Why aren't there too many female protagonists in video games?

I think about this quite a bit, it seems protagonists are male-dominated, there are exceptions of course, but I wonder why.

One idea I have might have to do with the animation. With Demon's Souls, you can either choose to be male or female, and the animation is noticibly different. The male animation is seems more "tough," the guy swings the sword hard into the enemy and lets out a yell as his foe falls. It's quite dynamic and exciting, wheras the female animation doesn't seem as "powerful," or dynamic and exciting. The male lunges into the enemy with the blade wheras the female just kind of swings the blade, she does lunge, but not to the extent that the male does.

Where I'm going with this is maybe it seems less "thrilling" to play as a female, since the males tend to be portrayed more 'violently,' and a lot of people like the violent feel a video game portrays.

It's possible that a video game studio could create a video game with a female protagonist and make her animations identical to that of a male's, but then it might seem out of place, or unrealistic.

There are PLENTY of female leads in games today. :?

There are PLENTY of female leads in games today. :?

Krystyan68

Such as ... ?

The only two I can think of are Bayonetta and Metroid.

And in a lot of the Metroid games, you don't even see the character, you just look out from the helmet.

I suppose Tomb Raider is another one.

what about RPGs where you can "make" a female character?

Why does it make sense to have a female?

Majority of gamers are male so wanting to play as a female isn't high on the list of wants

You aim for the demographic. I'm sure that there's men who want to pretend to be a girl and do great things but they're not the majority, you aim for the majority

From the top of my head:

Lara Croft (In all the Tomb Raider games)

Samus Aran (In all the Metroid games)

Lightning (FF13)

Yuna (alonside with Tidus in FF10 and alone in FF10-2)

Jill (Resident Evil 1 and 3)

Sheva (RE5)

Claire (RE2 and Code veronica)

Rosie/Alicia (Valkyria Chronicles)

Bayonetta

Aya Brea (parasite eve 1 and 2)

Regina (Dino crisis 1 and 2)

As jason so eloquently put it, you aim for your demographic. So what you see is a very high ratio of male heroes and massively disproportionate females as the reward for beating a game.

The princess is in a different castle.

From the top of my head:

Lara Croft (In all the Tomb Raider games)

Samus Aran (In all the Metroid games)

Lightning (FF13)

Yuna (alonside with Tidus in FF10 and alone in FF10-2)

Jill (Resident Evil 1 and 3)

Sheva (RE5)

Claire (RE2 and Code veronica)

Rosie/Alicia (Valkyria Chronicles)

Bayonetta

Aya Brea (parasite eve 1 and 2)

Regina (Dino crisis 1 and 2)

Marmotas

Thread ender here

I'll also add

Alex Roivas (Eternal Darkness)

Chell (Portal)

Faith (Mirror's Edge)

Heather Mason (Silent Hill 3)

Jade (Beyond Good and Evil)

Joanna Dark (Perfect Dark)

Kasumi (sorta... Dead or Alive)

Rayne (Bloodrayne)

Adding to Marmotas list of games with female leads:

Wet

Perfect Dark

Bloodrayne

... and er some game involving parkour whose name I can't remember ...

I'm sure there are more still.

[QUOTE="Marmotas"]

From the top of my head:

Lara Croft (In all the Tomb Raider games)

Samus Aran (In all the Metroid games)

Lightning (FF13)

Yuna (alonside with Tidus in FF10 and alone in FF10-2)

Jill (Resident Evil 1 and 3)

Sheva (RE5)

Claire (RE2 and Code veronica)

Rosie/Alicia (Valkyria Chronicles)

Bayonetta

Aya Brea (parasite eve 1 and 2)

Regina (Dino crisis 1 and 2)

one_plum

Thread ender here

I'll also add

Alex Roivas (Eternal Darkness)

Chell (Portal)

Faith (Mirror's Edge)

Heather Mason (Silent Hill 3)

Jade (Beyond Good and Evil)

Joanna Dark (Perfect Dark)

Kasumi (sorta... Dead or Alive)

Rayne (Bloodrayne)

Ellen (Folklore)

Lilith (Borderlands)

Nariko (Heavenly Sword)

Technically all the FF girls in the FF games.

Xion/momo/Kos-mos (Xenosaga)

Selvaria Bles (Valkyria Chronicles... for me, she IS a main character)

and i bet there are a LOT more out there, if i add the ones that cant be used but are needed in the game (like The Boss or Eva in MGS3 and MGS, Naomi, etc) the list can go on and on.

metroid, bayonetta, FF13 lightning, tomb raider... how can u forget tomb raider, heavenly sword Nariko. there is so many.

What about Mass Effect?

Thats the dumbest thing I heard all day.

Seriously you mustn't have played that many games at all.

There was a forum post on the subject before. The TC asked why so many guys playing RPGs made a female character. He and many others couldn't understand why a guy would willingly choose to play as a female character. At least half the guys stated that they don't feel comfortable playing as female. So theirs a big reason. Since guys are the main people buying games, especially none casual games, thats who they must appeal to. Diablo-B

I've also found that many guys are uncomfortable with playing female characters - especially younger teen guys- so I agree that that's probably one of the main reasons why there aren't too many female leads.

Personally though, I really don't understand why guys are so afraid of playing as chicks. It sounds like they might be insecure about their own sexuality, because there's really nothing wrong/weird about it. Sure, maybe some people have more difficulty emotionally connecting with a female character, but...there are so many games out there where it wouldn't make any difference at all, and plenty of very well written games with female leads. So I don't know what to make of that.

Because most gamers are guys, so to match the demographic, most main characters are guys.

Final Fantasy XIII?

Yeah I can list a few. I find there are more male then female but there isn't a major shortage of female leads. Certainly too many for me to go listing. I tend to choose the female option whenever I'm given a choice, I don't always know why. I think it's mainly because I am not into the Chris Redfield from Resident Evil 5 type of men, and that's what we get a lot of in video games. I don't mind it sometimes, sometimes you need that male touch, like in Drake Fortune 2 or if you want to go really manly then Marcus Fenix, I don't like the typical space marine thing but in a game like Gears of War it's called for.

Mass Effect feels more right playing it as a male, I can't picture a female Shepard being taken quite so seriously :P She'll probably get PMT on the ship and start bossing people around too much, ruin all the loyalty.

Saints Row 2 is an awesome game to play as a female, it's the only female GTA type game so far. Final Fantasy games also fit better with a girl, since the guys are normally trying to be as much of a girl as possible why settle for second best?