Would Tomb raider be popular franchise if it had male protagonist?

You do realize that Nathan Drake is the clone and Lara Croft is the original right? besides the question is moot, Tomb Raider IS a famous franchise, while having a female lead with a charming character my have had a (minimal) impact on the franchise's success, what mattered was the game play with special emphasize on exploration and puzzle solving is what made the franchise the beast it is today.

Now I'm going to assume we are talking about the reboot? well here is my take: Uncharted definitely has the better written script no doubt about it, but game play wise both are very identical but Tomb raider (specifically Rise of the Tomb Raider) has much better puzzle solving in comparison to the Uncharted series. Simply put Uncharted has the better presentation but Tomb Raider has the better game play, having a male lead in the latter wouldn't have made a difference in that regard.

Tomg Raider IS a popular franchise.....I'm confused TC

As popular as they got? Absolutely not.

Lara Croft has definitely been sold on sex appeal.

Uncharted is popular enough

Can't deny that the Tomb Raider being female in the originals had a lot to do with it being talked about.

TR would have still been appreciated with a male protagonist cause the games were good for their time, but I'm sure it helped a lot to make it a standout success.

I mean all genders should be treated the same you are all very special and should get special respect for being you digital women are used as objects unlike other digital beings and every woman represents all other women oh what a mess what will we do if everyone gets PMS at the same time that should be a Netflix show.

Nowhere near Lara Croft level.

Also this was a time before internet was a major form of media, back when kids bought magazines and watched obscure 1am gaming tv shows.

come on my friend. i cant stand uncharted either but tomb raider is imo the worse franchise of two.

I completely understood and still understand what you were/are talking about, or I would not have responded. I believe it would have been either way, and if not... well, there are a lot of sad individuals out there. Tomb Raider was never one of my favorite franchises, or even one that I really cared for all that much at all. I played a few, and still own them, but it didn't matter to me one way or the other.

I prefer games where you can pick male/female and customize them as you please. Games where you are forced into a character are ok at times, but not what I prefer, which is why it probably doesn't matter to me either way.

Would Uncharted have been more successful with a female protagonist? Or any other franchise for that matter? Who knows.. and who the hell cares.. it is what it is.

Sure, I think a certain taboo stigma grew around Laura (good or bad... who can say) and it sold some copies since she was a strong female lead, but I also think if people bought the games for pixelated cartoon ass then they need to re-examine their lives if over the age of 10.

I've always respected you the most, probably in the world, but I must disagree my friend. Uncharted is boring movie but old Tomb Raider have level design and stuff.

with clunky controls, terrible camera, bad gameplay, mediocre combat,etc

But you play it my friend, not the case with Metro.

Please dont insult Metro by comparing it to crap like tomb raider.

when game has bad gameplay. it doesnot matter what else it offer. it is bad game.

Metro has insane atmosphere.

Metro is movie my friend, Call Of Duty underground. It has almost no gameplay to criticize.

Tomb Raider games are kind of bad and have always been. Lara Croft is a known and popular character and it's probably thanks to being female and having large boobs. Having a character with big boobs at that time probably helped a lot with selling the games, which weren't very good. I think there's a big possibility the series wouldn't have continued unless they had a popular character. And having a male instead of a female with big boobs would indeed have been less popular and wouldn't have helped the bad games to become popular.

In short. No, TR would probably not be popular with a male lead character, so yes. I think TR is popular thanks to having a female lead character.

its nothing like call of duty, its linear stalker with some half life elements and cutscene because how amazing story is. i never encounter any QTE in metro games.

Its kinda sad because people buy it not for quality but for fake pixels.

Quality is never the most popular in anything, really..

Donald Trump?
McDonald's?
Fifty shades of Grey?
Michael Bay?

Nail. Head. Hit it.

I quite liked the first TR reboot. Got bored of Rise of the Tomb Raider.

Mcdonald have excellent fries plus I like mcroyal too. other than burger king is much better imo.

McDonald's have weird sloppy fries. Burger King's fries actually tastes a little bit of potato. And are more crispy. Your taste in fries is bad! :P
Maybe american McDonald's is better, though, I dunno.. But I doubt it.

I guess you never eat KFC fries. worst fries ever.

KFC doesn't exist in my country. Which probably is a good thing then.

@ghosts4ever: Hahaha my friend, you are the living incarnation of nostalgia! I miss the old days of GameTrailers! XD

ALL games are fake pixels ?

I found that ROTTR improved on the first installment of the reboot for that game's biggest flaw; the exploration and puzzles. The big issue fans had with TR2013 were the tombs that were too small (you could actually see your goal right from the entrance), lacking any depth or challenge. And while the newer tombs in the sequel weren't real brain busters, they were still very well designed. Going through the Cistern, the Pit of Judgement, and Baths of Kitezh was very reminiscent of the old TR games, both in structural and aesthetic level design, traversing/platforming the ancient architecture to reach the treasure. And that's the other thing too, the end treasures were given more merit than an undefined "Lara got some trinket that makes her smile", they added the play reward of a unique skill, gained only through this and not just by allocating your XP in the standard tree.

And as with both games, the Metroidvania formula, even if not original and taken from other source inspiration, is the best addition to the Tomb Raider series. A perfect fit for a game that's all about exploration, doing it in a non-linear manner is more organic than just the sequential level progression of old.

@foxhound_fox said:

@lundy86_4 said:

Would Doom be better with a female protagonist? I vote yes!

way to ruined Doom series? that is most manliest and badass franchise ever.

Obviously having a "sexy" female lead was a big deal in the late 90s but honestly, the games were a lot of fun and my lil kid brain barely registered the protagonist was supposed to be "sexy". By the early 00s, the flimsy controls and lack of progression in gameplay almost killed the franchise but playing the first of the two new versions on my PC, I gotta say, they have reinvented themselves very well. Obviously influenced by UC but thats not a bad thing at all.

@ghosts4ever said:

@foxhound_fox said:

@lundy86_4 said:

Would Doom be better with a female protagonist? I vote yes!

way to ruined Doom series? that is most manliest and badass franchise ever.

Ruin? Come on, DOOM wouldn't be ruined if you played as female. It would just feel pretty odd, since you've always played as DOOMguy. It's the gameplay that's badass. And women can totally be badass. Just look at one of the most badass characters ever created in gaming: Samus Aran.

It wouldn't be Tomb Raider without Lara Croft..... Just like it's not Resident Evil without zombies.

thats Agent 47.

Sure, him too. I said "one of". Is there no female character in a game that you like?

shodan from system shock 2.

normally i never like any game which have female protagonist. might be a coincide.

@Litchie said:

@ghosts4ever said:

@foxhound_fox said:

@lundy86_4 said:

Would Doom be better with a female protagonist? I vote yes!

way to ruined Doom series? that is most manliest and badass franchise ever.

Ruin? Come on, DOOM wouldn't be ruined if you played as female. It would just feel pretty odd, since you've always played as DOOMguy. It's the gameplay that's badass. And women can totally be badass. Just look at one of the most badass characters ever created in gaming: Samus Aran.

The gender of the protagonist in DOOM makes literally no difference, being entirely in first person perspective (ok haven't played it as yet, maybe there's the odd cut scene?) So you don't see yourself/character in action, not in the exterior sense, there's no cosmetic customization of outfit appearance, or any dialog interactions that there isn't even an opening to romances.

The game mechanics wouldn't in any way be altered, just as Samus being a woman or man wouldn't alter the platforming, combat, or puzzle game mechanics. Just consider that in the very first NES game, no one knew the armored character was a female until the reveal at the very end. Nintendo very cleverly made a commentary on gender roles and stereotypes, exploiting the players preconceptions centered around prevalent media conventions of the time. Only difference is that in some games you can see Samus' face, sometimes her physique when clad in the Zero Suit. You don't see the DOOM protagonists face. And even if you did, wouldn't impact how you run through the environments, blasting away the demon hordes with your arsenal of weaponry. The gameplay experience would be exactly the same.

An aspect where gender does make a difference even if mechanics remain the same would be personality and how that plays out in the story. So it is relevant to Tomb Raider, Metal Gear Solid, Gears of War, No One Lives Forever, Zelda, God of War, Batman, Assassin's Creed, Witcher... to name a few.

But therein lies something else Samus and DOOM protagonist and even Gordon Freeman have in common; being a silent protagonist. So not only is there no difference to the mechanics, there's no character traits that would impact the plot progression or overall experience. The personality is only what ever the player projects into the character, how they choose to see that character. Of course Nintendo has started injecting some defined traits into Samus later on, like in Smash Bros and Other M, but the Prime games were unaffected by her gender.

And more direct question to @ghosts4ever; are you saying a female character can't be badass, powerful, or in anyway strong as a story/game lead? Are you of the opinion that a woman's place is as the sidekick only, damsel in distress... or just in the kitchen?

Short answer, yes. Long answer, no.

Is she a non-binary genderfluid lesbian though? :D

@foxhound_fox said:

@lundy86_4 said:

Would Doom be better with a female protagonist? I vote yes!

No I dont. it depend on game.

for example graphic adventure games like life is strange is suitable for female protagonist but in FPS it doesnot work thats why we dont have much FPS games with female protagonist

and my friend, no. i dont think women place is only kitchen. they can be scientist and doctors etc. i dont know what make you think. im getting married soon and my fiance is lecturer who teach in university.

Back during the PS1 days? Not so much, these days yes - and his name is Jason something...Drake?

Yes, considering that Nathan Drake is a male clone of Lara Croft.

Metaphorically speaking, Lara Croft is the big mamma of Nathan Drake... Without Tomb Raider, there would never be any Uncharted.

Precisely. When Tomb Raider came out in 1996, there was almost nothing like it at the time, a 3D platform-puzzle-adventure. It was almost like Prince of Persia in a 3D environment (before The Sands of Time came along a generation later).

Its tank controls have aged poorly, but that's an anachronistic argument. Tank controls were common for 3D third-person games on a D-pad at the time. It wasn't until Mario 64 came along, with its revolutionary analog controls, that D-pad tank controls started becoming dated.

Same. The comments made threw up my tea lol.

His threads really are little more than excuses to express why he likes:

Hitman.

Doom.

Stalker.

Metro.

System Shock 2

Mafia

and why he hates:

Any game with a female protagonist (Shodan doesn't count, she's an ai)

Anything with a hint of anime.

Rockstar.

Ubisoft.

The limits of his subject matter are so restricted that I'm convinced that he's on the spectrum.

Remember back when all he talked about was Riddick and he went by the name "Diesel"? Good timez.

but apparently shodan is best female character in gaming history by far.

Tomb raider is no were near as bad as the original dues ex, doom or mafia 1. Also don't get me started on that tripe released this year by arakne studios.

Wait, I thought all Dooms had female protagonists.

Don't think I remember that, but I DO remember him raving a lot about Deus Ex, DOOM and Duke Nukem, he was like "Deus Ex Mankind Divided will be GOT and they will never include microtransactions" HAHAHAHA Good ol times! XD

and don't get me started in Shadow Warrior! (granted it was an awesome game but he raved it like it was the second coming of jesus or something XD

Hell hath no furries like a womans corn.