This is a man's world!



"Female assassin in the lead role? big fail ! nooo thank you"

"Okay, I'll say it: I think having a female assassin is a bad idea!"

This weekend Games Informer let slip that the Playstation Vita was getting its own Assassin's Creed and, not without controversy would be staring a female assassin, Aveline.  From outright aggression to the attempts at humour with the mention of 'touch screen input', message boards I've looked at have been dotted with negative comments. Now whilst the two quotes I've shown above are in the minority, sadly the fact they exist raises a question about how accepting gamers are.  Female characters have existed in games for a number of years but have always been overtly sexualised creations with big chests, small waists and flawless looks.  Even supposedly 'strong' female leads such as Lara Croft have widely been characters flaunted for their looks whilst they jump, shoot and swing around the environment.  In the soon to be released Lollipop Chainsaw, there exists an Xbox achievement achieved by taking a peek up the lead characters incredibly short skirt.

Women are represented in games.  The much maligned publisher EA has included default female versions of the lead characters in Dragon's Age and Mass Effect (the latter of which raised it's own controversy).  Beyond Good and Evil had the strong female protagonist Jade who doesn't come across as an overly sexualised piece of eye-candy for male gamers.  And of course Metroid's Samus Aran is an almost completely positive role model even if she did appear in an 8-bit bikini at the end of the original Metroid.  Excluding the question mark over whether Lara Croft is a good role-model or not, the negative portrayals far outnumber the positive.  From Dead Or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball (which amazingly got a sequel and a PSP spin-off) to Bayonetta's high-heels wearing 'sexy' clothed witch, women have regularly been little more than sex objects in games.

How different is this from the way men are treated in games though?  In my experience they either lean towards the wise-cracking and handsome (Nathan Drake, Ezio Auditore) or brutish commando (Gears of War).  I don't personally mind these male stereotypes and accept that as most games are in someway attempting to be action movies I am likely to be either Bruce Willis or Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Whether or not I am supposed to relate to an American voiced, hulking super-soldier doesn't seem to be considered.  Do I relate to Marcus Fenix?  Not particularly.  He is just a vessel through which to play an enjoyable and well-crafted game.  Would it matter if the lead was female or out of shape?  I don't believe it would, although I accept that the muscles are vaguely in role for the game.

This doesn't mean that games shouldn't be more representative though.  Like no other medium games project us on to the world that we play in.  The drama that surrounds women, homosexuality and religion when they are represented in games is astounding in a supposedly enlightened 21st Century.  Studies seem to suggest that around 40% of gamers are women and 60% of The Sims 125 million players are female.  I don't believe that female gamers need more female protagonists though but perhaps more games designed with women in mind or even by female developers.

Back to the original idea of Assassin's Creed: Liberation though.  Regardless of the gender of the lead assassin, more high quality reasons to play on my Vita are warmly accepted.  I'm looking forward to spending time in 18th century New Orleans with Aveline and look forward to finding out more about the game at E3.