“There is an untapped demographic of middle-aged women and mothers,”
March 6, 2019 10:56 AM Subscribe
Time to give rise to the rugged woman [Eurogamer] “How is it that it's perfectly okay and completely acceptable for a man to age and remain cool and for a woman it's seen as a lot more unattractive and uncool? Older men are continuously embraced for their rugged, rough-around-the-edges gruff looks and tough-as-nails demeanor and always seem to be leading man material for video games. I can't help but notice an absence of older female protagonists in video games and the invisibility of an entire generation. It's been deeply indoctrinated into our culture and society that as a woman, when you get older and mature you run out of fuel and you have less importance and less relevance.”
• The Realities of Aging in Video Game Characters [Pop Matters]
• The Realities of Aging in Video Game Characters [Pop Matters]
“In considering the aging of characters in serial formats, it occurred to me that this same tendency to age some characters and to leave timelessly iconic other kinds of characters is also a tendency in comic books. While I am being gravely reductionist in this observation, there has always seemed to me to be a general tendency to approach the handling of the aging super hero in two different ways by the two major comic book publishers, DC Comics and Marvel Comics. [...] Returning to video game characters then, one might consider in this context the interests of game designers in keeping Lara and Mario ageless while allowing other characters like Max and Snake to indicate noticeable changes in their appearance as time and their series move forward. Certainly, Lara Croft, like many larger than life representations of femininity in the arts, is almost unable to be aged. Sex symbols are ruined in a culture that views “women of a certain age” as undesirable. Lara, however, is in part intended to represent an iconic form of beauty that parallels this ideal notion of youthful beauty.”• An MMO Where Your Character Can Grow Old And Die [Kotaku]
“No one lives forever. In Chronicles of Elyria, even video game characters’ days are numbered. In this age of survival games like Ark: Survival Evolved and Rust, plenty of large-scale multiplayer games have made death a thing of grave consequence. Usually, though, it’s pretty binary: you’re either alive or you’re (perma) dead. In Elyria, even if you decide to tend a shop for the whole of your existence (TOO REAL), you’ll eventually drop dead. Aging changes your appearance pretty dramatically. Skin wrinkles. Hair recedes. Muscles wither. You gain some weight. Your back even hunches, making you appear slightly shorter. It’s an interesting prospect given that most popular fantasy MMOs exist in a state of almost dissonant perpetuity. Kill the baddest villain in the history of Azeroth (and its neighboring dimensions)? No worries, he’ll be back next week, same trans-reality dragon time, same trans-reality dragon channel. Not so, apparently, in Elyria.”
On a story-level, I'd love for an older/more mature Lara Croft who doesn't have time to deal with bullshit and outsmarts all of the younger people that are along the ride for her adventure.
It'd also be interesting to see how being older might impact the actual game-play, maybe your vision/accuracy is not as good, or your hands might tremble with holding the weight of the weapon you're using, you might tire out more easily and need to rest. These would make for some interesting mechanics.
posted by Fizz at 12:26 PM on March 6, 2019 [7 favorites]
It'd also be interesting to see how being older might impact the actual game-play, maybe your vision/accuracy is not as good, or your hands might tremble with holding the weight of the weapon you're using, you might tire out more easily and need to rest. These would make for some interesting mechanics.
posted by Fizz at 12:26 PM on March 6, 2019 [7 favorites]
I can't help but notice an absence of older female protagonists in video games
There's something odd about this concept, in that the "lack of older female protagonists" actually means "lack of female protagonists who look older than 22."
Male protagonists look like they range from early teens to their 60s. Female protagonists range from early teens to about 21. Sometimes the women has a history that means "this character is at least 30" - but that doesn't show in her face or figure.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 12:36 PM on March 6, 2019 [17 favorites]
There's something odd about this concept, in that the "lack of older female protagonists" actually means "lack of female protagonists who look older than 22."
Male protagonists look like they range from early teens to their 60s. Female protagonists range from early teens to about 21. Sometimes the women has a history that means "this character is at least 30" - but that doesn't show in her face or figure.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 12:36 PM on March 6, 2019 [17 favorites]
Yeah, I thought about this a while like "surely there's an exception I'm missing" but came up blank for protagonists.
The only "older" female playable/real character I can think of in recent games is Ana from Overwatch (who is 60, and does have an appropriate appearance at least in her default costume). But one character in a large ensemble game is the best I can come up with.
posted by thefoxgod at 1:37 PM on March 6, 2019
The only "older" female playable/real character I can think of in recent games is Ana from Overwatch (who is 60, and does have an appropriate appearance at least in her default costume). But one character in a large ensemble game is the best I can come up with.
posted by thefoxgod at 1:37 PM on March 6, 2019
Huh, I immediately thought of James Cameron properties. Quickly researched: There isn't a single Terminator game where you play as Sarah Conner (tho she shows up often and sometimes helps with the fighting). Ellen Ripley fairs a lot better, at least through the 90s. Don't see much of her after 2000's Alien: Resurrection. I think her daughter shows up in a later game, which is right in line with this article's criticism.
This is striking because these IPs have a TON of games are based around two characters that are exactly tough, older women. Yet they haven't been front and center for at least 2 decades.
posted by es_de_bah at 1:46 PM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
This is striking because these IPs have a TON of games are based around two characters that are exactly tough, older women. Yet they haven't been front and center for at least 2 decades.
posted by es_de_bah at 1:46 PM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
Hell yeah, I am here for the Vuvalini.
posted by nicebookrack at 2:41 PM on March 6, 2019 [6 favorites]
posted by nicebookrack at 2:41 PM on March 6, 2019 [6 favorites]
I didn't get very far in Elder Scrolls: Oblivion (the one before Skyrim), but in character creation you can make an avatar that basically looks like a Grandma and that was pretty great. Sadly, Grandma was last seen wandering aimlessly just outside the first prison/dungeon area trying to find the plot without reading a walkthrough.
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 3:08 PM on March 6, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 3:08 PM on March 6, 2019 [3 favorites]
In the Agents of SHIELD DLC mission for the LEGO Marvel's Avengers game, you can play as Agent Melinda May, also the DLC's cover model. LEGO May is based on the live-action badass played by Ming-Na Wen, who is 55 years old. Caveats: This is a geeky optional side mission of a deliberately silly game, not a main game plot; these are smooth plasticky CGI LEGO minifigs, not realistically aged humans; May is not the lead character; Ming-Na is already an ageless immortal. Seriously, here is video of her yesterday.
posted by nicebookrack at 3:13 PM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by nicebookrack at 3:13 PM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
Don't Starve's Wickerbottom is another fantastic older female protagonist -- a brilliant, insomniac librarian who can summon birds, lightning, and other good things. I've tried playing as all the XP-unlocked player characters, and she is easily my favourite.
posted by Kilter at 4:19 PM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Kilter at 4:19 PM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
The player avatars in Satisfactory will be female only. (image) They are in blue collar space suits so age is indeterminate.
posted by poe at 4:38 PM on March 6, 2019
posted by poe at 4:38 PM on March 6, 2019
20+ years ago, but shout out for Mitsuko, the Boar from Bloody Roar 1, who was a cool character with some hard hitting moves.
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 4:59 PM on March 6, 2019
TriviaWell, shit.
After a survey made by Eighting [1], Mitsuko was revealed being the most hated fighter of the first Bloody Roar.
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 4:59 PM on March 6, 2019
Not an avatar, but Lone Echo's Olivia Rhodes is a pretty well realised, middle-aged, tough, videogame woman. I guess she does end up needing rescuing, but only after surviving an environment that kills the player over and again.
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 5:58 PM on March 6, 2019
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 5:58 PM on March 6, 2019
At first I was nodding along and thinking this was about the lack of awesome older women appearing in media and society in general...and then I noticed it was specifically about games.
So yeah, here, too, games reflect the flaws in society as a whole, I guess. *sigh*
posted by wenestvedt at 8:12 PM on March 6, 2019 [6 favorites]
So yeah, here, too, games reflect the flaws in society as a whole, I guess. *sigh*
posted by wenestvedt at 8:12 PM on March 6, 2019 [6 favorites]
LEGO May is based on the live-action badass played by Ming-Na Wen, who is 55 years old.
But irrespective of biological age, does she really count as an older protagonist when it is clear she bathes in the blood of infants to stay young?
I thought she was in her 30s
posted by Anonymous at 9:23 PM on March 6, 2019
But irrespective of biological age, does she really count as an older protagonist when it is clear she bathes in the blood of infants to stay young?
I thought she was in her 30s
posted by Anonymous at 9:23 PM on March 6, 2019
On a story-level, I'd love for an older/more mature Lara Croft who doesn't have time to deal with bullshit and outsmarts all of the younger people that are along the ride for her adventure.
yessss.
So the original Lara Croft was a mature, competent woman, clearly an expert in her field of grave robbing and exterminating endangered wildlife, but was saddled with a pair of ludicrous tits, (mainly due to it being 1996 and rendering technology not being up to the task) which meant a lot of "pwoar look at the badonkadonks on that one" articles and the inevitable nude patch.
All of which meant that the idea that this Lara Croft could and indeed was a role model for a lot of young women and girls playing games was sort of lost under the assumption that all she was was t&a for immature boy gamers.
The reboot would make her physique more "realistic" but at the price of de-aging her into a vulnerable, not so competent teenager threatened by rape at one point in the first game, something that iirc was never an issue in the original games.
I'm not sure that was an improvement to be honest and it reminded me a bit of how in anime there's been a trend to make everybody cute unthreatening teenagers with many of the more complicated on one level clearly wank fodder but at least they're adults and competent adult women at that characters left behind together with their eighties hair styles.
posted by MartinWisse at 1:15 AM on March 7, 2019 [3 favorites]
yessss.
So the original Lara Croft was a mature, competent woman, clearly an expert in her field of grave robbing and exterminating endangered wildlife, but was saddled with a pair of ludicrous tits, (mainly due to it being 1996 and rendering technology not being up to the task) which meant a lot of "pwoar look at the badonkadonks on that one" articles and the inevitable nude patch.
All of which meant that the idea that this Lara Croft could and indeed was a role model for a lot of young women and girls playing games was sort of lost under the assumption that all she was was t&a for immature boy gamers.
The reboot would make her physique more "realistic" but at the price of de-aging her into a vulnerable, not so competent teenager threatened by rape at one point in the first game, something that iirc was never an issue in the original games.
I'm not sure that was an improvement to be honest and it reminded me a bit of how in anime there's been a trend to make everybody cute unthreatening teenagers with many of the more complicated on one level clearly wank fodder but at least they're adults and competent adult women at that characters left behind together with their eighties hair styles.
posted by MartinWisse at 1:15 AM on March 7, 2019 [3 favorites]
My character in Fallout 76 (which I'm playing as a single-player game by avoiding all other players as though they have the plague) is a gray-haired woman in her late 40s. I've really enjoyed playing a video game character that resembles me for once.
posted by longdaysjourney at 5:48 AM on March 7, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by longdaysjourney at 5:48 AM on March 7, 2019 [4 favorites]
On my way there.
posted by Young Kullervo at 12:05 PM on March 7, 2019
posted by Young Kullervo at 12:05 PM on March 7, 2019
MartinWisse, weren't Lara Croft's statistics always promotional/cover/menu/loadingscreen renders not in-game features though? Not that that really excuses them. Worth pointing out that Dead Or Alive 1 had Ludicrous Boob Physics whereas TR2 had Cool Ponytail Physics.
As for ever-younger protagonists, I can remember being annoyed at FFVIII for giving me Erstaz Highschoolers instead of People With An Actual Past.
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 9:11 PM on March 8, 2019
As for ever-younger protagonists, I can remember being annoyed at FFVIII for giving me Erstaz Highschoolers instead of People With An Actual Past.
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 9:11 PM on March 8, 2019
I did a lot of PS1 in my youth, sorry.
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 9:12 PM on March 8, 2019
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 9:12 PM on March 8, 2019
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Kind of sad really. Because there's a wonderful opportunity to critically look at how older people are portrayed in games and to also rectify that so that we have not only older people who aren't just caricatures, but who are more diverse and make games more interesting to play.
posted by Fizz at 12:10 PM on March 6, 2019 [8 favorites]