Well as I mentioned not long ago, I was finally enjoying Tomb Raider, or specifically Tomb Raider Legend. I absolutely hate it that it comes down to this, but that innocence of just enjoying a game as it is and the character as is just isn't there anymore and I'm pretty sure the current trend of Social Justice Warriors invading the opinions of the internet are at fault. If you're playing a typical game (generic characters, or a shallow custom character games) its not exactly on your mind, but anything slightly different like playing a weird mascot-like character, or a fixed position as a female character, and suddenly there's the nagging voice of the internet at the back of your mind crusading that everything needs to be this way or counter-arguments to it. So in other words the feminists and social justice warrior's own arguments kind of pollute and ruin bits of their own wish come true games. Its not natural to just play Tomb Raider or Metroid, instead your conscience will intrude in marketing talk vs vocal comments on the internet, and excuses made for and against certain character designs. As for those average games mentioned earlier, if its a fixed one like Watch Dogs or Gears of War then its only a matter of browsing the web before you come across a community bashing the character design only because its "another gruff white male". Yeah because obviously skin color or gender means so much to character development. Way to go social justice hypocrites, you've brought racism/sexism into gaming while ironically claiming to fight it. Its just like that time Anita insulted female gamers by implying they need special handicap controls. Is there any more evidence needed to suggest that this topic needs to die already so we can just enjoy the games for the gameplay and stop dragging political agendas into an entertainment industry?
Anyways ranting about SJW topics isn't exactly the point of this article, so I wont go much further. However what I want to get around to is the fact that this did eventually lead to an interesting theory on helping the vision of more strong female roles in gaming. While I am against the SJW idiocy, I am in favor of more diverse characters. I also have to admit that the SJW side is just one piece of the stupid topic, and there are actually guys in charge of games thinking the opposite wrong: That there can't be female characters because it "wont sell" or whatever their fake and slanted stats say as they plan their cut pre-order exclusive content instead of developing a good story. So as I was playing Tomb Raider the theory started out by kind of thinking about how it was funny that a lot of female characters in gaming just seemed... different. Not exactly because they were female characters, but because of what they did. Lara does a lot of puzzles mixed with loose combat, and big globe trotting adventures. Faith practically brought parkour into gaming on her own and is still one of the best examples of it while others half-ass the effect. Samus explores hostile alien planets and survives by unusual suit methods and level design that is just convenient enough for her suit powers to get through in odd puzzle-like ways. Chell places and warps through portals to solve facility tests. Finally.... correct me if I'm wrong here since I didn't play it much, but whoever the heck the girl from beyond good and evil does a lot of photography in odd and forbidden areas while defending herself with a blunt staff from aliens and government agents. The female characters often brought up in gaming have unusual roles compared to the usual spots filled by dude characters that often do the typical stuff the genre commands of them. Samus is often compared to Master Chief, but out of the two its easy to pick which one actually has more specially crafted design choices (its Samus, and she doesn't even need to speak to be better). MC just has a gun as he holds up a typical space marine FPS cliche, while Samus goes on true adventures. Now you do still have male characters doing more dynamic things (I feel that Samus's true male counter-part is Link who follows a very similar game formula), but more often then not the majority make up for the mainstream or streamlined games. They often feel a bit more dull and uninspired as a result to. However it also occurred to me then that it was a very odd coincidence that about every single female lead game was an adventure type game of some sort, and females almost never, ever appear in a good lead role in a solid, generic, or safe and popular style of genre. Also I'm obviously leaving out custom character games when I say this, as there are countless tried and true RPG games that let you play as a female, but there's also no real character development to those games.
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| so much unusual-ness |
Seriously think about it. Out of which of these games has any sense of solid, consistent, and popular gameplay design that could appeal to many people. Actually lets also take note of how many have combat that lacks a lot of punch you would expect from a combat driven game as well:
-Tomb Raider (especially before the reboot)
-Beyond good and evil
-Remember me
-Metroid
-Mirror's edge
-Portal
-Gone Home
-Nearly every casual point and click game ever
-Contrast
Many of those aren't very well refined, and when they are they aren't a massively popular type of experience. Yet the funny thing is a lot of them actually still sell well anyways... its just that publishers don't know when enough is enough. I think a lot of its "poor sales" is a matter of comparison and stupidly high targets. Yeah sure Mirror's edge wont print money like Battlefield, but that's got nothing to do with the female lead, its because Battlefield is one of the biggest names in one of the biggest genres where people around the net participate in its competitive multiplayer experience. Yeah Metroid isn't as popular as Zelda, especially in Japan, but that's because Zelda's lighter and fantasy tone is more marketable than Samus's Pseudo-shooter and dark sci-fi style. Furthermore I mentioned combat earlier, lets think about that for a second. A ton of the female driven games have it, but the fans will all tell you the same thing: they aren't games about the combat. However combat is a big part of many popular games. I'm not saying it should be in every game, but chances are you are going to have a popular game if you have well made grounds for fighting. As I said long ago in an article about why violent games are all over the place, its actually a very social experience and one that can appeal to a broad group of people. Its an easy way to establish a conflict we can identify with as well as a win/lose condition (like "you need to kill evil goblins, or they'll kill you), its competitive opening up that sportsmanship side of gaming if you can take it online or just have really smart AI, it can encourage skill and fast paced thinking creating a decent rush/challenge or even just an easy power fantasy to enjoy, it has a unique system of tactics and strategy, and its a good feeling of escapism from the real world reality of the fact that violence is very ugly and terrible. On top of that massive and well known genres like RPGs and Shooters primarily center around combat. Meanwhile nearly all of these games really phone it in. Even Remember Me, which was a brawler in the end, was really strange and clunky in how it did things and sold itself off of other features that would end up being barely present at all. Many of these games would rather focus on different things like puzzles and experimental platforming.... and puzzles don't sound so mass appealing, and experimental platforming is unrefined and flawed leading to a love it or hate it opinion that divides gamers. In other words, its not likely getting you those COD/GTA/Madden numbers. You'll get a strong and enthusiastic cult following that sings constant praises for your game (which about all of these have), and you may even see solid sales, but nothing to blow your mind. This obviously isn't something just related to female games either, you can see the same effect with the oddworld series, some obscure Nintendo games, and Sly Cooper compared to his more popular brothers. It isn't just about the character, its about the whole game play, as it always has been.
However lets look at the exception to this rule out of all the games I mentioned, and it all comes full circle back to what got me here in the first place: Tomb Raider. Specifically the reboot. "The game had sold more than 1 million copies in less than forty-eight hours of its release in the United Kingdom" "Tomb Raider set a new record for the franchise" "As of June 2014, Tomb Raider has sold over 6.5 million units." All of this is from the wikipedia article with source links all over the place. I think Portal 1 beats the numbers, but that's not exactly a fair comparison considering it was bundled with more tried and true games and was also available cheap on stand alone digital (plus its just had a longer lifespan). The only number I can find with Portal 2 is 4 million. The point is though, Tomb Raider sold really well compared to most games (despite Square's stupid target numbers) and even outsold its past games which were kind of funky in design. Oh gee, I wonder why? Well it had traces of its past counter-parts, but the new and successful one adopted a weird zelda-like formula while hiding it under a design that looked like a big mainstream 3rd person action game. You had magical "survivor vision", a dozen or more QTE events and cinematic set pieces, 3rd person cover shooting with regenerating health, an XP and hunting system, easy "press X" platforming, and a gritty dark story presentation. Oh yeah, and the bow that for some reason started showing up everywhere was also present. Completely disregard the character for a second, and there is nothing even remotely unusual about this game except how it weirdly has a zelda/metroid tone hidden under all the shooting. However even that is widely acceptable and enjoyable by now, and tomb raider pushes it into a mainstream shooter condition of it and everything sells really well as you should expect. Contrary to what crap square had to say (alongside sales for other games like hitman) the game was a mainstream success that stayed relevant long after its released, and still has people praising it to this day as one of the best action adventure games in recent times. This is exactly what I've been telling both the stupid and radical publisher and SJW views for a long time: Its the gameplay that matters, not the gender of your character. If you want to see a gender represented well within a mainstream success story, make a game that feels acceptable to the mainstream.
Now look I'm not going to go around and tell people they have to mainstream everything. I absolutely hate that, and I appreciate hardcore and niche titles a lot. Games like Mirror's edge, the old tomb raider, and Gone Home have a passionate following for a good reason. However I've also got to admit I'm no fan of a lot of the above listed games, and its for the same reasons I hear other people talking about it: the puzzles. Similarly I don't expect everyone to appreciate my idea of good niche game. If you want more female game characters out there, simply put you need more games, and you need more of them to have a mass appeal in mechanics and presentation. If you make COD with a female lead, its still going to sell well, but its also going to be yet another generic COD game. Problem is there is nothing even remotely close to that sort of game with a female lead. The closest ever would be Perfect Dark, a shooter released years ago before console shooters even had true aiming (well it had sequels, but they weren't very notable games). If you made a game like Watch Dogs with a girl, its not going to hurt, its still going to sell like any big ambitious open world game would. Thing is though we don't see that either. Instead they seem attached mostly to puzzling adventures, and complex treks through unusual territory with oddly tuned mechanics just like about any of the Oddworld games, and Alan Wake (which took several years to reach 2 million). Its not that those games are bad, or have characters that aren't appealing enough, its that their gameplay isn't up to par with what the masses love. I've got to also back up and admit though that mainstream or generic games in itself wont necessarily print you money either. Not every shooter makes tons of money (Tomb raider sold better than most of killzone combined), not every RPG is as successful as Skyrim, and Fuse can sure as hell tell you that being a generic co-op shooter with moderate to no marketing isn't so rewarding. On a similar note sometimes a weird game will also get lucky and sell big, or have just the right condition that boosts sales. However the rule mostly holds up that a tried and true game, sequels, or a wide appealing games will sell better than one that is just weird looking and unproven. Giving the females some time within generic games wont hurt. Sure it wont technically make them "strong role model leads" as some people claim to want, but you can't have your cake and eat it to. The truth is for all the fussing that males dominate the face of gaming, a huge majority are forgettable and boring, and a couple just got lucky by being at the right time and place like Mario and Gordan, who otherwise has no special identity. Female characters currently make up a large chunk of the characters that actually matter and have development because they go on interesting adventures, and they really reach out and touch niche audiences for being such awesome and unique adventures, but that's the most of where their reach extends because its not familiar or straight forward enough to appeal to the same large demographic that plays RPGs, shooters, and platformers. I'm not asking to see the end of these niche games and adventures, but I'm saying we need to see some branching paths here if we want females to take off as a popular thing. Its called "selling out" for a reason. If publishers want to see big sales on games with a female lead, make the games that you know will sell well instead of betting it all on weird experimental games. I mean seriously, you cannot blame gender on how mediocre Remember Me was.
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| Now can we get a true Metroid FPS please? Just kidding.... sort of.... |
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