HEAD BLOG

Head First’s intern programme brings in talented young people on their way up into their career. Their abilities and their views all make the culture of Head First that much richer and holistic. This view, by Helen McCready, takes a look at Lara Croft and her place as a female role model.

When the game Tomb Raider was released in 1996, it caught the attention of both the press and the public.  The fact that the main charcter was a female probably added to the world wide attention the game received.  Lara was beautiful, intelligent and independent, so you would have thought that she would have made more women want to play the game than probably did.  Surely this strong female was on the right track to attracting more females to gaming even if it was still principally aimed at men.

Lara Croft was on the right path to increasing the amount of women playing games.  the character was successful, powerful and attractive and there was definitely interesting content within the story, so where was the wave of female aimed games that should have followed her?

Although Lara croft embodied strong traits, did women really identify with her? Could they get past the gravity defying breasts, tiny waist and unbelievable beauty and would it have better appealed to females if she was a little more toned down, for example, slightly older, with a more womanly shape and a tad less stunning

Many women in society are increasingly becoming more successfull in their careers, home and social life, but it’s hard to maintain this level of beauty as well.  The imposing physical looks of Lara could have threatened and intmidated women and therefore made them less inclined to even pick up the game in the first instance.

Maybe if she was marketed differently and the box of the video focused on her adventures rather than her body, we may have seen more women playing her. Though this is another argument in itself.

It got me thinking that if Lara Croft seemed to have everything a woman might desire, why didn’t more games like her’s continue to be made?

I wondered whether the timing was wrong.  The game was released 13 years ago, when there wasn’t this air of ‘real women’ that is banged on about so heavily in the media today and so were women ready for her.  was Lara Croft before her time?  If a similar game was released today would more women go for it given the emphasis on the idea and in many cases, the fact, that the woman of today can have it all, and that includes amazing beauty.

The only thing that could have been considered ‘bad’ about the character of Lara Croft would be how she was sexualised and i don’t need to go over her attributes again.

Otherwise, the game could have been perfect for women.  Lara didn’t have a male character alongside her telling her what to do, she had no annoying side-kick, was fiercely independent and was able to adapt to various situations when necessary. She fought against many other female characters, so she was definitely in a woman’s world.

However, lara didn’t have many other responsibilities besides her work.  She had no man in her life that we know of and no children to think about.  Was this something that put women off warming to her?  She could be considered to be a career woman but didn’t have this all round great life that women want today.  But was this the idea, for women to be able to emmerse themselves within a game that didn’t focus on whether there was a love interest or other responsibilities?  If, however, a character did have all these things, would she represent better the woman of today?

Whilst writing this i decided to talk to a female gamer and get her take on it.  She wasn’t intimidated as such by her appearance, only dissappointed that the gaming industry as a whole felt the need to portray women in this way and view the male market as only desiring this level of game where women are ridiculously sexualised.

Research shows that 40% of gamers are now female so it’s not that there is a non-existent market for women, but that the type of games out there are not appealing to women in the right way.  The female gamer i spoke to raised an interesting point: is it the general attitude of the gaming industry that needs to change?

She pointed me to a game called portal that was released in october 2007 where a woman finds herself trapped within a science laboratory and has to use a device in order to escape.  What is interesting about this game is that you play the game through the eyes of the female, therefore it makes no difference to the player who you are playing.  It eliminates the focus on what the character looks like, how big her boobs are and how minuscule her attire is.  This game also included what women seem to like most about video games: puzzles.  Something involving behind the game itself, where you can feel you have achieved something rather than just how many punches you can throw in order to split the opponent’s head open.

There is another reason why I believe that the character of Lara Croft was on the right path to including women in games.  The fact the game doesn’t end means you can rewind time so she never dies.  Aleks Krotoski mentioned this in her article for BBC News Online, September 2004.  Women don’t want to play something where the challenge is not to get killed, but to explore new surroundings and having to use
strategy in order to get to a higher level.  Many women may lose interest quickly if all the have to do is fight a big boss man, kill him, then it’s game over.  Well, what would make you want to continue repeating this? Whereas if you can keep redoing the puzzle, for example, until you can get it perfect, the feeling of achievement is surely heightened.

There are many reasons illustrated here as to why Lara Croft should have been the main template for further developing the female protagonist in games in order to enitce more women to play, but it still doesn’t seem to have happened thirteen years later. This leads me to thinking that the gaming industry continues to think that women aren’t interested in and don’t play games.  Well it’s about time the industry started to listen and learn from what are rapidly becoming the major players!