Tropes vs Women in Video Gaming - Damsel in Distress

To save on space, I'm merely quoting this part. I also wanted to respond with the opening line of the video: "This project will examine the tropes, plot devices and patterns most commonly associated with women in gaming from a systemic, big picture perspective." Read that a couple times; she's pointing out things that are overused and problematic, which are also things that continue to be used without so much as the people creating the media thinking about what it's doing.

While you can name a few instances where the men might be useless or relegated to generally weaker roles, I can probably name five other instances where the female characters do the same. If you play MMOs where the gender of the characters is forced, the roles women take are generally that of magic or ranged power; they're almost never (which means 'very rarely') ever allowed to be melee characters. You can see this in League of Legends which, while they do have female melee champions, is predominantly split in this same fashion: The majority of ranged champions are female, and the majority of magic/support champions are female. You can also see this in the newly released Path of Exile (which is a good game): The only two female characters are a Witch and a Ranger; the other four classes (all melee) are male. (That's not even to mention the use of the one indigenous character, which is another point entirely.) It drives me up a wall when things like that happen; I like playing melee characters, but I don't always want to be shown something that reinforces the fact that I'm particularly dainty (which those classes are when it comes to survivability).

The difference with there being "men that are plot devices" versus the "women that are plot devices" is quite obvious, especially if you've been looking for it instead of following media blindly. Men generally find themselves as the protagonists of series, be they games or movies or television shows. It's becoming more common in the latter two for women to find their ways to leading roles, but that's when you start paying attention to what kind of stories they're being given. There are not a lot of female-protagonists in the action, thriller, or science fiction areas; female-protagonists still get put into things like romantic comedies more often than anything else (because that's apparently all we're smart enough to watch -- please read that for immense sarcasm). We rarely get anything outside of that area because that's all anyone thinks we're interested in (as a gross generalisation -- people realise women like a lot of other things, but they don't try to satisfy this because they're still stuck in the stereotype and assume it's the only way to make money).

It's not inadequate to not mention the "weak" male characters; they're harder to find, and that's not at all what she's talking about. But here's another thing: What qualities do those 'weak male' characters share? I can guarantee you that a lot of them exhibit something somewhere between incredible intelligence (stereotyped nerd) and/or effeminate characteristics (the "momma's boys"). When it comes to the traditional male character, they're still the "sturdy tree" sorts of people.

What I disagree with is the idea that the "damsel in distress" trope is problematic. Supporting characters are allowed to be helpless. Princess Peach doesn't need a role reversal game to establish her as a strong woman who can think for herself, because she isn't. Why does she need to be? She's not intended to be a role model for girls. The setup in general isn't intended to portray men being the heroes and women being the victims as "the way things are." It's just one of many frameworks for hero stories. Like I already mentioned, the damsels are frequently non-female and not necessarily weak just because they get captured and can't do anything about it.

I would like to see more strong female protagonists in games, but I don't think the damsel in distress trope hinders that in any way.

League of Legends is particularly bad when it comes to female hero design, but I don't understand why you take exception to the rarity of brawny female characters in games. The big warriors are usually male because men are bigger and it takes a lot of muscles to swing a big axe. In a game with fixed character models, it just makes sense. It's not as if the spellcasters and more agile classes are less important.