Article has been expanded on 10/12/12 and the previous one can be displayed here.
Could they? Would they ever consider it? It wasn’t until before the news of Grand Theft Auto V having multiple protagonists that I began to ponder this. I ventured into Grand Theft Auto forums and related articles for more of the fans opinions.
“I do feel sorry for all the women enjoying GTA while waiting for a female protagonist, but I think it wouldn’t suit the game in the same way as Vercetti or Bellic has and will do respectively.
I apologise to the women but I think men look better (personally)”
Loads of fans feel Grand Theft Auto is a game made for a male for a male.
Women have been portrayed in Grand Theft Auto with a number of roles: wives, girlfriends, hookers, siblings, crazy (look below for Catalina), drug pushers, pole dancers or mistresses. There’s probably a whole lot more that I missed but you get the picture.
I could agree with the Kotaku commenter, my main concern would be the reception I couldn’t see a female being received well in a main game but I still want to play as a woman in a Grand Theft Auto game for a change. Not because it wouldn’t suit the game, but I believe it would be best to add a female in a DLC game to start with (or a game similar to Vice City or San Andreas for example?) and see how the reception from fans would be. The sexist jokes (whether they are funny or not) and comments fan would make are bound to come indeed.
But would a female protagonist not open up to more gamers who would like a change of the countless male characters in the previous titles?
What I don’t understand is how some fans who are positive towards the idea were discussing that the female should be a strong figure but are there any Grand Theft Auto characters that start off strong? None of the males have been if you ask me. Look at Carl Johnson, Niko Bellic or even Claude for example. Some of them have a troubled past and attempt to fix their problems and others as the game progresses. A female can do the same right?
Catalina was a crazy psychopath in GTA:SA.
When discussing a female protagonist with missions, gamers believe femalecharacters are more of a silent type killer. They gave examples of using poison or being a hit-woman rather than an out-in-the-open killer. But then you would have to think that there is an example of that. Remember in San Andreas, there was Catalina? If you do not know who Catalina is, she was the main antagonist, Cesar’s cousin and Claude’s ex-girlfriend featured in the games, Grand Theft Auto III and San Andreas. In San Andreas, we got to see more of her aggressive and psychotic personality. Personally if there was ever a Grand Theft Auto playable female character in the future, I wish she wasn’t like her.
Personally, it’s too bad that not one of the multiple protagonist characters in GTA V is not a female but maybe it is best for now. I would definitely like to see a female character in a GTA sub-game not a main numerical game. There are some female and male gamers who would love to play a female protagonist for a change too.
What do you think guys?
damn that can be gd!
I’d love the chance to play as a female protagonist. To be honest, when I am given the choice in games such as Mass Effect, Dragon’s Dogma, Skyrim, (etc) I often pick a female character. I guess this is mainly because it seems to be more interesting than playing another boring beefcake character and it’s enjoyable to play a strong female lead. I’m not sure if Rockstar would go for it or not; I have no complaints about their male leads or characterisation in general but I just somehow don’t see them utilising a female main character…
Which is a shame. But who knows? Maybe one day!
I love games where you have a character editor. Where you can decide how you want to look, if female or male and so on. That gave games often this “Hey that is my character” feeling. I really dislike ready to go characters. I love playing with editors and decide on my own who my character is.
I think the demographics of the players also play a part in the gender of the protagonist. Honestly, I’ve never heard a girl say, “Omg! I want the new GTA game!” The series is geared towards males, so if a female protagonist would come out of left field, guys would be like …?
Secondly, if a girl were to play GTA, I think she would be less interested in the “story part” of the game. I’ve played GTA since the original Xbox games and I’ve always just free-roamed. I barely put any thought into the story and when I did end up in a mission by mistake, I got pissed LOL.
I think that the only way a female protagonist were to emerge in the GTA series is if Rockstar were purposely trying to reach out to a female demographic. I would honestly be really interested in the game(I haven’t played a GTA game for a LONG TIME) if there was a female protagonist; Rockstar has a tendency to create really good, dynamic characters and I feel like they would try not to make the character super sexist or offensive. It’d be a cool change, really.
nice one..!
I disagree with the Kotaku commentator. I believe that if done right script wise and Rockstar certainly knows how to write great scrips for their games, we would all be surprised just how good a woman main character would be. I have seen movies and games where the female lead role can be just as much perverse, meaner and more menacing as a male character,..remember..”Hell hath no fury than a woman scorned”..and I would love Rockstar to spice up the game with a woman who is shown to us to in a desperate attempt to survive against male characters and thugs and can take on the underworld and grow to dominance, she might even have a secret inner softer side as well, maybe she wasn’t like this and was forced t change. Just saying, there are so many ways Rockstar could go about it. Sure it was about the guys when these games came out, but lets give the females their chance, I think it would be the biggest selling GTA ever and I know Rockstar has considered it. we can probably grow to love this character. As for woman being the “pole dancer” comment Maybe some of her missions could be porn related just to get close enough to someone for the kill? That would rock. Hey, I play World of Warcraft and I mostly use female characters mainly because after a while I get tired of watching a male on-screen after so many hours and I prefer looking at a sexy chic beat the crap out of my enemies..I’d like the same chance here..and the wardrobe for her..oh the possibilities..don’t get me started..LOL!
@kiokuchan – I’m a female gamer and cannot wait until the new GTA, just look at my blog and the amount of squeamish posts about it http://bluebellflora.wordpress.com/tag/grand-theft-auto/ – seriously, I have and always will be addicted to GTA, ever since the very first one
And I love the story part of the games which brings me onto NyNy’s question…….
No, absolutely not. I would never want to play a female protagonist in GTA. I love the male characters and the fact that the women in the game are ridiculously hilarious and such stereotypes (Candy Suxx? Clingy dates?). The worst part of GTA IV was the whole dating thing. It got in the way. Just when you were enjoying yourself tooling around in a Cheetah, having stocked up on weapons and were mercilessly running people down whilst trying to evade 4 stars (ie – having a break from the main storyline) the bloody phone would ring and it would be Kate or some other girl you’d met online whining about you not taking her out.
There’s always Tomb Raider for female protagonists
Oh and Rockstar…. Please bring back RAMPAGES!
There are not many female gamer outhere. But, it would be a nice idea to have a female character in GTA game. But, do the game will be the same as the old one?
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I would love to see a female protagonist. It would certainly be a different approach from a perspective view. Square-Enix does it really good with Tomb Raider, so why can’t R* do it? I feel like it’s a missed opportunity here, to not include a female protagonist. I mean, you have 3 main characters, so why not a female one, as one of the 3? R* did an outstanding job with RDR’s female characters (Bonnie) so they would definitely be up to the task. Oh well… maybe we’ll see something like this in the future, I guess.
I agree that it would be interesting to have a female protagonist in a GTA game. Perhaps not the lead character, since GTA V has multiple playable characters, she could possibly be a different one to play as, or be introduced in the DLC. Having a female playable character doesn’t necessarily mean that the game is being geared more towards women, and I don’t think that should be Rockstar’s goal if they were to do so. However, having a female lead could open up the story to a different perspective, or just give players something different from the normal in a franchise that is dominated by male characters. I’m all for it!
Wow! It would be really great if Rockstar included a female protagonist in their GTA universe.
Nice article by the way
I would love the chance to play the game with a female point of view!
i never noticed that , in any gta parts . you have seems to good observation skills .
Not sure I see it happening. Kind of like animals, which seem that at least dogs will be in it, but hopefully just on the side, or touching the story, in a positive way. This from a person against animal cruelty. Having a female protagonist would have its own set of issues. I’ve never thought of it till your post. I am frankly fine with males, as in the end it is just a game.
Rockstar takes inspiration from Mobster and Gangsters films. You can see this in all their GTA games. With these films the protagonist are male so it no surprise that it the same with the GTA games.
But there are a growing number of films where the films protagonist is female so it would be no surprise these will start to influence Rockstar.
People saying that women don’t play these types of games are dead wrong. I have known a number of women that play them and love them.
There have been surveys in the UK that show that there are a large number of women playing console games and the number of them is large than that of males from the age of 15 to 25 playing. So that is no reason not to add a female protagonist.
As for a female protagonist in GTA I have no problem with it and would not mind playing as one. If GTA IV is anything to go by there will be DLC that will come out six months to a year after the main game realise that would add to the story from a different prospective.
So we could get a female protagonist there, other wise it will most likely happen when the next GTA game come out on the next generation of games consoles.
@kiokuchan – I also enjoyed the free-roaming aspect of the GTA series. There’s plenty of times I just wander around aimlessly until I get bored and initiate a cop chase for entertainment value.
In reference to adding a female protagonist, I don’t see any major problems. Some players may like the variety in playing a central character outside the norm of what the GTA series has produced so far.
It’s a fine line though for Rockstar as females aren’t exactly portrayed in the nicest light and anyone that has played the past titles will certainly agree to that.
It could be a turning point in the GTA franchise depending on how the developers tackle the topic in GTA V. I’ll be interested to see how it all unravels next year.
As a gamer I would thoroughly enjoy to play as a woman as a main character in game made by Rockstar, although having said that I would also stay to playing as a man because the past games I have played have all had a male in the main role and it has just felt right. I believe this is due to media and the game makers grooming customers to grow up thinking the main characters which are men will mean a game will be better than one which has a woman, because they believe that women won’t want to do all the violent things which increases the thrill for a gamer. But if the company developing the game where the female character was committing gruesome acts such as punching their fist through an enemies head or completing some off the chain sought of combat, gamers may be intrigued.
But getting back to the point I believe instead of making a main character they should allow the person playing the game to customise their own character and this will include both genders and a range of body types, by doing this they will make the game more appealing to everyone and widen the market. Although the characters from the past games have been superb, except for Niko, I would much prefer as many others would to stroll around town with a badass character they have created themselves, not only does it make the character look better, it adds a more personal connection to the story. As well as this I am surprise they haven’t already added character customisation to the game, because they encourage exploring the open world, then why not explore other features as well such as their bodies.
I do admit there was on San Andreas a sort of character customization, where you could eat the fatty foods to become fat, work out in the gym to become buff and to wear different clothes to increase sex appeal. But fine include that later on in the game, just start of with a body features customisation for height, skin colour, gender, hair and facial features. It is those customisation options which are a key difference between itself and Saints Row the Third. Although do to the option you select in character customisation it should affect the rest of the story, by for example if you were a woman you’d get male hoes, offering you their services.
In conclusion I enjoyed reading your post and I do agree their should be a female main character, because I believe the first main game of this to include a female main character was Assassin’s creed liberation, except for the new Lara Croft. And as I said before the game would be more enjoyable with better character customisation options.
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This is the correct If Rockstar ever included a female protagonist in a GTA game… | NyNyOnline journal for anyone who wants to act out out about this theme. You request so much its virtually debilitating to represent with you (not that I truly would want…HaHa). You definitely put a new rotation on a substance thats been scrawled near for geezerhood. Respectable bunk, but enthusiastic!