In recent years, the main characters in video games have been changing. The typical “muscle man” armed to the teeth is giving way to more realistic, more diverse and more… vulnerable heroes! Have you noticed? The Aces introduce you to this little revolution!
Three identities, one character
The video game Dragon Age: The Veilguard (rated 17 and up) isn’t out yet, but it’s getting people talking. In July, we learned that players will be able to choose the gender identity of Rook, the main character: male, female, or non-binary (someone who doesn’t identify with a particular gender). In fact, several actors have recorded voices for the role.
An old recipe… gone out of fashion?
We wouldn’t have seen an initiative like this 10 or 20 years ago! At the time, most games followed the same recipe, explains to Duty Alexandre Poirier, who works at Ubisoft: “The classic is the strong, muscular white man who kills everything in his path.” But, good news: things are changing!
Other different characters
The Quebec game Spiritfarer features Stella, a brown-skinned teenager who accompanies her loved ones to the afterlife. She must demonstrate agility and compassion to guide and comfort them.
In Celestiala Canadian game, the heroine Madeline is a young trans girl who must overcome obstacles in her path, but also her own anxieties.
In The Last of Usone of the heroes is Joel, a muscular and armed man, but he is sensitive and also has weaknesses. His sidekick, a teenager called Ellie, is much stronger than one might think (she does very well against zombies!).
And in Overcookedit is possible to embody… a raccoon in a wheelchair!
Mean comments
Revolutionizing a world as big as video games is not easy. The more a game moves away from the “classic” heroes, the more it attracts nasty comments from the public. For example, in the game Alan Wake 2the heroine is a black woman. In the first, she was white. As a result, the game’s creators were harassed online.
Creators who look like their heroes
If the video game industry is changing, it’s mainly because the people who work in it don’t all look like a guy-who-can-lift-a-bus-with-his-pinky-finger. There are now a lot of women, members of the LGBTQ+ communities, and people from diverse backgrounds in studios. And you, what kind of heroes would you like to see?
By Camille Lopez
According to a text by Stéphane Baillargeon, The Duty
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