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Which women in gaming are actually good characters ie. not brainless beauties in need of saving or some skankified "badass"?
Almost every female character I've ever seen in a game, to be honest.
Many people out there think that females are treated unfairly in video games because they are portrayed as brainless beauties or skankified badasses. I say that it is how players interpret the character that is wrong, and perhaps if the characters were male they would not be so upset about their characters. Essentially, the sexism is still in the head of the player, not the character. FFXIV's official forums were a great example of people jumping to conclusions of sexism. When gladiator gear was released, some people were upset about how incredibly revealing the female's gear was. Others, in retaliation, laughed - because the male's gear was just as revealing, if not more so.
It's not sexist to put girls into ridiculous and revealing attire for a role if the guys are wearing equally ridiculous and revealing attire. It's just a design choice. I don't see anything wrong with the "skankified badass" because people generally assume they are skanky because of what they wear, not their actual attitude. I've not seen many skanks in video games.
As for brainless beauties, I don't see all that many of them, either. Some of them are ditzy, sure, but most lead male characters I've come across have their moments, too. Vaan and Bartz are great examples of this.
Every portrayal of a woman in a video game tends to be just fine as far as I'm concerned. Not every character has to be the perfect role model - like in the real world, some women have different strengths than others and being constantly serious doesn't somehow make someone better than someone who is capable of being silly or following their heart.
If I had to pick a positive portrayal of a character in general that happens to be female, I would probably echo krissy's sentiment and say April Ryan, or perhaps Zoë Castillo from Dreamfall. They can be serious, but they don't have to be. They have their "duh" moments, but they're intelligent. They can beat people up, but they're not superpowered. They're genuine people. I like them. Tifa, from Final Fantasy VII, is one of my favourite characters of all time (although I don't know how much of the Compilation I would include in that, I'm more focusing on the main game).
Ignoring Liara because she needed to be saved? What, because no guy has ever needed saving? Or perhaps because needing saving makes you a terrible, weak person? Pretty sure the majority of characters in video games get saved at some point. I would say someone who is always the hero and never needing to be saved is not being portrayed realistically.
