Women characters are finally getting their due in video games, but why has it taken the industry decades to bring in representation?
While one could play as Zelda in smaller games, this is the first time she’s a playable protagonist in a series
It's taken 2024 for Nintendo to finally make its character, Princess Zelda, playable in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom.
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The first game in the series was released in 1986 and since, has seen 20 entries on all major Nintendo game consoles, as well as a number of spin-offs.
While one can play as Zelda in some of the spin-offs and side adventures such as Zelda’s Adventure, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, among others, these games have either had poor animation, gameplay that doesn’t have a hook, and have never received the same success. Echoes of Wisdom is the first time she’s a playable protagonist in a series and is headlining it. In more happy news, Tomomi Sano is the game’s director and the first-ever female director on The Legend of Zelda series.
Thirsty Suitors by Outerloop Games is an example of how indie game studios are leading the inclusivity front, with representation of non-binary, trans characters, and people of colour
The gaming industry has long faced scrutiny over its representation and hyper-sexualisation of women. The representation of women in the gaming workforce is equally poor and GamgerGate, an organised online harassment campaign against feminism and progressivism in video game culture in 2014 proved this. Using the hashtag #Gamergate, the campaign targeted women working in the gaming industry and some journalists in the US on X (formerly Twitter); primarily feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian and video game developers Zoë Quinn and Brianna Wu. The harassment included rape threats, death threats, and doxing to the extent where when Wu’s address was leaked online, she was forced to flee her home.
Despite much criticism, games have been made through a misogynistic lens. “There is a conviction that they are appealing to a male gamer base,” says Padmini Ray Murray, Founder-Director of Design Beku, a tech and design studio. “In games configured on the quest model, there’s a heroine to save. Brianna Wu and others made this point just before GamerGate; that women are often confined to this role of needing to be rescued. This fantasy drives the protagonist forward and therefore the women characters are not really developed into meaningful characters.” Visual artist and designer Afrah Shafiq says that game studios tend to follow a framework that has worked in the past. She explains, “The production of large format games is extremely expensive. They have huge teams working on them for years and the distribution systems and networks are quite akin to say distributing a Hollywood film. When the stakes are so high, the game absolutely needs to be as lucrative.”
Traditional gaming studios and AAA studios (major publishers that produce games with large budgets) have a tendency to adhere to a narrow demographic of gamers despite the fact that women are part of the gaming arena too. In November 2023, the State of India Gaming Report published by venture capital firm Lumikai in partnership with Google revealed that 41 per cent of gamers in India were women, 66 per cent of which were from non-metro cities.
Shagun Shah and Shagufta Iqbal
Speaking on how games are funded, Shagun Shah, veteran games designer says that the investment logic is more practical. Investors care that the game is not actually sexual content, illicit or inappropriate for a large audience as that is something they would not fund. He adds, “There is no thought or requirement of a male or female protagonist. Publishers look at game design to make sure that this actually addresses what the audience looks for, including the artwork, what the gaming experience will be like, and the game story.” Souvik Mukherjee, a video games researcher, says that in the last 10 years some inclusivity boxes have been checked. “There have been some attempts, even if restricted to the global north.” Mukherjee speculates, “Scholarship in games studies, games journalism, and game developers has contributed to this change. There was a lot of criticism in journalism and GamerGate contributed [to this wave].” Shah adds that Lara Croft of the Tomb Raider series, who was once hypersexualised, is now no longer a pin-up doll but a hard-bitten survivor.
Indie game studios lead this front, as their creations represent non-binary, trans characters, and people of colour. Some examples include Raji: An Ancient Epic (Pune’s Nodding Heads Games), Thirsty Suitors (by Outerloop Games), Horizon Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games), Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (Ninja Theory), among others.
But does the gender of the playing character matter? “I’ve played games with female protagonists, and honestly, I don’t notice much of a difference. It’s more about how well the character is developed. If their story is compelling, I’m hooked,” says Shagufta Iqbal, a gamer who goes by Xyaa. She adds that female characters are still often designed with the male gaze in mind, but it’s not always negative and cites Stellar Blade as example. “However, we do need more character designs that prioritise authenticity over just sex appeal” she says.
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