Games with only male characters.

[the December King]

But I do have fond affection for my childhood. Boys played guns when I grew up, and I found this game uniquely reminiscent because of it. It's not a 'hangover from conditioning', it just makes me nostalgic for my childhood. I... I have no problem with that. You do, or think it's sad, so I guess we'll just agree to disagree.

Beyond that I'm largely in agreement with you.

Fair enough; nostalgia is inherently and subjectively irrational/emotive, after all, and it's not something I like (I had a good childhood, but I struggle to think of anything about society - social conditioning re gender 'norms' very much included - or pop-culture that isn't better now than it once was).

I see what you mean, though I think my explanation is quite rational, given the circumstances, and based on emotion, which shouldn't dismiss it.

As to gender norms and pop culture being 'better', well, I couldn't say- that seems subjective as well. On the other hand, I'm not really informed as to how modern kids feel about it all, either.

 

[Darth Rosenberg]

As to gender norms and pop culture being 'better', well, I couldn't say- that seems subjective as well. On the other hand, I'm not really informed as to how modern kids feel about it all, either.

This is a little broadly off topic (though I'd argue the original topic wasn't much of one to begin with, other than 'reference stuff' - people have found their own things to "discuss"), but I don't feel the acknowledgement of complexity can ever be seen as anything but an objective improvement, i.e. in terms of greater equality between genders, greater awareness of the differences between male/female and masculine/feminine, normalisation/acceptance (mostly) of varied sexualities, and so on.

As for pop-culture? Sure, that could just be seen as mostly subjective, but if we look at games their manifested potential is exponentially greater now than it ever was; more variety, more complexity, greater potential with hardware and software ('gaming' encompassing everything from mobile freebies to hi-end VR and everything in between), and obviously greater fidelity of visuals and pure grunt (which has nowt to do with realism, because greater specs and fancier visuals benefit all styles of design. No Man's Sky is a beautiful game in its own right, as is Elite Dangerous - and they couldn't be further apart in terms of aesthetic and tone). Ditto for accessibility of creativity, i.e. how easy it is to get into creating games, and the incredible breadth of resources available to all.

Relatively speaking gaming was absolute garbage in the '80's and '90's. I wouldn't trade a single favourite from back in the Amiga days or PS1 (not my first eras, but those which I'd have most misguided emotional attachment to) compared to what's on offer - and what's always just around the corner - in the present.

I won't go into any other subjects now for obvious off-topic-y reasons, but for comparison's sake re pop-culture I'd pretty much say the same about the state of cinema, too (especially in terms of potential and variety - it's never, ever been more open to as many perspectives from across the globe, and technology and its greater creative accessibility empowers everyone. ditto for TV/online content creation).

 

[B-Cell_v1legacy]

It almost seems like this thread is less about how people would react if absolutely no females were in x game, and more about B-Cell simply wanting to find that game and play it.

 

[the December King]

It almost seems like this thread is less about how people would react if absolutely no females were in x game, and more about B-Cell simply wanting to find that game and play it.

What's more, sausage-fest games seem to reliably suck; I'm not surprised.

Well, I don't think that's necessarily true, but if that's your take away, I wouldn't argue it.

 

[CaitSeith]

It almost seems like this thread is less about how people would react if absolutely no females were in x game, and more about B-Cell simply wanting to find that game and play it.

Which is weird that, being the expert in badass games, B-Cell can't mention more than 2 boys-only titles.

 

[the December King]

It almost seems like this thread is less about how people would react if absolutely no females were in x game, and more about B-Cell simply wanting to find that game and play it.

What's more, sausage-fest games seem to reliably suck; I'm not surprised.

Well, I don't think that's necessarily true, but if that's your take away, I wouldn't argue it.

Granted, I said "reliably" not "absolutely". B-Cell's opening post was a middling exception to this trend.

The PS2 version of Half-Life at least includes a co-op campaign starring 2 silent women.
John Carpenter's The Thing 2: The Official Sequel of the Movie, I believe, continues the all-men tradition of the 1982 classic. I could be wrong.

All cards on the table, I just wish that a personal favorite series of mine (the S.T.A.L.K.E.R series) wasn't being used as a punching bag. The absence of women in the game... well, I guess it's just hard to explain that despite this, I still loved them.

I absolutely love the film The Thing, yet I never did play the game. Did you enjoy it?

I also thought the film prequel was pretty alright.

 

[the December King]

I absolutely love the film The Thing, yet I never did play the game. Did you enjoy it?

I also thought the film prequel was pretty alright.

I can thank Spoony for playing that poorly-controlled Half-Life wanna-be so that I don't have to. And the prequel definitely would have been a practical effects treat had the producers not been such shit-wells; I've seen the 3-eyed UFO pilot, it was glorious.

Oh that's right- they were made to ditch the practical FX. That was a heinous act, but I still didn't mind the end result.

I believe the film Harbinger was an attempt at a practical FX Thing style film. The effects were pretty cool. The story was... poor.

 

[Smithnikov_v1legacy]

late 90's early 00's go ahead..

late 90s and early 00s era is much better than today. there was time when developers focus on good level design instead of focusing on love interest and romance.

This was the end game of this discussion: Older games didn't have women in them. Older games are better. therefore, games without women are better.

So saeth B-Cell, official coolness arbitrator.

As someone for whom a lot of his favorite games came from that era, and who has Doom as his favorite game of all time, I wish to clarify that B-Cell does not speak for all of us. Thank you.

 

[Smithnikov_v1legacy]

Why? If the sex of NPC's are a bonus, surely it means their sex was used for some purpose; what was gained by S.T.A.L.K.E.R. just including men? How would it have been different if female character models were included as well? Would the story have been different? The combat?

Women can fight and bear arms, and the game's world would've reasonably driven women into the Zone as well, for all sorts of reasons. Redo the game today and include women, and you suddenly create a more complex - ergo interesting - social framework around and within the Zone.

This is an easy one.

Because when I grew up, the boys in my neighborhood fought and played guns, and girls... didn't. That's all there is to it. Of course women can do everything that men do, that's a default to me now, and western civilization in general (and often feels overhyped), but that's life.

If you redid S.T.A.L.K.E.R today and made sure to have everyone represented, as much as I loved the series and would likely support it out of devotion, I don't see this as a selling point for this franchise. The Zone never felt like it was about equality or fairness. It felt like a window to a time when, whether real or not, men had to do the heavy lifting.

So in summation, I guess I feel this way because it's a fantasy, and one I enjoy.

By the way, I well understand that this is not a PC position to hold, but I reckon it's an exception on my part.

Even if women are a minority presence in The Zone? While you likely wouldn't see many of the Ukranian Military or Duty, ect. sporting female models, I wouldn't find a lone female STALKER or an Ecologist that surprising.

 

[Worgen]

It almost seems like this thread is less about how people would react if absolutely no females were in x game, and more about B-Cell simply wanting to find that game and play it.

What's more, sausage-fest games seem to reliably suck; I'm not surprised.

Well, I don't think that's necessarily true, but if that's your take away, I wouldn't argue it.

Granted, I said "reliably" not "absolutely". B-Cell's opening post was a middling exception to this trend.

The PS2 version of Half-Life at least includes a co-op campaign starring 2 silent women.
John Carpenter's The Thing 2: The Official Sequel of the Movie, I believe, continues the all-men tradition of the 1982 classic. I could be wrong.

All cards on the table, I just wish that a personal favorite series of mine (the S.T.A.L.K.E.R series) wasn't being used as a punching bag. The absence of women in the game... well, I guess it's just hard to explain that despite this, I still loved them.

I absolutely love the film The Thing, yet I never did play the game. Did you enjoy it?

I also thought the film prequel was pretty alright.

It was kind of a poor mans resident evil, came out around the time when we suddenly had a good number of horror action games like taht. The game had some interesting concepts that it did't use right. Probably cut since actually doing them well would have been expensive. I think Yatzee did a review of it.

 

[the December King]

Why? If the sex of NPC's are a bonus, surely it means their sex was used for some purpose; what was gained by S.T.A.L.K.E.R. just including men? How would it have been different if female character models were included as well? Would the story have been different? The combat?

Women can fight and bear arms, and the game's world would've reasonably driven women into the Zone as well, for all sorts of reasons. Redo the game today and include women, and you suddenly create a more complex - ergo interesting - social framework around and within the Zone.

This is an easy one.

Because when I grew up, the boys in my neighborhood fought and played guns, and girls... didn't. That's all there is to it. Of course women can do everything that men do, that's a default to me now, and western civilization in general (and often feels overhyped), but that's life.

If you redid S.T.A.L.K.E.R today and made sure to have everyone represented, as much as I loved the series and would likely support it out of devotion, I don't see this as a selling point for this franchise. The Zone never felt like it was about equality or fairness. It felt like a window to a time when, whether real or not, men had to do the heavy lifting.

So in summation, I guess I feel this way because it's a fantasy, and one I enjoy.

By the way, I well understand that this is not a PC position to hold, but I reckon it's an exception on my part.

Even if women are a minority presence in The Zone? While you likely wouldn't see many of the Ukranian Military or Duty, ect. sporting female models, I wouldn't find a lone female STALKER or an Ecologist that surprising.

...point taken, I suppose there was room for such things.

 

[the December King]

It almost seems like this thread is less about how people would react if absolutely no females were in x game, and more about B-Cell simply wanting to find that game and play it.

What's more, sausage-fest games seem to reliably suck; I'm not surprised.

Well, I don't think that's necessarily true, but if that's your take away, I wouldn't argue it.

Granted, I said "reliably" not "absolutely". B-Cell's opening post was a middling exception to this trend.

The PS2 version of Half-Life at least includes a co-op campaign starring 2 silent women.
John Carpenter's The Thing 2: The Official Sequel of the Movie, I believe, continues the all-men tradition of the 1982 classic. I could be wrong.

All cards on the table, I just wish that a personal favorite series of mine (the S.T.A.L.K.E.R series) wasn't being used as a punching bag. The absence of women in the game... well, I guess it's just hard to explain that despite this, I still loved them.

I absolutely love the film The Thing, yet I never did play the game. Did you enjoy it?

I also thought the film prequel was pretty alright.

It was kind of a poor mans resident evil, came out around the time when we suddenly had a good number of horror action games like taht. The game had some interesting concepts that it did't use right. Probably cut since actually doing them well would have been expensive. I think Yatzee did a review of it.

that was The Thing game, no? That's a shame.

 

[maninahat]

Depends what you count as a woman and what you count as a character. The first Half Life doesn't have what I would consider female characters, but it does have the mute, faceless female NPC enemies (the assassins) and alien monsters that give live birth.

Some of the Medal of Honor and Call of Duty games have no women, but some do. Same with the Operation Flashpoints, if I recall correctly. Basically anything that's a historical military sim or strategy excuses themselves from including them, especially things like Silent Hunter or the first Age of Empires or the Combat mission games.

 

[SeanSeanston]

Doom

Ah...! But that's where you're wrong! Yes, there were no human females in that game, but the Spider Mastermind was female!

Which, in a way, is even better because it smashes humanonormativity in gaming. The Spider Mastermind is an example of a strong female character in an early FPS.

Not having female characters wasn't why the S.T.A.L.K.E.R games were great, in my opinion.

Although, IIRC there's some kind of log you can read where it mentions some female stalker. So maybe that kinda counts.

Chuck Rock

Isn't the whole premise based around Chuck rescuing his wife tho?