It's oftentimes hard to properly include a solid, well-developed female lead character into a game and not have it be an issue. Female leads range from the damsels in distress of Princess Peach and Zelda to the sheer eye-candy of Lara Croft all the way to the characters that are female but ambivalent such as Samus Aran. What are the keys to a good female lead character?

From the article:

When it comes to female leads, as few and far between (relatively speaking) as they are, we've seen all kinds. It's no question that those the likes of Princess Peach (gimmicky damsel-turned-hero) or Lara Croft (eye candy extraordinaire) weren't crafted to meet a generic ideal for the sake of women gamers. Female leads have a sort of "specialized" air around them that separates them from their male fellows, exoticizing them if you will, and it breeds interesting questions. How does this divide perpetuate the concept of women as the "other," alien to the generic male/humanity figure? And furthermore, how much should we value the state of being generic, if even for the purpose of equality?

Read the full article over at Girl In The Machine