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Home News Tomb Raider Art Director Comments On Maturity Of The Industry

GAMING NEWS

Tomb Raider Art Director Comments On Maturity Of The Industry

Posted on Wednesday, December 5 @ 10:02:41 Eastern by Alex_Osborn


Crystal Dynamics art director Brian Horton recently shared a few words about our industry's perception of female leads and the need for the gaming community to mature in this regard.

In an interview with CVG, Horton explained that there is evidence of steps forward with games like Mass Effect, but their upcoming Tomb Raider reboot is taking a bold new approach to a female lead that we haven't seen in games prior.

I think that’s what’s really great about Mass Effect for instance: you can choose to be female Shepard. You can choose to make the protagonist a heroine, but that’s not the way they market the game, right? It’s marketed as the male Shepard. So for our game, Lara stands alone in an industry of AAA third-person action games, in that it has the female hero.

He also went on to point out that the Lara Croft of earlier Tomb Raider games was "really just an expression of male energy in a female body," but "now she’s both female and feminine, but at the same time very strong, has that inner strength, has those smarts – the things you associate with Lara Croft – but also with a little more texture."

When asked about that controversial scene that ends in Lara killing her attacker, Horton replied by saying:

As an industry we’ve grown up, but not enough to do everything you can do in films or TV. We made a conscious decision to make a bold storytelling choice and gameplay choice, to give that scene more emotional weight. We don’t shy away from the choices we made.

Tomb Raider launches on March 5th for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.
Related Games:   Tomb Raider (2013)
Tags:   Tomb Raider, Crystal Dynamics, Square Enix


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Comments
  • napsterxxl
    napsterxxl
    Joined: Mar 2006
    Posted: Dec 5th, 2012 at 10:11 am
    "Lara Croft of earlier Tomb Raider games was "really just an expression of male energy in a female body," but "now she’s both female and feminine"?

    does that mean she'll have PMS Rage instead of normal berserk mode?







    yeah, sorry. couldn't help myself.
    0 3
  • Lien
    Lien
    Joined: Feb 2008
    Posted: Dec 5th, 2012 at 10:24 am
    "You can choose to make the protagonist a heroine, but that’s not the way they market the game, right? It’s marketed as the male Shepard"
    Yes and no. In the first two mass effect, it was marketed as a male Shepard but with mass effect 3 they tried to give more attention to the female counterpart such as on the box cover or in the CGI trailers. Heck, even on the bus adds, they had a female Shepard looking up to the sky.

    But still, he's right. The marketing reps still think it's a male leads game
    0 1
  • majorcoxsore
    majorcoxsore
    Joined: Nov 2012
    Posted: Dec 5th, 2012 at 10:33 am
    I do remember seeing a big push for female shepard ads for me3, they even had a male and female trailer.
    0 1
  • Jobin_Wendy
    Jobin_Wendy
    Joined: Mar 2012
    Posted: Dec 5th, 2012 at 11:07 am
    Although the covers were reversible, the default display was male Shepard, wasn't it?
    0 1
  • majorcoxsore
    majorcoxsore
    Joined: Nov 2012
    Posted: Dec 5th, 2012 at 12:09 pm
    yeah it was, but a least they provided reversible covers. I don't think bioware realized how popular the series was with female audiences until game 3. Tomb Raider better have a reversible cover.
    0 0
  • Jobin_Wendy
    Jobin_Wendy
    Joined: Mar 2012
    Posted: Dec 5th, 2012 at 12:15 pm
    With the Lara on one side and the rapist on the other? Or just some cool art on the reverse side?
    0 0
  • elmoreoocyte
    elmoreoocyte
    Joined: Apr 2012
    Posted: Dec 5th, 2012 at 11:12 am
    "Lara Croft of earlier Tomb Raider games was "really just an expression of male energy in a female body," but "now she’s both female and feminine"?

    So now when she enters a tomb she exclaims, "This kitchen looks weird."

    Also, must be hard to be an adventurer without shoes.

    I kid.
    0 1
  • Chunibrow
    Chunibrow
    Joined: Mar 2010
    Posted: Dec 5th, 2012 at 12:35 pm
    I say make a Kinect version just so when does a good job you can pay her on the ass, call her "sugar tits" a d watch her giggle
    0 0
  • Stickyellowsock
    Stickyellowsock
    Joined: Oct 2009
    Posted: Dec 5th, 2012 at 1:01 pm
    SQUARE ENIX talking about maturity in games a day after apologizing for that Hitman facebook app.
    0 1
  • Nick_Tan
    Nick_Tan
    Joined: Jul 2006
    Posted: Dec 5th, 2012 at 1:41 pm
    The male body in the vast majority of the world is generally seen as the vessel for physical strength and action. It's a classical and mythical interpretation that dominates Western thought dating back to mythological times. That, and marketing teams are hellbent on the 18-34 male demographic, so it's no wonder that there are a lack of female leads.

    One special quality about Mass Effect, and other sci-fi universes, is that it takes place in the future, where the differences between man and woman are less important since the emphasis is on guns and biotics. The underlying reason why asari are great at biotics is the suggestion that the female body is a vessel for empathetic forces and mental flexibility. Let's hope that this Tomb Raider is able to portray Lara Croft as a protagonist not tied to gendered roles.
    0 0
  • Ivory_Soul
    Ivory_Soul
    Joined: Nov 2005
    Posted: Dec 5th, 2012 at 8:53 pm
    I usually play as female characters anyway, I wish there was more of them.
    0 0

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