This marks the first post that will be part of a larger series of posts. I plan to have a few different “series” going on, so I most likely will have a few weeks before the next Representation post. These Representation posts will be focusing on how different people are, well, represented. Gender, race, culture, and sexuality will all be foci, and I will be examining multiple facets of each of those as well. Additionally, each facet has been represented in many ways, providing positive and negative representations of all facets. It should also be noted that while I may praise a game on one of these facets, they may have a poor representation of another group. Unfortunately, I may not be able to do as thorough of a breakdown of all of these focal topics as others, as some have a wider representation than others. I’m starting with women in games, as that has been a hot-button topic recently and has some very good examples of female characters and characterization, and some really bad examples as well. Today, though, I am celebrating the great examples of female characters in games.
Before I just start listing characters, let’s get on common ground with what makes a female character strong in a game, and who is fair game to be considered. Firstly, this will not be relegated to playable characters, as sometimes the player character is one of the less fleshed out character in the game. At times, it is the host of supporting characters that carries a game to greatness, while providing minimal background to the player character in order to allow the player to put him- or herself in the player character’s shoes. Secondly, as a professor once said when I was doing initial research on this topic about a year ago, there is nothing wrong with having a princess captured and rescuing her; the issue comes when that is the only story being told. There are plenty of stories that involve a damsel in distress that are excellent stories. What makes them better, is if that character has the agency to rescue herself, or at least give an honest attempt rather than accepting her fate and waiting to be rescued. Of course, because that story has been told time and again, a story that isn’t about a damsel in distress is even better.
Metroid
In the year 1986, Metroid was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System. As the game began, players learned that they were about to play as Samus Aran, a space bounty hunter exploring a mysterious planet known as Zebes. Throughout the game, the player would collect power-ups and new abilities to allow Samus to reach new areas and continue deeper into the depths of the planet. The game was a mixture of platforming and shooting, similar to MegaMan, but had a much heavier emphasis on exploration thanks to the power-ups and abilities. There is now a sub-genre of games partly named after this series known as Metroidvania, a portmanteau of Metroid and Castlevania, which includes games that feature new items that allow for new access to areas seen earlier in the game.
As players explored Zebes as the enigmatic Samus, many assumed the character was male. At the time, no other mainstream action game featured a female lead, so why would anyone assume otherwise? However, if the player finished the game within a certain time frame they were treated to one of the biggest surprises in gaming history: Samus, the badass bounty hunter that took on a planet full of space pirates single handedly and had a gun for an arm, was a woman. If finished in three to five hours, she would take off her helmet and reveal a vaguely female face (remember this is 8-bit from 1986) with long red hair. If finished in less than three hours, she would remove the power suit and stand wearing a leotard with her long hair. The player would then be able to play through again as Samus in the leotard. And if the player finished in less than an hour, she would be wearing an even more revealing bikini, though this costume was not a playable one like the leotard.
It is debatable whether this style of reveal is for the best. On the one hand, the 8-bit pixels were very primitive and thus were far from sexy. However, the inclusion of the bikini as a better reward can also be considered unnecessary sex appeal. Regardless of whether the initial reveal was handled well by today’s standards, it is an absolutely important moment in gaming history. It proved that players don’t care about playing only as a muscle-bound white male that shoots aliens; rather they are happy being anyone so long as they can shoot aliens and the mechanics work well. Without Metroid and the subversion of Samus’ gender, who knows when the next badass female character would show up?
Tomb Raider
Speaking of badass, gun-toting women exploring dangerous locations, Lara Croft from the Tomb Raider series is easily one of, if not the single most recognizable woman in games. She is a female Indiana Jones, exploring ancient temples and shooting guys that want to take those treasures for evil gains. These games feature third person shooting, platforming, and excellent puzzle solving. The original series inspired a movie starring Angelina Jolie as the lead character.
What makes Lara great is both her knowledge and her capability. She has an extensive knowledge of ancient civilizations, again similar to our old friend Indy, and is able to traverse the surely trap-laden tombs with relative ease. Additionally, while she is on occasionally captured by some foe or another, she is always the key to her own escape. While that is easily explained as her being the player character, it is important none the less.
The early Tomb Raider games were released on the Playstation, and were made infamous for the sexualization of the protagonist in addition to the acclaimed mechanics and narrative. Though the graphic capabilities of the time were limited, it did not prevent game developers from making Lara rather endowed. There was also the mythical cheat code that has her remove her top. This was not an actual cheat code, but rather a hopeful rumor that fans tried desperately to find.
Recently, Square Enix rebooted the series with modern graphical power and new gameplay mechanics. This new Tomb Raider featured a younger, more realistic, and less sexualized Lara. It came under fire with the inclusion of an attempted rape scene, though it was intended as a way to further Lara’s character. This new iteration shows, in my opinion, an even more intuitive character and is an even greater step in the right direction.
Fire Emblem
This series is different from many of the others in this list, as many of the entries are independent of one another and do not have recurring characters. Fire Emblem is a Japanese strategy series in which you must raise an army and command them through many battles to oust the evil forces. What is special about this series is that every character in your army is given a background and is characterized; they grow and each have a story. And when they die in battle, they die for good, making the stakes that much higher for the player.
In each entry in this series, you meet warriors of almost all walks of life. The cast is also very often a balanced split of female and male characters, with both genders having representation in all roles in the army: warriors, healers, cavalry, archers, and mages. You are just as likely to meet a woman in full heavy plate as you are a man serving as a healing cleric. The player character changes through each iteration as well, not only is the player sometimes male, sometimes female depending on the game entry, but some entries feature a protagonist that is separate from the player, a concept I will be exploring further in another post.
While the games have very rich mechanics and don’t fall into any real stereotypical tropes, the focus is rarely on the story and instead on the strategy. For that reason, there is little left to say for this beyond, “play it and enjoy.”
Last of Us
Far and away the most cinematic game on this particular list, The Last of Us is a heart breaker. The game is a visual and narrative masterpiece, perfectly encapsulating the isolation and loneliness of a world-wide apocalypse. You play as Joel, a man tasked with escorting the young Ellie across the now desolate America in hopes that she will be the key to finding a cure once and for all. This game hammers home the difference between living and surviving, yet manages to include many light and awe inspiring scenes beyond just the dark and grimy ones. The bond formed between Joel and Ellie is that of a father and a daughter, and while escort-missions in games are notorious for being wearisome, Ellie manages to more than pull her own weight, mechanically and narratively.
While you do not play as Ellie, this is her story. She grows up in front of your eyes and is in a time of personal discovery, trying to make sense of this world and how she fits into it. You witness her try (and often succeed) to be tough, while also experiencing moments of child-like wonder. Throughout, you meet and pass by many people trying their best to survive like you. You’ll find other fathers, Joel’s brother, and faction leaders and higher-ups, a couple of which are wonderfully written women.
Spoilers for The Last of Us. Do not read if you plan to play and want to avoid late-game moments
While I said earlier that you do not play as Ellie, it was a partial lie. Late in the game, Joel is indisposed making Ellie fend for him and find a way to get him back on his feet. During this time, the player is unsure if he is even alive or recoverable. It is during this sequence that the game features its only boss fight. A boss fight for use here is an unskippable fight between the player and a single enemy that requires the exploitation of patterns to defeat. Until now, all levels were encounters of enemies spread through a level or occasionally waves of enemies spawning and attacking. Often, you could sneak past most of these enemies, which was the smart choice as resources are extremely limited. However, there is one instance in which Ellie is hunted down and cornered by a man determined to kill her to feed his community (it is deep into the apocalypse, but luckily this is still a major ethical breach). It is interesting that the only boss in this game filled with zombie-like creatures is just a man, and that it is fought by a young girl, not the middle-aged man you play as most of the game. This section highlights the strength of Ellie while showing her growth as she uses the survival skills Joel taught her to gain the upper hand and avoid the crazed man’s knife. It is a battle not just of actual survival but one of the survival of morals and innocence, and while Ellie’s morals seem to stay in tact as this was done in complete self defense, her innocence is further stripped away from her. While she has killed people before to survive, never was it as intimate or harrowing an experience as this.
Just a head’s up: the following clip is graphic and contains strong language and harsh violence
Ellie has quickly become one of my favorite characters in video games. It is a joy seeing her grow and learn and it continuously breaks your heart to see her have to harden herself even further just to survive in a harsh world. If given the opportunity, I cannot help but recommend playing this highly emotive game.
The Elder Scrolls/Fallout: New Vegas
I include these two games together, but really I could have included almost any highly customizable role playing game (RPG). Both the Elder Scrolls series and the Fallout series are created by the same developers, Bethesda Softworks. In some ways, these games represent the epitome of open world RPG. The maps are largely open, with only caves and dungeons being confined tracks you must follow. Additionally, they reward players with immersing themselves in the worlds of these games by deep character customization and skill based leveling.
The Elder Scrolls series is a fantasy RPG game series in which the player takes the role of an amnesiac character (often a prisoner) that is chosen or destined to become the world’s savior. Though highly derivative of the fantasy genre, it is none the less an acclaimed series. The game entries are largely independent of one another, meaning you do not need to have played them in order; each game is an independent experience and story. The reason Elder Scrolls is included on this list, is that the games allow players to play either gender for any race with no difference in abilities between genders. Not only this, but the game world is full of men and women in varied roles. Some leaders or warriors are women, some are men, and the characters in the world make little to no mention of it.
The Fallout series is slightly different. This series takes place in a post-nuclear devastated America with heavy themes of old Americana.The combat is largely gun based but includes melee weapons, and the game mechanics have a special system to allow players to pinpoint specific limbs and weak spots. Like Elder Scrolls, the player can choose any gender with no impact on abilities, though there are perks that a player can choose to select that impact how they interact with members of different genders.
The world is also evenly populated with male and female characters. Fallout gets a slight advantage than Elder Scrolls in representation, as while neither gender is given specific, innate bonuses or handicaps, the world acknowledges that there are differences between the genders that should be noted.
Mass Effect
As many friends of mine know, the Mass Effect series is a personal favorite of mine. The series is a story of Commander Shepard, a member of the Alliance Navy that is promoted to a special operatives rank. Commander Shepard uncovers an ancient alien race that is determined to wipe out life in our galaxy, and so must prevent this disaster. The choices made in one game are transfered to and directly influence the sequel games, making it a truly dynamic experience. Like many RPGs, as noted just above, the player is able to choose the gender and appearance of Shepard, as well as the style of combat Shepard will use.
But instead of focusing on Shepard (or at least Shepard in game), I will highlight some different aspects that haven’t been talked about in the other entries yet. One of the best aspects of the Mass Effect series is the crew you collect and develop a relationship with. You work with humans and aliens, each with deep back stories and histories, unique cultures, and all with personal flaws. Mass Effect 2 had a large theme of misdirection, especially in terms of character identity. One very notable example is that of the character Jack. In the game you are given basic dossiers of characters you are tasked with recruiting for a dangerous mission. Jack’s dossier refers only to the prisoner and “Subject-Zero,” giving a real air of mystery to the character. You enter a maximum security space prison to order Jack’s release, only to find that this character that, despite all usual assumptions, is female. Jack is a deeply tortured soul that turned to crime as a thrill and way of showing off her powers and abilities. She is highly volatile and has quite a colorful vocabulary. Her design is a shaved head, with tattoos covering her entire body, and a nearly flat chest. And despite all these masculine qualities, the game surprises you (probably) yet again by leaving her as a straight female (Bioware, the developer is by no means afraid to include gay and lesbian characters, including characters of even more complex sexualities than those even). Bioware chose to line up almost every stereotype they could for Jack and knock them down, showing you can have a believable, rough and tough girl that isn’t relegated as a “dyke.”
Also of note is the marketing that Bioware and EA did for the final installment in the trilogy. The female iteration of Commander Shepard (lovingly refered to by fans as FemShep) was featured prominently in advertisements and posters. Often, they provided two copies of many ads, one with MaleShep and one with FemShep. This included the box art, which was completely reversible and had all of the gendered instances of Shepard on the one side reversed on the other side. Unfortunately, the default side of the box art was still MaleShep, but I have yet to see a developer market their game so heavily using the female iteration as Bioware did.
Bayonetta
This entry is going to be rather controversial. Bayonetta is a strange game developed by Platinum Games, where you play the titular heroine, a witch with magical hair she uses for attacks and her clothing that also wears guns on her high heels. The game genre is a beat ’em up where you are given wave after wave of relatively weak enemies and you aim to use devastating move combos to great effect.
Bayonetta is a large satire. It satirizes the beat ’em up genre by having a highly feminized lead as opposed to the wildly genre-popular masculine lead. The story also gets increasingly convoluted, another jab at the genre. But Bayonetta is not just a strong heroine because she is the lead that gets to destroy entire armies with her gun shoes, she does it with ridiculous style. It seems we as a society sometimes see “sexy” and “strong” as diametrically opposed traits of female characters. Bayonetta reminds us that there is nothing wrong with sex appeal (but once again, it is all in how often it is used in the medium).
Portal
This is a wonderful game series by Valve, starring the silent protagonist Chell and the ridiculously murderous GLaDOS. Little exposition is given, other than you, Chell are a test subject that must run through experiments at the behest of the artificial intelligence GLaDOS. The game is entire first-person, and because Chell is silent in both games, her gender is rarely noticed. The first time you can tell what gender your character is is as you walk through a portal and watch yourself step through the other side.
Chell is the ultimate damsel in distress rescuing herself. She awakens, captured, and of her own volition creates a means of her own escape with nothing but the resources given her and her puzzle-solving skills. GLaDOS, meanwhile, is the only voice of substance in the original game. It is only through GLaDOS in Portal 1 that exposition is given. It is also through GLaDOS that the sharp wit the series is known for shines through with. Despite her trying to kill you with turrets and neurotoxin, lying to you about the promise of cake, and making oddly personal jabs at Chell (making fat jokes and implying she was abandoned by her parents), you almost can’t wait to hear what line she will deliver next.
This game is very different from almost any other first person shooting game you will encounter, largely that despite having a gun that makes holes, it is not a destructive weapon, but rather a tool of transportation. The puzzles will put your mind through a host of mental gymnastics without being frustrating, all while making you laugh at the dead-pan hatred of a maniacal ai.
These are just a small selection of wonderfully written and represented women in video games. If you thought there was another I should have included instead, please let me know in the comments. Alternatively, if you think one of these women didn’t deserve mention along with the others let me know too. I’d like to see a community build from these posts, furthering the discussion.
Now is the Time for Games 