A damsel in distress no more: shifting the narrative of female leading characters in video games

For decades, women have been the subject of several video game narratives, which relied on “saving the girl” as the main quest for many of these games. Moreover, for years, gender representations in video games were a part of an ongoing debate about gender inequality in video games narratives, which are considered one of the most popular, interactive fields of entertainment that young people currently enjoy. This, however, brings up some pressing questions about how reality is reflected in the content of video games regarding women`s representation. The research at hand is a qualitative analysis determined to examine the shift in the common narrative of women in video games as “a damsel in distress” to be a lead character on a special quest, through tracking changes in female representation in video games in recent years. This was conducted by analyzing how the portrayal and character development of female protagonists evolved across different gaming generations and trends. The researcher relied on Consalvo, and Dutton, (2006) model of critical game analysis to examine case studies of three popular video games: Horizon: forbidden west; Rise of the Tomb Raider and The last of Us. The research underlines how these games feature women as Lead characters of the gameplay. The analysis will examine the character design, game narrative and game interface of the video games understudy to discover the shift in the portrayal of female characters in these gaming experiences. Received: 19 October 2024 Accepted: 01 December 2024 Published: 10 December 2024