I was talking to a group of friends recently about FFXIII. We were having a discussion about a male character we had seen in 360 magazine (how he looks strikingly similar to Seifer in KH). The subject suddenly turned sour when my friend Sam said "He should have been the lead. I can't enjoy games with female main characters!" This immediately threw the room into chaos with for and against arguments being shouted back and forth.
My main argument consisted of good video games with powerful female leads. These were normally countered with equally as good games with a male lead. E.g- Games such as Perfect Dark were mentioned, with that being countered with Goldeneye. There are other games such as Wet out now, which hasn't done very well in the market. In fact of the Bethesda games on the 360 it has done the worst. This isn't a reflection of the female lead I don't think. After all, on Fallout and Oblivion you can choose to be female OR male. There are some great female leads out there and from very famous series; Samus Aran from Metroid, Lara Croft and Joanna Dark are examples of this. Granted, there aren't many games with Female leads. Not when you look at how many games there are. There have been some fantastic female characters in games, though.
I personally don't mind playing as either sex. If given a choice, as in MMORPG formats, I go for how the character looks in their armour/ clothing. For instance if I'm choosing a mage on Warcraft I tend to go for a female. They just seems to suit the robes better. On the other hand, if I were to choose a tank (heavily armoured) character, I'd go for a male. Their huge build makes tanks seem more powerful. You could argue (As Alex and Sam did) that this in itself proves sexism by default, due to the fact that females always have slim and 'more fragile' builds. I just don't think that what sex I play as makes much difference to me in games.
Since having this conversation I've noticed my brothers doing this exact thing. Danny always chooses male characters (noticed in Left 4 Dead 2 and Fallout 3) where-as my other brother Mark seemed to go for a range (female in L4D2 and male in F3). I was happy with this until he justified his choice by saying 'I chose her because the girl character is stupid and doesn't defend herself'.
In the whole argument only one of my guy friends said he actually chooses female characters through choice. Though I suspect this was because he really fancies Hannah and was trying to impress her. There must be other people with views like mine, though. As well as those with similar views to Sam.
My question, in the end, is this:
Based on your sex;
Do you tend to go for characters of your own sex?
Do you think characters of your opposite sex don't, or do, suit roles for particular reasons?
Have you ever noticed/ known somebody that won't play as the opposite sex? (Give examples)
Your views on this-
Bookmarks