E3 2015: Bethesda aiming for ‘aspirational’ female characters in BattleCry

The developers of BattleCry are determined to ensure the female characters shown in the game are ‘aspirational’ for female players.

The title, a free-to-play PC multiplayer game published by Bethesda, features a range of characters from both genders and different ethnicities.

Speaking during an E3 2015 panel, executive producer Rich Vogel said this was important to his team, GameSpot reports.

“We have both male and female warriors in our game, and one of the things we wanted to do was make sure our female warriors are aspirational to female players,” he said.

Vogel added that the studio believes BattleCry’s female characters should not look like “something you would see at a strip club”, instead representing what girls “would enjoy and be proud of playing”.

Sure enough, a casual glance at the character art for the game shows several women appropriately armoured for combat and not oversexualised.

As Develop has already observed, this year’s E3 has been a great showcase of the increasing diversity in video games and their protagonists.

Bethesda has a particularly strong showing, with the women of BattleCry joining a female lead for Dishonored 2 and an enhanced character creator in Fallout 4.