Abigailnn

i would do bad things for an invite

also 1700 in heroes of newerth if that means anything lol

Ok, since everyone is being so picky about wording, and i didn't count on this thing getting so many replies, ill reword the first post by just saying:

Developers pandering to the male demographic does nothing to help the already horrible stigma about girls in the videogame industry. I don't expect games targeted at immature audiences to do anything but pander, but i dont understand why more mature games targeted to bigger audiences cant have you play as a female in an immersive world.

And when i said "and be better with a female protagonist" i said COULD... COULD be better, not WOULD be better. There are plenty of potential stories/situations/whatever in games that would be more interesting to play as a woman, just like there are plenty where its better to play as a man. Jerks.

@allworkandlowpay: you obviously have absolutely no idea what i was trying to say... like, totally, 100% completely missed the point

Final fantasy is probably the closest example you guys have given, even though lightning is definitely sexualized (just not as obviously)

So far, all there is is Alice, Lightning, and Jade. I dont know how you could consider fallout, oblivion, etc. particularly in fallout and oblivion being female just means sometimes npcs call you lady or women. Yeah that totally counts. Id give mass effect a halfsy, especially if they build up the female shepherd thing in ME3 like they seem to be doing.

And people mentioning heavenly sword.. HA! omg! really? shes almost naked and she kills guys, definitely a strong female hero in a story driven game >.>

@McGhee_the_Insomniac: I didnt say they created it, i say they encourage. Which they most definitely do...

@SoldierG654342: ah i guess your right.. misogyny is definitely more accurate. I actually payed less attention in english class than math, ha

@N7: i didn't mean just taking dues ex and replacing adam with a girl, adam is a great character for the game. but a similar game could easily work -and be better- with a female lead imo

How DOESNT a lack of female protagonists encourage sexism? Male protagonists = generally more appealing to guys = more guys play videogames = gaming communities are mostly guys. And dont tell me that doesn't lead to sexism... theres just a horrible stigma in most communities and i hate it. Its definitely not nearly as bad here as most places, but i bet if more AAA big name story driven games had a well done female protagonist (assuming its a good game of course) more places would be like giantbomb and the internet would be a bit nicer for everyone D:

@Axxol: true but mirrors edge wasnt even a good game really.. nonetheless good story

@KarlPilkington: eh i dont count heavy rain because you play as everyone pretty much.. i mean if you played as like 10 people in a game and none of them were women how messed up would that be

So i started playing dues ex and i realized that I cant think of one serious or realistic story-focused game (or even one that had a decent story that wasn't the focus of the game...) thats come out in the last 10 years that has a female protagonist. Beyond good and evil and alice: madness returns are the best examples i can think of, but they are both more fantasy games (even though alice is still really dark) and the only real examples i can think of at all...

Yea there are games that let you pick your gender, but those mostly aren't story or immersion based games. If you let the player change a big part of the main character like that you cant really customize the game around the protagonist that well.

I mean bioware does an ok job in their games letting you pick stuff like background and then changing bits of the game around that, but if there was a specific hero you played as through all those games i bet they could do a lot more with the detail and immersion

Which is probably why a lot of games don't let you customize your protagonist. And 90% of the time, you play as a guy.. I mean i realize that its a male-dominated industry, im not expecting games like call of duty and gears of war to have a female protagonist. There's always gonna be games that naturally attract the kind of crowd who would think its "gay" to play as a girl, but i don't get why games that are bit more -cough- mature have to pander to those people as well...

The only time anyone plays as a female in a video game is when...

1. It doesn't matter (Oh, you picked female, now sometimes the npcs will refer to you differently. yay.)

2. Its a gimmick, overly sexualized, a totally crazy game, or a combination of the 3 (tomb raider, bayonetta, blood rayne, dead or alive, ms splosion man)

3. Portal. Chell could really be replaced with anything, just like gordon

Im just a bit sick of playing as a guy and then being smothered in female love interests left and right. If it keeps up im going to turn into a lesbian. I can totally understand why a lot of my friends aren't interested in playing games made for guys