4. Custom Character/An Innovative Protagonist
RockstarThere's a weird paradigm shift going on at the minute in gaming, as it seems everyone from The Escapist's Jim Sterling to your average article on Kotaku is pointing fingers at games and demanding a more diverse range of characters to play as. Whether or not you agree with the very idea of a male protagonist being the only option as sexist or not, the idea of playing as a female character - or any number variations other than Straight White Male #721 - is extremely enticing as to what it could bring to how the game world and its characters react to you. How about a homosexual protagonist? Someone with a disability? Perhaps a missing limb other impairment to really bring to light a contrast between what's gone before? Sure Saints Row wouldn't exist without GTA, and although it'll probably be a cold day in hell before GTA liberally borrows a feature back from that series - it'd be like Metallica covering a Trivium song - there's definitely something to be said about how both genders are represented through the create-a-character system in that game. Instead of getting so much flak for the likes of Trevor, how about they just hire a plethora of male and female voice actors, and let us do the rest?