I kind of feel the same way. Not quite sure why but for about a year now I've played, with the exception of Deus Ex, only female characters in every game I've played - and I play a lot of video games. I won't deny the existence of developers favouring the male audience in the creation of their games, but I also think that a lot of people on here are ignoring the fact/existence of the veritable cornucopia of video games out there that provide both gender options, or even solely female protagonists... Maybe this dynamic is just more available on the PC than on the console, I don't know.loc978 said:
Are mainstream devs deliberately discouraging women from gaming?
- Thread starter Moonlight Butterfly
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I think the problem is that video games set in a medieval history have less of a female presence than actual history, because they make the assumption that marginalized=weak.bahumat42 said:
I don't see it as active discouragement, but a more practical situation: Gamers are mostly male, and games cost millions of dollars to make. Game producers can't afford to take the risks that are inherent with making a game that is appealing to female gamers since there is a distressing amount of male gamers who would actively destroy word-of-mouth advertising about a game. And word of mouth advertising is perhaps the most effective form of advertising out there; if Yahtzee says "This game is shiate." and your best bud tells you "Dude this game is the shiate, man! It's so fun!", who is going to influence you more?
It's a situation that will resolve itself in the next generation or so, but until then we're going to have to put up with games that think that female characters have to be 18 year old DD+'s wearing a bikini and be characterized as nymphomaniac bisexuals. It sucks and is absurdly stupid, but those games sell. And that's the bottom line.
It's a situation that will resolve itself in the next generation or so, but until then we're going to have to put up with games that think that female characters have to be 18 year old DD+'s wearing a bikini and be characterized as nymphomaniac bisexuals. It sucks and is absurdly stupid, but those games sell. And that's the bottom line.
Bolded: the root of the problem.bahumat42 said:
To start with, you may have heard of Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria. You know, the reasons that, respectively, we named certain periods the Elizabethan period and the Victorian period. They're examples of individuals who, despite being women in sexist societies, exercised a great deal of power.
But, you might ask, what about historical societies that were even more sexist than Elizabethan/Victorian England?
Take ancient Egypt, where it was considerably less common to have female rulers exercising formal power. One of the most successful pharaohs was Hatshepsut, demonstrating that sufficiently smart and political individuals tend to make their own exceptions. You also historically see women exercising considerable political power even when denied formal power - Sak K'uk' was what we would consider a queen regent during her son's (Pacal, later Pacal the Great) childhood, but continued to exercise considerable de facto power over their city-state even after passing on formal leadership to her son as he came of age.
So the upshot of all this is, yes, women do play a major role even in societies that marginalize them. As you would suspect, them being 50%+ of the population and all.
.....
How about we stop arguing and ask for better characters in general?
Maybe?
Possibly?
It's always got to be "Us or Them" with these forums.
How about we stop arguing and ask for better characters in general?
Maybe?
Possibly?
It's always got to be "Us or Them" with these forums.
wait an buck swabbing minute, the protagonist in risen 2 is not an nameless hero, last i heard he had a name and everything, cant for the love of me remember what it was though.
anyways yeah we could use more females in the lead but right now there isn't much to do about it except waiting for a game with a good female lead and buy that one, that should tell them its a good idea.
anyways yeah we could use more females in the lead but right now there isn't much to do about it except waiting for a game with a good female lead and buy that one, that should tell them its a good idea.
Yes, but if we aren't demanding all nonwhite persons be portrayed in such games as slaves and shit, why are we demanding women be kept in the kitchen?bahumat42 said:
There is simply no good reason for it, it does not take a genius to imagine a woman could pick up a sword and there's no reason for one to get their panties in a twist about it. People who are not straight white dudes wanting occasional representation in games beyond stupid stereotypes is not the PC-Apocolypse some people are insinuating.
STRIKE! Fuck yes, I remember playing that on my SNES! I borrowed it from the local videostore like 6 or 7 times when I was like 5 or something! Oh how I loved that game (i believe it was urban strike, the first mission you would flight up/north and there was another helicopter, or to the left there were swimmers being circled by a shark.
New game: remake Strike series. HD graphics, remastered/replaced sound with little to no change in the gameplay.
Anyway, my view I guess has been said already; that it isn't so much being discouraging as either stereotypical or not well/accurately/realistically presented. They all seem to have the same kind of role or personality. I hate to even bring this up, but one of the best female characters in gaming history is Samus Aran. They ruined every shred or that reputation if you count the abomination that is Other M.
But for that matter I think either masculinity or even just the male characters themselves are also occasionally portrayed strangely, Gears for example.
They resemble gorillas more than the average man. One or two characters and it wouldn't have been as strange, but anyone with a face is either a big, heavy, badarse tank or fit athlete, on top of that the burly, muscle bound, apocalyptic annihilation army gorillas are able to do things IN FULL COMBAT GEAR that any normal person would have trouble with. The way they use ladders would be the best example of my point.
A) Women did not, as it turns out, have a negligible role in the politics of medieval Europe. See above post. As a rule, you will find that in most places in times 50% of the population did not sit around doing needlework.bahumat42 said:
B) Once you have lone individuals going into battle against giant fire-breathing lizards, you've already taken liberties with the social dynamics of the times (if a giant fire-breathing lizard were to show up on the doorstep of the Holy Roman Empire, they'd respond with armies, ballistas, and/or cannon, not a dude in plate armor) and with the limits of the human body (good luck finding a swordfighter - regardless of gender - who can take on things that can level villages, armies, etc. by himself/herself).
If you are in a fanatasy game killing dragons and you are annoyed because you could also be a lady killing dragons I humbly submit the problem is not with the game. =Pbahumat42 said:
Nobody is forcing you to be a lady most of the time, I just wish I wasn't forced to be a dude most of the time. Women do things too.