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What the likes of Samus Aran and Lara Croft began, Fetch, Ellie, Clementine, Aloy, and Faith are continuing, with a deeper cultural and commercial impact than ever before. These are all female characters, but importantly they're all incredibly different from one another, not defined by their gender but by their actions, which is a great deal more than can be said for the stereotypical space marines that action-shooters so often go in for. We're also seeing greater character customization, being asked to play as blind characters, and others struggling with mental illness. Sometimes we get to play as cuddly balls of yarn that are so damn cute I could eat them up.So, let's no longer dwell on the past's promoting of all-dudes, all-the-time game design, as that's gone, over, done. We'll always have those games, full of machismo and muscles and sweat and blood and jiggle physics, but not at the expense of so many alternatives. It's time, therefore, to concentrate on what's really important: hey, Ubisoft, quit making a new Assassin's Creed every bloody year and give us another Beyond Good & Evil already.Follow Emma Quinlan on Twitter.On Motherboard: Why Trolls Still Love to Hate Feminists