The issue of women game characters is a tricky situation to talk about and this article makes for some great points. On one hand, stripping a girl down to almost nothing certainly focuses on the physical aspect and beauty of women, but they are more than just that. However, if you focus on the more "butch" qualities that make women leads stronger in some games, you take away from that femininity that also make up who women are. So where is the middle ground?

From the article:

My first concern is that the gamers pushing for “strong female leads” aren’t pushing hard enough, or rather, they don’t know what exactly that means. I think about the truly strong women characters in games, and other than maybe Alyx Vance, I draw a blank. I know the names that are often waved around like spear, but I don’t agree with them. Lara Croft is “strong” in an almost supernatural way, which makes her hard to swallow and distills her down to a sex symbol. Beyond Good and Evil’s Jade might be strong, but I can’t really say because Ancel’s unfinished epic did a poor job of developing her character. All I know is that she can fight, just like an endless list of other game characters. Then there’s the ever favorite Samus Aran. I love Samus as a character, but not because she’s a girl who can “kick some butt”, but because she’s a character who goes through hell and back in each of her adventures, and I get to go along on the trip with her.

The point is that none of the above characters are strong because they are women. You could easily put a man into any one of those games without serious detriment. The only possible exception is (believe it or not) Lara; I had seen it theorized in the early days of Tomb Raider that some gamers made a connection with her where they felt they had to protect and guide her through a dangerous trip, but that angle goes to shit pretty quickly as the series delves further and further into mediocrity. It appears that all you need to do to please the intellectual crowd is make an ass kicking character and switch the gender. Double points if she isn’t overly sexualized. That seems to be as juvenile as the sex objects we see dominating the majority of games these days.

Read the full article over at videolamer.com