IGN = ****wits. Absolute ****ing ****wits...

[fsavoie]

Here a quote from an article on IGN that tells what we don't want to see in videogames. The part of the female character really stunted me and I really don't think I agree with them.

Ok Lara Croft can be class a a cliché, but Faith from Mirror's edge, Elika from prince of persia? I really like those characters and I think they bring great "color" to the game. What do you think?

Take Mirror's Edge's lead character, Faith; Asian to appeal to the Asian markets, female to soften up the lads and potentially sell to a female audience too. How about Elika from Prince of Persia? That's not clever design - that's clever marketing. There's a big difference. The Final Fantasy series has had its share of strong female characters, like Yuna in X-2 and now XIII. Again, it's a deliberate move (particularly X-2, which aimed at a female market with fashion-based equipment and magic-slotting).

Lara Croft still kicks around, as does Samus. But alongside those two comes Alyx Vance (Half-Life 2), Joanna Dark (Perfect Dark), Rayne (BloodRayne), The Boss (MGS), Zoe and April (Dreamfall: The Longest Journey), Jill, Claire and Aida (Resident Evil series), Elika (Prince of Persia) and the list goes on. It's not clever anymore; it's not special. It's become a bad clich? that is as predictable as it is ultimately degrading. Let's stop pretending that's it's still a unique feature.

Mod: Link removed, they don't deserve the hits.