The Samus Mystique

Gamers with Jobs contributor KatarinLHC has an interesting piece looking at what she calls 'The Samus Mystique', the need for more female characters in games with the chutzpah and level-headedness of Metroid-killer Samus Aran. From the article: "Her independent streak is legendary: Samus always works alone. She explores caves, shoots enemies, and investigates secret passages, all on her own initiative. Her story does not revolve around her being kidnapped or needing rescue. Instead, she is a proactive force in a dynamic world; she does not react to her circumstances but instead interacts with them. She demonstrates a lesson not often taught to young girls, which is that working by yourself can be powerful, gratifying, even joyous."

Comments

Hmm.

[ScaryFroMan]

"She demonstrates a lesson not often taught to young girls, which is that working by yourself can be powerful, gratifying, even joyous."

I think it would be pretty hard to teach that lesson without taking off her suit...

Metroid Makes the Gender Arbitrary

[quantax]

While I agree with the author that more realistic renditions of females as people as opposed to objects needs to be done, I hardly consider Samus to be representative of this as her sex is completely arbitrary to the gameplay and in fact is only revealed in the very end of Super Metroid in a 'look whos inside' type of way. In fact, I would argue that No One Lives Forever, even with Cait Archer wearing her sexy jumpsuits, makes for a better female role than Samus as she actually speaks and makes her personality known throughout the game. While shes still representative of the sexual-object female spy, its done purposefully tongue-in-cheek the entire time, and her lines do not lend towards her being a 'dumb broad with guns'.

Another and better example is Alyx from Half-Life 2: Shes dressed sensibly and while cute, is not super-hot or a walking example of anatomical disproportion. Her lines are ones you'd expect from an intelligent person in her situation and shes more than capable of fending for herself as she does many times in the games, sometimes it seemed better than yourself as Gordon. Other than Alyx, its hard to name a female character that is like her in her sensibilities and generally realistic interactions; she was a person. Even Cait Archer is a purposeful stereotype for all her interactions & cleverness.

I look forward for the day that females in games are representated as people and not simply as women.