8 Ugly Problems About Gender Representation The Gaming Industry Won't Admit
3. Playable Protagonists Are Still Predominantly Male
Some of the industry's biggest icons have been women - everyone from Samus to Lara Croft to Joanna Dark and Faith have all come to form a part of some of the most recognisable imagery so far. That doesn't excuse the fact that they're still in the minority, however. Out of 2015's biggest releases this year the number of titles featuring a leading woman are very infrequent, with most making their numbers back through RPGs allowing a player created character. Next year fairs slightly better in this department, though the strength of writing included remains to be seen. As well as underrepresenting women in many regards, to date the industry has barely tackled transgender and/or none-binary characters when telling a story, instead often electing to go with the 'safe choice' in following a white, cisgendered heterosexual male as the main protagonist. Diversity is a great thing to include in a story, but so far a lot of titles have been lagging behind in that area. There's no doubt that as years move forward, so too will the gaming industry's variety in its characters. Indeed, titles such as Dragon Age and Mass Effect are already excelling in portraying a diverse set of peoples in the fantasy and Sci-Fi genres respectively. Here's hoping their lead will be followed by more developers in the future.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
