Poll: Female enemies in Games (and enemy feedback)

[Anaklusmos]

I relish in killing female splicers in BioShock, for some reason the female splicers always catch me off guard, and it's really starting to annoy me now. I look away for two seconds, and when I turn back there she is, in my face swinging her melee weapon!

 

[LarenzoAOG]

I am incapable of really worrying about killing pixels and 1s and 0s from a moral standpoint.

Yes, and in real life if you ever shoot another person you are killing reflected waves of light and a bunch of cells.

No, just no. That is completely different, you shouldn't joke about that.

 

[Zykon TheLich]

I'm quite happy to kill whoever in game, gender makes no difference too me, Fallout3 and NV being the prime examples. I also like realistic reactions to being shot etc. Screams, rolling around on thwe floor moaning and all that. I like the game to remind you about the realities once in a while. They try to make most things realistic but sanitise the actual act of killing. The novelty would probably wear off but to have the people you've shot or stabbed react like real peoplewould maybe give cause to think a bit more about what you're doing.

 

[_Cake_]

If it bugs you, then it bugs you. It doesn't really matter if it's the right answer or politically correct.

Personally I don't like killing NPCs that look like me, weird/vain yes I know.

 

[MattyDienhoff]

This comes up a lot in Fallout 3, seeing as approximately half the NPC population are female.

I have to admit I feel somewhat more empathy for females whenever they suffer (whether they're my enemy or not), with the possible exception of raiders who are sadistic psychos and deserve whatever they get.

I don't shy away from combat, if I have to fight I go all out, but my reaction to having to kill someone because they attacked me unprovoked is usually something like "Why did you make me do that?!" or "Such a shame...", and there's usually an extra tinge of regret, however slight, if the combatant was a woman.

For instance the other day I was wandering around an old mansion on a windswept coastline and I was attacked by a female mercenary for no apparent reason. I defended myself and killed her, and immediately found myself wishing it hadn't been necessary, and as I stripped her of her leather armor so I could use it to repair mine, the indignity of it struck me, also. Such a shame...

And then I found her companion (also female) a mere 50 meters away, sleeping alone and totally unaware of my presence. She too was hostile and as far as the game was concerned I would have been entirely justified in slitting her throat as she slept, but I couldn't do that, it'd be an evil and unprovoked attack.

 

[trophykiller]

I don't mind much about female ones, after all, self defence. Screaming foes, no thanks. I'm the kind who likes to feel like I'm helping by "removing" that individual.

 

[Baron von Blitztank]

If they are trying to kill me then that's all the motivation I need to return the favour right back at them.

 

[Saint_Zvlkx]

If they shoot me, I'll shoot back, but if anyone's lost an arm, or is on fire, or anything where they're not dead, I dispatch them with a clean shot to the head....

...unless I'm playing the game in-character, in which case I do whatever my character would do at the time.

 

[Chairman Miaow]

I'm completely against women being in video games until there is some kind of law passed that forbids several things, amongst them : revealing clothing, ridiculous voices, terrible writing, total neediness, massive breasts.

 

[I'mANinja]

I would have no problem killing that frickin captain of Dark Athena in the Riddick game. I hated her so much!

OP: I don't really care, male or female, that person is an enemy, who wants to kill me, the only time I have a problem with killing anyone in a game, is when I feel that my side are the jerks who started the killing. Or if I feel that the enemy isn't really evil, like in Red Faction: Guerilla, I MEAN COME ONE, Mars was doing just fine, the only reason public executions started, were BECAUSE of Red Faction. Still regret the deaths of those many EDF soldiers who had buildings fall on them.

Sorry I got a little off topic, but you get my point.

 

[lovest harding]

Could be a spoiler about a character in one of the Mass Effects. Nothing big though.

My first thought is a mundane character (I think she was in mass Effect 2, but it could have been the first) where you run across her in a building and she begs you not to kill her. She just joined the gang and didn't realize it was dangerous (thought it just dealt in drugs and whatnot). So I saved her.
Turns out (when reading a terminal) she was a psychopath who ad a journal about how she loved killing people. I felt bad for falling for it.
I would have done the same for a man, but I think they played up the fact that she was a woman. And I felt horrible for falling for it.

Damn, BioWare is good.

 

[I'mANinja]

Could be a spoiler about a character in one of the Mass Effects. Nothing big though.

My first thought is a mundane character (I think she was in mass Effect 2, but it could have been the first) where you run across her in a building and she begs you not to kill her. She just joined the gang and didn't realize it was dangerous (thought it just dealt in drugs and whatnot). So I saved her.
Turns out (when reading a terminal) she was a psychopath who ad a journal about how she loved killing people. I felt bad for falling for it.
I would have done the same for a man, but I think they played up the fact that she was a woman. And I felt horrible for falling for it.

Damn, BioWare is good.

I remember that, I did the same thing, and I STILL can't get over it!

 

[theguitarhero6]

I figure if a woman will voluntarily sign up for a military position, she is signing her life away to serve her country, and should be seen as a warrior, not a woman.

 

[Zantos]

If they're shooting at me i don't really notice gender as i shoot back.

Or if I think they're going to shoot me so i shoot first

Or if they annoy me

Or if im bored.

In any of these eventualities the good old "Bullets to the face" approach is undertaken regardless of the character's gender.

 

[Panda Mania]

I too get squeamish when enemies scream. I've often said, "I love violence, but I hate pain." Meaning that, I have no problem (and even enjoy) gunning down/knifing enemies...but if they start showing signs of extreme pain--screaming, writhing around, wimpering--I can't disregard them anymore. It's then that my sympathy comes through, because I, as a fellow human, can imagine the kind of pain that's wracking them. And I hate pain (well, everybody does, but especially me).

Heh. I would make a horrible real life soldier.

 

[Asuka Soryu]

It's one of lifes double standards. Hurting guys is alright, but hurting a woman is wrong.

Wich is really dumb. An enemy is an enemy. Judge a threat by how much of a threat it is, not by what gender/race or species it is.

 

[kickyourass]

I don't really feel one way or the other most of the time. Unless the female enemy is like Matriarch Benezia in ME 1 and has an effect beyond shooting at me right at this second, I'll shoot anyone who shoots at me first.

 

[Firetaffer]

I am incapable of really worrying about killing pixels and 1s and 0s from a moral standpoint.

Yes, and in real life if you ever shoot another person you are killing reflected waves of light and a bunch of cells.

No, just no. That is completely different, you shouldn't joke about that.

I'm not sure whether you were being sarcastic or not, but you probably weren't, in which case I don't notice much difference between pixels and reflected waves of light apart from the fact that the pixels on the screen actually produce the light!

 

[lovest harding]

Could be a spoiler about a character in one of the Mass Effects. Nothing big though.

My first thought is a mundane character (I think she was in mass Effect 2, but it could have been the first) where you run across her in a building and she begs you not to kill her. She just joined the gang and didn't realize it was dangerous (thought it just dealt in drugs and whatnot). So I saved her.
Turns out (when reading a terminal) she was a psychopath who ad a journal about how she loved killing people. I felt bad for falling for it.
I would have done the same for a man, but I think they played up the fact that she was a woman. And I felt horrible for falling for it.

Damn, BioWare is good.

I remember that, I did the same thing, and I STILL can't get over it!

I didn't have a save directly beforehand, but I was tempted to go back 3 hours just to shoot her. Gah. I can't believe BioWare pulled that over on me. >>

 

[TilMorrow]

Well I think we may have an innate trigger in us that makes us feel guilt whenever we kill female enemies in games cause I feel squeamish myself whenever I kill a female enemy without having moral justification.

I'd rather avoid situations where female enemies die and rather battle male ones but they can't always be avoided. Although I don't remember female enemies screaming on death in ME2 except when set on fire.