Alright, but he also wasn't kidnapped.
why are you suddenly being picky about why he got in distress, he wasn't "kidnapped": are you now saying only kidnapped damsels count as "real" damsels, and if a female damsel is hanging over a cliff and a man saves her she's not a "real damsel in distress" unless a villain put her there?
Anyway, he was grabbed and stuck in the prison by the authorities, which sound a lot like "kidnapped" anyway. Why are you suddenly changing the goal posts so much for being "in distress". If the police chucked a female character into the prison and a male character rescued her, would SHE count as a proper "kidnapped" "damsel in distress"? you're just making up bullshit qualifiers now and not applying them the same way, based on gender.
Alright, let me explain that a bit better. He was in prison. He was not in a dungeon, though they are similar. It's a thief game, yes? So he was put in jail for committing a crime, yes? Therefore, he deserved to get put in jail, yes? And you are breaking him out? That's a different trope, I'm fairly sure. The Damsel in Distress trope is about someone being unfairly placed into a position of distress, as far as I know. If a female thief got placed into prison and someone helped break her out, I would not see it as Damsel in Distress, I would see it as Jailbreak. I don't know if that's an actual term for a trope, though.
Why is there a different trope specifically for females anyway? What's the equivalent trope for males, then? Prince in Distress?
This is just retarded. The trope is played out no different. You're just labeling it "damsel in distress" on your own - a term that the game producers themselves do not usually use. We can just say "person in distress" as the meta-trope that covers both, then your false dichotomy falls apart.
It's the tvtropes label for the term and it comes to mind easily. I'm trying to point out that we should be using Person in Distress, not Damsel in Distress. Damsel refers to a female, which is why I believe the trope has some issues that need to be resolved. Just because the game producers don't call it that doesn't mean it's not true. They also don't call making mostly male main characters 'sexism', they more likely call it 'marketing'.
Ninjaedit: I've never played Thief, but if his entire role is to be rescued than yeah he's a part of that trope, my apologies. But alright, that's one game. I'm assuming from what you guys were talking about that the guy nevers does anything more in the game besides being rescued, which is part of what makes him a 'damsel'. But do you honestly believe there's an equal number of female and male 'damsels' in gaming? Or anywhere near a similar ratio? I mean, yeah, there's plenty of them, but there's a crapton of games, anyway. You can search for hours, and if you include semi-obscure games where it's easier to find non-sexist examples, you're going to have to include the shitty games about as popular with people that have plenty of equally sexist examples. You can't pick and choose and then say it's equal. To clarify, though, I'm not accusing you of that, I'm trying to warn you off of doing it