Brink : No Girls Allowed

[SteewpidZombie]

Well I could argue the same for non-male games. Mirrors Edge, Portal, Tomb Raider, Metroid Prime, Beyond Good & Evil, Diablo 1&2 (I wanted to have a male Sorceror or a female Necromancer, Buuuut NOOOOOOO says Blizzard), Eternal Darkness, Heavenly Sword, ect.

The thing about those games (At least, the ones I'm familiar with) Is that there is little or no aspect of character customization to them. in Mirror's Edge, it's not just that you have to be a girl, you have to be Faith, because that's who the story is about. Portal is about Chell, Metroid Prime is about Samus, these games do not have any character customization in the slightest.

When you do add character customization, and a more vague main character, forcing certain limitations on the customization becomes noticable. Nobody cares that you can't play Mario female, but if you could design your own character for play in a mario-esque platformer, and you were limited to making a male character, people would take notice and offense.

Well my point was more or less that yes there are other great games with Female leads or characters that aren't male (Though I do wish I could customize my char in Mirrors Edge 2 as male or female and maybe just some small visual touches like different gloves or shoes, just cause I find that I'd rather have my own style or char for maybe a multiplayer mode). More or less for most games, a Male model is just the most basic and easiest model to use (Thus you get the wide/tall guy as strong, short/slim as fast, and basic as basic). But when adding female models you normally need to add distinguishing features and varied body types (Cause it's more likely to be a huge hulking muscled guy as the warrior compared to women who tend to be more slender or toned in muscle).

However the model argument is more for games that don't have the time to work on separate genders and options, but Brink doesn't have that excuse. Some games even just try and be cheap and have specific character/gender roles for classes (It's easy to just go...CHICK #1 IS CLERIC, CHICK #2 IS MAGE, yet it shows just how little effort or time a company is willing to put in). In the end I think I don't care much about gender and I'll play as a chick or a dude so long as I can enjoy the game itself.

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

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.

But... there is no character customization in the Gothic games - you're always the same exact dude, Gothic is just like The Witcher in that way, or heck, Planescape: Torment. You're playing a set character in all of those games, you don't get to change a single detail about their physical appearance - it's no different than playing a game like Prototype really in that sense.

Well... okay, that was a bad example since Mercer can technically shapeshift into a woman if you happen to eat one, but the point is that the player can choose which powers to unlock but they can't give Alex a beard or make him wear glasses or what have you - cosmetic appearance changes are something most games with a fixed character simply don't include, and Gothic is no different in that regard.

If that's the only reason you've been avoiding Gothic then that's a pretty ridiculous "line in the sand" to draw - you can't even pick your character's name, you're just "The Nameless Hero".

 

[internetzealot1]

Two words: Body Types.

There are three body types. Light, medium, and heavy. If you've seen the game, you know that light bodies are lean and muscular, medium types look like bodybuilders, and heavies are freakishly huge. If women were to be in the game, they would be relegated to light body types; not only would medium and heavy sized women be impossible, but they would also be grotesque. So any females playing the game would compelled to play as a woman, which would limit them to playing the role of a light character, no matter the actual combat role that they would have the most fun playing. Therefore, its just better to bite the bullet and play as a male character.

 

[Trolldor]

Does Halo have female charecters in ITS 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.

Brink is the upset because, aside from forcing your character to be male, it has a very robust character customization aspect. The fact that it put so much focus into character customization, yet forced your character to be a guy, makes the issue (which is still present in other shooters mind you) more obvious.

Imagine if Bioware came out with a new RPG with their standard level of customization, but decided that your character had to be a girl, how do you think people would react? It's the same issue here.

Good point.

Would there be upset over that?

I wouldn't be. Most people wouldn't be. Nobody gives a shit.

And to point out the obvious flaw with several pieces of non-logic - it is extraordinarily robust character customisation. To add in a female model requires doubling everything.

Fuck that shit.

Being female adds nothing to brink as your gender plays no part in how the game rolls.
You can't be a girl in TF2, where's the rage for that huh?

 

[Saelune]

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.

Uh...yes they did. Well, Halo 3 was half assed with just female groans, but Reach had more official female spartans.
WHen you take steps forward, it is unwise to take steps back, in terms of innovation anyways.
A game about customization is being foolish to not include female models. It is just laziness.

I know Reach does, I was talking about the first two.

The first two had nothing to do with customizing though, short of selecting a color for free for all.

 

[BigKush]

PEOPLE CHILL THE FUCK OUT!!!!!
The devs will probably fix this either before the game launches or release a patch later

What are you, stupid?

Fix what? What is broken? And what is this idea everyone has these days that "WHATEVER-I FIND-THE-GAME-TO-BE-LACKING-IN will be patched."

 

[Mute52]

Did Halo have female charecters in IT'S multiplayer?

Yes. It did.

As for Brink, i don't care really, if the game is good that's all that matters.

Looking at it another way, if a game had only an option to play as a female, i wouldn't be offended at how sexist it was and demand a playable male character.

 

[Trolldor]

Did Halo have female charecters in IT'S multiplayer?

Yes. It did.

As for Brink, i don't care really, if the game is good that's all that matters.

Looking at it another way, if a game had only an option to play as a female, i wouldn't be offended at how sexist it was and demand a playable male character.

Actually, for the first three games it didn't.

 

[Duskflamer]

Two words: Body Types.

There are three body types. Light, medium, and heavy. If you've seen the game, you know that light bodies are lean and muscular, medium types look like bodybuilders, and heavies are freakishly huge. If women were to be in the game, they would be relegated to light body types; not only would medium and heavy sized women be impossible, but they would also be grotesque. So any females playing the game would compelled to play as a woman, which would limit them to playing the role of a light character, no matter the actual combat role that they would have the most fun playing. Therefore, its just better to bite the bullet and play as a male character.

Why though? Female bodybuilders exist in the real world, why can't they exist in Video Games, where we're supposed to drop certain limitations of the real world.

So, we can jump 5 times our hight while shooting a gun that creates portals and flinging fireballs around, but having a non-lightweight girl is just impossible? I don't buy it.

 

[Ninonybox_v1legacy]

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.

Not to be a smart ass but.....Reach did.....and so did 3 if you count the voice type you can pick.

 

[Ladette]

Two words: Body Types.

There are three body types. Light, medium, and heavy. If you've seen the game, you know that light bodies are lean and muscular, medium types look like bodybuilders, and heavies are freakishly huge. If women were to be in the game, they would be relegated to light body types; not only would medium and heavy sized women be impossible, but they would also be grotesque. So any females playing the game would compelled to play as a woman, which would limit them to playing the role of a light character, no matter the actual combat role that they would have the most fun playing. Therefore, its just better to bite the bullet and play as a male character.

Bolded the part that's bullshit. Why can't there be massive, muscular women? Why can't women wear large armor? Why is it that heavy women can't be freakishly huge? We have female body builders in real life. Every female character doesn't need to conform to the default "slim, sexy" apperance.

If you want one of the selling points to be customization then why leave one gender out? It's lazy developing and a cop out excuse.

 

[Duskflamer]

(oh and before anyone yells at me, go look at ALL THE OTHER SHOOTERS who have no playable female characters mmmk?)

As we've mentioned before, Brink is being singled out because of the deep level of and emphasis on customization it has. When other shooters barely have any customization of the actual character, it's easy to be complacent about the fact that it's all males. When you open the door and allow a deep level of customization though, it becomes more obvious that females aren't available, having more draws attention to what you don't have.

 

[BigKush]

snip

Why though? Female bodybuilders exist in the real world, why can't they exist in Video Games, where we're supposed to drop certain limitations of the real world.

So, we can jump 5 times our hight while shooting a gun that creates portals and flinging fireballs around, but having a non-lightweight girl is just impossible? I don't buy it.

Man the **** up.

Oh wait..

 

[BigKush]

I herd teh Chinese are pretty upset that you can't customize race in Brink.

 

[Duskflamer]

Before anyone else tries to argue "Well, other shooters don't have females either so why focus on this one," It is an issue within the entire genre that characters are exclusively men. It is not that Brink is the only game that should include female characters, it's just that it came so close to having them that it draws more than its fair share of attention over it. Gaming in general, whenever there's an opportunity for significant customization, should be as inclusive as possible about that customization. If you're telling a story about a specific character, fine, make us play that character. But you don't have that excuse at all in multiplayer scenarios.