The Big Picture: Link Be A Lady

[Covarr]

Y'know, this is one of the only franchises where I wouldn't have the slightest issue with gender-swapping the star, and Bob hit the nail on the head with every reason it was justifiable both in gameplay and in canon. The fact of the matter is, as long as Link continues to be more of a player avatar than a story-driven character (and let's face it, this has long been a weakness of this franchise), you can make Link whatever you want and it won't make much of a difference. And frankly, I think that's what the gaming industry needs most. Not a character who is loudly female, who exists more to send a message than anything else, but a character who is female just because. I think that'd send a much stronger message than any politically or ideologically motivated female character ever could, because it wouldn't come across as preachy.

P.S. Thanks

 

[Rabidkitten]

I thought it was Zelda in that trailer. Thus the blue, and the bow. And yes a male Link will be in the game but you will play as Zelda as the hero.... right?

I could write that story with my eyes closed. Ganon shows up while Link and Zelda are babies, banishes link to some dark prison, and a good witch steals baby Zelda away before Ganon overruns the kingdom and becomes the ruler. In secret baby Zelda is raised to be a hero. One day Moblins show up and kill said granny witch and Zelda must go on a quest to rescue link to obtain the triforce of courage to use against the usurper Ganon. 1 2 3 DONE.

 

[Biran53]

As cool as it would be I'd actually prefer that they just go all in and make Zelda the protagonist for a change. Who doesn't want to play a magic ninja elf who is wise-as-fuck?

I'm okay with Link being either gender, but I'd rather the Legend of Zelda games stick to just the hero.
I find badassery with Zelda in her just being a soft, but forceful political leader. Kinda like how she was in Twilight Princess. I would love to see a game where we get to play as Zelda, but I think it would be best to leave the action-RPGing to Link, whether (s)he be female or male.

 

[MegaManOfNumbers]

I`m still banking on the fact that this Link is fully customizable now like in the recent Pokemon games. I mean, look at him/her! Swappable sexes, fully interchangeable outfits, that`ll totally rad!

 

[Foolery]

Also, CDProjekt are Polish devs, not like the US-dominant game devs who make the majority of "burly white dude" game's protagonists. Cultural variation does make a difference, and since they're one of the few prominent Eastern European devs out there, I don't think they deserve as much crap as say Activision does for their constant lack of well-written female protagonists.

Also worthy note, the Witcher is adapted from a series of fantasy novels, so staying true to the source material is a concern there, that said, no reason other stories in that world couldn't be told from a womans perspective and it's not like it doesn't have it's fair share of strong female characters... who shockingly of all, whilst yes, work as sexual motivation, actually instigate the sex themselves and it's seen not specifically as a connection, but as something that is simply pleasurable for both parties... WAAAAAAAH?! Strong, female leads, who not only instigate sex at their behest not the leads but also don't play it up as either something noble or a chaste act... who actually play it as just a thing people do? Crazy, that would never work, no one would want that in their video games.

Absolutely. And if you're familiar with the novels, you know that Geralt has a surrogate daughter named Ciri who was trained to fight at Kaer Morhen by the witchers. Very much a tomboy, and a strong female protagonist in the books. She's actually going to be in the upcoming game, Wild Hunt. The series has much to draw from and work with.

 

[kurupt87]

Where do you live that women have always been told there is a ceiling to their progression? The 1950's? The Congo?

 

[josemlopes]

as far as "no one has ever taken a male lead and made them female before." I cite Starbuck and Boomer in the RDM version of Battlestar Galactica. both male characters in the original, re-imagined as women in the update.

Battlestar Galactica isn't exactly what I would call "mainstream". When Bob said "no one", what he meant was "no one with widespread appeal even outside of the nerd culture." The Battlestar Galactica case can make for a decent example, sure, but the series itself just doesn't have the mainstream appeal for anything they do to "make a statement" in the same way as something like Zelda.

If he wanted to say that he would have said it. Simply saying "no one" has more impact but is false and saying the rest removes the impact of the argument so he might as well not have said anything.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

Make Link female? Sure, why not? It'd be a nice change of pace. Not sure if they'd actually go through with it, but hey, sometimes it's nice to be surprised.

 

[Scribblesense]

Don't care what Aunoma said, if Link still looks like a 14yo girl when this comes out I'm going to go on believing she's a 14yo girl.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Oh thank god. I was terrified we were going to have to sit through another week of Game Overthinker.

Bob, I love most of your stuff, but I just do not like Game Overthinker.

I second that, classic Big Picture is awesome. The Overthinker thing last week was so annoying i had to turn it off half way through. YAY for classic Big Picture......now go do something on GotG.

 

[Mike Hoffman]

It may not change much of the story or themes, but it will give the kids more representation. Most kids are forced to play as men in these games, and while that isn't inherently a problem (and definitely isn't an issue in individual cases), the constant stream of images and games and movies where men are the heroes and women need to be rescued does have an affect on perception of gender. So yeah, it may not have a huge impact on the story, but it could have a huge impact on the young people playing it.

 

[Seldon2639]

Looks like someone has been drinking the Anita Sarkeesian kool-aid again. "No female characters in new IP" except for Splatoon, which is all female characters. And the continuing kvetching about ACU not having a playable female character as though Ubisoft's argument were "we couldn't figure out a female character, so we made all male characters" as opposed to "doing it in multiplayer wasn't worth it, since it would just be a reskin and one the player never actually plays as, and would have been nearly impossible to add to the storyline of the game because we'd already done all of that."

Is this weird chimera of Bob and Anita (Bonita?) really saying that the fact that Ubisoft chose to make a game with a certain plot and certain main character is bad because it was a male lead? Did Beyond Good and Evil suck because it featured "only" a female lead?

 

[templar1138a]

Sure, I'd play a Zelda game where Link was a woman. Heh, besides, it'd throw a wrench into the whole "Zelda's the girl" thing.

Unfortunately, I don't think that's going to happen, no matter how much noise there was at E3. Because Nintendo is a Japanese company and doesn't have a track record of making things based on what the gamers want.

 

[EyeReaper]

Ehh, Like a few others in this thread, I would rather just play as Zelda than play as a female link. But still kidnapped and all. Basically, you know those chapters in the first Paper Mario where you play as Peach and you sneak around the castle subtly trying to foil Bowser's Plans? Yeah, I want a full game of that.

Also, I keep seeing people say they want a tomboy Zelda if Zelda's playable. But why though? Maybe it's just me, but If I'm playing as a Princess, I want to be a refined, elegant Lady-of-War, but that might be personal taste

Captcha: play a game. Okay Captcha, I will! I just picked up the PARANOIA bundle and I've been itching to test this out.

 

[Kenjitsuka]

Oh thank god. I was terrified we were going to have to sit through another week of Game Overthinker.

Bob, I love most of your stuff, but I just do not like Game Overthinker.

Exactly!!!
My mood dropped instantly, and had these grating characters been on screen a second longer I'd have turned off the video alltogether.

DON'T bring them back again.

 

[V4Viewtiful]

Link a bit of a blank slate to begin with so, him being a woman? I doubt anyone would... Oh Now we Really Need Ganon to be a Woman, that would be super!

 

[wooty]

I still don't get the fury over this topic, why should it matter what gender a character is?

Give me a female as a main character, I'll play the game if its good. Give me a male as a main character, I'll play the game if its good. Gameplay overrides gender in my eyes.

 

[1066]

"Gaming has never had this and wouldn't it be weird if Nintendo of all people were to do it?"

Okay, paraphrased, but still, and not watching it again. Coming from a guy who stated outright a few weeks ago that people who don't research their stuff before sounding off about it are idiots, and then went on about how Marvel heroes are subversions of old legends and archetypes...

I laughed out loud at that. As a hint: Hulk = Werewolf. You know... tortured soul fighting to retain his humanity and keep the cursed beast within under control. Or: a person fighting to contain primal urges/id.

The others he stated are about as obvious.

But in this...

Samus. Just Samus.

You know, that icon of female ability done with a perfectly executed pulling of the rug? Back in the 80s? You may have heard of it.

There was a thing, it was a while ago... oh yeah, in the far off year of 2010. When they handed off the reins of the franchise and made her more submissive, etc. Gamers all took that well, celebrating that they had...

No... wait... no... they all lost their s*** over that betrayal of the character. Yeah... "fanboys" can't handle strong female characters. Yep.

Oh, and the gender flipping thing. Nintendo did something similar in another game. It was crossdressing, granted, and a male character revealed to be a woman. What was it called...

Oh yeah. Ocarina of Time, but yeah, you've probably never heard of one of the most celebrated games of all time... in the same franchise. But, well, no one ever heard of that, so probably doesn't count...

 

[V4Viewtiful]

What, exactly would you define as a token character? I've always seen it as one character thrown in to the main group of characters for the sake of an issue, or diversity. Example, Token Black, the only black kid in South Park.

Not the best example as it's played for jokes rather than to fill a kind of quota.

I miss Chef

 

[tm96]

If they do this it can send a message to the world that video games have evolved of these past few decades and like you said give TV, films or books a blue shell to the face.

Also I have to say this I was fine with the Game Overthinker thing from last week since I like watching for what stupid stuff Bob will pull out the cliche box and opinions from different viewpoints of gaming i.e. the "Retrothinker" a viewpoint of someone just diving into modern gaming after a long dormancy. But still I think the names are stupid Retrothinker why not past Bob or Anti-Bob.