In the video game world there's plenty of rough and ready tough guys to take through an adventure. It can be saving the princess in "Super Mario Bros." or fighting through World War II in "Call of Duty: World at War", no matter your game, there's a 99% chance you're going to be playing as a guy.
The video game industry has been extremely slow casting female leads for their games. Sure "Tomb Raider" hit back in the 90's, and it's still doing pretty good for itself, but beyond that you'd be hard pressed to find a game with a female lead.
Epic Games art director, Chris Perna, talked recently to OXM about the issue of having a female lead, explaining that it's pretty hard to sell a game with a female lead.
"If you look at what sells, it's tough to justify something like that," said Perna.
To his and Epic Games credit, they did include a female protagonist in "Gears of War 3". Perna described the character as "butch", saying she's not your stereotypical female character.
"You see the implants and the blonde hair and pants and you roll your eyes – it's almost like the game geek's idealization of what a woman should be. I think because we didn't go that route we have more believability. They're still feminine. Anya in 'Gears 3' comes across as being very feminine, and I think it works."
Of course there's been a few games outside of "Tomb Raider" where players play as a female lead. "Bayonetta"comes to mind, as well "Super Princess Peach". It's understandable why companies don't push out more games with female leads, considering who the target audience of video games is made up of.
One day, women will get equality in the video game industry. Never give up hope.
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