how would I sex up the hookers? :(

Trust me, that would still be very possible.

I'll be in my bunk.

Hopefully, playing a female in SR3 was great.

I'd like to see it, but I don't think Rockstar is capable of it.

I'm not a sexist but c'mon to fuck.

Ach, who am I kidding - the whole 'strong female lead character in games often associated with male leads' seems to be in this decade so far. GTAV will feature multiple protagonists just like LA Noire did (sort of). So I wouldn't doubt if you were able to play as a pissed off ex hooker or something. Or to fufill every feminist on the planet, perhaps an ex-female cop/firewoman/agent/superhero.

I've always liked GTA's characters for their grittiness. You almost cannot stand liking them but you end up doing so anyway in most cases. I feel that if they were to follow the same formula yet attaching it to a female role, it would only provoke outrage from tabloids like the Daily Mail. Which of course, is brilliant for exposure, as we all know that controversey creates cash but hey ho (no pun intended) everyone DOES want this apparently.

I hope so!

well GTA trying to be realistic. i dont think a female protagonist would work at all. first its alot harder to make a gritty tough female character in such a setting that doesnt come off as being forced. LOTS of the tough female characters in games dont feel like real people.

also, the character being female would take over half the damn story. criminals are generally sexist and wouldnt respect a female protagonist. it'd become a major theme and thats no really fitting for a GTA game at all. i dont want to play a GTA game to "overcome stereotypes" i want GTA to take advantage of stereotypes....also if all the criminal characters act like a crazy badass female assassin gangbanger person is normal and nothing unusual about that it'd be immersion breaking.

hell a depart of justice report from a couple years ago that i had to look at for a sociology class showed that something crazy like 99% of ALL violent crime was committed by men. females just arent as violent as men, so having an extremely violent female criminal protagonist just isn't believable.

Wait, they weren't already female? How come all the cars they hijacked always drove like shit?

My guess is they'll do DLC like they did in IV and one of the playable characters will be female. If they don't have multiple protagonists, that is. I think Rockstar is one of the few developers that would be capable of writing a female protagonist well.

I wish I had the opportunity to play a GTA where I could create my own character.

"Tired old formula." Really? Just because it's a guy in the lead? You realize about half of the earth is guys, right? They'll get around to it when they burn out of male stereotypes, but in the meantime you can just play Saints Row to get your fix.

@Hailinel said:

Define "strong female lead" as a Rockstar character. I'm not sure that they have the capacity to write one, given the nature of their male GTA protagonists.

I disagree in that I consider Red Dead Redemption relevant to that discussion. Dan Houser wrote on both and then the other writers will be different, but since the game came from Rockstar I think it counts. Although you have to question Marston a bit in the plot of Red Dead because of how he allows himself to be used, overall he is a compelling and sympathetic main character I personally loved. As for women, I found Bonnie MacFarlane to be a great female character. At first I was worried her and John would just have a romantic relationship but I loved what their relationship became in that game.

I do think GTA IV had it's issues with characters, even if they were entertaining. The other games worked well enough but the main chracters weren't really compelling in their personal story. So I agree with you for the GTA series. I hope they improve with the lessons learned from Red Dead and maybe some of the other writing talent from that game addition to Houser.

@Hailinel said:

Define "strong female lead" as a Rockstar character. I'm not sure that they have the capacity to write one, given the nature of their male GTA protagonists.

Your wrong once again Elizabetha Torres from GTA IV the Puerto Rican drug dealer was a great character, and Nikos first girlfriend\informant.

To be blunt I'm not sure I could buy the games story if it was a woman running into a building killing dudes left and right. It maybe sexist to say but I can't picture a woman doing the things that you normally do in a GTA. Some would say make it a different game but then why call it GTA?

I would love to see Rockstar have a female lead because I think they're one of the few developers who could pull off without falling into the same pit as a ton of other developers out there.

Some games seem so caught up in the "LOOK AT HOW RESPECTABLE OUR FEMALE CHARACTER IZ" thing that it just seems like they're trying to prove a point more than focusing on the actual game. Like we're so focused on making this 'strong female lead,' that, in the end, she's ultimately just another boring, cookie-cutter character. I hated Enslaved, but I thought Trip was a fucking boss of a character. It wasn't perfect, but she just seemed like such an 'organic' character compared to so many others.

Other games get so focused on trying to make female leads "the ultimate male fantasy," or some bullshit along that line, and it's almost like they try to ignore what they've done. Like we're going to put this chick in a metal bikini (or your choice of revealing outfits), spend 99% of cutscenes focused on her ass and pretend like she's the new symbol for women everywhere. Yeah, fuck off. This is actually one of the many reasons why I respect Platinum so much. When they made Bayonetta, it's clear they wanted to make her 'sexy,' but they wanted to make sure that the character was just as aware of that fact as the audience. She wasn't a slut or anything, but she knew what she was working with. They weren't trying to fool anyone and they still managed to make a good character and that's what I like so much.

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

@Hailinel said:

Define "strong female lead" as a Rockstar character. I'm not sure that they have the capacity to write one, given the nature of their male GTA protagonists.

Your wrong once again Elizabetha Torres from GTA IV the Puerto Rican drug dealer was a great character, and Nikos first girlfriend\informant.

I said "female lead," not "female secondary character.""

If it were to happen, it would only be in a situation if multiple protagonists or a choice of male/female before the game starts.

I was wondering the same thing before the first trailer hit. Needless to say I was disappointed in a way.

Pfft. Like that'd appeal to the 13 year old demographic most games try their hardest to appeal to now.

I really hope so, if any dev could do it it'd be them.

no

I do think Rockstar will do it at some point... they definitely love to push boundaries/

Strong female leads don't usually go around murdering people, running them over, drug dealing, sleeping with hookers and such.

A large amount of the people that play GTA are young teenagers who are playing it running around killing people and trying to break in to a strip club. Those people will not be happy about having to play as a women, so I doubt that Rockstar will risk that with GTAV. They may risk it with side story game on a portable though, I have no problem with playing as a female.

I'd buy that. Yes!

"Hell no, cuz it wont make money dawg!"

@pepsimaxofborg said:

I'd buy that. Yes!

For a dollar?

@Ethan_Raiden said:

Strong female leads don't usually go around murdering people, running them over, drug dealing, sleeping with hookers and such.

That's sexist!

This is a terrible idea.

@Hailinel said:

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

@Hailinel said:

Define "strong female lead" as a Rockstar character. I'm not sure that they have the capacity to write one, given the nature of their male GTA protagonists.

Your wrong once again Elizabetha Torres from GTA IV the Puerto Rican drug dealer was a great character, and Nikos first girlfriend\informant.

I said "female lead," not "female secondary character.""

I think the fact that they wrote a strong female secondary character is more relevant to the conversation than the fact that they haven't written a strong female primary character. I mean, Nintendo hasn't made a device with a tablet form factor before, but it doesn't mean the new Wii U controller will fail because of it.

In any case, I think it will be incumbent upon market forces. Do gamers want to play as a female character? Would they otherwise mind? After all, player agency is based on the fact that players can see themselves as a character in a given situation. In this situation, if there's no immersion, the game is fundamentally less enjoyable, or relevant.

In this case, I don't think it's less of a good thing, or an example of Rockstar's writers hitting the ceiling of what they can do. Most likely, they're just creating a game their user-base will enjoy, because that's their job. Best of all, I think this argument stands up either way; if they think their players want to play as a female lead, that's what they'll do instead. It's that simple.

I don't want this, mainly because they can't have that many female characters in a story like that. And I want the few they have to be well written.

I don't know if you've noticed this, but Rockstar lead characters, aren't that good. They are a mix of blank slate and written character that just feel weird and hypocritical. The strongest R characters are always side characters.

A female character wouldn't work in a GTA story and it would feel really forced if they did do it.

No, because that'd be an interesting piece of writing, and Rockstar doesn't do interesting pieces of writing. Not anymore, anyway.

If they do this, I hope they get a strong female writer to go along with it. I also don't think they'll be doing it any time soon for a game that isn't DLC. They're still a business looking to hit a target demographic, where a female lead would turn away a good portion of their adolescent "I shouldn't even be playing this in the first place" audience, and probably even a lot of the adult market. And how many females play games in the vein of GTA?

I'd love to see it if they have a story to tell, but not if it's just for the sake of making the lead a woman.

There is no way.

Unless I'm forgetting a past characters of theirs, I don't believe Rockstar can write a good female lead.