The rest is not directed to you specifically, only the grammar nazi type...
I don't care about spelling and grammar myself. I believe I can get the point of the posters regardless of the errors. I feel bad for people who get hung up on that because something like "thier" and "its" may be spelled or used wrong. If you can not understand or are confused by the sentence "I painted thier car, its now blue" because I did not use it's and had a spelling mistake, you need to take a serious look at your own comprehension level and stop worrying about others grammar skills.
The other option is to admit to the fact that your grammar hangup is one of elitism and not really a comprehension problem for you at all. It is your attempt to stand above the crowd and be noticed.
I associate grammar Nazi types to the not so smart contestant on Jeopardy. You've been through the first round and only have $200. You are a little gun shy because you had $400 but forgot to phrase one of your answers in the form of a question. The guys next to you keep picking the categories of "Apple" , "Google today", and "Washed up sci-fi series that are resurrected for one final season". You want to prove you are one of the crowd but you just can't seem to get to the buzzer on time. The harder you try to collect your thoughts, the harder it is for you to concentrate. You are starting to look like a real fool here, things aren't working out, your geek card is on the line and your low UID is in danger. You only have one shot, you need to snap back to reality. Finally, a break, the dude next to you takes "Off topic and does not matter" for $400. The answer is read, you know the question and whack the buzzer and you speak into the microphone with extreme confidence.. "What is a grammar error and/or spelling mistake". You finally got your chance to shine and you did!

Friend of mine got Super Metroid on the SNES when it first came out. He was a big Metroid fan, having played both the NES and Gameboy versions to death. Anyway, on the SNES version, when you died, Samus' suit disintegrated and Samus herself emerged wearing some kind of underwear getup. Nothing too risque thankfully. There was also a high pitched scream as you died.

My friend's first reaction: "Why is there a girl in Samus Aran's suit?".

The fact that Samus Aran is female has absolutely no bearing on the gameplay of Metroid. Anyone who plays the game for long enough will cease to care. At best, its a marketing novelty factor, like the flashy suit or spaceship. When you really, truely play a game for dozens of hours, superflous things like that fade into obscurity.

My friend wasn't alone. I'll bet there were many fans of Metroid who has let this fact completly escape them. If asked the question: "Are there any female lead characters in some of your favourite games?" I'd wager many, many Metroid fans would be streched to answer "Metroid" quickly. This is because, a true gamer will simply not care, and these facts will slip their minds.

It's like if you were asked to name a game with a black lead character. You might be harded pressed to do it, because you simply didn't care. And no, it's not the game you were thinking of.

If you want to make the characters "ethnicity" part of the game, the only way to do that is to make such things user customisable. A la MMORPGs, Oblivion, etc, . Other than that, the specifics of the characters themselves, outside of their in game abilities, are irrelevant, as any avid gamer will tell you. Who ever picked Blaze because she was a woman? I mean come on?

At best, its a marketing novelty factor, like the flashy suit or spaceship

I dig what you're saying, but how can the original Metroid be faulted for marketing novelty when the fact that Samus is female is only revealed if you were a super-player? Nintendo didn't make a big deal about her gender in early marketing; she looks like a pixellized robot on the box cover. Most players simply had no idea because they never finished the game. Back then we had no internet to ruin things within .5 hours of a game's release.

Samus's reveal was more of a bonus surprise for dedicated players than anything else. And, motivational underwear aside, she still remains an early and inspiring example of a female video game heroic avatar. Which is cool, having diversity of leads in video games (male, female, alien, young, old, heroic, evil etc). I hope you're not arguing against that.

And not too long ago, there was an article about how often male players choose a female character, even in games that are not customizable or online. So, window dressing does matter. Yeah, gameplay is important, but story and characters and immersion are also important. Calling it "irrelevant" is an unfair whitewash.

Of course, turning Samus into an obviously mega-hot Lara Croft / Witchblade / Lady Death style of female "role model" is pure marketing... but that's more of a latter day invention. And I still would say Nintendo hasn't milked that in the way that Tomb Raider or Bloodrayne a hundred other games have.

I'd wager many, many Metroid fans would be streched to answer "Metroid" quickly.

Hey asshole, how about you go buy games that don't have cutscenes. There's enough to go around. I hear Lumines is pretty cool.

Anyone who picked up a Metal Gear game in the last decade and was surprised to find lots of lengthy cutscenes, obviously doesn't know very much about what they're buying.

Why is it that everybody has to sound off about this, when it's really easy to just buy games that are not story-driven.

To review: