IGN bring us the worst "Top" article ever

[Sqrl]

blaydcor said:

Khuutra said:
.....Strong women characters are destroying gaming?

Jesus Christ.

I mean. I don't know what to say.

This whole article is deplorable but that one in particular, my God.

You ever take any reading comprehension tests back in middle school? I'm guessing not.

The article says "Strong female leads= Edgy, clever, and desirable"

what the writer is lamenting is that "strong" female characters are now always made: clever, edgy, but, ultimately, nothing more than eye-candy for sex-starved male gamers. Basically, in lieu of actually attempting a real, deep, developed character, female leads are simply created as leather-clad babes who are nevertheless always ready with a witty one-liner or smarmy non sequitor.

He goes on to cite poor examples with muddled-as-ever writing, but the point is still valid. Though I don't like the article overall, at all, I agree with the author on this one. Female protaganists are as cookie-cutter predictable as any other penultimate videogame archetype (like the grizzled space marine or quiet-and-young-but-determined-and-so-on-blah-blah-blah JRPG hero).

 

 

I was beginning to wonder if someone else actually read it =P

And I have to agree with the bolded bit in particular.

With that said, I was actually going to bring up Alyx Vance as an example of where it was done right but Kuutra beat me to the point.  What Kuutra didn't add to that was that Alyx actually proves the point as there has been a nude mod for Alyx for a long time now...showing that for many gamers (but not all) it really is about "teh sex".

To be honest, I've always thought Alyx was one of the most real and attractive characters in gaming largely because she wasn't being sold to you on the basis of sexiness.  She was legitimately strong willed and tough and yet was still very feminine with a great cheerful personality. That attractiveness factor is part of every human interaction, and while it is true that a big part of attractiveness is sexuality, it is also personality, body language, voice, and of course the "X-Factor".

Alyx is one of very few female gaming characters who, to me at least, struck a balance on all of those factors and the result was a believable character who was genuinely attractive as a person and not just as tacked on eye candy.