He Took An Arrow To The Knee ... And So Did She!

An exciting aspect of games today are their expanding horizons, one such being sex/gender equality.  Among these games, the classic role-playing game offers players the choice to play the role of certain character archetypes. Sometimes these games offer you the opportunity to be almost whoever you want to be.  Along with a choice of different classes of characters, you can also choose whether your character can be male or female!

Skyrim Character Choices. Top: Males Bottom: Females

"Black Widow" Perk from Fallout 3 grants females extra damage against males

Box Art of PSO features male and female characters

Many RPGs, even in the early days, offer female choices for characters.  This genre was definitely the first in which I had experienced the opportunity to play as a female character.  Classics, such as Phantasy Star Online and The Elder Scrolls,  showed symmetrical sex equality in character choice.  The extensive nature of a role-playing game provides unique opportunities for the developers when developing character types.  Since the purpose of an RPG is to create and play a character which is unique to you,  each sex also has unique traits.  In Phantasy Star Online, each individual playable character had different traits and stats, giving each advantages and disadvantages compared to the others.  In games like The Elder Scrolls or the Fallout series, males and females each have their own unique perks to their character class as well as their sex.

Features such as these make a game for inviting to everyone.  It also helps to open the eyes of players to experiencing different game play with each character.  The Borderlands series is a great example of this.  Since the games' stories are relatively short and also promote multiple play-throughs, players are able to experience the game from the perspective of all 4 playable characters if the choose to do so. This creates a new experience with the game every time.  So before you've almost finished creating the same meat head muscle god character you've used for the last 1000 games you played, take a peak at what the girls have to offer.