A question for the female escapists....

[Saucycarpdog]

Do you like Call of Duty?

Stay with me here. After the recent ghosts reveal featuring now playable female soldiers in the multiplayer, I've wondered how many females like or play call of duty. Not trying to start some gender war or anything, just wondering how many female gamers play the industry's largest franchise. Would really like to know if this is actually a big step towards gender equality in the eyes of girl gamers.

 

[jehk]

I don't find playing a modern soldier interesting at all. The following comics illustrate why.

Maybe you'll understand why the fantasy of being a woman solider isn't really appealing to many.

 

[Miss G.]

I don't.

Nothing against the game, although it's fandom leaves much to be desired, but I just don't like first person gameplay, multi-player or shooters. Regardless of what they do, its just my 3 greatest gaming hates combined. It's nice of them to include the option for those who do like these types of games and though they aren't the first to have this, hopefully it will influence other titles trying to 'follow the leader' in a positive way.

 

[an annoyed writer]

I liked COD 4 a bit, but not as much as many other games. After that one they got a bit too ridiculous for me. Now the female soldier thing in Ghosts is a positive development, but not one that I'd expect to draw in a fuckton of people.

 

[Lilani]

I prefer my shooters to have color. I love TF2 and I like Mass Effect, but to me CoD just seems too bland. Plus I know I'm not going to be getting any non-partisan critique of the wars in the Middle East. It's a AAA game so you know they're not going to portray the war in any sort of a realistic way, with all the displaced families and innocents who get killed and whatnot. They might throw a few of these things in for good measure, but whether or not the US's presence there is ultimately good or bad will never be brought into question. Even though we know operations have gone wrong and our troops have killed innocents that'll never be brought up. The bad guys will always be the only ones who kill innocents.

If CoD made a habit of critiquing the war in a way that doesn't seem like propaganda or fanwank I might be interested, but at this point it all just seems like self-congratulatory nonsense, using the glossed-over tragedies of millions to make ourselves feel like we can never do wrong.

 

[Angelowl]

Not really, there are more interesting shooters that fill my needs. Crysis, Killzone, Team Fortress 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Battlefield, Counter Strike and so on. There are no shortage of decent to good FPSes out there.

I do not own an 360 so there is no reason to buy it. I got Killzone on the PS3, as well a Singularity and Resistance. And the PC is practically overflowing with that genre. So no, not interested. More than to read angry 12-year old fanboys screaming at the fact there is a "girl" in their video game.

 

[Yuuki]

Not trying to start some gender war or anything, just wondering how many female gamers play the industry's largest franchise.

Approximately this many:

Source: http://www.datagenetics.com/blog/december12010/index.html

Granted that was a while ago, but I doubt things have budged (because the franchise certainly hasn't).

Would really like to know if this is actually a big step towards gender equality in the eyes of girl gamers.

For the absolutely tiny amount of females interested in CoD, perhaps. Although even out of that small population I doubt think there's more than minority of females who are crying out "oh gosh I wish this gloved hand holding the gun was a FEMALE gloved hand, it would totally make my immersion skyrocket".

Almost nobody cares about gender in the multiplayer scene, look at PvP in MMO's (WoW, GW2, etc) - as soon as the round starts everyone's gender becomes irrelevant, the very first thing people note about their enemy is their class, weapon, how much of a threat they could be, how to kill them, etc. Same thing in a competitive multiplayer FPS, the subtleties matter even less (read: they don't) since the entire goal is "point at enemy > shoot gun > check scoreboard".

Meanwhile for the remainder of the female gamers who don't care about CoD (or military shooters in general) and most likely never will, this means nothing.

Sorry for butting-into the thread like that and being a buzz-kill

Maybe you'll understand why the fantasy of being a woman solider isn't really appealing to many.

Sexual assault isn't the only challenge faced by female soldiers, it is simply one of many. E.g. the noticeably higher percentage of female PTSD cases (compared to males), higher physical fatigue/trauma-related injuries (compared to males), lack of separated sleeping/bathing quarters in some places they go, etc.

 

[ShiningAmber]

I personally don't play Call of Duty. Any time that I tried to get into the series, or play online for that matter, the community was extremely hostile. Maybe, it was just me. But, because of my voice I was repeatedly insulted, spammed messaged for friend invites, attacked for being female in a hundred different ways and told it wasn't my place to be there.

I still play a lot of fps games, it's just I've never really had a good time in Call of Duty.

 

[mecegirl]

I prefer my shooters to have color. I love TF2 and I like Mass Effect, but to me CoD just seems too bland. Plus I know I'm not going to be getting any non-partisan critique of the wars in the Middle East. It's a AAA game so you know they're not going to portray the war in any sort of a realistic way, with all the displaced families and innocents who get killed and whatnot. They might throw a few of these things in for good measure, but whether or not the US's presence there is ultimately good or bad will never be brought into question. Even though we know operations have gone wrong and our troops have killed innocents that'll never be brought up. The bad guys will always be the only ones who kill innocents.

If CoD made a habit of critiquing the war in a way that doesn't seem like propaganda or fanwank I might be interested, but at this point it all just seems like self-congratulatory nonsense, using the glossed-over tragedies of millions to make ourselves feel like we can never do wrong.

Not really, there are more interesting shooters that fill my needs. Crysis, Killzone, Team Fortress 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Battlefield, Counter Strike and so on. There are no shortage of decent to good FPSes out there.

Yeah. Pretty much all of that. Nothing against the genre, I just don't like COD.

 

[Aris Khandr]

I don't.

Nothing against the game, although it's fandom leaves much to be desired, but I just don't like first person gameplay, multi-player or shooters. Regardless of what they do, its just my 3 greatest gaming hates combined. It's nice of them to include the option for those who do like these types of games and though they aren't the first to have this, hopefully it will influence other titles trying to 'follow the leader' in a positive way.

This. The exact words I wanted. I hate first person view, I hate shooters, and I hate multiplayer with strangers. So you could not pay me to touch Call of Duty, Halo, or any of the similar games.

That said, I (obviously) am quite fond of the FIFA series. I recall it being big news when the NHL franchise added the option to make a female player. I would love to see the same option come to FIFA. It isn't likely to happen (as football has its own women's leagues, and thus the girls don't play with the guys), but I'd still enjoy it. More options to customise your character is never a bad thing, no matter what game you're playing.

 

[white_wolf]

Lots of girls play call of duty a relative of mine is a lead in the MP and he's got tons of fan girls infact they'll all get into one game with him and scream and talk to the point he hits the mute button. He likes his fans but hates the chatter. It is a riot to sit there and listen to his male and female fans scream, squeal, and try to get him to friend them. My favorite is listening to the men who act all tough till he repeatedly blows off their heads till they want to cry. Those guys come back with revenge squads that also epically fail.

But girls OP they play all types of games FPS, RPGS, Horror, MMOs, Adventure you name it they play it. I like horde mode on GOW more then the actual story, I play Battlefield, Sniper Elite V2, Metal Gear but I've also played Velvet Assassins, Assassins Creed, Command and Conquer, COD, Halo, Red Dead Redemption, Fatal Frame, and Sleeping Dogs so really you can't just say girls play X only.

But more to your question I guess you want to know if I will pick up ghost because of the woman? It does peek my interest but I don't go picking up games just because I can play as a women. There has to be a plot there and even better a character I'd like to fallow for instance I like Harry more then Heather in the Silent Hill series he's sympathetic if I was I man I might be able to relate to him but while I can relate to heather she's stereotypical and her game is chalked full of distorted womanhood references and her character quality is poor which annoy and make me hate her story more. In short I'll keep an eye on ghost but I'm not going for day one just because a girl is in MP if the game itself is decent then I'll buy it and she's a bonus if she's not just a carbon copy of the male or better known as the men with breasts.

 

[Dragonbums]

I don't find playing a modern soldier interesting at all. The following comics illustrate why.

Maybe you'll understand why the fantasy of being a woman solider isn't really appealing to many.

True.
But for one you have to respect the ones that continue to serve the military regardless.

I have a friend named Lexy who takes the military very seriously, when she was a junior in high school she would always go to military camp and train her ass off to be the best in her rank.
She is finally going to join now that she has graduated, and I don't think something like this is going to stop her

Let's not also forget that they many statistics (not talking about this comic exclusively) also leave out the fact that just as many, if not more men probably get sexually assaulted in the military as well.
Let me clarify that this is NOT me trying to negate the seriousness of a sexual assault on either gender.

Personally, this kind of crap shouldn't be happening in the military. And if I'm not mistaken, the military hasn't exactly been recruiting some of the most "honorable" people as of late. Especially not at the rate it's at right now.
There needs to be a serious overhaul in who gets in and who can get their act together before they can even think about serving under the name of a troop.

 

[Dragonbums]

I personally have no interest in playing CoD.
First, because of how generic and boring it looks with it's grey, brown, and blue color palette and it's overall uninteresting art design, and secondly because of the trash that calls itself a "community". Bravo on the CoD team though for adding a female soldier for the sake of acknowledging that women do indeed play those games. For me however, that shit isn't going to lure me in.

Oddly enough, I play another popular shooter.
That just happens to be Team Fortress 2.

Why?

It's colorful, funny, the art direction is unique and has aged spectacularly over the years, the game doesn't take itself seriously, and the community for the most part are pleasant people to hang with.

 

[Mike Richards]

I prefer my shooters to have color. I love TF2 and I like Mass Effect, but to me CoD just seems too bland. Plus I know I'm not going to be getting any non-partisan critique of the wars in the Middle East. It's a AAA game so you know they're not going to portray the war in any sort of a realistic way, with all the displaced families and innocents who get killed and whatnot. They might throw a few of these things in for good measure, but whether or not the US's presence there is ultimately good or bad will never be brought into question. Even though we know operations have gone wrong and our troops have killed innocents that'll never be brought up. The bad guys will always be the only ones who kill innocents.

If CoD made a habit of critiquing the war in a way that doesn't seem like propaganda or fanwank I might be interested, but at this point it all just seems like self-congratulatory nonsense, using the glossed-over tragedies of millions to make ourselves feel like we can never do wrong.

This is slightly off topic but I never get tired of having the chance to recommend it to people, have you played Spec Ops: The Line? I'm sure you've heard a lot of people before me talk about it, but it addresses just about everything you brought up. It's probably one of the best tragedies I've seen in a long time, gaming or otherwise.

Constantly playing with expectations of what a shooter like this is supposed to do, it quickly becomes genuinely dramatic, horrifying, surreal, deeply affecting, brutally honest, and, considering where most of AAA gaming is at currently, astonishingly brave. Since you mentioned it, it's also a good example of how you give a realistic middle-eastern modern combat shooter an art style and aesthetic that's actually visually interesting and expressive.

The best part is that is that it never once feels like they are going to extremes just to shock or impress. They've got a real story they want to tell, and all the terrible things that happen have a real literary and thematic point. If you enjoy stories that can go to a very dark place I highly suggest you track it down as soon as possible.

 

[Voulan]

I have to say it's the only Call of Duty that I've considered getting for a long time. I have World at War, and the only part I like about it is Nazi Zombies - basically because it involves team work instead of me getting screwed over by poor internet. I used to play only that quite a bit with a group of people after we managed to get to level 21, and when they found out I was a girl all I got was a, "oh. Cool!" which was a huge relief.

So that's a maybe. Although I'm probably going to say no regardless. It's definitely a step in the right direction, though.

 

[Noetherian]

I like its acronym. All the irritation I usually associate with Call of Duty gets washed away when I can pretend everyone's talking about fish.

In serious, my opinion has pretty much been stated. I don't like first-person-perspective games; I find an over-the-shoulder view where I can see my character much more engaging. I prefer sci-fi/fantasy settings like Halo/Mass Effect or bright, silly objective-based games like TF2 to "realistic" killing sprees. I do sometimes play CoD and other shooters with my little brother (because he likes them and I like cooperative multiplayer vs. zombies and/or the chance to fling grenades at my loved ones), but it's not the sort of game I'd buy for myself.

 

[jehk]

I don't find playing a modern soldier interesting at all. The following comics illustrate why.

Maybe you'll understand why the fantasy of being a woman solider isn't really appealing to many.

True.
But for one you have to respect the ones that continue to serve the military regardless.

I have a friend named Lexy who takes the military very seriously, when she was a junior in high school she would always go to military camp and train her ass off to be the best in her rank.
She is finally going to join now that she has graduated, and I don't think something like this is going to stop her

Let's not also forget that they many statistics (not talking about this comic exclusively) also leave out the fact that just as many, if not more men probably get sexually assaulted in the military as well.
Let me clarify that this is NOT me trying to negate the seriousness of a sexual assault on either gender.

Personally, this kind of crap shouldn't be happening in the military. And if I'm not mistaken, the military hasn't exactly been recruiting some of the most "honorable" people as of late. Especially not at the rate it's at right now.
There needs to be a serious overhaul in who gets in and who can get their act together before they can even think about serving under the name of a troop.

I'd wish the US military lived up to all our ideals. Sadly it doesn't which is why the fantasy of playing a modern solider has no appeal to me.

I loved being a futuristic women solider in Mass Effect where these kind problems didn't seem to exist. No one batted an eye about Shepard being a women.

 

[schrodinger]

Not at all.

I don't like the franchise because frankly modern military shooters, to me, are boring. Why do i want to play as your average joe american soldier shooting russians or whatever the favorite meatbag is at the moment, in a grey/brown city while intensely looking at chest high walls 1/3 or the time. When i played COD4 back when it originally released I was impressed because there weren't many like it, but now? nope. I do like the occasional round of COD zombies, especially mob of the dead because it's something interesting. It also doesn't help that i'm tried of the 'US military, HOORAH!' shtick in RL and don't want it polluting my games; That's one of the things i liked about Spec Ops, it balances out the good and the bad.

While i appreciate the inclusion of female soldiers it still won't persuade me to pick up COD.

 

[sweetylnumb]

Do you like Call of Duty?

Stay with me here. After the recent ghosts reveal featuring now playable female soldiers in the multiplayer, I've wondered how many females like or play call of duty. Not trying to start some gender war or anything, just wondering how many female gamers play the industry's largest franchise. Would really like to know if this is actually a big step towards gender equality in the eyes of girl gamers.

I prefer other, better shooters.