Playable female character
Games with a playable female character are noteworthy because, although women make up roughly half of the world's population, only a fraction of games feature playable female characters. Those that do often have the woman as a single female in an otherwise all-male cast or simply swap out a male's portrait with a female portrait while leaving the rest of the game unaltered. Since having a playable female character is such a novel concept, I have made a category for it on my Wiki.
Several substantial gaming databases have lists for female protagonists, for example, MobyGames has such a category. It being such a large database, it also depressingly shows that only around 2% of video games have a female protagonist. My site expands the category to all games that have a playable female character, even if she plays a minor role, and even if the only way you can tell she's female is because she has an "F" instead of an "M" in the status bar. Even with this extremely low bar, only around 18% of the games I've made pages for on this Wiki have a playable female character. Games which feature a playable female character often also have a strong female character, though not always.
Of course, simply having a playable female character doesn't mean the female will be strong. Since the vast majority of video games are written by and designed by men, the vast majority of the a female characters in video games are portrayed as stereotypes to be enjoyed by men, which means they're often timid, unintelligent, and overly-sexualized.
Personal
I had played games like Ms. Pac-Man in the mid-1980s, but since her sex is totally irrelevant to the game, I thought nothing of it. The first game where I remember actively noticing a playable female character was around 1989 when I first saw King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella. At the time, I didn't like the idea of having to play a princess in a game because I wanted to live out my boyish fantasies of being a heroic knight. However, as my taste in fiction matured, and my understanding of how women were oppressed was expanded, I began to really appreciate the few games which feature playable female characters. While I'm pleased to see the percentage of games which feature playable female characters has been increasing over the years, there is still a long way to go before playable women appear in even a tenth of the games being made, let alone half.
Examples
These are games that are important to me which feature a playable female character. For all games, see the category.
| Title | Released | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Borderlands | 2009-10-20 | One of the four classes, Lilith the siren. |
| Borderlands 2 | 2012-09-18 | One of the four classes, Maya the siren. |
| Clue | 1949-??-?? | Half the playable characters are female, Miss Scarlet, Mrs. Peacock, and Mrs. White. |
| Costume Quest | 2010-10-10 | You choose the game's main character between two twins, one of whom is female. |
| Diablo | 1996-12-31 | One of the three classes, the rogue. |
| Diddy Kong Racing | 1997-11-21 | One of the eight racers, Pipsy. |
| Final Fantasy VI | 1994-04-02 | Three of the 14 primary playable characters, Terra, Celes, and Relm. All playable minor characters are male. |
| Gauntlet | 1985-??-?? | One of the four playable classes, the Valkyrie. |
| Golden Axe | 1989-05-?? | One of the three playable characters, Tyris Flare. |
| Gone Home | 2013-08-15 | The protagonist, Katie. |
| Her Story | 2015-06-23 | The protagonist is female. |
| Ittle Dew | 2013-07-05 | The protagonist, Ittle Dew. |
| King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella | 1988-??-?? | The protagonist, Rosella. |
| Left 4 Dead | 2008-11-17 | One of the four playable survivors, Zoey. |
| Left 4 Dead 2 | 2009-11-17 | One of the four playable survivors, Rochelle. |
| Mario Kart 64 | 1996-12-14 | One of the eight kart racers, Princess Peach. |
| Metroid series | 1986-08-06 | The protagonist of all the games in the series, Samus Aran. |
| Portal series | 2007-10-10 | The protagonist in both games, Chell. |
| Secret of Mana | 1993-08-06 | One of the three playable characters, Primm. |
| Street Fighter II: The World Warrior | 1991-03-?? | One of the eight playable characters, Chun Li. |
| Super Mario Bros. 2 | 1988-10-?? | One of the four playable characters, Princess Peach. |
| Super Street Fighter II | 1993-09-10 | Two of the 16 playable characters, Chun Li and Cammy. |
| Ultima series | 1981-??-?? | Almost all of the Ultima titles allow you to play a female character, early games just use a M/F in the stats. Later games add female graphics and change dialogue. |
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