This is one of those topics that you usually steer away from. Mainly because if you want to actually discuss them with some level of depth you have to cover a range of topics whcih produce exhaustive back and forths, with many points being made in bad faith. My overall viewpoint is that there is no real issue with the reaction of female characters in games. There is an issue with general toxicity and comments for online multiplayer. These comments range from sexist, homophobic/transphobic to plain racial slurs. These are two distinct issues. There is also an issue with creepy 'neckbeards' making sexually epxlicit and derogative comments to any identified female gamers. All these issues are seperate though. Lumping them into one big feminism debate is stupid.
I think the biggest indicator of the current climate can be traced back to the ridiculous Ghostbusters fiasco. Since then, the film is largely regarded to have fallen flat and has been received as middling to average in most cases. Note, just as ubiquity does not equal quality, commercial success does not equal quality or a good film either. So anyway, the trailer got a lot of dislikes and this provoked the main narrative that sexist and misogynistic film fans couln't handle females in their films. Now, from recollection I believe the prominnent 'proper' arguments were:
Tone of the film had been changed into some weird Eddie Murphy type of film;
It looked like a remake in some instances, certainly the library scene as one example;
The cast wasn't 'diverse', it was hand picked to be all female. In a short sense, uniformity in diversity bred conformity.
Now, the thing is these points were being brought up in response to using an established world and franchise. It was a political stunt. Now the target audience for this film was clearly different to the original's. I can't imagine the crossover between people who really liked the 80's films and something like Bridesmaids was too high. All the valid criticism was lost behind the narrative that these were facades and distractions as these people tried to obfuscate their clear agenda against women. Which brings me onto a recent film, Annihilation. Where could you possibly find a more evocative image than of ghostbusters than this:
And yet, where are all these problems and sexists that so manifested themselves during the Ghostbusters outrage? 14 million views, 57k likes and 5.7k dislikes. Surely this, an all female cast again would provoke the same response. It's the same issue at the end of the day? Oh, wait the metacritic can give you an inkling of why. It's because (as predicted and allured to) Ghostbusters lost its identity and was a poot film, whereas Annihilation was actually a decent film. And that doesn't even include films like Salt, Atomic Blonde and Lucy.
That's just to establish context and illustrate how creatve markets are using diversity as a political crutch to shut down any valid criticism of their product. And to be honest, given the virus like spread of social media comments and snarks, you can see why it's being leveraged.
Onto the videogame climate then. People in this thread have illustrated perfectly over the years how we have always had female characters in games. And this hasn't been an issue. No one has complained and it was largely left to the developers and/or publisher's to decide on who to cast. What was wrong was the way they were sexualised and this is the crux of the argument. It's a transition that is taking place but that doesn't mean all new characters have to be grounded in reality or be making a statement. I mean with each passing year we are getting more realistic female leads and no one is complaining about them. Honestly has there been any backlash against:
Aloy in HZ
Lara in TR (although ironically most of the white knights have a particular focus on her face changing for some reason. Why does it matter?)
Female enemies in Skyrim
Female enemies in Syndicate
Evie Frye Syndicate
Kassandra in AC:O
Chloe in Uncharted
Nadine in Uncharted
Female Shep
Emily from Dishonored
2B from Nier
Female characters in any number of RPG's
Has there been any arguments about actually playing as those characters? Now I'm sure in some little grotbag places of the internet there are a small minority but on the scale of what is being argued I just don't see it. At all. The truth is no one really cares if it's just there. It's a non issue.
The change from Lara Croft in 1996 to 2013 is indicative of what is really happening in the industry. It's an organic change that's happened in line and at the rate of maturity and diversity of attitudes. It's why new female protagonists now look like Aloy and Evie and not Bayonetta or Shadee. However, saying that if a developer or publisher decides that they want to have a character like Cindy or Quiet then they shouldn't have to make concessions to change their vision. There is room for both. Someone said the other day it's quite possible to have female characters that are aspirational and others that are for titillation. Having one doesn't belittle or demean the other.
I've saw a lot of Anita's stuff and she has a hit-miss ratio of roughly the same. I think the problem she has is that she is demonising the playerbase when her criticisms are mainly at the dev/publishers. I mean when I'm playing Tomb Raider or Uncharted:LL swinging round and shooting enemies, the last thing I'm looking at is how far up the screen her ass is. I don't get a choice of what I see playing these games. I sit down and am presented with what has been coded and created. I think she has played an enormous part in creating and manifesting this archetypal gamer who gets off while seeing an attractive female character (whcih is inherently a sexist viewpoint in itself). Which is ridiculous given the accessibility and ubiquity of actual pornographic content. Especially as the first real generation of gamers are now largely mature and are in fact welcoming the changes we're seeing.
When I see games like BF V, Overwatch and Gears introducing female characters I think 'great'. Then I think you've now created characters to entice female players to use in some of the most hostile game communities to these women. That's where you need to make changes, not throw a female model into a game and think you're changing the landscape of gaming. Because that change started years ago, is still in motion and you're behind the curve frankly. And the people putting them on platforms instead of forcing real change need to reassess their goals.
Anyway, typed enough and I actually have work