I have no problems with female protagonists.Heck,Samus Aran is my favorite character in gaming.I don't mind female leads in gaming,as long as they don't follow the stereotypes for female characters already mentioned in this thread.

VGobbsesser

i totally agree, i think too often the stereotypical aesthetic of the female protagonst influences the game in a negative way. More samus aran's and less DOA beach volleyball please.

In so far as women always being portrayed as "big breasted blond bombshells" the same can be said about the male form. They are both enhanced. .....Look at comic books, everything on both sides of the gender fence are "enhanced" from what the average is. Why? Because average is boring.

donny666

I agree that the character form is enhanced in games because average is boring. But what i find extremely frustrating is that females are always subjected to stereotypical enhancement, if your gonna fight evil then you need stronger muscles not bigger boobs, theyd just get in the way. And as for walking around scantily clad, wheres the practicality in that?

However i know that the response to a sensibly dressed woman would be negative as she wouldnt be sexy enough. But it annnoys me that even when you have the buxom woman as a lead protagonist men say they cant relate. Part of gaming is the pleasure of indulging in a fantasy, men will quite easily believe that they could be a male stuck in a village with a semi automatic killing zombies so why couldnt they relate to be a female in the same situation? Its all fantasy. Also if your going to spend 10hours staring at the back of a character why wouldnt you want someone with a nice @55?

i think maybe developers would like to be given the opportunity to produce more female led games but they're constrained by the publishers who wont take the risk. The lack of experimentation produces stereotypical games where women are flouncing around with big breast and small bikinis (DOA volleyball).

But then again, the target consumer is predominantly a male aged 14-23 and of course this is going to largely dictate the content, make way for the boobs....

I totally agree with you deflight, it would be so much more interesting if there were more female leads. I just find it frustrating that people will believe that hordes of aliens or zombies are invading a city but not that a female can defend herself against them. At the end of the day, games are based around scenarios so why couldnt a female wield a sword and save the day?

Also, I do think that if women where portrayed differently it would make a difference, for example with dead or alive its hard to empathise with a character that looks like a cheap hooker.