When Jessica Vazquez and I sat down to work on an article to celebrate women in gaming for Women's History Month, we began by thinking about what female characters have been influential in gaming, and we came up with the usual suspects: Samus Aran, Terra Branford, Zelda, Poison, Carmen Sandiego, and so forth.
It was almost routine; yes, these women have been influential in the gamersphere when it comes to other characters following them, but this was back in the '80s and '90s, and though people like myself don't like to admit it, even characters introduced in 1999 are fifteen-year-old creations. What has gaming done since then to advance the positive representation of women in gaming?
Well, a lot, it seems. And yet, at the same time, there's still a long way to go.
So we went back to our list to see how many female characters are out there since after the turn of the century that hold influence in gaming today. Though some of the characters maybe have been introduced prior to the year 2000, each of these thirty women have been in action since then and carry characteristics that influence and create other high-quality female characters that players—of any gender—can appreciate.
A big thank you to Jessica Vazquez for collaborating with me on this feature.
