S7- Gender

The role of female characters in games largely started out as being intensives for quests as something for the hero to rescue, attributing them little power and, noways, even less clothes. Male characters also tend to be stereotyped as having huge amounts of muscles and the ability and responsibility of protecting things. These stereotypes are fair to neither gender as the people of society rarely conform to either constructed view of each gender and to while it is ok for there to be characters like these every, diversity is what is needed. Games coming up with interesting, varied characters is always a good thing, as it reflects society’s own diversity.

'By lifting the 'damsel in distress' heuristic from female video game characters and designing female characters that are as capable and badass as are present in real life, women could easily take the role of the hero- and could absolutely sell video games' stated by Eugenia Zobel de Ayala on hastac.org.

What many publishers seem to believe is that female characters who are respected for who they are won't sell games and thus prefer their presence to be hidden from the game covers.

One of the issues strong female characters have is not necessarily their costuming, but their poses and what their designers are trying to communicate by positioning them in suggestive ways- that their body is the only thing of relevance. Any abilities they have or any positive contribution they make to game's story is overlooked in favor of the eye candy they can be made to present. This denies them of any real purpose they may have in the game.

As more and more people become aware of this issue and voice their opinions, the game industry will change, bringing about more diverse characters treated with the respect that they, and society, deserve.