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Old 08-04-14, 19:35   #31
Cochrane
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While I agree with what you say I guess I explained myself in a bad way earlier. I absolutely agree Ellie is too young to be sexualized, but what I really meant by referring to her is that just having a non-sexualized female protagonist is in itself something that we wouldn't see 15 years ago (it would probably have been a young boy as protagonist instead).
Having a survival horror game with a female protagonist would also be unlikely I think. If made 15 years ago TR2013 would have had a male protagonist instead of Lara I think.
But there is still some way to go yet to convince publishers and gamers that a female protagonist is just as interesting as a male one.
Fifteen years ago they released Tomb Raider III (subtitled "Adventures of Lara Croft"). Of course, that and especially the PR campaign around it was literally the most sexualized she's ever been.

Comparisons with past games are weird because narrative-rich action 3D games are a fairly recent invention. Adventure games had a far greater depth of female characters apparently (I've never been able to get anywhere in a 1990s adventure game), while the big name action games didn't have room for a kid sidekick to the protagonist anyway.

That being said, I agree that attitudes have slowly changed here. Very slowly, though, and I think it's odd that women can now be sidekicks, but female heroes are still the same anomalies they were years ago.
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Old 08-04-14, 19:41   #32
Blackmoor
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That video doesn't work, but I think I know the scene you mean (and anyway, Galaxy Quest only makes good points). Of course, the ironic part is that the reviewers here in question all see Black Widow as essentially the same as Sigourney Weaver's character in the "original Galaxy Quest TV show", which is very much not true if you actually watched the movies (other than Iron Man 2).
Yes, it seems for some people it's hard to let go of that kind of depiction of women.... Galaxy Quest plays up the absurdity of it extremely well, especially later on when they have the "you know, that is really getting annoying" scene.

Btw, the video works for me so I'm not sure what's wrong with it if you can't play it.
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Old 08-04-14, 20:02   #33
Trenton
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Fifteen years ago they released Tomb Raider III (subtitled "Adventures of Lara Croft"). Of course, that and especially the PR campaign around it was literally the most sexualized she's ever been.

Comparisons with past games are weird because narrative-rich action 3D games are a fairly recent invention. Adventure games had a far greater depth of female characters apparently (I've never been able to get anywhere in a 1990s adventure game), while the big name action games didn't have room for a kid sidekick to the protagonist anyway.

That being said, I agree that attitudes have slowly changed here. Very slowly, though, and I think it's odd that women can now be sidekicks, but female heroes are still the same anomalies they were years ago.
I agree the comparison between the non-story/non-character driven games of the past with todays games may not be that relevant, but I still think it's interesting to notice the difference. I think it's a difference that also can be noticed elsewhere in the entertainment industry as well.
I bet if the classic TRs had been made today Lara would never be so sexualized and there probably wouldn't be any sexualized campaigns with real life models like in the past.

Last edited by Trenton; 08-04-14 at 20:04.
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