Damsel in Distress

I thought that Anita Sarkeesian's videos, Damsel in Distress; Tropes Vs. Women in Video Games part 1 and 2, brought up some very good points, and while being slightly exaggerated at times, was less accusatory, and more honest. It wasn't until she was mentioning how many games actually do employ the trope that I even noticed how widely it is used. Although, as she says, this damsel in distress trope is not new, it seems the basis of many story lines for new games. Growing up and playing video games on many different consoles, I remember getting bored with the typical "save the princess/daughter/girlfriend" quest games and eventually lost interest in playing games entirely. This is not the fault of the game, but more generally just what sells better in the gaming market. I agree that there is some sense of enjoyment when playing video games, but also believe that the stereotypical quest game should be adapted. It was refreshing to hear a female's feminist viewpoint on video games that wasn't solely bashing games and accusing them for male society's downfall. Although her argument is not perfect, it is important to see that the video game industry is depending on this trope in all aspects. These are games geared toward males, and leave the female gamer community ignored. Even in quest games with a female lead choice, there is often still the adventure of saving a sister/mother/princess, and sometimes it is even played in that the female character is only there because something happened to the male hero. While this is not entirely true for all types of video games, and some game franchises are built entirely around a female antagonist (Laura Croft, etc), why is it that these games are able to be repeated over and over with very little changes in character development and story line? How does such an overabundance of these games minimalize the female gamer's experience?