Women as Reward - Tropes vs Women in Video Games

“Fantastic!”

Theme Music

This episode comes with a content warning
for game footage involving

hypersexualized female characters
and is not recommended for children.

As always, remember that it is both
possible and even necessary

to be critical of the media we enjoy.

That’s going to be especially
important to keep in mind

given the video game franchise
we are about to discuss…

In 1987 Nintendo released a 2D
action adventure game for their

Nintendo Entertainment System
which departed

from traditional video game conventions.

Metroid starred a bounty hunter
named Samus Aran

who is covered head to toe in the
now iconic cybernetic “power suit”.

The game’s manual referred to the
protagonist with male pronouns

and described his identity as
“shrouded in mystery”.

Metroid was notable as an
early example of a game

that employed multiple alternative
endings which could be unlocked

based on the player’s gaming
skill and performance.

If the player is able to complete
the game in under five hours

a short cutscene will play featuring the
protagonist without their armored helmet,

revealing that Samus Aran is, in fact,
a woman.

This was a significant moment
in gaming history,

especially for many female gaming fans,
because, at the time,

nearly all protagonists were just
assumed to be male by default.

Remember this was back
before the internet,

when you couldn’t just hop online to find
out about all the secrets and spoilers,

so for many players, the ending of
Metroid came as a genuine surprise.

Still, the subversion only worked
provided players were skilled enough

to achieve the surprise ending.

In retrospect, Samus’ gender reveal perhaps
should not have been as shocking as it was,

considering that Metroid is
heavily influenced by the Alien films.

Sadly the alternate endings
did not stop there

the two “best” endings make Metroid
one of the first games

to exploit the Women as Reward trope,

as both reveal Samus
in various states of undress.

The better a player does,
the more clothing is removed.

If the player completes the game in under
3 hours Samus is shown without her armor

and in a leotard.

If the player finishes in under 1 hour
they are treated to Samus in a bikini.

So yes, Samus wasn’t a damsel’ed woman
waiting at the end of the game as a trophy

rather, her body itself became the prize
awarded to players for a job well done.

Later games in the Metroid series
continued the convention of

rewarding players with endings featuring
Samus in various states of undress.

In one sense Samus Aran definitely did
subvert traditional gender tropes

of the 1980s by taking on the role
of intrepid hero.

However she and her body were still
presented to players as prizes to be won.

The convention, of earning access to
cutscenes or ending vignettes

with eroticized female bodies can be found
in many titles over the past 30 years.

“Apollo”

“Whoa! Whoa!”

(Audience laughter)

“Oh!”

We can trace the roots of the
Women as Reward trope all the way back

to the beginnings of the medium itself.

As we discussed in our
damsel in distress mini-series,

upon successful completion
of many arcade games

players were rewarded with the
related Smooch of Victory trope, so named

for the kiss the hero received as a reward
for rescuing a kidnapped princess.

Sometimes the prize is blatant as with the
Standard Hero Reward

in which a king will give his
daughter to the hero.

On other occasions, it’s taken a step further
by employing the parallel

Sex of Victory or Rescue Sex trope.
Yes, it’s exactly what you think it is:

instead of a kiss, sex with the rescued
victim is the player’s reward.

“That was gonna get ugly. You saved us!”

“My pleasure, ladies.”

“Thank you, thank you. Thank you.”

“You saved my life. A bit of joy as
recumpence is not too much to ask.”

“I’m intrigued. It’s been a tough day.
I think some joy might do me good.”

(Moaning)

We’ve coined the Women as Reward trope
to describe a long-running pattern

found in interactive media.

It occurs when women
or more often women’s bodies

are employed as rewards for
player actions in video games.

The trope frames female bodies as
collectible, as tractable or as consumable

and positions women as status symbols

designed to validate the masculinity
of presumed straight male players.

There’s some overlap between the
Damsel in Distress and Women as Reward

but they function differently.

While the Damsel in Distress
trope uses women

as a plot device to motivate male heroes,

the Women as Reward trope presents women
as a formalized reward mechanism,

meaning that the reward is coded
into the game system itself.

The result of this incentive structure is
that access to women’s bodies,

women’s affection or women’s sexuality is
reduced to a simple equation that guarantees

delivery as long as the correct set of
inputs are entered into the system.