Brink : No Girls Allowed

[Farseer Lolotea]

It wasn't really a poor decision.

No, it was an incredibly poor decision, made even worse by their attempt at justifying it.

I'm proud of my ability to always look at multiple perspectives.

Sorry, but based on your previous two posts, I'm not really seeing that from you at all.

Now, I'll give you credit for not accusing people of "whining," of just wanting to play "pin-ups," or of just wanting smaller hitboxes. But all I've seen from you here is championing Bethesda's (poor) decision.

Their choice will benefit the company in more ways than it will hurt them.

They openly prioritized lots and lots of minor customization options for male characters over adding female characters at all, and presented it as an either/or when called on it. How, exactly, do you think that is going to benefit them?

 

[Giantpanda602]

It wasn't really a poor decision.

No, it was an incredibly poor decision, made even worse by their attempt at justifying it.

I'm proud of my ability to always look at multiple perspectives.

Based on your previous two posts, I'm not really seeing that. I'll give you credit for not accusing people of "whining" or of just wanting to play "pin-ups," but all I've seen from you here is championing Bethesda's (poor) choice.

Their choice will benefit the company in more ways than it will hurt them.

They openly prioritized lots and lots of minor customization options for male characters over adding female characters at all, and presented it as an either/or when called on it. How, exactly, do you think that is going to benefit them?

Its not going to benefit them from a customization stand point. It will, however, increase the amount of people who buy the game. Do you know how many sites recently told people the huge number of customization options? That got people excited to buy the game.

 

[LadyZephyr]

ITT: BAAAAAAAW being inclusive is HAAAAARD.


Brink is just one more game I'm gonna skip for reinforcing the same old sorry crap this entire industry refuses to address. If I'm going to put up the cash for a new game, I'm going to spend it on a company not made of a bunch of privileged jackasses.

Speaking of which, BioWare, why you gotta push back ME3 like that? 8(

 

[bbad89]

Any game that offers even the most basic of character customization options, but does not include the option to select your gender, is immediately ignored by me. That's why I have not and will not play the Gothic series.

That's a horrible thing to do. You're depriving yourself of a possibly great game.

 

[Krantos]

It could have been done. Yes, it would have taken a little bit, of time, but I really don't see it requiring that much more. The mechanics are already there, tweak it a bit and add a few female models and "poof." Problem solved.

It wouldn't even need to be that fleshed out. Generally gamers are satisfied if you just include a 1 or 2 female models. Just throw in 2 female blanks and let the player tweak them like they can the guys and no one would complain.

 

[Farseer Lolotea]

Its not going to benefit them from a customization stand point. It will, however, increase the amount of people who buy the game. Do you know how many sites recently told people the huge number of customization options? That got people excited to buy the game.

Okay. You can't make female characters, but you've got (this is just an example; no idea if it's actually the case) a choice of ten slightly different cowboy hats for your male character. How, exactly, would female characters and a choice of five slightly different hats be worse PR for them (presuming, of course, that it really is an either/or at all)?

Because that's their official excuse. Bethesda made it clear that in a game which has customization as a major selling point, ten different hats were more important than female characters.

Now, unlike some people, I'm not going to outright call "misogyny" on them over that. (Fans, on the other hand...) I do, however, stand by my assertion that it was a poor decision on their part, and wonder what the hell they were thinking with that logic.

ITT: BAAAAAAAW being inclusive is HAAAAARD.

I'd be more polite about it, but I'm inclined to agree with this assessment.

 

[Krantos]

But all I've seen from you here is championing Bethesda's (poor) decision.

Sorry, not to nitpick here, but the game is developed by Splash Damage. Bethesda Softworks is Bethesda's publishing arm. Bethesda Game Studios is company's internal development studio. The last game Bethesda developed was Fallout 3.

Bethesda Softworks, has the bad habit of publishing really poor games (Rogue Warrior, WET, Demon Forge, etc.) which gives the company a bad image. Which, incidentally is why I make a point of alerting people to the distinction.

 

[Farseer Lolotea]

Sorry, not to nitpick here, but the game is developed by Splash Damage. Bethesda Softworks is Bethesda's publishing arm. Bethesda Game Studios is company's internal development studio. The last game Bethesda developed was Fallout 3.

Bethesda Softworks, has the bad habit of publishing really poor games (Rogue Warrior, WET, Demon Forge, etc.) which gives the company a bad image. Which, incidentally is why I make a point of alerting people to the distinction.

Good to know. But (disregard, I fail reading comprehension forever).

 

[Krantos]

Sorry, not to nitpick here, but the game is developed by Splash Damage. Bethesda Softworks is Bethesda's publishing arm. Bethesda Game Studios is company's internal development studio. The last game Bethesda developed was Fallout 3.

Bethesda Softworks, has the bad habit of publishing really poor games (Rogue Warrior, WET, Demon Forge, etc.) which gives the company a bad image. Which, incidentally is why I make a point of alerting people to the distinction.

Good to know. But how does that make it any less of a poor decision on the company's part, much less an outright good one?

Oh, no, it's a terrible decision. I agree with you, I just wanted to make sure your anger was pointed in the right direction (i.e. Splash Damage).

 

[Farseer Lolotea]

Oh, no, it's a terrible decision. I agree with you, I just wanted to make sure your anger was pointed in the right direction (i.e. Splash Damage).

Less "anger" than "exasperation." But I see, then. (And I misread something anyway.)

 

[Korten12]

I don't think people realize that making female models which don't exist normally (in this game) isn't just a flick of a switch and suddenly they get all of the models.

 

[Farseer Lolotea]

I don't think people realize that making female models which don't exist normally (in this game) isn't just a flick of a switch and suddenly they get all of the models.

No one's arguing that they're "just a flick of a switch." But the same can really be said of any of their much-vaunted customization options.

And there is no "normally." Female models don't exist in the game because they didn't bother to make them. They were considered less of a priority than my hypothetical ten separate slightly different hats.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

I don't think people realize that making female models which don't exist normally (in this game) isn't just a flick of a switch and suddenly they get all of the models.

Had they been included from the earliest design document and a constant and important part of the development process, then the developers would have worked with them just like with the male models. Extra work naturally, which the developers obviously felt could be better used by including supposedly stupifying amount of customization for the male model.

 

[loodmoney]

From the outset, we wanted to create a character customization system that was so deep and varied that you would never run into another player that looked exactly like you. As we got deeper into development, we were faced with an incredibly tough choice: massively cut back the amount of customization options as well as the quality of the assets, or cut female models.

One slightly humourous implication of all this: Brink is a game designed with men in mind. Specifically, men who would consider it a terrible faux pas to be seen fighting alonside a comrade with the same outfit:

[small]

• "Die, Resistance scum!"
  "Haha, that'll learn 'em...Uh, hey dude, did you get that jacket on sale or something?"
  "Yeah, from Ark Surplus last week, wh-- Oh. Oh man. Jeez this is embarrassing."
  "Yeah I don't mean to be a dick or anything, but uh, this is kind of my look..."
  "Oh nah, totally, I didn't know hey. I'll just go home and change. 'T's all cool."
  "Appreciated, bro. That bandolier looks cute on you, by the way."
  "Uh yeah thanks. You doing CTF tomorrow?"

[/small]

So say what you will about the developers excluding women from the lineup, at least they break down some masculine stereotypes.

 

[Treblaine]

*snip*

Allow me to clarify:

Splash Damage SHOULD HAVE done more to allow for female representation from the START.

I hope you didn't think I am proposing some 11th hour drastic turn-around as I don't think anyone really believes that is possible, I just find it disappointing that a game would focus so much on customisation yet no accommodation for females. The complaints are coming NOW because it is NOW that the devs have revealed how deep the customisation is it just makes the lack of female options more blatant.

TF2 when it was launched had VERY distinct characters for each class, they were not customisable at all and even though hundreds of different hats have been released they don't really chance anything about their very strong and distinct persona. In this case a female character would be nice but it isn't expected as its clear the devs have a very distinct vision for the character roster.

But when SD say "you can customise your avatar a gazillion different ways" it is really glaring how in all those so many many options there is no female option.

It's the principal at matters, representation of women in multiplayer games in general is so seriously lacking and with such emphasis on the avatar this is becoming more glaring. We can still complain about something even if it can't be undone as maybe then the trend will not continue.

I stand by my statement that if they were going to only animate for one gender then WHY NOT go for an all female roster?