gametrailers.com's Top Ten Women in Games

Submitted by Amanda Phillips on Mon, 10/30/2006 - 15:55

Fishing around for entertainment in order to eat lunch at the computer, I came across gametrailer.com's Top Ten Women in Gaming on Youtube, which chose the "most empowering" representations of women in video games.

Though I was quite pleased to see Samus at the top of the list, it was a little frustrating (if unsurprising) to see how the selection reflected the panel's criteria for "empowering". Despite the claim that physical appearance wasn't the main determining factor for inclusion on the list, I don't think there was an entry on the countdown whose appearance wasn't referenced - either positively or negatively.

There are so many frustrating quotes to pull off of this short clip - just go watch it so I won't have to type everything out!

Then tell me how you feel about what an "empowering" representation of a game woman would be, because this made me think a lot about it. Initially, I was annoyed when they praised the fact that you couldn't even tell Samus was a woman in the first game - until I realized that that was part of the reason she's my #1 game girl, too. Do we want a strong story and personality behind her, which would give the gamer less control over her character? Do we just want her to kick ass with a realistic amount of clothes on? Do we want to hear her speak in assertive tones and not moan suggestively when hurt? Should the gender of an avatar even matter?

I have a lot of theories about Samus as a woman (or not), but I want to hear about other people's top game women, too.

Tokens

Submitted by Patrick (not verified) on Mon, 10/30/2006 - 19:18.

I thought it was great how they mentioned Kate Archer but neglected to include her in the list. Rebecca Chambers or Jill Valentine of Resident Evil would have been great but I guess they wore too much clothing. The inclusion of Daphne, a helpless captive, at number three was ludicrous. When are these media outlets going to catch on to the wider audience?

Yeah, the absence of Cate

Submitted by zach on Tue, 10/31/2006 - 13:25.

Yeah, the absence of Cate Archer (I think she spells it with a C) is pretty telling, though perhaps she gets overlooked because she almost never (if at all) appears bodily on screen in NOLF -- the most I remember seeing was her gloved hand.

I also like how they apologize for the realistically depicted women like Alyx Vance, as in "She may not have the biggest chest, but she can still kick some ass," as though chest size is really an advantage when you're fending off head crabs.

Even though the list does praise toughness, the emphasis is obviously on sex, but we can't just blame this list (although we should). Unfortunately, there really aren't as many Cate Archers and Samus Arans as there ought to be, and I think there is a demand for it.

Oh yeah, and Alex Roivas from Eternal Darkness is pretty cool, and her characterization doesn't play up sex at all as I remember. She would definitely be on my list.

They did include Chun Li

Submitted by Laurie on Tue, 10/31/2006 - 16:15.

They did include Chun Li and that's good because she often doesn't get enough props for her important place in game history. The video does look like they chose based on "who looks the coolest in a montage of action clips, and then we'll have some credibility for Samus and Lara." These types of quasi-entertainment-journalism pieces are dumb. We never see "Top 10 Guys in Games" because the media is at least somewhat more critical there with "Top 10 Strongest Video Game Guys"--which is at least some statement of a criteria for evaluation. These are all just worthless puff pieces though, but a huge part of the problem is that many people like these simple lists or at least seem to. The lists do generate buzz with people arguing with and against the lists and that makes it a good choice for places to create.