The damsel in distress (female) The damsel in distress is a popular stereotype seen in video games. These characters are always in need of being rescued in some way by the male lead.
A perfect example of this character is Princess Peach from Super Mario Bros. She is constantly getting kidnapped by male ‘baddies’ such as Bowser, and the main purpose of Mario and Luigi is to save her.
The character of Princess Peach is weak, pretty, and wears a pink dress. She never defends herself in the game and often cries out to Mario for help. The non stereotypical hero (female) A number of recent games have been praised by feminist gamers for their attempt in combating gender stereotypes. The non stereotypical hero is when a character does not fit the expected stereotypes for their gender.
The main character in the 2008 game Mirror’s Edge was hailed as a big step forward in defeating sexism in the gaming industry.
Faith is physically fit, has tattoos, wears gender neutral clothes and is not highly sexualised as some female lead characters can be. The magic user (female) In many video games, female characters are more likely to use magic than their male counterparts. Often, these magic users have only healing magic. This lowers their capabilities and makes them out to be physically weak compared to male characters.
Magic users in the Final Fantasy games are not physically capable of combat, characters that know healing magic usually have very few abilities that can damage enemies.
An example of a healing magic user from Final Fantasy X is Yuna. While she does have combat abilities, in order to perform effective combat she has to summon other creatures to attack for her. The muscle bound hero (male) Even in the 21st century, the protagonist (lead character) of most games is male. Sometimes they are muscle bound warriors with little intelligence.
Critics have claimed that being exposed to male characters such as these can lower self esteem in children. For boys, it sets an expectation that their aim in life is to be physically strong, even violent, and that intelligence is not important.
An example of this is the character Duke Nukem from the Duke Nukem games. Bursting with muscles and with obviously lower than average intelligence, the Duke is a prime example of how men are objectified in video games. The sexy heroine (female) The sexy heroine is a more recent development in gaming. This type of character is typically strong and powerful, yet heavily sexualised.
In the 1990s, the main character in the Tomb Raider series- Lara Croft-was celebrated as a move forward for women in gaming. She was strong and intelligent. Critics, however, criticised the makers of the game for designing her to have an unrealistic body shape.
An example from 2014 of this stereotype is the lead character in the game Bayonetta. Again she is very dominant and powerful, but highly sexualised in appearance.