User blog:Itsjieyang/Women's History Month Fandom Gaming Stories: RinasaurusRex and Jessica Howard

We’re thrilled to launch a series celebrating women, femme-identifying, and non-binary people in gaming, making plays and taking control in the gaming vertical. As we continue to explore the theme of Embracing Equity during Women’s History Month, we also shine a light on the power of representation as these gamers share their favorite characters.

We connected with gamers on Fandom’s staff and throughout the community as they shared their perspectives on the power of camaraderie, navigating the gaming community, and some key recommendations. You can read on or even tune in and learn more about these playmakers. There are more stories to come, so stay tuned!

But for now, we are proud to feature RinasaurusRex and Jessica Howard!

RinasaurusRex


How have games with strong female representation impacted you?

Even as it becomes more common, I still get really excited when I see games with female leads or female-heavy casts! As a kid, if I wanted a game with a female lead I had to go looking for "girls' games". Good old Barbie Ocean Discovery.

I know I've been hungry for interesting women in games since I was probably 12 or 13, after playing The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. I loved Tetra, she was this cool pirate captain, and I got so mad when suddenly it was "Actually she's Princess Zelda and we need to keep her safe in this castle."

Middle-school me was like, "Wait, but she's still Tetra! She's still a cool pirate! She does dangerous adventuring all the time! I want her to be my adventure buddy, not wait for me in the castle!"

What female-led games or female characters deserve more love/recognition?

I love the women in Red Dead Redemption 2, and the missions that feature them are some of my favorites. Ms. Grimshaw really surprised me on my first playthrough- at first most of my interaction with her was henpecking Arthur about not bathing enough. Then there's a mission where she rides along and it really made me stop and go, "Oh right, she's been running with the Van der Linde gang longer than most, she's just as much a gruff, tough outlaw as any of them when she needs to be."

I'm also a big fan of the Plague Tale games. It was interesting playing as a "protector" character who's herself a girl that- in another game- might have been seen as the one needing protection. I also liked the way the game didn't make Amicia as just some stone cold badass, you can see she's just a teenage girl. She's going through and having to do some really terrible things and it affects her.

How have gaming communities impacted your experience as a gamer?

For the most part, I've had positive experiences with gaming communities. I'm mostly into single player games, so most of my community experience is more forum/Discord type communities.

Do you have a favorite gaming wiki on Fandom to visit and why?

I'm biased towards The Last of Us wiki- I love chatting with our community there, but I also love visiting the Horizon wiki! It's very well designed and has a lot of good information.

Jessica Howard


How have games with strong female representation impacted you?

The first character I fell in love with was Final Fantasy VII's Tifa Lockhart and to this day she remains my absolute favorite female character in games. So often female characters (and real-life women!) are asked to sacrifice different aspects of their femininity as a way to set them apart from their counterparts– you can't be maternal if you're sexual, kind if you're assertive, or hopelessly romantic if you're tough.

But Tifa Lockhart is all of these things. She is multifaceted in a way so few of us are allowed to be. She is a second mother to Marlene and the AVALANCHE team, a fierce fighter who isn't afraid to look her enemies in the eyes as she dishes out hits, a hopeless romantic, an impassioned advocate, a sex symbol, a source of reason and compassion, a leader, and an idealist who refuses to abandon hope or the people she cares about. Tifa Lockhart is proof that to be feminine is not to be weak, and I owe her a lot for setting me down the right path as a young girl.

What female-led games or female characters deserve more love/recognition?

I do think female representation, and representation of women of color and members of LGBTQ+ communities, is still so lacking that we tend to cling on to and offer up a lot of recognition to every female character we can get our hands on. Some of my favorites I don't see mentioned quite as much as though are Ann from Persona 5, Magdalene from Pentiment, Red from Transistor, Jesse Faden from Control, Celes from Final Fantasy 6, and Erica from Catherine.

How have gaming communities impacted your experience as a gamer?

When you find someone who loves the same games you love, you find someone who understands a piece of you. While I've never participated in Smash Bros. tournaments, gotten super into League of Legends, or attended any esports events, the quiet communities I've found myself included in have been a constant source of comfort and motivation. Thanks to the friends I've made through gaming, I've felt more creative, curious, and perhaps most significantly, I even felt empowered enough to pursue this line of work and land a job at GameSpot!

Do you have a favorite gaming wiki on Fandom to visit and why?

In recent years, the Elden Ring and Legend of Zelda Fandom wikis have been some of my favorite places to explore. Elden Ring because how deeply I fell in love with its world last year, and The Legend of Zelda because I can't help but scour the internet attempting to figure out what will happen in Tears of the Kingdom. I've also gotten really into Metroid recently, and Wikitroid has definitely only fed into my growing obsession with Samus.