Current Events > Ever noticed that female protagonists in games rarely have boyfriends?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Most player controlled male lead characters do. Even douchebags like Kratos has a wife. Nathan Drake, every GTA game, Ass Creed etc you name it. (in fact the black chick from ass creed Liberation is like the only one who didn't."

Name a protaganist and chances are he got a girl. Even fucking Spyro and Sonic gets a girl.

But Lara Croft? 15 games and nothing (movies don't count), Jade? Heather? Chell? Bayonetta? Samus Aran? Alice Liddell? Regina? Nilin? Faith? Alloy? Nariko?

The only ones I can think of are cheating, they're characters who were NPCs in a previous game and then became player characters later. Like Sherry Birkin or Yuna. Or if you count them, bioware RPGs where you can create a girl.

And even then usually they don't. Chloe and Harelyquin are now single, Elle and Emily are now lesbians the moment you control them.

Closest I can think of is Life Is Strange where you can push for a boyfriend but the game fights you at every single turn to be a lesbian for some reason.

Did Lightning have a boyfriend? I never played FF whateever she was in.

Do you think this is a psychology thing? Like how in Japan female celebrities have to hide their relationships? Like we value virility in male characters but see it as weakness in female ones?77



Would the next Lara Croft game: Tomb Raider Rises A Little Bit More be less popular if they introduced a guy called Steve and said Lara performs oral sex on him?
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people would probably complain she isn't independent enough
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The girl MC in the Fear Effect games got a boyfriend in the first game and a girlfriend in the prequel.
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Foppe posted...

and a girlfriend in the prequel.

Color me surprised
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UnfairRepresent posted...

Foppe posted...

and a girlfriend in the prequel.

Color me surprised

Yeah, it was a pretty big thing back in... I think it was late 2000 or early 2001.
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They dont want to eliminate potential thirst? Some sweatpant buddies may lose their dream.
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Foppe posted...

UnfairRepresent posted...

Foppe posted...

and a girlfriend in the prequel.

Color me surprised

Yeah, it was a pretty big thing back in... I think it was late 2000 or early 2001.

Erm.

I was being sarcastic <_<

Like hardly any player controlled chicks have boyfriends but a decent chunk are lesbians.
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aya brea
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a few game do
ff13-2 has serah as the main protagonist and she is engaged to snow

xenosaga has shion as its main character and while she is single in the game itself she does have a love interest and used to be engaged before the events of the game.

sailor moon another story has tuxedo mask
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yusiko posted...

sailor moon another story has tuxedo mask

Isn't that an anime?

That feels kinda cheating.
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UnfairRepresent posted...

yusiko posted...

sailor moon another story has tuxedo mask

Isn't that an anime?

That feels kinda cheating.

it was a snes RPG based on the anime
to be honest all the sailor moon games were great for the snes
but all of the sailor moon games for the snes were japan only and north america never got them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyAM4i_9Gl8
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yusiko posted...

a few game do
ff13-2 has serah as the main protagonist and she is engaged to snow

UnfairRepresent posted...

The only ones I can think of are cheating, they're characters who were NPCs in a previous game and then became player characters later. Like Sherry Birkin or Yuna. Or if you count them, bioware RPGs where you can create a girl.

Kinda proves TC's point.
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cuttin_in_farm posted...

Kinda proves TC's point.

my shion example doesnt
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yusiko posted...

it was a snes RPG based on the anime

Yeah that's my point though.

It's kinda cheating for a game based on a movie or book that has a boyfriend to keep the boyfriend. It would be double weird to kill the boyfriend off just to keep her single.

I mean a game about a girl who has a boyfriend. Not an adaptation.

If that wasn't Sailor Moon and instead was a SNES RPG called Rasperry's Rough Weekend and introduced a new girl called Rasperry, do you think she would have a boyfriend? I doubt it.
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Not disproving your point, but reading this topic i just had to think of one.
How about Jennifer Tate from Primal?
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DocileOrangeCup posted...

people would probably complain she isn't independent enough

Honestly, probably this.
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TheCyborgNinja posted...

They dont want to eliminate potential thirst? Some sweatpant buddies may lose their dream.

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UnfairRepresent posted...

Chell

To be fair, she's the only human in the game, so that would be kind of impossible to begin with
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Because they can then sell based on the appeal of people fantasising about said female characters as being "theirs" I presume.
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ROBANN_88 posted...

UnfairRepresent posted...

Chell

To be fair, she's the only human in the game, so that would be kind of impossible to begin with

1. No she's not.

2. She still could have a canonical boyfriend. Hell that could be her motivation rather than "she is just stubborn"

MysticMismagius posted...

TheCyborgNinja posted...

They dont want to eliminate potential thirst? Some sweatpant buddies may lose their dream.

You might be right MysticMisagius
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UnfairRepresent posted...

ROBANN_88 posted...

UnfairRepresent posted...

Chell

To be fair, she's the only human in the game, so that would be kind of impossible to begin with

1. No she's not.

2. She still could have a canonical boyfriend. Hell that could be her motivation rather than "she is just stubborn"

1. Please remind me what other human we see in Portal. Cave Johnson is just a recordings. Ratman is nothing more than wall graffiti

2. We don't really know much about her past at all, apart from a few hints that she might be the daughter of an Aperture employee.

How exactly would you fit that information in?
Have Glados say: "by the way, your boyfriend bla bla bla"? Or something
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ROBANN_88 posted...

1. Please remind me what other human we see in Portal. Cave Johnson is just a recordings. Ratman is nothing more than wall graffiti

Goal Posts moved, you just changed "there are no humans" to "We don't see a human."

Ratman is there, as are a whole heave of other puzzle candidates in stasis.

ROBANN_88 posted...

2. We don't really know much about her past at all, apart from a few hints that she might be the daughter of an Aperture employee.

We know quite a lot actually. Not only is she an Aperture science employee, we know she was supposed to be the last candidate released because she's so stubborn she's the most likely to beat GLADoS and that's why Ratman bumped her up.

We also know she can talk and just chooses not to.

That's more backstory and motivation than most game characters get.

ROBANN_88 posted...

How exactly would you fit that information in?
Have Glados say: "by the way, your boyfriend bla bla bla"? Or something

Yeah, GLADoS can like threaten to kill him if she's not quick enough or something.

Doesn't really matter, the point is she's single.
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estelle from trails in the sky
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UnfairRepresent posted...

Goal Posts moved, you just changed "there are no humans" to "We don't see a human."

No, that must have been a poor choice of terms causing a misunderstanding.

My point is that there are no living humans in the game to form a relation with.
And having the game just say that she's with some random guy we never see for no reason would be shit storytelling.
It simply wouldn't fit thematically
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tbh female leads in story-driven games are so uncommon it's hard to do any real statistical analysis
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Good
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Darkman124 posted...

tbh female leads in story-driven games are so uncommon it's hard to do any real statistical analysis

That's kinda my point though.

There's like less than 100 and less than 10 seem to have boyfriends and only 1 or 2 are actually the stars of their own game written to have a boyfriend.

This is not equally reflected in male characters, almost all of whom have a squeeze

I think that DOES say something.
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UnfairRepresent posted...

This is not equally reflected in male characters, almost all of whom have a squeeze

I think that DOES say something.

i think it says a lot of things, not all of them negative. consider that for male heroes in action games, frequently their squeeze shares the spotlight with them, or is dead to provide depth to the character

for the few female heroes, they're much more likely the solo star; there's not as much an attempt to introduce a male deuteragonist who shares the spotlight.

but also many of the female main characters are too young to have a romantic interest, which illustrates our difficulty envisioning female characters as independently powerful, and a need to perceive them as somewhat more infantile

i think the big thing to note is their statistical rarity in general, and question whether that's cause or effect of women's tendency not to play story-driven games but rather games that don't have any characters at all
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Darkman124 posted...

i think it says a lot of things, not all of them negative. consider that for male heroes in action games, frequently their squeeze shares the spotlight with them, or is dead to provide depth to the character

for the few female heroes, they're much more likely the solo star; there's not as much an attempt to introduce a male deuteragonist who shares the spotlight.

but also many of the female main characters are too young to have a romantic interest, which illustrates our difficulty envisioning female characters as independently powerful, and a need to perceive them as somewhat more infantile

i think the big thing to note is their statistical rarity in general, and question whether that's cause or effect of women's tendency not to play story-driven games but rather games that don't have any characters at all

I think the reason for this is a lot more pragmatic. A lot of people are concerned that a narrative which involves a controllable female character romancing a male character makes male players uncomfortable.

Like, take a look at Heavy Rain for instance. You regularly swap out control between Madison and Ethan, but when prompted for the romance part, you're always doing so while controlling Ethan. There is no way to arrive at that scene in control of Madison.

This is also why a lot of stories about girl rescuing kidnapped something or other rarely invovles rescuing a boyfriend/husband. It's always a sibling / parent / etc.
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The world needs a pregnant protagonist.
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ChromaticAngel posted...

Like, take a look at Heavy Rain for instance. You regularly swap out control between Madison and Ethan, but when prompted for the romance part, you're always doing so while controlling Ethan. There is no way to arrive at that scene in control of Madison.

Well in fairness David Cage is a complete hack.

Ellen Page in Beyond Two Souls is nearly raped by every man she ever meets outside of the homeless and scientists. The latter of whom want to use her
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1NfamousACE_2 posted...

The world needs a pregnant protagonist.

Well in fairness Heather Mason was pregnant....
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I guess this comes down to culturally entrenched views of how each gender is considered "heroic".

Going by your standard boys and girls heroes, heroic men are seen as protectors, usually of women. So they have wives and girlfriends and love interests which provides an easy plot device for their heroism. Everything they do is some kind of martyrdom or sacrifice.

Heroic women are seen as independent and free. They're more career orientated, and their brand of heroism is following their own path in life and not being tied down by anyone else. In this case "career" meaning kicking ass.

I guess going by gender norms, these are the kind of aspirational things that boys and girls want to be, generally.

This is true in general fiction too, not just games.
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Sphyx posted...

Not disproving your point, but reading this topic i just had to think of one.
How about Jennifer Tate from Primal?

Gawd, I wish they'd worked a little harder on Lewis. Hideous face, not a fan of his voice, everything he says is cringe-inducing, and he's got little droopy man-tits. Easily the worst part of a fantastic game. And considering finding him is the big goal for Jen it's even worse, argh.
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You're getting awfully close to the idea that damsels in distress are prizes awarded to male protagonists >_>
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scar the 1 posted...

You're getting awfully close to the idea that damsels in distress are prizes awarded to male protagonists >_>

Aren't they though? I can think of a lot of games that follow that idea.

I'm armchair quarterback analysing at this stage, but I suspect part of the reason for the "nice guy" epidemic is this idea that women in distress are a prize to be won if you just throw enough heroism at them.
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Does Fallout 4 count where you have and lose a spouse and child regardless of which gender you play
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Ranting Nord posted...

Does Fallout 4 count where you have and lose a spouse and child regardless of which gender you play

I count it the same as Bioware.

It's kinda cheating if you get to make a character. I guess it "counts" but there is no canon in those games.

In Fallout you can literally fuck machines.
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pinky0926 posted...

scar the 1 posted...

You're getting awfully close to the idea that damsels in distress are prizes awarded to male protagonists >_>

Aren't they though? I can think of a lot of games that follow that idea.

I'm armchair quarterback analysing at this stage, but I suspect part of the reason for the "nice guy" epidemic is this idea that women in distress are a prize to be won if you just throw enough heroism at them.

absolutely, yes, and it's part of the shit upbringing men get that there's a social contract in which they will sacrifice for women, and the women in turn will give them emotional and physical affection

from their POV, they're paying their part of that social contract, and the women are saying "Thanks. I have no obligation to you, bye now"

granted what they're actually saying is "Why are you doing this? I didn't ask for this."
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JustMyOpinion posted...

The protagonist from Chainsaw Lollipop had a bf.

This is true and a fair point actually.
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It is kind of annoying how independent means asexual or lesbian, but that's the climate right now.

TheCyborgNinja posted...

They dont want to eliminate potential thirst? Some sweatpant buddies may lose their dream.

I think I know what you are saying. But why are you saying it like this though? You kids and your slang. :-/

DocileOrangeCup posted...

people would probably complain she isn't independent enough

Whilst I might agree with this back in the day .... aren't we a bit beyond this? Or are we still perpetuating stereotypes of women?
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Darkman124 posted...

pinky0926 posted...

scar the 1 posted...

You're getting awfully close to the idea that damsels in distress are prizes awarded to male protagonists >_>

Aren't they though? I can think of a lot of games that follow that idea.

I'm armchair quarterback analysing at this stage, but I suspect part of the reason for the "nice guy" epidemic is this idea that women in distress are a prize to be won if you just throw enough heroism at them.

absolutely, yes, and it's part of the shit upbringing men get that there's a social contract in which they will sacrifice for women, and the women in turn will give them emotional and physical affection

from their POV, they're paying their part of that social contract, and the women are saying "Thanks. I have no obligation to you, bye now"

granted what they're actually saying is "Why are you doing this? I didn't ask for this."

Yeah that's actually my point but if you so much as pretend to think something that Sarkeesian has said is even close to a valid point well then you've already lost most of CE :)
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