E3, or the Electronic Entertainment Expo, is an annual video game industry event held in Southern California. Preceded by flashy press conferences, E3 is a three-day convention where video game journalists and enthusiasts can see what is in the works for the Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, PC, iOS and Android gaming platforms.
I have attended nearly a dozen E3 shows in person as a credentialed media member. This year, I observed the press conferences from home for the first time in over a decade. I expected a fun show but no real big surprises.
As the E3 press conferences approached, most of the hype was centered around virtual reality devices such as Sony's Project Morpheus and Microsoft's HoloLens, along with big franchise sequels. While VR and sequels stole most of the press conference time, we saw an unexpected trend emerge that is a first for the video game industry: Strong female characters were everywhere to be found.
If there's ever been one consistent issue the video game industry has struggled to overcome, it's been the poor manner in which women are commonly portrayed across its many genres. According to the Entertainment Software Association's 2014 study "Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry," 48 percent of gamers are women. However, women have limited representation in video games. When female characters appear, they're typically weighed down by arbitrary weaknesses, cliches, objectification and sexual exploitation.
In the past couple of years, industry critics such as Anita Sarkeesian have taken developers to task on the objectification and overall poor representation of women in gaming. One of Sarkeesian's series on YouTube, "Tropes vs Women in Video Games," has stirred up heated conversation on the subject. Riot Games, maker of the world's most popular PC game, "League of Legends," has been vocal recently in its support of diversity for female video game characters, including having candid discussions about the matter with fans on the game's official forums.
During this year's press conferences leading up to E3, it was evident that developers are indeed following through on their promises to improve the way in which women are portrayed in their games. Rather than helpless, stereotyped and overly sexualized women, there were strong female protagonists showcased in the big announcement trailers. From Microsoft's "ReCore" to Sony's "Horizon Zero Dawn" and from Ubisoft's "Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate" to EA's "Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst," strong female characters headlined the opening days of the annual event. While most of these titles are aimed at adult audiences, many family friendly games are also showing improvement in regards to diversified portrayals of women.
Along with the increased number of playable female characters in this year's announced games, there was a sharp uptick in the number of female presenters at the various press conferences. Aisha Tyler returned to host the Ubisoft conference for a second straight year. At one point, Tyler shared a moment alone onstage with Angela Bassett to discuss Bassett's role as a leader in the upcoming "Rainbow Six" game. Bonnie Ross was tasked with introducing "Halo 5" for Microsoft.
While we have seen a lot of positive momentum this year, there's still a long way to go. Fringe groups of gamers, commonly lumped under the "GamerGate" label, continue to harass women in the industry. In October, Sarkeesian canceled a scheduled appearance at Utah State University amid threats of a mass shooting if she was allowed to speak on the topic of women in gaming. Other women developers, such as Brianna Wu and Zoe Quinn, have been forced to flee their homes out of safety concerns, according to Polygon.com.
Alongside this year's increase in strong characters, there are still many examples of female characters who reinforce negative stereotypes about women or continue to be used as one-dimensional gimmick characters.
It's also too early to know if this year's highlight of stronger female characters is going to be a standard in the gaming industry or simply a short-lived trend that fails to stick. At least we are seeing more signs of progress than we ever have before.
Jeff Rivera is the founder and editor in chief of the independent video game news and reviews website GamerTheory.com.