While reading the January 2011 issue of Nintendo Power, I came across an interview with Peter Ong, co-owner of game developer DreamRift. Ong is also director of the upcoming DS title Monster Tale, a novel mix of Metroidvania-style platformer and virtual pet sim. When asked why the main character is a girl, he provided a rather candid answer:
[We] thought that the pairing of the main human character with the pet monster, Chomp (who is male), would be more interesting with a female human character. There’s definitely the strong theme of nurture here, which a female character can be very effective in expressing toward the pet monster.
We also love the idea of underdogs and unlikely heroes. It’s just so much more appealing to us to have the type of character that you wouldn’t expect to be in this situation … than the idea of another “generic-20-something-muscle-guy.”
This choice was actually somewhat controversial with some publishers. Our experience was that many publishers are looking to avert the risk of a main character that hasn’t been proven to capture large audiences. As a result, there was some concern from publishers that Ellie should change to a male or a more mature/sexy female. (NP263 p.54/55)
First off, it’s my opinion that “average” female characters haven’t been given much of a chance to prove their ability to “capture large audiences.” While I can think of tons of supporting roles, I have trouble coming up with more than a handful of major female protagonists (regardless of success or failure).
Opinion aside, let’s assess the aforementioned “risk” that publishers fear with a little demographic data. The pressure to change the character to a male or mature/sexy female displays an underlying belief that only males play video games and all buying power lies in the hands of young men, adolescent boys, or elementary-age boys that have been shaped by the American social construct of “blue is for boys, pink is for girls.”
According to the Entertainment Software Association’s “2010 Essential Facts about the Computer and Video Game Industry” publication, however, forty percent of all gamers are female, and a full seventy percent of gamers are aged 18 or older with an average age of 34. In fact, the report explicitly states that “WOMEN age 18 or older represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (33%) than boys age 17 or younger (20%).”
Given these facts, women clearly have a significant amount of presence and buying power in the gaming retail space. Plus, I know several women that are more likely to seek out and purchase games that are marketed to them in a mature and respectable way. Even though you may risk losing some boys’ purchases by having a girl on the cover of a game, I feel that the risk of losing female gamers’ dollars (and possibly respect, company loyalty and future purchases in the long term) due to a generic muscular male or an unjustified, over-sexualized female protagonist is potentially much greater. Oh, and if an “average-aged” 34-year old male gamer is put off or too insecure to buy a title with a female lead… well, that’s a whole other discussion in social commentary.
Luckily, the Nintendo DS is in a very strong position as the second best-selling system of all time (or potentially first by now). When pretty much everyone and their mom – literally – owns a DS, I would guess that the developers had a little more holding power to stick with their original character choice. The DS market is huge with a wide variety of users in every category; this factor, coupled with low development costs, make it the most viable game-specific platform (i.e. not iPhone) to take risks on.
The moral of this rant is that female gamers exist, they are plentiful, and they have money to spend. Do not alienate them. Women as main protagonists in games should not be feared, and I do not believe that there have been enough to determine their financial viability. I theorize that a developer could even capitalize on this deficiency and make strong female protagonists their trademark. They could easily create a very loyal, if niche, fanbase that follows their work, buys many of their titles and spreads word among friends.
Vanillaware immediately comes to mind as a potential example, as its members have been responsible for such titles as Princess Crown, Odin Sphere, GrimGrimoire and Muramasa: The Demon Blade – all of which feature strong female protagonists. However, as with any new game, a decent marketing push is a must! I’ve seen too many great, unique games bomb hard at retail because there was no money put into advertising them. Assuming that it turns out to be a quality title, I hope that Monster Tale avoids a similar fate. Publisher Majesco has had its share of ups and downs over recent years, and they don’t have the same kind of budget for marketing that companies like Electronic Arts or Activision possess.
I can only imagine how many cool female leads we’ve missed out on because publishers demanded changes to the original design. I’m just glad that Nintendo paved the way with Metroid heroine Samus Aran so early in the industry’s history (1986). Other personal favorites include Claire Redfield (Resident Evil series, below left) and Jade (Beyond Good & Evil, below right). That reminds me, where’s our Legend of Zelda spin-off game that actually stars, oh I don’t know… namesake Princess Zelda?
Kudos to Peter Ong and his team for maintaining their vision of Monster Tale.
