Female Soldiers in Video Games?

[DicedT]

Folks, doing some research here. The shooter games that I've seen, like the Call of Duty or Battlefield games, have soldier (or mercenary) characters are male. Just checking to see if I'm missing any games with female soldiers. America's Army is all male, right? Even though it seems like a few women play the game.

Michael

[LongBlade]

Nothing springs to mind.

[Jarhead0331]

There is a Korean female Recon expert in SOCOM 4 on the PS3.  She is a member of the Korean 707 Special Operations unit and is a main protagonist in the single-player campaign.

[DicedT]

Thanks, Jarhead. But otherwise, the protagonists are always male. The same for avatars? Usually it's a male avatar?

Michael

[Huw the Poo]

There must have been quite a few over the years.  Gears of War 3 springs to mind because I've just finished it; it has two female main protagonists.

[bayonetbrant]

Folks, doing some research here. The shooter games that I've seen, like the Call of Duty or Battlefield games, have soldier (or mercenary) characters are male. Just checking to see if I'm missing any games with female soldiers. America's Army is all male, right? Even though it seems like a few women play the game.

Michael

contact Carrie Lynn Reinhard.  She's done a lot of research in this area (gender & videogaming)

[DicedT]

But Gears of War is sci-fi. I'm thinking of games where the main character is connected with the current U.S. military. Those seems to be male, I think.

Michael

[Jarhead0331]

^i'm trying to stay away from sci-fi and fantasy titles. I think the OP is looking for games based on modern combat...he will correct me if i'm wrong.

However, opening the category to fantasy/sci-fi, will indeed make the list larger.

EDIT:  There...he beat me to the punch.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

There were a bunch in Rainbow 6.

[Longdan]

How do they make giant boobie flak jackets?

[jomni]

There are many female characters in fantasy sci-fi games.

As for modern, Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon, Jagged Alliance comes to mind. Are we only talking about shooters?

What about pilots? We have female pilots in Ace Combat, Medal of Honor.

[Longdan]

How do they make combat boots that look cute with camo bikini bottoms?

[bayonetbrant]

Dan, I know you're trying to be funny, but DicedT is asking, it's because he's making some serious inquiry in pursuit of info to use in an article for mainstream site on wargaming.  And by "mainstream" I'm talking about stuff up to and including Forbes.

[DicedT]

Just tapping into the collective wisdom here. It sounds like this group has played every video game ever made!

From what I've seen, and from descriptions of the games that I've read, it seems like games (or at least shooter games?) with a modern warfare theme and characters that have a connection with the military, are overwhelmingly male. The character that the player controls is almost always male. If there are female characters in a Call of Duty-type of game, they're usually non-combat types (scientist, doctor, spy, etc.).

Is that a fair assessment?

Michael

[Longdan]

For a long time games have traditionally portrayed females as displayed in the art on games boxes hence my comments.
Recently some female designers have taken the boys to task about these attitudes and with some justification.  My daughter is 21 and loves computer
games and many of the Fantasy and SF games allow for fully developed female characters and have been for a while.  I do not know so much about
shooters and only a little about the guys who play them.  My comments were pointed towards some with a rather sophomoric idea of things should be.