(click to enlarge)
This is probably one of my favorite finds in a while, not just because it’s a well done picture by Renegade64, but rather it’s sort of a commentary on the state of the industry, and the new types of heroes we’ve come to expect from our games.
I’m not going to declare the era of the macho man over. They still are the protagonists of the vast majority of games, usually with a shaved head and a scowl. But the recent rejection of Duke Nukem, the overtly misogynistic lead we all used to love, and the rise of strong female characters like the (albeit optional) Commander Shepard sitting on his back, implies that times are in fact changing. Duke’s antics just weren’t funny anymore. Maybe we grew up, or maybe he just didn’t, but we’d much rather have well rounded leads these days than one dimensional archetypes.
Shepard, male or female, is a prime example of that, and I would argue has more depth than any other game protagonist. And because of that, we feel a kind of kinship with him or her that we could never feel with a hulking idiot like Duke, even if we wanted to. Granted, it’s like comparing The Godfather to Dumb and Dumber in terms of tone, but Mass Effect itself could be a very funny game at times while Duke’s latest effort never really was, despite trying too desperately hard to be with every single line.
No, the era of macho man ain’t over (yet), but by making the characters have shaved head and a scowl (as you put it), you can see that the macho men are now at the most basic or primal sort of “maleness’ in terms of how men want to be perceived today. It’s a nice social commentary on how acceptance, political correctness, the feminization of America is making males have to try so much harder to display their manliness.
Think about, our fathers and grandfathers didn’t have to shave their heads (or their chests for that matter), lift weights, or take steroids in order to feel manly. They didn’t worry about bodyfat, how much they could bench press, or the size of their arms. They knew where they stood. Today’s men must feel insecure.
I think that since women are now common in the workplace, and can basically do any job a man can, males have become emasculated and feel on a subconscious level “Well what can I do to still feel like a man? Oh right, I can lift weights. Because no matter how much women do, they will never be able to look like me, or be as strong as me”.
All this and more you can find in the book “The Adonis Complex”.
I think it has a hell of a lot more to do with the commander shepard character being a blank slate, on which anyone can project themselves, whereas duke nukem is a character with a predetermined personality. In other words; if you don’t like shepard, well that’s okay, shepard can be whatever you want. But if you don’t like duke, go play mass effect they will be whatever you want them to be. If anything mass effect more represents a level of insecurity, because if you want your commander shepard to be a bald and muscular badass, he is. If you want your commander shapard to be a lithe and sexy capable woman, then she is. Point being Duke is what Duke is, and many people can’t accept that. Although, having only played the demo for either games I can’t really weigh in on the game play, I was unimpressed with both.
Personally, I would welcome the change of hairstyle and attitude that Duke provided if done right. Anything’s better than the grumpy, shaven soldiers that star in every game these days. Duke didn’t sell not just because it was a bad game, but more because most gamers have no clue who he is. It has been something like 15 years since the last one.
You mentioned the rise of strong female characters, but honestly none come to mind, and certainly none recently. Female Bioware protagonists don’t count because they’re essentially the other side of the same coin with mild differences in romantic relationships. Lara Croft and Jade from BG&E are rehashed from much earlier games. The best attempt, Alyx Vance is just a side character.
So as much as we’d like to hope, I don’t think the state of gaming has changed very much from the days of Duke. Women characters are still a very objectified minority in todays games, and we’re still shooting aliens and whatnot, just with a lot more pixels.
The whole point of Duke Nukem is he is a parody of ’80’s action heroes. Granted the game is dated, but it is still fun. Anyone who doesn’t get the point of the game most not have a nostalgic bone in their body.
I also can’t think of a main female character that is female. The female shepherd is (as Banko mentioned) the same character with only the minor romantic side changed. The same is true of most female characters. Tomb raider could be done with a male lead (although the game would not be as popular).
Bullshit. It’s just that the last game was a incredibly ugly pile of excrement, but this kind of character still has potential.
Actually, if you look at the picture, Duke looks like he could do push-ups while fem-Shep still sat on his back.
I think Duke’s just being lazy. And I do think that you are overstating the “well-rounded” characterization of Shepard. He/She is a mushy middle, with neither the Paragon or Renegade options (talk about attempting a split personality) being that dramatically different from each other. Its either you’re a soft-spoken bad-ass or a loud, unsubtle bad-ass, but the difference feels quite minor. (Male Shep’s bland voice doesn’t help his case as well.)
Duke, on the other hand, has his own personality, and has more potential to be a well-rounded character than the generic blank-slate Shepard. I would argue that because Shep had to be able to be both genders, the character personality cannot be stretched and sexualized in either direction. The basic template was a male Space Marine hero, but not too masculine so it can also fit a vaguely female character. (I think this is why I find fem Shep lezzing it up to be more in-line with her character than going for one of the boys.) It is the ability to change Shep’s genitalia, along with the slight attitude differences of Paragon and Renegade, that give Shep the illusion of being “well-rounded”. Duke, on the other hand, if given a proper conflict, can become very well-rounded. Confront him with, say, a long-lost daughter or an ex-wife he actually respects, or make the people turn against him, and his character can actually grow, which is something I wouldn’t say about the generic anti-hero personality of Shepard.