Jason Schreier

Kirk here as I'm editing the episode, and I wanted to just add a little bit to that, which isn't something I usually do, but I had this thought while I was listening back and editing that the phenomenon that I'm talking about is also kind of an outgrowth of video game protagonist problems, where a lot of times the protagonist is the least interesting character in the game,

Either like they're silent or they just are kind of a blank slate because all the stuff is happening around them and they want the player to be able to project themselves onto them.

They kind of need to just exist in the world to provide a viewpoint for the player.

And then as a result, the supporting characters are like all way more interesting.

And so then eventually it's just natural that you would want to tell a story about those characters because...

by the design of video games, the supporting cast tends to just be more interesting than the protagonist, at least the way that a lot of video games are made, or the kinds of games that we're talking about are made.

So it's kind of an additional thought that I had that just seemed worth interjecting here, because I thought it was interesting.

Okay, anyways, back to the show.

Yeah.

I mean, in what, in 2017, I guess, Sony can launch a major successful franchise in Horizon Zero Dawn with a female protagonist that like has just gone on to star that female protagonist.

And that's, you know, it's Aloy's series.

And I know some people are very weird about Aloy, but at the same time, the games are successful.

They're really good.

And it was just a matter of fact thing, even by 2017 of like, yep, we're launching a major AAA open world series with a female protagonist.

And that's, people are going to like it because it's going to be a great game and she's a great character.

By the way, one subversion of all this is Housemarque releasing Returnal with a female protagonist in 2021 and then going to a male protagonist for the spiritual successor.

Right, we've come full circle.

of that I mean I know you're kidding there but it is an indication of how far we've come that now just a series will launch like Control Control is actually a great example of a you know triple A maybe double A game with a female lead and then they're like yeah we're making another one we're just gonna have it be a different character it does it does bolster my point that I think sometimes people just spent five years making one thing and they're like we want to do something different we need something new for this yeah I think your point is

A female protagonist.

Okay, let's do a couple more.