Remedy Entertainment Discusses Having a Female Lead in Control - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 05 October 2019 / 3,130 Views
Brooke Maggs, the narrative designer for Remedy Entertainment’s Control, speaking with OnlySP in a recent interview discussed having a female lead in the game.
"I have to say that Remedy was very keen to have a female protagonist," said Maggs. "Our history is largely white male protagonists and they were very much of the opinion that it was about time.
"That was really encouraging to me, and one of the reasons why I joined Remedy to work on Control. I have to say that, from a feminist sensibility standpoint, Sinikka [Annala], the other narrative designer, and I, had discussions with Clay and Sam about how to represent Jesse and we certainly gave feedback from a female perspective on her, and also on the other female characters.
"I love that Jesse is the active female protagonist but she’s also not the only woman in the world. I think sometimes we play games and we’re like 'this is great, there’s a main female character' and then the world around her is still largely male; whereas Jesse has Emily Pope to talk to and Helen Marshall, we even meet another character, [Dr.] Underhill in the research sector who is very much doing her own thing quite confidently.
"It’s cool to see there’s more than one woman in the Bureau. Also, the Oldest House and the Bureau of Control, we’ve made quite clear, have largely been operated by men for a very long time.
"The point of Jesse being a woman, being from the outside—right from her costume, to how she approaches the unexplained—is contradictory to the Bureau. Everyone is in business wear, and Jesse is in a leather jacket and jeans, and coming in and shaking things up. So that’s a cool feminist sensibility that underlies that as well that I really encouraged."
Control is available now for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Lara Croft from 1996 says hello. But I guess she didn't have other women to talk to back then.
I'm upset she's not transgender, disabled, person of color. Also, the only pronuns should be them and they.
Is it just me or are they bragging about their largely white woman cast. Its fine you are glad about it, but they are hardly breaking any walls here. Uncharted Lost Legacy and Horizon already raised that bar, so its really not worthy of bragging anymore.
I say hooray for feminism!!! White males suck and from now on, I will only enjoy a game when it has a female lead of color in it, preferably lesbian. Still, what about us fat people? When will we see a strong fat nerd as the lead in a action game?!
Meh. Women were in games pretty much since the beginning. You don't get any extra points for that.
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