Women Character's Roles in Video Games

http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/true-female-characters

After our discussion today about how video games can promote social change, I became interested in exploring the gender issues that surrounded gaming in general. Being a huge gamer myself, I knew of a web series where intellectual points of gaming were explored an

d I found one particular entry to reveal a lot about the topic I was curious about (the link is posted at the top of the article). The entry, entitled "True Female Characters", explored the idea of how to make a "good" woman character within a video game. Oftentimes the public hears about how women are constantly being objectified in games, and to that I say this is actually a very accurate assertion, for the most part. There are so many female characters within video games who are devoid of personality and only exist to show off either their physical appearance (Dead or Alive Beach Volleyball anyone? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KEBg6YQ8pE) or act in a very "female" role by getting captured, hiding from battle, etc while the men characters

do all the real work. The web episode asserts that this isn't the only way a woman could be used in gaming and in fact, a realistic, strong, multidimensional female character could be created if 2 simple aspects of a woman's characteristics were explored and utilized when designed.

The first characteristic mentioned was a woman's genetic traits. The web episode raised an interesting point of what sets women so apart from men is their ability to bear children. They argue that there has not been a game yet about a mother and her struggles and challenge the idea that if such a game were to be created, there could be potential for a really moving and complex character. Additionally, they claim that game developers have yet to cover other more subtle traits like a woman's ability to generally be more dexterous than man, or a woman's higher tolerance for pain. They argue that if any of these various genetic traits were explored, a female character could be better fleshed out and made into a compelling figure.

The second aspect that defined a woman's personality were through societal pressures. The web episode argued that there were forces within society that worked to define how a woman should act and think. The thought that girls like the color pink or should wear skirts are just a couple of many societal expectations placed on women. The web episode asserts that if a female character were to defy and fight against some of these traits, she could be a rather intriguing person. However, they also warn that one should not create a female character who rejects ALL female expectations because in doing so, she becomes a stereotype. Thus they must find an equilibrium of accepting some societal roles, while fighting others in order to be a truly realistic figure.

This being said, there are a few games who do achieve the creation of interesting female characters, most notable Madison from Heavy Rain (pictured below), Alex from Half Life, and Samus in every game of the Metroid series besides Other M (which failed to characterize her as the independent, fierce bounty hunter that she is). If any of you have time on your hands, I suggest looking into a few of these ladies, as I think they pave the way into breaking down walls of female stereotypes in games, making video games more credible and stronger story tellers.