Just been around another website where people discussed the statement of Epic's Chris Perna, about how women as playable characters are a hard sell to publishers and also how having attractive, stereotypical women in games has become a cliche by itself.
I've been thinking and come to the conclusion:
I really want to have a game where the protagonist is a middle-aged person
As rare as female protagonists are in gaming, having a person between 40 and 59 be the main character is as far as i know practically unheard of. Sure, there are exceptions, like in Heavy Rain or Max Payne, and some games with character editors allow to have your Shepard/Courier/CursedUndead look older.
But that's the thing: I'm not really interested in an older protagonist in terms of gameplay (As far as i know, Solid Snake has to deal with back pains in MGS4...don't really want or need that), but in terms of writing.
I mean, just look at the characters that people like Denzel Washington, Bruce Willis or Liam Neeson play nowadays, these people still can be action guys while at the same time are able to give thier characters a believable sense of experience, professionalism and even weariness that's harder to sell with a young guy (...i'm especially starting to get annoyed with japanese writing here, where you get world-weary, semi-traumatised, emotionally withdrawn war veterans that look like they are barely above 30).
I want characters who aren't newcomers in thier field, who are well established and known. I want characters who are MARRIED and have children and maybe a husband or wife to a police protagonist urging him/her to finally get a desk job. I want to play a 45 year old woman who can order younger ones around and depending on my dialogue choices, can come off like an old, bossy hag.
I am aware that this age group is underrepresented for a reason (After all, 50 year old gamers are hardly a majority, even less so when it comes to games with narratives), but one can still dream. It'd think older men and women would make interesting protagonists in gaming and could bring something new to the table.
I've been thinking and come to the conclusion:
I really want to have a game where the protagonist is a middle-aged person
As rare as female protagonists are in gaming, having a person between 40 and 59 be the main character is as far as i know practically unheard of. Sure, there are exceptions, like in Heavy Rain or Max Payne, and some games with character editors allow to have your Shepard/Courier/CursedUndead look older.
But that's the thing: I'm not really interested in an older protagonist in terms of gameplay (As far as i know, Solid Snake has to deal with back pains in MGS4...don't really want or need that), but in terms of writing.
I mean, just look at the characters that people like Denzel Washington, Bruce Willis or Liam Neeson play nowadays, these people still can be action guys while at the same time are able to give thier characters a believable sense of experience, professionalism and even weariness that's harder to sell with a young guy (...i'm especially starting to get annoyed with japanese writing here, where you get world-weary, semi-traumatised, emotionally withdrawn war veterans that look like they are barely above 30).
I want characters who aren't newcomers in thier field, who are well established and known. I want characters who are MARRIED and have children and maybe a husband or wife to a police protagonist urging him/her to finally get a desk job. I want to play a 45 year old woman who can order younger ones around and depending on my dialogue choices, can come off like an old, bossy hag.
I am aware that this age group is underrepresented for a reason (After all, 50 year old gamers are hardly a majority, even less so when it comes to games with narratives), but one can still dream. It'd think older men and women would make interesting protagonists in gaming and could bring something new to the table.
