Video games are quickly becoming one of the most prevalent forms of entertainment in our society and due to their constant evolution it would be impossible not to acknowledge the trends that shape each individual games’ story, gameplay, and character development.  Women, in particular, have always been present in video games.  From the early days of Ms. Pac Man on the Atari 2600, to Ellie in the Last of Us on PlayStation 3, video games have presented women to the player in many different styles, ethnicities, and forms of life.  However, the role these women play in their respective games tends to follow a classic gaming trope.

She kind of reminds me of Betty Boop, right?

Usually, women in video games are “damsels in distress”, or, more commonly, secondary characters that have overly sexualized bodies.  That is a general statement, but it is true to some degree.  I would like to pose this question to you, the reader; has the shift from women tropes in video games started to change or has it happened already?

Let’s begin with something like the original Metroid, Mario, and Tomb Raider.  Maybe the original Metroid is a bad place to start because it does not necessarily follow the trope, yet it is still important to mention it.  Metroid was released in 1986 for the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) and featured a bounty hunter in a mechanical suit as the main protagonist.  After completing the game, it is revealed that the bounty hunter you are playing as is a woman named Samus.  A very compelling choice for its time, having a female protagonist was quite unusual and remains a great example of how women’s presence in video games can be an empowerment, rather than a focus on their sexuality and helplessness.  Granted that after completing certain tasks after the finishing the story, one could unlock the “zero suit Samus” character model which removed the mechanical suit to reveal the tight, blue jumpsuit that she was wore underneath.

Princess Peach isn’t in trouble in this picture

Mario, released in the early 80s, evolved to have a very simple plot; save a female character, named Princess Peach.  It’s success, as the best-selling gaming franchise in history, may have nothing to do with the fact that it follows a common video game trope, yet it is still present.  Its popularity, while following that trope, may be evidence enough that such roles are thought of as perfectly adequate for female characters to fulfill.

Tomb Raider follows the other side of this trope by having one of the most iconic “sexy” female characters in the entirety of video games; Lara Croft.  The first entry in this series was released in 1996 for the DOS operating system, PlayStation, and the Sega Saturn.  Lara Croft is a pistol wielding, adventurer with exaggerated breasts and the all-too-familiar Barbie figure.  While her most recent adventure (Tomb Raider 2013) depicted her in a more conservative way, she is still regarded, by gamers, as one of the hottest female video game characters.  Click here to see the evolution of Lara Croft’s character models since the release of the original game.

Despite what her appearance does for female empowerment, they really knew how to get a man’s attention

Is there anything wrong with seeing a character as hot or sexy?  Can female gamers give a ranking to their most handsome male characters?  Of course they can.  What is it that makes people concerned with how females are represented in video games?

I believe that the average game, mainly in the action/adventure genre, has trouble moving away from this trope because it is easier for them to make a character more interesting if they enhance physical features rather than beef up dialogue and character development.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see a game sell copies just because of its “hot female protagonist”.  That in itself is another issue altogether.  Some developers make a game with a female protagonist to break from traditional formulas, yet sexualize her so much that it becomes what she known for rather than her character development.  A great example of this would be Lollipop Chainsaw (2012).

I’ll let you decide what that chainsaw is supposed to represent

This trope, however, is evolving in the new modern gaming landscape.  In the past few years, games like Lollipop Chainsaw are overshadowed by such games as, The Walking Dead, and The Last of Us.  While other games place the damsel in distress as the main plot point or sexualize a secondary character’s appearance, these games presented their leads in a way so as to make the female character’s development secondary to none.  Each of the female characters in these games elicited strong emotional connections with the gamer and did so without cleavage or placing her in danger every five seconds.

The 2012 release of The Walking Dead was met with a positive reception for its excellent storytelling, player-driven character development, and its main female character Clementine.  Players loved that you had to watch out for her, yet could trust her to fight back at times.  Its this kind of empowerment that was also present in The Last of Us.

Let me take this opportunity to say that The Last of Us is probably one of the best games I have ever had the pleasure of playing.  Its excellent gameplay and masterful storytelling will be something I will come back to in other posts because of its impact on my life.  Part of the reason why I loved The Last of Us so much was because of Ellie.  Her chemistry with the other main protagonist, Joel, was one of the reasons I wanted to write this article.  Ellie represents the best of empowered women in video games.  (SPOILER ALERT for those of you still living in 2012)  She is a playable character, she fights back when Joel is in trouble, and as a team they deal with their problems together.  She isn’t sexualized, portrayed as promiscuous, and throughout the game’s story her actions and dialogue enrich the player’s sense of who she is as a woman living in an apocalyptic environment.

Ellie’s character represents the direction in which females in video games should be going, at least in my opinion

Maybe I’m not the most seasoned gamer in the world, but for me the landscape is starting to change and I find that intriguing.  Gender equality in forms of media is a hot topic nowadays, and video games are a crucial form of media and art that help to represent how our society views certain issues.  So, what do you think?  Is this a trend that you see on the rise?  Or is it just some wild idea that I’m crazy for even mentioning?  Do you think that video games should be able to express whatever message they want since they are technically an art form, or do you think that we should uphold them to the same standards and inquisitions that we put our other forms of media through on a daily basis?

Let me know what you think.  Share any comments or questions you may have.  Thanks for reading.  Until next time.