Another day, another whiny SJW article. Let's see...
#7 - The Damsel in Distress
Hasn't this been sort of diminished already? Is this a call for developers to completely stop having players rescue females for the next 20 years to even things out? Rescuing someone is a basic trope in storytelling, and there's a 50% chance the rescuee is going to at least look female. Keep whining.
#6 - The Mary Sue Know-It-All
Well, Hermione is there for a reason, these people do exist in real life. The only reason females persist to have this role, or used to anyway, is because they were rarely the main protagonist. Again, developers are making a conscious effort to diversify game protagonists these days, and I can't remember the last know-it-all I've encountered in a game.
#5 - The Prostitute
I'll cut this one short - games are trying harder than ever to replicate reality, and have been emboldened to include sexuality with a flawed rating system. Prostitution is the worlds oldest trade, and it isn't going away.
#4 - Eye Candy
Characters tend to be far prettier than necessary in every visual medium. This is some basic reality. The only time I've heard people complain about characters being "too pretty" is when 'the imp' retained his nose in Game of Thrones, but I think most were more than okay with him keeping it there...
#3 - Who Needs Armor Anyway?
This has always been a sticking point for me, for both sexes. In settings that show some characters wearing armor, it always bugs me when the mains run around the battlefield wearing basically no armor (or no clothing, in the case of females). The women who do armor up tend to have 'armored boobs' which would be about as bad as wearing no armor (since any blade aimed at her chest would glide straight down the breast to the heart). I understand not wearing helmets, because it's easier to tell characters apart when you can see their faces / hair, but otherwise I do wish they would armor the fuck up.
That said, this is art, and artists can do what they want. I love the Conan franchise, and in the books he does throw on armor where possible, but I can't deny the art surrounding it has popularized nearly-naked dudes and even more naked women in fantasy settings. This is a personal qualm that shouldn't be enforced on artists.
#2 - The Absurdly Sexy Badass
Kind of similar to point 3 & 4. I wish superheroes were depicted more "realistically" than they are. There's no reason Batman should look more ripped than Dwayne Johnson, a guy who spends a huge chunk of every day with weights. Similarly, not every female needs a huge bust and super model looks. I always thought it was funny that MJ Watson specifically became a model, where basically every female super in the Marvel line could have just as easily.
But again, just like point 3, this is art, and the artist does what he or she wants. If I want to change the popular way of doing things, it's up to me (or an artist I pay) to do it differently and be successful enough to influence an entire industry.
#1 - The Victim
Kind of similar to point 7. This is another trope that isn't going away, because everyone has some shit in their past, and again, games are trying to replicate reality more these days. Are there actually more female characters with tragic pasts than male...?
