Girls are becoming a much larger part of the gaming demographic, or even gaming culture as a whole. In fact, I think I know more women that play World of Warcraft on a regular basis than men (and I know a lot of WoW players). I could be imagining things, but it seems as though more and more companies are acknowledging females as a viable target demographic or at the very least they are including them as a group to keep in mind when developing video games. I'm not just talking about having girls in games, that's been going on for a while now. I'm talking about realistic women. You know, the kind of woman that would actually inspire a ragtag group of warriors and unite them under the same cause. The kind of woman that kicks ass, takes names, and wears proper ass-kicking attire.
Seriously, that's cool and totally sexy and everything, but come on. What the hell?
To be fair, that was taken from Bayonetta, a game with more over-the-top fight sequences than all three Matrix movies put together. It's not exactly going for realism. However, how many times have you seen an RPG with big manly men, covered in armor and spikes, only to find that the girl in the group fights in a chain-mail bikini; or the group of commandos with warpaint and uniforms, accompanied by the girl who runs her ass off in a mini-skirt? Even when you see a female warrior with full plate armor and a giant spear, she's wearing goddamn high heels (she's a badass but with a hooker twist).
Sex-appeal sells. I get it. Hell, I totally love it. Not every game needs to look like an issue ofHeavy Metal magazine, though. You can be realistic about it. It's not really all about the look, either. Hell, the female version of Commander Shepherd of Mass Effect has outfits that look like a dominatrix outfit, but made of kevlar. She's accompanied by a girl, Miranda, who's ass is nearly exploding out of the latex (I'm assuming) that contains it; and another, Jack, who's covered head to toe in tattoos and you can see almost all of them. However, Miranda is cold, calculating, precise and loyal but sometimes a little uncaring. Jack is hot tempered, destructive, vindictive and anti-social, yet she approaches sex casually. Real, strong characters.
Even Shepherd, whom you control and can shape into many different characters, is worth examining. She is, in all her incarnations, a no-nonsense, strong and inspiring military officer. Her voice is low and firm without going too far or sounding butch (which is fine, but it's good to know that people don't think that independent women are mostly shaved-head lesbians). In fact, when I compare it to male Shepherds voice, he sounds like a total chump. Even if the first game had the option to be female as a tacked-on afterthought, they certainly did a good job in both games, particularly the sequel.
"Sorry, I'm having trouble hearing you. Getting a lot of bullshit on this line"
Awesome.
Awesome.
Bioware is one of my favorite companies for many reasons. One of the biggest reasons is because of the emphasis they put on writing. They create realistic characters. For example, not every female has to be a stone cold murderer to do it right. Dragon Age II had a character by the name of Merrill, a Dalish elf blood mage who is half runaway, half outcast but completely confused with herself. She goes with you because she's totally helpless, despite her frightening power, and hopes that you can help her out somehow. The cool thing is that she doesn't fit into that stereotype of a damsel in distress. Part of her character is that she is bumbling, sheltered, easily embarrassed and unsure of herself and your job, if you like, is to help her on her way; not to rescue her. Not only is she an interesting character, but a cool juxtaposition: a trembling and adorable flower that commands horrible, forbidden demon magic. Neat, right?
If you took sex appeal out of games completely I'd be just as unhappy as if it were running rampant. It doesn't have to go, it just has to make some fucking sense.
