We asked cosplayers at PAX Prime, the largest gaming expo in America, if you could get game developers in a room for 5 minutes, what would you tell them about how to better portray women in gaming? Here are the best of the responses.
1.This Link wanted heroines front and center.
2.This Luigi thought video games should be less gender-normative.
3.Even when we do get a woman in charge, they're often white.
4."Women of color" doesn't mean blue, green, or red.
5.So dare to make a WOC the lead sometimes.
6.When you create a character, there's usually only one "plastic" body type, as one con attendee told us.
7.There's beauty in variety.
8.Women characters are often written in a stereotypical fashion.
9.There's so many different types of strong, so let's put on some muscle.
10.But in all that, don't forget that games still have to be GOOD.
11.This cosplayer talked about how her character was the strongest in Final Fantasy XIII and that should be more common.
12.This Cthulu cosplayer really summed it all up in terms of design and writing.
13.This Nurse Joy had some good examples developers should be looking at.
14.This Terra Online fan wanted design to match reality.
15.No. More. Boob. Cutouts. In. Armor.
16.Behold: the two cardinal sins of modeling a 3D woman.
17.Less of this.
18.This Tharja wanted armor that actually served its purpose.
19.Keep your design focus on the important things please.
