This world needs heroes of all types.

    In the past few months, the publisher Ubisoft has been undergoing an investigation about reports of sexism and sexual misconduct amongst employees and executives. Among all of the different executives leaving the company in disgrace and constant news coming out of the company, a little nugget came out about the Assassin's Creed series. An executive told the game designers involved in the series something to the effect of, "Gamers don't want to play as a female character." Of course this is hardly the biggest issue of this story, the gross and misogynistic world of video game culture pervades even the best of game developers and it's truly disgraceful that something such as this continues to happen today. On the smaller scale however, there's a big issue with someone in the games industry actually believing that female characters shouldn't be playable, especially someone who is an executive with the power to make this kind of decision. There have been female characters in main roles as early as 1986 with Metroid, which went on not only to inspire a series, but an entire genre. Samus Aran is certainly not the only heroine to be in the spotlight, however, as even the aforementioned Assassin's Creed series has started getting women involved recently as playable characters. The quote I mentioned before had to do with a few different games in the series, first Syndicate, then Origins, and finally Odyssey. 

    In Assassin's Creed Syndicate, you play as siblings Evie and Jacob Frye. According to sources of IGN, the team making the game was originally planning to give Evie and Jacob the same amount of time in the spotlight before an executive gave the pointer that people wouldn't want to play as Evie as much, and the designers downgraded Evie to Jacob's sidekick. In Assassin's Creed Origins, you play as Bayek in Ancient Egypt, but according to reports of the original game's story, there were going to be two playable characters, the second being Bayek's wife after he was killed or severely injured. Again, the executive's advice won out, and you play as Bayek the whole time, though it could have been a really interesting third act for the game if the original story had been kept. Assassin's Creed Odyssey is the most interesting case of this, however. In the game as it is now, you play as either Alexios or Kassandra, both Assassins from Ancient Greece, though originally there was a much different idea in mind. Kassandra was supposed to be the singular main character of the game, but the executives once again spoke against it. God forbid that you only have a female playable character, you need to have the choice and ability to play as whoever you want. Unless, of course, a man is the main character, and then they don't have an issue with it. In Assassin's Creed Valhalla, the newest in the series which is out as of November 16, they've taken a different approach to whether you're a male or female. Your name is always Eivor, though there's a slider between male and female, allowing you to choose various gender expressions to play as. Most of the marketing for Valhalla uses the same male build, which shows that the company still isn't willing to make the poster child for the game a woman, but it's something of a step in the right direction anyways. They actually released a gameplay trailer where someone was playing as a woman, showing some small steps, but definite ones.

    As I said before, having women as the protagonist is certainly not a bold move, or at least it shouldn't be anymore. The end of Metroid came as a shock to players in 1986. When you beat the game in under 5 hours, Samus takes her helmet off and reveals that she was a woman the whole time. That shouldn't be as much of a surprise today, but also developers wouldn't do that today, I don't think. In '86, that certainly wasn't a risk that the still fairly new industry would be taking, but game devs have come a long way since then. Some of the biggest titles to come out in the last few years have featured female protagonists, many of them going on to do absolutely incredibly as far as sales are concerned.

    In Tomb Raider, Lara Croft is an adventurer, though in the original games for the Playstation One, people had a hard time looking past her... proportions, let's say, to see the true adventurer and hero lying beneath. In the remake of Tomb Raider and its sequels which came out a few years ago, it does a really nice job of showing that Lara Croft is a survivor through and through, and just as capable of shooting her way out of a situation or escaping from a natural disaster as Nathan Drake. Control, which is an amazing game as I've stated before, stars Jesse Faden, a woman who walks into a mysterious unmarked building and faces a supernatural threat unlike anything she's seen. Jesse is faced with the realization that she doesn't understand anything about the world that she lives in, and she takes it on with pride, actively becoming the one in charge of dealing with the things that go bump in the night. In Horizon: Zero Dawn, Aloy is an incredibly strong character, and even among her matriarchal society (how many times have you seen one of those?), she's special. She's chosen to leave a home that she's just found to put a stop to wrongs that she doesn't know about, and is willing to do whatever it takes to bring her father figure's killers down, as well as to undo many other wrongs outside of her homeland. The Last of Us part 2 stars Ellie, though I don't know what she does really, as I haven't played that game yet. I'm sure she's just as interesting of a character as she was in the first game when she had to travel with Joel across the U.S. and deal with zombies as well as thugs and cannibals. Do you see what I'm getting at here? These games have all sold really well. The Last of Us 2 broke all kinds of sale records when it came out a few months ago, You play as Ellie, a female protagonist, and I think there's another female playable character, though I can't speak to her strengths as again, I haven't played it yet. Horizon Zero Dawn also did incredibly well, and now that the game is on PC, it's selling really well yet again. On top of this, Horizon is getting a sequel for PS5 called Horizon Forbidden West, giving Aloy yet another chance to stand in the spotlight.

    Video games are for everyone, and while I am a white male, who of course is happy to be represented in a game, I'm not the only demographic that should be. Everyone deserves a chance in the spotlight, which is why I'm glad that more and more studios are allowing for these strong and nuanced female characters to take their place, because they have a lot of stories to tell. That also goes for all different communities of people who play video games. No matter what race, gender, or sexual orientation, we all have stories to share, so let's hear them. It's the least that we can do, and I for one am very excited to see Miles Morales swing into the spotlight when Spider-Man Miles Morales comes out. The real world is full of interesting people, stories, and characters, so why shouldn't video games be the same?

    Thanks for reading this, it's a bit heavier than I normally write about, but it's important to make sure that people are aware of the facts, and how many executives are willing to overlook issues like these. I'll talk to you next Friday with a post that is probably not as serious or important as this one. Have a great week!