One character trait doesn't make it automatically good or even thought-through. The question of gender in games is simply a cosmetic question if you don't do anything meaningfull with it. This demand looks to me like this: "Gee, I wish I had a red sword instead of blue." If you want different cosmetics, go for JRPGs, platformers, fighters...hell, even in strategy, you'll find good things that look different to the "norm". It doesn't require thought to put tits on a 3D/2D model. What you do with it, is what's important. Look at Remember Me and how well that female model added to the depth. Look at Tomb Raider and how well we can see Lara's character arcs...yea, great job. I am not saying, these games can't be fun. I am saying, if you want different, it better really be different, or you'll be getting exactly the same package, just wrapped up in a slightly different way.Trilligan said:30-something white male action hero is boring and insipid because he's default. He requires no intelligence or creativity to write. He requires no thinking whatsoever. In that case, there's no reason NOT to provide a female alternative - it would take exactly one more character model to allow the option, making people happy who want a female while taking nothing from those who don't. Putting Lara Croft and Nathan Drake together in the same game only increases the audience.
But to make the main protagonist something OTHER than the default requires that there be some thought given to the narrative. The story of a female protagonist isn't by necessity better or worse - but it is different. It is not standard. It requires us to leave the default area and explore someplace we may not have before. And that can only be good for the game, and for gaming as a whole.
There are people who are not simply asking for variety. There are people (some of them, who don't even play games), who want games to only include what they feel is right. There are even people out there, who work towards censoring yours and my entertainment because they think, this will get them a few more views/votes.Nobody who is asking for variety wants the default excluded, in spite of what internet hatemongers say.
If that is really what so many people want, I agree, it is bizarre. There is however, a big demographic, who wants simple, mindless fun. And deep characters and engaging dialogue is not what makes Dynasty Warriors great. If you really want more, you can find it. Old CRPGs, JRPGs, Tales of Xillia just came out, Project Eternity and Torment: Tides of Numenerra are coming out next year, Beyond Good & Evil is getting a sequel.But it seems bizarre to me that so many should argue so vehemently that women have no place in the narratives of games, save as something to be saved by or rewarded to the hero at the end of all the action.
If you just ask for female protagonists and not well done female protagonists, admit, that you are just asking for a red sword instead of a blue one.