Ghengis_John
[13] Hero
While playing a young teenage girl in a killer zombie game would be a rather... ballsy idea. It's highly unlikely that the typical twenty-something gamer would sit well with that idea and marketing would like push the game to playing Joel, the main male character in the video. I suspect there probably will be segments where players will play as Ellie, but I think the predominate character that players will play will be Joel.
Then again, they could easily surprise everyone. Maybe Joel will be some computer controlled AI partner whom you have use and command to kill off those zombie targets in some fashion. Highly unlikely, though.
Well there's a large demographic now of gaming dads. I wouldn't be surprised if that also meant there were some dads who were devs. There might not be a marketing push at all or a desire to appeal to the young male demographic here if Joel is the protagonist. They might be... trying to appeal to paternal instincts? Strange I know but you've supposedly got them crawling around inside of you someplace, waiting to leap out like Wolverine to make you adopt young girls... like... Wolverine? Wow how's that for a simile? A double wolvie.
Anyhow, I'm sure for the dad audience taking care of a young girl and the drama that you can pull from that could be quite the sure-fire punch to the gut.