As a girl gamer, I just know I ADORE strong female characters like the new Lara, Jade from Beyond Good & Evil, Faith from Mirror's Edge, Alice from American McGee's Alice games, Aya Brea from Parasite Eve 1 (let's not talk about 3rd Birthday), Samus from Metroid Prime (let's not talk about Other M), Alexandra Rovias from Eternal Darkness, Jen from Primal, Joanna Dark from Perfect Dark, Heather from Silent Hill 3, Jill/Claire/Rebecca from the original Resident Evil games, Chell from Portal, and my strong female avatars in Mass Effect/Dragon Age/Jade Empire and others games, along with strong female supporting characters like Trip from Enslaved, Alyx from Half-Life 2, Aika from Skies of Arcadia, Elika from Prince of Persia, and others.
But for every good example, there's a huge mountain of vapid, large-breasted bimbos being paraded about as useless damsels in distress, shallow eye-candy, and valuable trophies to earn as a reward. And slowly but surely, I've watched many of the heroines I DID admire being reduced and diminished.
I'm sitting here looking at what they've done to heroines like Samus and Jill Valentine and Aya Brea and I'm not smiling or happy to see them anymore. I see the gaming industry forgetting about characters like Joanna Dark and Vanessa Scheider and Cate Archer and Sonia Belmont and Nariko and .
I'm ready to play a game that turns this around. I want to play as Alice Wake trying to find her husband, Alan. I want to play as Jill rescuing Chris (like what happened in the original game if you picked her). I want to play as Anya Stroud in THE lead role in a Gears of War game. I want to play a Halo game with a female lead. I want to play a Mario game starring Daisy (who, unlike Peach, doesn't have powers based on raging hormonal emotions). I want to play a Metal Gear Game starring Meryl or The Boss. I want to play as the Princess of Persia or the Goddess of War. I want to play as Elle from Dead Space. I want to play as Elena or Chloe in Uncharted. I'm ready for all that.
But sadly it seems nobody else is ready. It's still a guys industry with guy games with guy leads, and if I want a game with a female focus, I'd better pick up Cooking Mama or Style Trendsetters, because no girl wants to play as an empowered, clever, talented woman... those games NEVER sell anyway... right?