It must be said: I love video games! I don’t get the chance to play them that often, but I love them to the point that I have entered the video games localisation industry.

Something that has always disappointed me, though, is female characters in games. The year is 2010, and we are yet to see more than a few females who are good at what they do, look as if they are actually capable of doing the tasks set out for them and for crying out loud, are dressed appropriately!

Compare this:

To this:

And tell me you don’t see a discrepancy in the characters’ portrayal.

This doesn’t count:

If you are a male gamer, you were probably gay for him, as it were.

Yes, I am aware that many male characters are designed to a masculine ideal as well. My problem is that the overwhelming majority of female characters are designed to be young, sexually attractive, and mis-proportioned, or otherwise wearing clothing unsuitable for their chosen occupation. At least with male characters you get a bit more variety in your stereotypes: the old sage, the wimpy kid with glasses and acne, the emo, the ponce… I could go on.

The reason why I’m writing about this is because of an article I read in gamesradar.com recently, listing “The Top 7 Tasteful Game Heroines“. I went there with an open mind, although to be honest my hopes weren’t high due to my freakishly high standards. I was pleasantly surprised. The problem was, however, that it was painfully obvious how much the editor had to stretch their own initial criteria in order to meet their standard list of 7.

The list reiterated my belief that game company Valve is in the forefront when it comes to creating believable women in games, designed with dignity. Almost all of the characters they mentioned which really fit their criteria were Valve creations like Alyx Vance from Half-Life 2, Zoey from Left 4 Dead and Chell from Portal (though she didn’t quite make the list for some reason; probably because otherwise it may as well have been an article about Valve’s tasteful women). The only other character on the list that I really bought was Faith from Mirror’s Edge.

Okay, so 3 out of 7 characters on the list were fine. This was a lot more than I was expecting. But somewhere along the line it became apparent that ‘sex appeal’ was to be included as a legitimate substitute for ‘believability’ and ‘suitable clothing’. Forgive me if I’m wrong, but to my understanding the idea was to go against femme fatalesque stereotypes like Lara Croft?

One of the characters mentioned in the article (and indeed in many sources attempting to prove that women in games are no different from men) was Samus Aran from Metroid, a lead lady in the days of gaming when the best role models for women in games were Mrs. Pacman and Princess Toadstool. One thing that Games Radar dismisses as a minor point which I find extremely problematic is that from the very first game, you are rewarded for doing well in the game by being allowed to see Samus in less and less clothing.

That’s like saying to someone: “Good job, soldier. You just saved the world, nay, the universe! Now strip so we can marvel at your mostly naked body.”

I don’t know about you, but to me that’s hardly a reason for the women’s movement to celebrate. Not only that, but as the game series has gone on, her sexuality seems to have been emphasised more and more in the end-of-game reveals, with her various skintight body suits and her incredibly feminine features.

In principle I don’t object overly to people doing things like this. The problem is when it is all you see, and when people use examples like this as reasons for you to believe that women are treated the same as men in video games. Forgive me, but the routine has grown excrementally stale!

I understand that the kind of women included in the Games Radar article were mainly put in there to meet the list’s quota. All the same, for me it really highlights the continuing plight of women in games to this day. I guess this is more reason for me to aim to enter the video game industry!