Women Role Models: Are there any strong female motivators?
I’ve been throwing this idea around for a while, especially after my friend commented that the motivation in a lot of movies and video games are fathers or husbands or brothers, etc. We were discussing Lara Croft and Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider and my friend pointed out that many women heroes are generally motivated into action by what their fathers did, and not their mothers. Why is it female characters cannot have strong females in their lives? I can’t think of one female character who is taking after her mother, or sister, or aunt or other female relative. And I think it should change.
There are plenty of female characters out there. There’s even a whole Wikipedia site on female protagonists. So why aren’t the women out there doing stuff for their female relatives? Folklore sort of has a female who is motivated by her mother, but only because her mother disappeared. Lara Croft Legends whole story is based on finding on what happened to her mother. But no female character says “I’m doing this because my mom is an aviator,” or “My mom is an archaeologist so I’m off to find dinosaurs” or whatever motivation that people have. They’re generally off to find them because they somehow disappeared, and not because they disappeared in the middle of the jungle while researching a new type of poisonous snake.
How many video game characters, male or female, do you know that went on the war path because someone killed their mother? I can’t think of one. I also can’t think of one female who gets her “can-do” attitude, her “kill or be killed” demeanor, or her love for adventure from her mother. For example, in Fatal Frame, the female lead goes on the hunt to find her missing brother. Granted, she gets her ghost-killing ability from her mother, but that’s not what the story is about. In almost every video game (I’m sure someone will point out a game I overlooked that has a female motivation) the female character is always looking for, or doing something for, or fighting for, a male, not another female.
I’m not sure why video game developers choose male motivators to female leads. Maybe because they don’t think guys will play a game that has a lead female character and a female mentor. Maybe because they don’t realize that women are just as strong of motivators as men. But I think that’s crap, either way.
So I say this, to video game makers: get off your asses! There are plenty of women out there who are incredibly strong role models. Women out there are in the armed forces, doctors, fire fighters, martial art masters, just to name a few. You can make a female character be motivated by another female. You can make a FPS or RPG or any other shoot-em up kill ‘em dead game with a female lead and a female mentor. And I can tell you, it won’t affect your sales at all. In fact, you might make some more money because there will finally be a game that women and girls completely relate with.
if it was on the PS I might have played it and just forgotten*LOL* been a loooooooong time since I was on a PS1
Yeah. It was a million discs long, too. Like three or four for sure. I have it on my computer now, too.
oh I rember a few games like that, where you went to a certain stage and then it says, insert disc 200*LOL*
Exactly. But if I recall the last disc was just mainly the last twenty minutes of the game. But seriously, it was very enjoyable especially if you consider yourself a fan of RPGs.
I will have to try it, I have played damn near every RPG game that I could lay my hands on. Did you ever try Two Worlds for the 360? it really wasn’t that bad and had some things I thought were better than Oblivion
. . .*cough* Things better than Oblivion? I don’t know about that, sir. What were these famed features that are better than Oblivion? Because I love that game. And it stole a lot of my life away. So explain yourself immediately! hah
Well expample Two Worlds had different skills you could cultivate and improve on. Like firing at the sword arm so that a player dropes their weapon and has to spend time picking it back up. There was also dual wield weapons, improved damage with certian weapons or increased draw back on bows. Stuff like that
Gotcha. I heard there were a lot of downsides to that game, though. . . how was the storyline?
ahhh well the story line was alittle weak to tell the truth, one of those”some people stole my sister and I am having to do missions for them to keep her safe, while trying to find her and set her free” kinda things. it was more detailed than that but near the end I was soooo godlike that I killed everyone in the biggest town they had and only lost 1/4 of my health. I killed the main guy in a few hits.
It’s so funny when that happens. I think a lot of video game folk don’t think people will spend that much time leveling. That happened to me the second time I went through FFVII. The first time I didn’t level much and the final boss battle took me like an hour. Second time I went through the game it was something like a few hits.
Exaclty I had the same thing happen in Oblivion as well, I mean I had some problems at first but once i hit level 25 I was walking through monsters like they were nothing. Its not like some of the PC games where your fighting a boss and your actually sweating at the end because you used up all of your health potions(which you had maxed out) and mana potions as well. Used every spell possible as well as every wand you had left and most of your party was damn near dead if not 1/2 of them knocked out of action*LOL*