Jimquisition: Let's End the FPS Sausage-fest

[LadyRhian]

Come on Jim, you shouldn't have thanked God this time, thank Mother Gea, when dressing a feminist womyn, you don't need to thank a phallocentric Male God, thank a female one, for Gea's sake.

You're practice futility friend! God is omnipotent, and beyond comprehension. Only nothing is omnipotent and you can't see nothing. That means he, she, it, and they are all "correct" and "incorrect" pronouns to use on God. God is a woman, a man, a genderless thingy, and a group of creatures all at once and yet not at all.
<_< But I can't picture that in my head, let alone describe it.
So, lets just say God in lady form looks like Oprah.

Also, so we stay with the topic; Not having playable women in shooters is crap, realism is a poor excuse (especially when we have soldiers fighting unmaned four legged walking tanks), and strangely Jim is a pretty lady.

Doesn't the Bible refer to god as a He and as the LORD (The male version of a lady, though Fire Emblem has female lords so...) and as creating Adam in his image, meaning chest hair, beard, and a dong. Or was this all additions made by the King James version?

I guess if you want Dog to look like Steve Buscemi or Salma Hayek you have the right, I was just going by what I know from the Bible.

Also why do games use realism to justify laziness? Realism is supposed to add different mechanics and not remove options from games. As long as it's believable (doesn't break the rules the game sets) I'll think God of War is real.

Read it again. Both male and female were created in God's image.

 

[Lunar Templar]

You forgot Halo! Look at the difference between Spartans!

Female:
http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/110/1100653/halo-reach-20100621020443589-000.jpg

Male:
http://www.gamerdna.com/public/images/user_image/set201/image/201809/playermodel.ashx.png?1225157443

..........................WHAT DIFFERENCE?!?!?!?

Kind of the point - those two models are ALMOST the same (female has a slightly slimmer hip and bit sexier butt - but that's only noticeable when they are next to each other in idle).

gotta ask, hows that a bad thing? the spartan armor is designed to be functional (for that universe) not sexy

Never said it's bad - it's actually proving the point, that to make a female model doesn't require a serious change in model, just a minor one and maybe a slight different animation when idle and maybe walking (not running). A female model doesn't have to be "sexy" at all - just clearly more feminine than the male counterpart. And Reach shows, how you can do it without really spending much resources on an entirely new model.

ah, ignore me then :3

 

[PoweD]

I would like to point out another balance issue with models of both sexes.
Classes.
Now, imagine you are playing TF2 and you see a glimpse of a character model, as pointed out by valve in its commentary, character models in the game are modeled so you can instantly know the players class from its silhouette.Having female versions would screw that up completely.
Your mind is constantly trying to tie character models with classes.

Even if you pass that issue, society still thinks women are the weaker/more kind side of gender.Which would trick the player into thinking that the female models are non-hostiles.

Other than that, i completely agree.

The Class/Silhouette design mechanics really only work in cartoonish graphics though. Every class in a modern shooter is still shaped like a human covered in body armor. I doubt "slightly wider hips" or "slightly pronounced chest" (body armor is going to cover most of those things) are going to THROW EVERYONE OFF THE RAILS as much as you think.




And really? Having a female model would trick people into thinking they're non-hostile?







I......I..I don't even have a response to that. I really don't. At all.

It won't throw people "off the rails" but it might be a slight annoyance once you get used to seeing mostly males on the battlefield.

Did you even read what i wrote?
I said society forced us into thinking it, you know those countless TV-shows, movies or even video games that taught us that men are usually criminals, soldiers or just generally tough.
Women on the other hand are usually portrayed as somebody that is a love interest, damsel in distress or a innocent bystander.

It's a problem that has been created from the start of the industry, and yes, it is a problem we need to face, but it's not going to be simply inserting female models and expect everybody to get quickly used to it.

 

[ex275w]

It really is a weird phenomenon, since I barely play any multi-player FPS's I hadn't heard about this issue. Still not putting any women is stupid in games that are supposed to have massive appeal or are in the future is plain lazy.

Yet I can think of a FPS that needs no female characters and that is Team Fortress 2, a game which still plenty of women play and has tons of yaoi for some reason. It would interesting to release a Team Fortress 2 esque FPS with only women in it and see how it goes.

Come on Jim, you shouldn't have thanked God this time, thank Mother Gea, when dressing a feminist womyn, you don't need to thank a phallocentric Male God, thank a female one, for Gea's sake.

They already have that. Final Combat. More of a rip-off than an actual game, it includes a schoolgirl Sniper. (Heave, gag)

Ok, I just saw the Chinese TF2 rip-off, it's pretty bad. Well the Sniper seems more like a Secretary/Policewoman/Schoolgirl mashup, but that's pretty terrible. I guess I meant they have to be well designed like normal Valve characters. The problem with the games that only or mostly have female characters is that they are all Kate Beaton's STRONG FEMALE CHARACTERS played seriously. I guess Touhou is the only series with mostly female characters the doesn't pander to teens with sex and boobies.

 

[IndomitableSam]

Jim actually makes a pretty good-looking girl. The curly red hair and nice choice of a pastel green shirt to flatter his colouring - he is definitley a 'Spring'... blah blah blah, nice boobs.

... This is why I like ME3 multiplayer - that way I can play a woman and enjoy it. And why I feel more comfortable playing woman leaders in Civ, too. Same with Dragon Age. And why my current FF Tactics playthrough is a mostly female team. And why I like MMOs as well.

I find myself agreeing with Jim's views more and more these days - I guess he's really in touch with his feminine side. Or something.

 

[mjc0961]

Good point Jim, but actually in Call of Duty, they do show women, well actually, a woman in CoD4 as she's hear in the mission, Charlie Don't Surf, then you have to rescue her from a downed helicopter in the mission, Shock and Awe

x <-- the point of this episode

.
.
.
.
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over here is you --> x

See how far away you are from the point? One character who appears very briefly in the campaign has absolutely NOTHING to do with character models for multiplayer. Oi, pay attention next time!

 

[ex275w]

Snip

Snap

Snippity-snoop

Read it again. Both male and female were created in God's image.

Oh OK, perfect, then Jim thanking God in this episode works even as a smexy woman.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

Hmm...You know what I find funny?

How can the original Unreal Tournament (made in 1999) not only have female characters, but females with military backstories, and even ENTIRE TEAMS with nothing but females on them...But more recent games don't have females in their multiplayer?

It's...weird. Very weird.

 

[Talvrae]

Hey that's weird for once we 100% agree Jim

 

[RC1138]

Hey that's weird for once we 100% agree Jim

I don't. At least not 100%. In games like Halo and it's ilk indeed there should be playable females, but not in modern settings ones. Not if they want to keep any pretense of realism.

 

[Texas Joker 52]

As a man, even I would prefer more female characters in First and Third Person Shooters, for both campaign and multiplayer. For FPS's, Halo: Reach seems to be the most gender equal, while for TPS's, Mass Effect seems to be the most equal there, from what I can see at the very least.

Besides, I just find female protagonists in any media in the action genre more interesting than men. I mean, look at any movie, TV series, book, or game that deals with action, and who is the protagonist? More often than not, a big white guy who can generally force or talk his way through anything.

Lets face it: As an action protagonist, women are simply more interesting (At least to me), whether for the lack of testosterone, the rarity in the medium, or due to a different... Well, makeup in general to men. Men simply cannot have some of the same motivations as a woman can, and vice-versa.

 

[Turbowombat]

"near future and science fiction shooters above all else" Ok so she's not playable, but Crysis 2, one of the highest ranking most badass military personnel and protagonists featured in the game is Tara Strickland.

 

[Mistilteinn]

-snip-

Those are all pretty valid points for our current world. Just as a personal example, a friend of mine recently trained to get ready to join the Army and I was actually surprised at the difference between male and female standards when she was talking to me about it. I was even surprised that she said she was having trouble with reaching them, as I've always thought of her as pretty strong to begin with (mind you, she ended up meeting the basic female standards for the end of boot camp before she even got there since she's not one to pass up a challenge).

But anecdotes aside, I'm curious about something. Since there've been a number of games that involve the US being invaded by "Evil Nation X", would women be given more options in terms of front line combat if such a scenario were to occur? I don't have any real knowledge about how the military works, but I'd assume they would, given that we'd want to have more people fighting the invaders in order to get them out sooner/more efficiently. But, numbers don't exactly win a war, either, as history as shown, so I don't know...

 

[Sylocat]

So in summation of that, not only can women not meet the "bare" minimum of standard physical requirements, there is in no way shape or form, that they could meet the physical requirements of a Special Operations troop.

Since you're using realism as the defense, tell me... what's your stance on regen health?

 

[Denamic]

Thanks for those mental images, Jim.
Appreciate it.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

As someone who uses either gender when the ability to do so appears, I can't say I feel it needs to change. But, if it makes contextual sense for a game to have female avatars as well as males (or even more so), then I think developers should stop being fucking lazy and add some females in too.

 

[SonicWaffle]

The Jimquisition dons its armor ... as well as its lingerie ...

Point of order, Jimothy; why would crotchless knickers chafe your balls? Wouldn't they just be hanging out, swinging back and forth, roaming wild and free as the good Lord intended? This seems like a serious plot hole to me, which hints at a lack of attention to detail and I'm afraid I just can't take you as seriously as I used to.

OT: I don't really see what the big deal is. When games give me the option of choosing my gender, I go with whatever I feel like at the time. I played through DA:O & A with a vagina, but all three ME games with a penis. Skyrim, I did both, though I have to admit I drunkenly named my female Orc "Tits" in the hope that characters would send me messages using my name. Does it really matter that much to other blokes? I can see why it's an issue for women, sure - never having the choice must suck - but why is it so hard for dudes to play as a lady once in a while? It's not like it makes much difference to the game.

 

[CrazyJew]

Good point Jim, but actually in Call of Duty, they do show women, well actually, a woman in CoD4 as she's hear in the mission, Charlie Don't Surf, then you have to rescue her from a downed helicopter in the mission, Shock and Awe

Back in CoD 2, the bravest warrior of the Red Army is a woman.

 

[jthm]

Huh... interesting points. I hadn't played Colonial Marines and I'm shocked and saddened by the exclusion of Vasquez (don't see Ripley as a problem as she was a non combatant up until the last ten minutes or so of the film). No issue with adding female avatars to gaming, but I will be slightly perturbed when the sheer number of female avatars in shooters of the future leads me to wonder about the repressed sexuality of the many men who will doubtless be playing them.

Also, is it just me, or did Jim's breasts get smaller in this episode as compared to other episodes?

 

[jmarquiso]

Medal of Honor: Underground - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medal_of_Honor:_Underground

Something we haven't really seen since. A female protagonist in a WWII FPS, member of the French Resistance.

Unfortunately didn't do too well, I've read, due to the lateness in the console cycle it was released on, and some say the female protagonist.

We will have to wait awhile longer, it seems.