This Sunday is Mother’s Day, and I want to take this opportunity to celebrate the amazing mothers in gaming. Often they are stereotyped as sending our hero off with the love and support that only a mom can give, but frequently moms are heroes themselves, standing toe-to-toe with the most fiendish of foes. Mothers can also be stellar villains in games, and often it’s their maternal instincts that makes them so formidable. Regardless of their role, moms rarely fail to prove just how bad-ass that they can be in gaming, and they deserve their time to shine.

Celebrating mothers in games is extremely important at this time. It is no secret that women are marginalized in the video game community, and female characters are almost always designed to be either damsels in distress or sex symbols. Female gamers need relatable characters that they can see themselves in; strong women, beautiful women, but still grounded in a sense of reality.

It’s also important in that so many gamers that were born in the late 80s and throughout the 90s are now adults, becoming parents themselves. This audience is no longer comprised of children dreaming of saving the world by being the chosen one; it is made of older, more experienced people, and largely parents that may even see themselves as guides for their own little “chosen ones.” More video games need to reflect that.

Who are your favorite moms in games? Below is a short list of some of my personal favorites, but it is by no means comprehensive. I’d love to see the comment section filled with your own personal maternal heroes (or villains!) that we can all acknowledge as some of gaming’s very best.

1. Sonya Blade (Mortal Kombat)
2. The Boss (Metal Gear Solid 3)
3. Dahlia Gillespie (Silent Hill)
4. Joyce Price (Life is Strange)
5. Flemeth (Dragon Age)
6. Freya (God of War)
7. Mad Moxxi (Borderlands)
8. Sarah Sisulart (Lost Odyssey)
9. Ana Amari (Overwatch)
10. Alma (F.E.A.R.)

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