I read an article today in which a female gamer was sounding off on the unfair roles of women in video games today. I see this a fair amount quite frankly and I find myself wondering what games these women play because they somehow always manage to avoid the ones (which in my opinion) contain some of the strongest female characters in any form of media. Now, perhaps I'm just a big dumb guy and I am not understanding of the plight that women everywhere face under the thumb of men like me, but I certainly have some thoughts on why women in video games have just as much of a place as men.

Now, I will be the first to admit that women have been shunned in video games since their conception. Women mostly served as the basis for a brave knight's quest, case in point, the ever vulnerable and helpless, Princess Peach. Now Princess Peach is a weak woman by any standard... wait, what's that you say? No she isn't? Well of course you're right, Peach may always be getting captured, but that's just bad luck on her part. Peach has really evolved from a simple quest goal into a heroine in her own right. Nowadays Peach is ready to kick Mario's butt any day at a game of Tennis, Golf, Kart racing, she's even rescued our portly plumber friend on one occasion, not to mention she's the ruler of an entire kingdom and judging from the state of said kingdom she does a mighty good job. Peach was even introduced to Smash brothers where she really gets to kick the guy's butts, sometimes 3 of them at once, now that's a tough woman.

That leads me on to another famed princess figure who was also added to the last installment of Smash brothers. You know who it is by now, perhaps the most famous princess in gaming aside from Peach, Princess Zelda. Zelda is another girl who mostly seems to have been created to give Link a goal to work towards. However Zelda is another princess who is strong in her own right, she may not do all the dungeon crawling and monster fighting, but she does the planning. Case in point, one that everyone knows and remembers, who was always there for Link in Ocarina of Time? Quite frankly Link would've been lost wandering around Hyrule field for 7 years if it hadn't been for Zelda's guidance through the entire game. She even helps Link to seal Gannon in the end. So Zelda may not be some butch warrior princess, but she sure seems to have a lot of brains and a lot of bravery.

Moving far far away from princesses now I'd like to move into a genre where strong lead female characters are a staple. The survival horror genre is full of strong female leads, a lot of them featuring in Capcom's Resident Evil series. Right from the start we have Jill Valentine and Rebbecca Chambers who're both just as brave as the men when faced with hordes of undead and foul creatures in a dark and spooky mansion. Then moving on we have Claire Redfield and Ada Wong, even little Sherry Birken, all brave and strong girls, easily on par with any man in Resident Evil. Jill makes yet another appearance in RE3 where her cool calmness and leadership qualities stand out against the likes of "Chicken Heart"Brad Vickers and her slightly arrogant partner, Carlos. Claire comes back for more in Code Veronica where her bravery and attitude stand head and shoulders above the whiny Alfred Ashford and the arrogant and slightly irritating Steve, Code Veronica even features a crazy villianess in the form of Alexia Ashford. My point is, these games are full of a strong female presence, women in these games certainly aren't afraid to strap on their shotgun and wade through hordes of the undead to rescue other survivors and even their male counterparts.

Fighting Games are another medium where strong women reign. Great women characters go as far back as 1991 with one of the most famous video game women ever, Chun-Li. Now I won't argue, Chun-Li seems over sexualised and perhaps she was created for a male audience, but when she kicks you in the face it hurts just as much as when gorilla-boy Guile does it to you. Street Fighter went on to include Cammy, Sakura, Rose, Karin etc... all of whom are butt kicking women who know how to put a man in his place.

Strong women are also easy to find in the RPG universe, just look at Final Fantasy as an example, which has far too many heroines for me to name in a quick blog. Examples are: Terra who at the start of FF6 had a powerful gift that every evil badguy on the planet was desperate to get their hands on, she foiled them time after time though, using her magical gifts to save her male companions on many occasions. Aeris in Final Fantasy 7 ultimately sacrifices her own life to help her friends and save the planet, even after her death she continues to aid her friends and really it's through her actions that the planet is spared from destruction at the hands of meteor. Rinoa in FF8 is the leader of her own underground resistance movement and has a great sense of responsibility and incredible leadership qualities. I could go on forever with this series and this genre, suffice to say I've only really begun with these few women.

I certainly won't deny however that video gaming is a largely male dominated arena and often female characters are created with the purpose of drawing in male crowd. My friends and I always used to joke that with each Tomb raider game Lara Croft's breasts got bigger and her backpack got smaller. Hero roles are also often reserved for men, with women only providing support roles or very meager roles. Then I certainly won't deny there are some games where women are just shunned completely, such as the Grand Theft Auto series where one of the protagonists, CJ, can really just use the women around him by having a 'girlfriend' in each town.

Still, like I said at the beginning, I'm only a guy so maybe I have no idea what I'm talking about and upon reading my closing statements you've found that you haven't agreed with anything I've just said. Still I've only just scratched the surface here and I would urge women everywhere to take a closer look at the role of women in all video games, maybe when you stop looking for the woman who's president of the earth, wears a business suit and manipulates all the men around her you might just find that even when a woman seems weak or frail she's actually very strong and independent in her own right.