[POLL] Male or Female Protagonist

[jwideman]

I'm going to go against the norm here and say it does matter. It matters a LOT, and it depends on what kind of game. Consciously, we may to choose to ignore bias, but subconsciously we still have those biases. Consider: Why do so many horror movies or games have female protagonists? It's because most people - male and female alike - associate vulnerability with women more than with men. We feel more strongly for the female protagonist's plight. We may have moved on from the male hero rescuing the helpless female to the female hero rescuing herself, but that perceived vulnerability is still there.

Example: Alien

With science fiction, this is reversed - we want LESS vulnerable heroes. If the hero is a woman, she has to be as much a badass as any man. And what of her antagonists? All men.

Examples: The Matrix

Counter-example: Lucy

Adventure games are a special case, however. In those games, the protagonist is the stand-in for the player. It's why Final Fantasy had mute protagonists for so long. In a lot of cases, the protagonist was rather androgynous (Squall comes to mind.) In the Mass Effect games and in almost every Pokemon game, the player can choose the gender. This is the best approach in my opinion.

I'm sorry if I've offended anyone. This is not a statement on how we should treat each other, only a recognition of the deep psychological issues at play in works of fiction. Humanity rises above our baser instincts through our conscious actions, not by pretending they don't exist. In real life, we shouldn't discriminate. But in fiction, you have to push the right psychological buttons.

 

[Euphony]

Games made by me? Male.

I wouldn't even know how to start writing a female protagonist, it just don't feel natural for me. No offense for those that think otherwise

When making a game, male, because it's easier to write for me.

When playing a game I have no preferences when it comes to the gender of the main protagonist.

Okay now I'm really curious. What is it about women that some guys find so difficult to write? What is so vastly different between men and women that you look at a female character and go, "I just have no idea where to start"? I mean, take away the sexual organs and a character is a character. Wouldn't it be possible to write the character as if they were male, then after you're finished, just change it to a woman? And if that doesn't work for you, can't you at least try to write a female protagonist? You know, practice and get better?

I'm not saying this mockingly, by the way. I'm not trying to put anyone down. I'm genuinely confused about the "women are hard to write" statement. Someone please enlighten me.

 

[Milennin]

Let's just say if I changed the main character in my game to a girl while keeping the dialogue the same, it wouldn't feel the same. The things my guy says and does feel very much like something a guy would do, not a girl, lol. Then again, I do kind of stick to cartoon-y stereotypes (including gender based stereotypes), or variations thereof, when I do my writing.

I wouldn't say I have no idea where to start with writing a female character, I have one in the main party for my game, and I do like writing her... but it still feels different for me. Maybe it's not as much a matter of difficulty, but rather of feeling more comfortable with writing a male main character than a female. I don't have the same level of confidence when writing her dialogue over my guys' dialogues.

 

[Euphony]

Hmm fair enough. I supposed stereotypes are often rooted in a bit of truth. And I do agree that the gender of the main character can change the feel of the story. Still, I would encourage people to go outside their comfort zone a bit. Shake things up~

 

[noctiluca]

I'm going to go against the norm here and say it does matter. It matters a LOT, and it depends on what kind of game. Consciously, we may to choose to ignore bias, but subconsciously we still have those biases. Consider: Why do so many horror movies or games have female protagonists? It's because most people - male and female alike - associate vulnerability with women more than with men. We feel more strongly for the female protagonist's plight. We may have moved on from the male hero rescuing the helpless female to the female hero rescuing herself, but that perceived vulnerability is still there.

Example: Alien

With science fiction, this is reversed - we want LESS vulnerable heroes. If the hero is a woman, she has to be as much a badass as any man. And what of her antagonists? All men.

Examples: The Matrix

Counter-example: Lucy

Adventure games are a special case, however. In those games, the protagonist is the stand-in for the player. It's why Final Fantasy had mute protagonists for so long. In a lot of cases, the protagonist was rather androgynous (Squall comes to mind.) In the Mass Effect games and in almost every Pokemon game, the player can choose the gender. This is the best approach in my opinion.

I'm sorry if I've offended anyone. This is not a statement on how we should treat each other, only a recognition of the deep psychological issues at play in works of fiction. Humanity rises above our baser instincts through our conscious actions, not by pretending they don't exist. In real life, we shouldn't discriminate. But in fiction, you have to push the right psychological buttons.

I dunno, science fiction isn't so clear-cut. A lot of science fiction works have female protagonists who aren't badass, like Serial Experiments Lain... or Xenosaga (darn it Shion lol). And horror like The Thing... all male characters.But I do agree that the gender of the protagonist does have an impact on the story. Even if the character has the same personality whether male or female, you have to think about how other characters would treat them, how they would be raised, and so on. That might be why some guys are uncomfortable writing female characters, because they can't immediately relate to some of those things.

Though it's also possible to write a setting with no gender biases if you really wanted to. I bet it would be challenging.

 

[jwideman]

I dunno, science fiction isn't so clear-cut. A lot of science fiction works have female protagonists who aren't badass, like Serial Experiments Lain... or Xenosaga (darn it Shion lol). And horror like The Thing... all male characters.

But I do agree that the gender of the protagonist does have an impact on the story. Even if the character has the same personality whether male or female, you have to think about how other characters would treat them, how they would be raised, and so on. That might be why some guys are uncomfortable writing female characters, because they can't immediately relate to some of those things.

Though it's also possible to write a setting with no gender biases if you really wanted to. I bet it would be challenging.

You're right, it's not always so clear-cut and there's always exceptions. The Thing had an all-male cast because of when and where it was set. But it was an allegory for Cold War paranoia and didn't really have a central protagonist. Even the ending is ambiguous: Is that really MacReady? Is that really Childs?

Could any of this have worked equally well with women? Maybe. There was a 2011 prequel which nobody saw, and in it one of the characters is female.

Anyway, regarding male writers having trouble writing female characters, it goes the other way too. For any writer, learning to write opposite sex characters is part of learning characterization. The key to doing this is getting to know lots of different people. Yes, it's possible to just write a character as male then make them female, or vice versa. When I was in a writing workshop, one of the other writers - a woman - did that. Some of her critics actually thought the character was two different people. She rewrote it, basing the character on her father, and the story sold right away.

So to anyone struggling with characterization, especially opposite sex characters, my advice is to get out there and meet new people. Introducing yourself as a writer is a great icebreaker. (Just be prepared for the #1 first question, "What do you write?")

 

[Wavelength]

I'll just say it straight out - I like female main characters better in all genres of game because I'm male so by playing a character of the other gender I find it slightly easier to view them as a character (which I like) rather than as an extension of myself.

 

[Astel]

Simply reversing genders is not the best option, else you would end up with... a young girl knight fighting a evil wizard to save a sleeping prince locked in the top of the tower. It could happen? Maybe but the meanings behind the story get a little distorted and make little sense to me.

Of course you could say that such history is a tired stereotype and should go die somewhere... but that is for another topic to cover.

 

[Aoi Ninami]

I love the assumption in the above post that all we're capable of writing is cliched princess-rescue stories.

 

[Mouser]

In my gaming research over the past couple of years I've played a LOT of HOPA (hidden object/puzzle adventure) games. The protagonists were overwhelmingly female. This is not an accident. More women are playing games (especially low dollar price games) and they seem to like playing as females. Go figure. 

If I'm developing a game the protagonist or at least one of the main protagonists will be female if only because I believe that gives me a better chance of attracting more players.  People can talk about an 'ideal' world all they want - all I know is the one I live in.

In my games sex, gender, and symbolism (gnostic/qabalistic) tend to go hand in hand so there's that working for me, too.

 

[Astel]

I love the assumption in the above post that all we're capable of writing is cliched princess-rescue stories.

I'm not saying that in fact your own reply impiies that those are tired cliched stories that should disappear or something... more power to you if you believe that i think differently

 

[SOC]

Seems like female main characters are more cliche nowadays but I need a main character I can relate to or else I'm no where near as interested. This means they need to be a male, usually, but if enough other factors catch my eye, I'll still try the game. It takes a lot more, though.

 

[Mouser]

Seems like female main characters are more cliche nowadays but I need a main character I can relate to or else I'm no where near as interested. This means they need to be a male, usually, but if enough other factors catch my eye, I'll still try the game. It takes a lot more, though.

I bought King's Bounty: Armored Princess Crossworlds solely because it had a picture of a hot chick in a chainmail bikini on the box at Walmart (and was dirt cheap). I even joked about it to my wife when I tossed it in the cart. Turned out to be a surprisingly good game.

 

[JosephSeraph]

>implying gender is a binary male-female spectrum

also, really? I never bother. Do what benefits your story. If there are biased players who only play as male or female characters screw them.

I just like well developed characters. Throw me females, males, people clearly outside t he binary spectrum, androgynous people whose gender isn't even lampshaded by the game etc, extremely feminine girls, whatever. As long as it's coherent and helps your game reaching out what it wants to do, it's fine.

I don't get these pools.

 

[Celianna]

I'm going to go against the norm here and say it does matter. It matters a LOT, and it depends on what kind of game. Consciously, we may to choose to ignore bias, but subconsciously we still have those biases. Consider: Why do so many horror movies or games have female protagonists? It's because most people - male and female alike - associate vulnerability with women more than with men. We feel more strongly for the female protagonist's plight. We may have moved on from the male hero rescuing the helpless female to the female hero rescuing herself, but that perceived vulnerability is still there.


Example: Alien

This is funny because the Alien script was written with an all male cast in mind - Ripley was supposed to be a Martin Roby. Later on they decided to turn the hero into a woman, cast Sigourney Weaver, and changed only a minimal amount of the script to adjust for that.

 

[Astel]

In the end, i think everyone should write/create whatever they want... instead of letting the society or the market dictate what is right or wrong. Now if you excuse me, i have princess to rescue

 

[Kane Hart]

I'm so confused. That's like asking if it's better to have a redheaded protagonist or a blond.

Neither is wrong or right, and what about a genderless protagonist?

Ah neut you say?

 

[jwideman]

This is funny because the Alien script was written with an all male cast in mind - Ripley was supposed to be a Martin Roby. Later on they decided to turn the hero into a woman, cast Sigourney Weaver, and changed only a minimal amount of the script to adjust for that.

I dunno if I'd call it minimal - they shot a scene where Ripley and Lambert talk about dating Ash (neither had). Wiser minds prevailed in the editing room.

 

[bokunoyuki]

I can live with either, but seeing a female protagonist gets my attention simply because I don't see female protags very often. However, if the protagonist is more on the "cute" side, I turn away quickly because of the over-saturation of "moe" in anime and anime-style video games. Even tough female protagonists can mislead me into thinking they have some substance, but many writers in Japan do a great job of empowering and objectifying females at the same time.

Males get my attention if their design is unique enough, such as the designs for Persona 3, 4, and 5's protagonist

 

[Matseb2611]

Protagonist gender doesn't matter to me. If it's a game about a linear story and a pre-defined existing character, then whichever gender the writers went with is there for a reason because it fits the story. It's not something I'd dispute and instead would try to get into the story itself.

Now in an RPG where you get to mold your character to whatever you want and can pick a gender, this is kind of different. This is where the writers let you have more freedom and the story can fit either gender protagonist equally. Normally I don't mind picking either gender, though some factors do cause me to sway one way or another. For example if I know the game has romance in it, I'm likely to play as a male, so that I can romance female characters, and not vice versa. If, however, the game is a lot more about watching my avatar perform badass fighting manoeuvres, then I'd rather pick a female, because it's a lot more eye-candy this way.