Brink : No Girls Allowed

[Judgedread]

You guys realize that it is much more than just changing character models right? If they were to add female characters in the games they would also need to add in a whole slew of new customizations as well. Almost none of the hair styles would work with a female model, so they would need a whole new set of those, every single one of the outfits would need to be remodeled. On top of that they would need to add in a set of new faces for the females, and faces take a lot of time to model and animate. On top of that all they need a set of new voice actors to go over every line in the game uttered by a player character. All of this takes time, and in the case of a developer, time costs a huge amount of money.

The company obviously wanted to get the game out on time. If they had decided to add in female characters and the game was delayed by 3-5 months would you be happy then? Would you accept it if they came out and said, 'Sorry guys the game wont be out till late 3rd quarter because we decided to add in female characters.'

Use your brains and realize that the decision not to add female character models was done for economic reasons and was not due to laziness...

 

[Outright Villainy]

This isn't some crazy game breaking thing which ruins the game we're talking about, which the defenders seem to believe their strawman to be saying. It's less about the game itself, and more the trend it's steadfastly following, which at this stage is pretty silly.

The issue here I see, is the game touts extensive customisation as a selling point, that you can make the character you want. Well guess what, not representing half the population of planet earth isn't off to a great start. They said adding female characters would mean less customisation in other areas. So? Limited customisation with female models is far better than none at all, since female models are pretty distinct from males for bloody obvious reasons. The trend here is ignoring female players, as if women aren't important enough to cater for in the most basic way. For the male players, they make sure you have that hairstyle just right or some wrist band, which is much more important than giving anything to the female populace apparently.

 

[GiantRaven]

Use your brains and realize that the decision not to add female character models was done for economic reasons and was not due to laziness...

As true as this may be, it is still a shame that the option isn't there. I know it isn't a huge deal but I do think that every potential lost sale due to this (even if it's a small amount) is unfortunate.

Overall though, you are correct and it isn't worth getting overly worked up over.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

I'm a girl and I want girl characters. End of story.

Which is completely fair. How many guys would be complaining if the situation was reversed?

I'd be surprised if one complained, and if he did he'd be called a sexist bigot by you and your ilk.

"My ilk"? Guys would throw fits. I was just bringing up the point that wanting to play as your own gender was a perfectly reasonable notion.

 

[Anarien]

I apologize if this had been done before, I did take a look at the forums to see but I might not have looked back far enough.

The upcoming title Brink is based largely upon customization. You can be just about any race, with any style of clothing, hair, the works. But you cannot be female.

Now I?m sure we?ll see a lot of retaliation against what I?m about to say, such as adding in females would have taken time the devs didn?t have. Such as more males game then females. As true as they may be however they do not make the fact that a game, largely based on customization, is excluding half of the human race.

It?s true, we have seen this before in many games. But even shooters such as Halo and Gears of War have stepped up to include female avatars or multiplayer options. Those games don?t have customization passed some colour and load outs.

I am personally very, very disappointed that you cannot play a female in a game based on customizing your character to represent what you want.

Discuss your thoughts on the topic.

Great, another one. I will repeat what I said in the past 12 topics on this damn game.

Halo, the second one as well as the first and third didn't allow you to be a female. (Halo 3's voice doesn't count). Call of Duty didn't have females. Medal of Honour doesn't have females. TEAM FUCKING FORTRESS 2 DOESN"T HAVE FEMALES.

And the whole 'well this game is based on customization so therefore there MUST be females' is bullshit. And I have said it is bullshit. Why? TF2. TF2 is completely based on customization, hats, guns, special medals and what not. Also, if all of you are really wanting female models then please, use a computer and BUILD FUCKING MODS. That usually seems to help.

Also, did you ever think it had to do with not enough time and money? They spent millions of dollars and hundreds of man-hours on the game and customization. It would further set back a few months (5-6 being generous) to work female models, customization for the female models, all into the game. And why? Does it break the game to not have them? NO. This isn't a fucking RPG it is a fucking Shooter. Get over it. Please, for the love of all that is holy GET OVER IT. (That is to all of you bitching about this, not just the OP)

/rage

More privilege and the use of a misogynist term to boot ("bitching"). You are not personally affected by any of this. That doesn't mean others are not. If the game were made better by a delay, then delay it. Of course, many people (mostly men) will say this doesn't make it better, this will half-ass it, etc, but those are all excuses. If the devs delayed it to add in some other feature, you and others probably wouldn't take the same attitude. The message they are sending is that customization is their selling point, but females aren't worth the time and money to put in the game. It's 2011. This kind of attitude is unacceptable.

If people just sit back, don't make their voices heard, and just accept this kind of thing, then it's tacit acceptance and it will continue.

Also, TF2 wasn't about any sort of customization at the beginning, and it didn't let you create your character anyhow. So invalid comparison.

 

[omega 616]

Just pick the most effeminate looking options, pretend it's a flat chested woman, who prefers short hair.

I don't know whether this is just 'cos I am a guy and all the main people are usually guys and I usually make guys in make a player but I don't care about my gender. Maybe if it was women all the time, with the odd muscle bound freak of a guy wearing nothing but a man thong, I might be pissed and have a different opinion.

Sure, if I get different options/story when I am a woman, I will make a female without a doubt or hesitation.

It just doesn't strike me as a big thing whether I am action man or action man with really big pecs, long hair, rounder ass and a high pitched voice. Thats all this game will come down to, looks.

Men don't have anything in FPS, not a single buldge in the pants area. Women have two beach balls attached to them (with little to cover them), long styled hair, rounder ass and a girly voice thats the only difference.

Isn't Brink an FPS, do you want to look down and instead of feet, you see pink beach balls? 'cos if not theres going to be no difference between man and woman then.

I don't mean to come off as a sexist pig (but I am so thats how it comes across) but the lack of being a woman doesn't matter to me.

Like I said before though, see my second paragraph...

 

[The Funslinger]

Did Halo have female charecters in IT'S multiplayer? What about Section 8? I don't know why Brink is the upset. Of course, it is a little more jaring since there isn't power armor for everyone. Despite Spartans in Multiplayer looking male, it doesn't take much to imigine one as a girl.

That, and in Halo, you can set your vocals to female. So when you get smashed by a warthog, your AAAAGGGHHH!!! will be more feminine XD Although the OP mentioned this, and I might be wrong, but you sounded unaware of it.

 

[The Funslinger]

I'm a girl and I want girl characters. End of story.

Which is completely fair. How many guys would be complaining if the situation was reversed?

I'd be surprised if one complained, and if he did he'd be called a sexist bigot by you and your ilk.

"My ilk"? Guys would throw fits. I was just bringing up the point that wanting to play as your own gender was a perfectly reasonable notion.

I'm relatively sure, due to the fact that he's called Trolldor, that comment was meant to provoke a reaction, ignore it.

 

[Popadoo]

102,247,681,536,000,000.
This is the total amount of possible character outcomes, and it's a fucking lot.
Anyway, Heavy characters wouldn't work as women, and if the Resistance is the people rising against the Police, would they REALLY send out their Women? Really?

 

[somonels]

Having two genders would halve the optimization possibilities that having one gender grants. I'm not much on an FPS player, but I don't remember TF2 having female models, nor CoDs, or MWs, or Battlefields, bad companies, wolfensteins.... etc
Star Wars Battlefront 2 did though.

 

[loodmoney]

[... I]f the Resistance is the people rising against the Police, would they REALLY send out their Women? Really?

Yeah, I mean, surely if you are fighting for survival you want to be sending in as few soldiers as possible into each battle, right? Because we all know it's easier to win wars if you have as few guns on your side as possible...right?

Having two genders would halve the optimization possibilities that having one gender grants. I'm not much on an FPS player, but I don't remember TF2 having female models, nor CoDs, or MWs, or Battlefields, bad companies, wolfensteins.... etc
Star Wars Battlefront 2 did though.

If the argument here is "other games don't have female models, so this one shouldn't have female models", that is a bad argument. It is bad because it will apply to every new game that comes out, the upshot of this being that no game gets made that has female models. The fact that other games exclude a gender means that those games aren't as good as they could have been, not that this game is off the hook.

 

[CrystalShadow]

personally i think its simply easier to only include male characters, for example:

larger builds are slower and resist more damage (like the heavy), whereas smaller builds are faster but yet resist less damage (like the scout).

adding in females on top of this formula makes this more complicated.

imagine a female heavy :S that doesnt really fit.

That's because you buy too heavily into gender stereotypes.

Want a female heavy? Look at weight lifters as reference.


For that matter, we have such a distorted view of what a 'strong' character looks like...

Look at this chart of athletes, and consider how many of (irrespective of being male or female) them actually look like what people imagine athletic people to look like.

In particular, the strongest athletes don't look muscular... They look fat.



(Try looking at Cheryl Hayworth, a female weight-lifter, and tell me you would have thought that was an athlete of any kind?)
http://ninamatsumoto.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/athletes04.jpg


http://ninamatsumoto.wordpress.com/2010/12/18/athletic-body-diversity-reference-for-artists/

For that matter, look at any of the pictures on that blog...

And since they are close together, compare and contrast the bodybuilder (someone who creates muscles with the intent of looking good) with weightlifters (someone who is muscular so that they can lift heavy loads.)

Notice how the bodybuilder looks interesting, but probably isn't even that strong...
And the weightlifter looks, well... Fat. But by virtue of what it is they do, is clearly very strong.

 

[Hazy]

Welp, I'm a male, so this really doesn't affect me. Not trying to sound like a dick, just being honest.

What does affect me, however, will be wiping out the sub-human resistance scum that will try their hardest to run my Ark into the ground.

Stay strong. Stay proud. Stay security.

Fight the good fight.​

Call me crazy but AS A MALE I want some women invited to the party. And I wouldn't call you a "dick" to not mind the complete lack of any women around but I would question your priorities.

As great as it is having a load of sweaty muscle men in sleeveless vests for company, I'd WOULD CARE if some women could be around as well.

I'm a male who plays male characters. I lose absolutely nothing in having Splash Damage strip away the ability to play as women.

If they were to implement females, I still wouldn't give a single fuck, as it doesn't affect me negatively in the slightest.

but I would question your priorities.

Doesn't bother me in Cowwaduty and Battlefield: Bro Company 2, why would I mind it here?

 

[somonels]

Having two genders would halve the optimization possibilities that having one gender grants. I'm not much on an FPS player, but I don't remember TF2 having female models, nor CoDs, or MWs, or Battlefields, bad companies, wolfensteins.... etc
Star Wars Battlefront 2 did though.

If the argument here is "other games don't have female models, so this one shouldn't have female models", that is a bad argument. It is bad because it will apply to every new game that comes out, the upshot of this being that no game gets made that has female models. The fact that other games exclude a gender means that those games aren't as good as they could have been, not that this game is off the hook.

No, the point is most of the genre games don't, and I haven't heard a complaint about them. Neither have I heard that it's a big deal that some do have them.

I doubt any company wants to be first ones to do this sort of thing, considering the online FPS gamer culture.

 

[dancinginfernal]

Really don't give a shit if there's no female models.

And I'm the kind of person that always plays a woman in games.

 

[Treblaine]

Welp, I'm a male, so this really doesn't affect me. Not trying to sound like a dick, just being honest.

What does affect me, however, will be wiping out the sub-human resistance scum that will try their hardest to run my Ark into the ground.

Stay strong. Stay proud. Stay security.

Fight the good fight.​

Call me crazy but AS A MALE I want some women invited to the party. And I wouldn't call you a "dick" to not mind the complete lack of any women around but I would question your priorities.

As great as it is having a load of sweaty muscle men in sleeveless vests for company, I'd WOULD CARE if some women could be around as well.

I'm a male who plays male characters. I lose absolutely nothing in having Splash Damage strip away the ability to play as women.

If they were to implement females, I still wouldn't give a single fuck, as it doesn't affect me negatively in the slightest.

but I would question your priorities.

Doesn't bother me in Cowwaduty and Battlefield: Bro Company 2, why would I mind it here?

You always play males? But if Brink had gone the other way and made all the characters female... would you still anticipate the game? I mean as in there would be no option to play males, only females.

Consider games like Tomb Raider, Metroid (Prime), Beyond Good and Evil, Resident Evil (Claire/Jill/ect), Mirror's Edge. You can't possibly knock these games for having to play as a female?
Do you not play these games because you are a "male who plays male characters"?

PS: COD/BF are all male most likely to vaguely reflect recruitment policies of 20th and early 21st century.

 

[Hazy]

Welp, I'm a male, so this really doesn't affect me. Not trying to sound like a dick, just being honest.

What does affect me, however, will be wiping out the sub-human resistance scum that will try their hardest to run my Ark into the ground.

Stay strong. Stay proud. Stay security.

Fight the good fight.​

Call me crazy but AS A MALE I want some women invited to the party. And I wouldn't call you a "dick" to not mind the complete lack of any women around but I would question your priorities.

As great as it is having a load of sweaty muscle men in sleeveless vests for company, I'd WOULD CARE if some women could be around as well.

I'm a male who plays male characters. I lose absolutely nothing in having Splash Damage strip away the ability to play as women.

If they were to implement females, I still wouldn't give a single fuck, as it doesn't affect me negatively in the slightest.

but I would question your priorities.

Doesn't bother me in Cowwaduty and Battlefield: Bro Company 2, why would I mind it here?

You always play males? But if Brink had gone the other way and made all the characters female... would you still anticipate the game? I mean as in there would be no option to play males, only females.

Consider games like Tomb Raider, Metroid (Prime), Beyond Good and Evil, Resident Evil (Claire/Jill/ect), Mirror's Edge. You can't possibly knock these games for having to play as a female?
Do you not play these games because you are a "male who plays male characters"?

PS: COD/BF are all male most likely to vaguely reflect recruitment policies of 20th and early 21st century.

Of course I don't knock games that sport female protagonists, I'm merely saying that, as a male, I typically model characters after myself, and given the option, prefer male characters. If a game has a set character (like you said, Metroid Prime, Mirror's Edge, among others) I won't let the protagonist's gender stop me from getting in on the fun.

As for whether or not Brink had only female characters, it would certainly detract a bit for me, sure, because I favor the immersion. Though it wouldn't stop me from playing it provided the gameplay stays the same.

 

[Chiasm]

That's because you buy too heavily into gender stereotypes.

Wholly agree I really wish more game developers jumped onto this train of thought, look how amazing the new Laura Croft looks when being modeled abit more realistically. Game developers have a rather unique position in that they can shatter the gender stereotypes rather than using the big fat woman or muscled woman as comical relief she could easily be idolized when in the context of a video game showing a rich character.

Honestly if developers gave these ideas a chance I think the whole gaming as art thing would have much more value.

 

[Duskflamer]

"102 Quadrillion Characters," only males of course, a vast, VAST, majority of which will go unused, simply because there's only slightly more than 6 Billion humans alive on this world, and only a vast minority of that number will play this game.

There is no reason to have customization to this level if it means purposely excluding half the population, I'm sorry.

 

[Treblaine]

And the whole 'well this game is based on customization so therefore there MUST be females' is bullshit. And I have said it is bullshit. Why? TF2. TF2 is completely based on customization, hats, guns, special medals and what not. Also, if all of you are really wanting female models then please, use a computer and BUILD FUCKING MODS. That usually seems to help.

TF2 "completely based on customisation"??!?!?

Huuhh? A few alternate weapons with tweaked stats and some different hats is not in any way "complete" for customisation. It's hardly a reason or excuse for lack of female characters.

And the fanbase clearly really wants some female characters as there are dozens of mods and skins to turn the characters female.

Mods are more than just a release valve they are a damn good indicator of where developers should put their efforts in updates and sequels as mods can only do so much as amateur projects. A LOT can be done but Narbacular Drop didn't become Portal till it had a fully equipped development studio behind the idea.