Lara Croft the heroine that challenged gender stereotypes and encouraged revolution in gaming

Between the years 1981 and 1985 there originated 5 games that involved female protagonists. Games such as Ms Pac-Man in 1982, Papri from Girls Garden in 1984, and Ninja Princess in 1985 which was later replaced by a male protagonist. These games weren't taken too seriously and were not seen as impactful for women's empowerment. One resembled a wheel of cheese, another was a child gardener, and the other was so disliked she was replaced by a man. It wasn't until around 1986 that female protagonists were starting to be taken a little more seriously. And given more badass, influential leading roles. Saying this, characters such as Samus Aran in Metroid, and Toby "Kissy" Masuyo from Baraduke, were only revealed to be women at the very end of the game. It wasn't until Lara Croft's introduction in 1996 that things truly began to change.

Tomb Raider was the first 3D puzzle-platformer, action-adventure game of its kind. The game consists of a female protagonist named Lara Croft, who, in her own right, dominated the world of archaeology. The game had you traversing through beautiful, historical locations found rooted inside caves or tombs, or deep beneath the surface of the ground. The graphics of the game were nothing like the graphics we experience today in modern-age gaming - where everything looks real and fully immersive. Back in 1996, Toby Gard had realised a new way of gaming, a way to almost entirely explore the world that you were in, and for its time yes, the locations were impressive as well as fascinating. The player had to work their way through a multitude of different puzzles that often left their brain feeling overheated from so much thinking. It had you searching for historical and magical artefacts whilst simultaneously fighting off human enemies, ferocious animals, dinosaurs, and magical creatures such as centaurs, mummies, and demonic creatures. Tomb Raider's debut was, and is to this day, referred to by many reviewers as "ground-breaking" for a variety of different reasons. The developers themselves had purposefully underbudgeted production believing that the game wouldn't sell more than 100,000 copies. Despite the short development time and setbacks of graphics production, the game ended up selling over 7 million copies.

Despite its success, there is a large debate surrounding Lara Croft's appearance in quite a few of the first games. One is that, according to an editor at Polygon, Samit Sarkar “Launching a franchise with a female archaeologist was seen as a novel concept... Her character model was relatively primitive... but it was plainly obvious that she was designed as an adolescent male fantasy: chest twice as wide as her waist, teal tank top, khaki booty shorts." Croft very quickly became a hyper-sexualised character in a lot of the advertisement that was going around at the time. Some believed that this hyper-sexualisation took away from her ability to be an authentic role model for young female gamers. However, for many young women, this was the first time they ever truly got to experience playing a full-length game, with a female protagonist that held a supreme and powerful role that was predominantly male-dominated. And those that played Tomb Raider, especially young girls, understood that she was far more than just the shape of her body. She was a strong, smart, capable, independent badass! "[Lara] was a ballsy female, she was intelligent, she was clever. You know, it's the era of the Spice girls, so girl power was all-important and she absolutely fitted that." Amanda Slayton-Joslin, a consumer PR for Lara Croft, stated in an interview on BBC Radio 1.

The issue began when the media decided to take Lara's image and, with intentions to entice more of the male audience, warped Lara into a sexual object. However, when Lara was originally imagined, there was never an intention to make her seem like this lustful, erotic character. Toby Gard, the conceptualiser of the Tomb Raider game and protagonist, became so enraged at what his creation had become that he left the company. "Soon after the success of the original game... Toby Gard left Core after seeing his character exploited by various, unapproved marketing companies. This moment is key to understanding why the Lara Croft character would eventually devolve into more of a sex sells gimmick, rather than the strong female hero she was originally intended to be. This would only get worse after Toby's departure and Lara's character, at least in how it appeared in marketing would shift to being more sexually provocative." (link youtube video) Back in 1998, in an interview with journalist David Jenkins, Gard was asked what he originally wanted to portray with Lara as a protagonist, to which he responded"The idea was to create a female character who was a heroine, you know, cool, collected, in control, that sort of thing. The problem with those other games is that the female characters are actually there for purely exploitative purposes. I know you could argue that Lara with her comic book style over-the-top figure is exploitative, but I don't agree. I think it's ridiculous to say that portraying stylised people is degrading. You can represent an over-the-top hero figure by augmenting characteristics like a jutting jaw, wide shoulders, thin waist etc. and that is not degrading to men."

A 2018 article by Vox explained that "Lara’s sex appeal is also what made her one of gaming’s most groundbreaking characters. If she’d been less sexy, she arguably couldn’t have gotten away with being the lead of a video game franchise — and that was huge... major game franchises basically didn’t have playable female characters as their leads." As sad as it is, Lara had to be hyper-sexualised in order to break through the glass ceiling. Despite the debate behind her sex appeal, it gave way for a strong female lead to take centre stage and later, progressively show light to a powerful female protagonist, who allowed many young girls to see that a woman could be a hero and the lead character in a game. There was finally a powerful female protagonist to look up to. This allowed for more female leading characters to appear in video games later on. Metroid and Baraduke were a cop-out in "female lead" gaming. On the other hand, Lara remained at the forefront at all times, she was constantly the centre of the show, there was no denying she was a woman, and beyond the gazes that she raised, she proved that she was much more than just her body. No men could tell her what to do, she was the boss of a male team, and she governed over them. She stood her ground against many male villains and won archaeological awards over the other male archaeologists. She figured out the puzzles, she climbed walls, she swam in crocodile-infested waters, and she killed a T-Rex. There was no denying that Croft was powerful!

By creating a character that was visibly strong and independent with a job role that was predominately male-centred, it allowed for female characters and female protagonists to start leaning away from the usual damsel in distress or sidekick roles that were often allocated to the female game characters. While Lara Croft has been objectified in terms of her sexuality and figure, her character has consistently clung to her autonomy, independence and self-sufficiency throughout the series. In the classic games, Lara Croft frequently embarks on solo adventures, tackling puzzles and exploring tombs independently, without any reliance on a male counterpart. Her depiction as an explorer and archaeologist further proved her love for curiosity and her ability to solve brain-baffling problems which also challenged the idea that women are better suited for passive and non-intellectual work roles. The fact that Lara was an intellectual, athletic, adventurous, and resourceful character who was physically capable of dealing with any situation that was dealt to her, unveiled the ways in which women can be self-reliant icons.

Additionally, her iconic presence and unmoving personality and strength gained much success and popularity that was a defiance to the gaming industry in itself. As Tomb Raider's popularity grew, so did the type of audience turning towards video games. Ian Livingstone, the former executive chairman of Eidos at the time explained that 30% of purchases of the original Tomb Raider game were made by women, and 50% of actual players were also women. Meaning that half the game's audience were women who finally had the capability to leverage this new opportunity of playing as a female character. Lara captivated and accumulated the attention of a large number of female audiences, proving that video games were not solely for boys or men. Her "take no bullshit" personality as well as her thirst for adventure called to many women and young girls who had formerly felt belittled or invalidated in the gaming industry. A female protagonist encouraged more women to take up gaming and participate in the gaming community.

Moreover, Tomb Raider's success proved that male protagonists/heroes were not only unnecessary but also redundant. The continuous expansion, evolution and ongoing enthusiasm of players across genders and generations is proof that female leads are just as vital, and cause just as much of an impact as their heroic male counterparts. And from Lara's portrayal and influence, games started to question and re-examine a lot of their narratives and representations in the world of video games, which lead to the dawning and need for a wider range of diverse character archetypes, and allowing for far greater female protagonist portrayals and depictions.

But it wasn't merely the gender of Tomb Raider's lead character that was revolutionising about the first game. Tomb Raider set new standards for gameplay, storytelling and character development which pushed boundaries within gaming mechanics. "The classic Tomb Raider series... pioneered the fully 3D rendered 3rd person video game. It not only brought adventure but it blended that genre with platform and puzzles, making it a harder play-through with smarter AI and traps. It also introduced multi-layered levels, a new feature to action adventures that were routinely limited to a flat-floor system."

Published back in 2016, in Retro Gamer's 163rd issue, was an interview with a handful of programmers, composers, and designers of the first two Tomb Raider games. These interviews provided context behind, not only what it was like to construct the games, but also, how ingenious the production was. There were several aspects of the Tomb Raider game that were brand new and never before seen in gaming at the time, it was at the forefront of a lot of gaming innovation. From environment building and processing to location-specific music, as well as the ability for a character to move around freely and interact with the environment and objects within a 3-D world. One of the original programmers, Gavin Rummery, stated that when Toby Gard came to the team at Core and proposed his new idea it seemed "envisaged... I wasn't sure it was possible because nothing like it existed... the greatest challenge was how on earth we would create the actual environments and get Lara to interact with them... Heather [a graphic artist on the team] was attempting to build them directly in 3D Studio which could only edit in wireframe mode, but neither Paul or I had a clue how we could get a character to interact with freeform environments given the processing constraints of the day... the breakthrough was the decision to build everything on a grid." Not to mention the fact that Tomb Raider was the first game to birth the concept of location-specific music which not only make the game more exciting but got the players' heart racing, which was part of the fun.

In short, the debut of the Tomb Raider game and Lara Croft marked a meaningful milestone in the representation of female protagonists in the gaming industry. Despite a handful of prior games featuring female characters, they often lacked impact or just seemed downright foolish. However, Tomb Raider broke new ground by presenting a strong, intelligent, and independent female lead. Regardless of any controversy surrounding Lara's objectification within media marketing, her character remained resilient and empowered throughout the series. Tomb Raider's success captivated and drew in a diverse audience, including women and girls who had previously felt excluded from the gaming community. The popularity of the game demonstrated that female protagonists are just as influential and impactful as male leads, which catalysed a re-evaluation of narratives and representations in video games. Furthermore, Tomb Raider revolutionized gameplay mechanics, by blending several genres into one fully rendered 3D interactive world. The innovations introduced by the game set the stage for future action-adventure titles, leaving a lasting legacy in the gaming industry. Overall, the iconic protagonist, Lara Croft, played a pivotal role in challenging gender stereotypes, expanding the range of character archetypes, and paving the way for greater diversity in video game storytelling.