Rhianna Pratchett, the writer behind the new Tomb Raider games and daughter of the late Terry Pratchett, has expressed disappointment at Rockstar’s lack of female GTA protagonists.
During a conversation with Wired, Pratchett stated that she was “really disappointed” with GTA V’s all-male cast. The game’s writer also delved into why women should feature as playable characters in the game:
“I remember being really disappointed with GTA V that the three characters were all guys. I know that the Housers [Daniel and Sam Houser, co-founders of Rockstar Games and developers behind Grand Theft Auto] have talked about the GTA series as being an exploration of masculinity and I thought well, masculinity is not just the domain of men and femininity is not just the domain of women.”
Rockstar’s Obsession With Masculinity
If you’re familiar with Rockstar’s back catalogue, then you’ll be aware of Rockstar’s aversion to women protagonists. Previously, the Houser’s tried to excuse this by claiming “masculinity” is important to the franchise. However, Pratchett’s counterargument completely shatters the notion. Rather than being despondent at Rockstar’s patriarchal practices, the writer instead explained why female-lead crime capers are important:
It felt like it would have been more interesting to me to see a woman operating in that kind of world because there were some great female characters in The Wire that kind of had to operate in a masculine criminal underworld. Same with some of the women and stories in Orange Is the New Black. I’d like those developers that excel at the hypermasculine stuff to take a stab at female-lead stories and look at the things that would come out of that,”
Here’s hoping GTA 6’s story features at least one non-male protagonist. While previous rumours have suggested that this might be the case, Rockstar has yet to confirm anything about its next open-world outing officially. Who knows, perhaps the Houser’s have already decided to ditch their weird obsession with catering to “masculine” men with power fantasies.
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Featured Image Credit: Rhianna Pratchett/Rockstar