Poll: If female characters were given an advantage....

[grizzlyAssuager]

Players have the tendency to, very soon, forget about the setting and the story and only think about the mechanics of a game. Unless the gameplay itself gives a feel of the story, it's just decoration that soon gets overlooked. Thus, the choice between male or female would be like hard mode/easy mode, nothing more.

So the portrayal of females as "better at stuff", would soon be overlooked by the connotation female character=easy game, male character=hard game. The effect might be comparable to that of the fast-levelling hunters in WoW, who were often portrayed as the crappier players. Stereotypes that originate from the game-mechanics would become attached to gender. At the end of the day, everyone just thinks "female character = bad player." This would not make very efficient nazi-feminist-propaganda. At all.

In multiplayer, gender might influence gameplay, since you are interacting with people, and their perception of your gender might influence stuff. This influence can be both negative or positive though, and there are many options: female characters might get more free stuff by pretending to be real life females, but get less respect for being the easy class. In the end, the attitude of the player-community would determine whether playing as a female is a benefit in the long run. (in multiplayer, that is.)

I don't know what I would play, normally I play as a female, I might do so in this case too.

 

[tokae]

I actually tend to agree with you re: quotas - they're attacking inequality from the wrong end. They create the appearance of equality, but don't actually do anything to address underlying sources of inequality.

(snipped the quote because of size.)

Ah, that I totally agree with!
Now I can go to bed, Night



(Hmm, fore-boding captcha: OTcall freed)

 

[WanderingFool]

A new game has come out - its the bees knees, reveiwers and players are loving it, both singleplayer and multiplayer. its the hot new game, thats selling in droves...

And the basis of the game is that women are inherently better at whatever form of combat its based around. Whether its a mystical force, or a unique and powerful control system that women inherently adapt to faster and better, women are the primary force in the singleplayer, and to map this across to multiplayer by saying that female characters gain skills/ranks/abilities at a notably faster rate. A character of either gender starts even, and the nominal 'caps' are even, but a female character will gain those ranks and reach that cap faster than a male character. What would you make of this?

That it's an unbalanced game. What else is there to make of it?

Would this constitute a "/thread"? Cause I think thats about all there is to say.

 

[wammnebu]

that its a new version of cooking mama

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

A new game has come out - its the bees knees, reveiwers and players are loving it, both singleplayer and multiplayer. its the hot new game, thats selling in droves...

And the basis of the game is that women are inherently better at whatever form of combat its based around. Whether its a mystical force, or a unique and powerful control system that women inherently adapt to faster and better, women are the primary force in the singleplayer, and to map this across to multiplayer by saying that female characters gain skills/ranks/abilities at a notably faster rate. A character of either gender starts even, and the nominal 'caps' are even, but a female character will gain those ranks and reach that cap faster than a male character. What would you make of this?

Could make an interesting story. I mean I'd hope there is a storyline basis for why women are far more adept than men in everything... be it a critical disease that infect 99% of the populace but affects male more so than females ....

I don't know ... like a killer flu, or airborne nanite that afflicts people with a prostate let's say and makes men sterile.

And there's basically a 40 year timer before the human race is extinct sorta affair ... And there's an eco-terrorist group that wishes to cause Humanity's extinction (and what better way then causing an illness that sickens one half of the world populace upon infection and causes sterility?)

Edit: Scratch that, the better way would be to create an illness that afflicts 100% of the world populace .... and causes sterility in everyone. Wasn't thinking, sorry.

But unless there's a plot to go with the gender/sex disparity ... why?

 

[PiggyGamer]

It seems like at least half of the respondents aren't even reading the entire first post.
OP said the caps are even, male characters just take longer to get there.
Now, it's still not the perfect explanation, because OP didn't specify how much longer.

If it's like it takes 1.5x longer, then it's no big deal, and it'd be an interesting thing to see. Some players might choose male and just deal with the extra "difficulty". Some might savor the longer journey to the level cap. Some might do it for the "achievement" effect of having a "rare" character model (male), because the majority of players will choose female.

But if it's like 5x longer, then fuck that.

 

[Dr. HeatSync]

I'd just like to mention Phantasy Star Online; Of each magic capable class the females usually had more skill and higher limits than males did (so the close combat female would have more magic skill and capability than her male counterpart, but the tradeoff was strength, admittedly the Hunter female is the equivalent of an elf and therefore would be more in tune with magic).

I think it helps build the universe a bit too; Both genders are vastly different and are engineered for different jobs in the real world, so a fictitious universe can take that and run miles, as long as theres a reason for it all.

Your particular idea however, might not be so suitable; There needs to be a reason beyond 'its a game' and it gives off the impression of being unbalanced and a little sexist. Either have a trade off (Like say, great learner with magic, but not so great with combat) or make them equal. Inequality if done properly can get players to gel together to cover each others weaknesses and maximise their strengths. Equality is the quick and boring solution, but theres not much info about what this game is about so take everything with a pinch of salt. I think it simply needs justification and then the audience won't try and fight it if the reasoning or good or creative enough.

 

[Continuity]

A new game has come out - its the bees knees, reveiwers and players are loving it, both singleplayer and multiplayer. its the hot new game, thats selling in droves...

And the basis of the game is that women are inherently better at whatever form of combat its based around. Whether its a mystical force, or a unique and powerful control system that women inherently adapt to faster and better, women are the primary force in the singleplayer, and to map this across to multiplayer by saying that female characters gain skills/ranks/abilities at a notably faster rate. A character of either gender starts even, and the nominal 'caps' are even, but a female character will gain those ranks and reach that cap faster than a male character. What would you make of this?

Thats fine, computer games are applications of fantasy, you could have knee-high pixies beating up 200lb men if you like, so long a its a good game I couldn't care less. In fact I like variety so I would welcome it even if only as a change from the norm (i.e. men and women are identical apart from the 3d model and a few minor quest differences). However it would have to be justified and balanced in the game somehow, otherwise there would be no point including male characters.

 

[Jopoho]

I don't think critics would love a game so obviously unbalanced. However, I have used girl characters because of differences in balanced (or relatively balanced) games. Pipsy in Diddy Kong Racing comes to mind.

 

[zeldagirl]

Would all of you want to play a game where, if given the choice between two genders, it was the male character that has an advantage? Or would you all say, as you are in this thread, that you would reject that game, because of the inequality? Or where playing as the woman makes the game harder?


Honest question. This topic has given me a lot to think about...

 

[Mylinkay Asdara]

If it has some story driven reason for that to be the case and there's some interesting social system built around this concept (like, for example, the Drow - crazy powerful chicks, kinda subjugated dudes - not that they lacked lethality when it came down to it). That would be fine.

If it's just to try to deconstruct how people feel about gender roles and all that stuff... in a lab maybe? I don't know what to tell you.

 

[Fr]anc[is]

Remake my renegade FemShep and go to town?

 

[Ryujisama]

I'd deem it unbalanced and unfair. Gender, at least for me, was a purely aesthetic choice. If I'm going to be staring at someone's ass for more than an hour's play time, I'd want it to be something pleasing to see. If I had to sacrifice my play experience to achieve that affect, then I won't be having as much fun, and therefore won't be playing as long. I think someone posted earlier that Final Fantasy 11 was a good example of this. People who played races with different genders didn't see a change (if there was one) in their gameplay; so I really don't see how this would be a good idea, whether the ones receiving the "boost" was female OR male. It distracts me from the game, and makes me not want to play it anymore.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Would all of you want to play a game where, if given the choice between two genders, it was the male character that has an advantage? Or would you all say, as you are in this thread, that you would reject that game, because of the inequality? Or where playing as the woman makes the game harder?


Honest question. This topic has given me a lot to think about...

Played Mount & Blade ... female characters have it harder when petitioning their leaders for more territory.

But that only makes you feel better when you go rogue, charge your former liege with an awlpike + armoured warhorse, and rearrange his face with it.

 

[Blaster395]

Somewhat related but with clothing.

Runescape (I don't play it) has both PlateLegs and PlateSkirts. The PlateSkirts weigh 1kg less than Platelegs but are otherwise identical. The lower weight allows characters wearing PlateSkirts to run longer than characters wearing PlateLegs.

The PlateSkirts are also cheaper.

 

[Estarc]

I'd think it totally ridiculous, just like I'd think a game where male characters are inherently superior to be ridiculous. I always play as a female character when the choice is available to me. I don't need or want some incentive trying to influence my choice.

 

[MasterV]

Would all of you want to play a game where, if given the choice between two genders, it was the male character that has an advantage? Or would you all say, as you are in this thread, that you would reject that game, because of the inequality? Or where playing as the woman makes the game harder?


Honest question.

Honest answer? I've played Resident Evil 2. Leon had better guns and was harder to kill. Resident Evil 1 was the reverse. Chris was handicapped and Jill had it a lot easier. Did it matter? No. Why? Because it was a single player game.

This isn't a question of gender, it's a question of multiplayer balance. So long as it's single player, I don't care about gender stuff. I roll with it, regardless of backstory and crap like that.

 

[zehydra]

Sounds like Combat Arms.

OT: I really wouldn't care. At all.