Lara Croft, the icon for both genders
This video from G4tv.com's Xplay says exactly what Rodriguez was saying in her blog, only Xplay illustrates it in a minute-thirty.
I remember the first time I played Tomb Raider. I was pretty young, probably 9 or 10 and I thought Lara Croft was the ultimate role model for girls with low self-esteem (or something like that). When I was around 15, I spent a lot of my free time watching the G4 network. This was where I saw the Icon episode pertaining solely to Lara Croft and her legacy. I was shocked to learn that early game designers created Lara Croft as a piece of ass-kicking eye candy. At this point in the video game realm, Croft was still sporting pyramid-shaped *assets.* She's come a long way since then, and I don't think the original designers ever thought she'd become such a smash hit for both men and women. I'll always love Lara, because she's one of the most hardcore characters out there and she's a chick. Yeah, chicks rock.
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Dennis G. Jerz on Lara Croft, the icon for both genders: In a very early stage of devel
Susan Carmichael on Lara Croft, the icon for both genders: Thank you for providing that c
Thank you for providing that clip. I actually never knew that hackers were able to create "Nude Raider." I am not surprised that the designers created her as eye candy; sex sells. Females loved playing her anyways, and I am one of them.
In a very early stage of development, the PC in Tomb Raider was a man. Turning him to a woman was marketing genius.
I'm fairly sure that Mirror's Edge, with a female PC who was clearly intended to be super-cool, was influenced by the jump-and-run aspects of Tomb Raider. But the game never quite captured the attention of the public.
Thank you for that information, Dr. Jerz. I never knew that the original Tomb Raider was supposed to be a man. And I agree that it was marketing genius, because Sex Sells. It's a shame that Lara will always have a somewhat demoralized image due to the reasons for her creation, but like Susan said, most female gamers have no problem playing her, because she does elicit at least some excitement to be a kick-ass archaeologist. I definitely think she's evolved as a character too. Initially, I don't think she had much emotion (I could be wrong), but as they released more games and eventually released the films, writers were forced to give Lara a story which allowed women to relate to her even more so than before.