Poll: Is adding female models to games more trouble than it's worth?

[veloper]

Here's a better idea: please everyone by including only female character models, of the photomodel phenotype.

The boy gamers like it, the girl gamers have less to complain about and even the hired artists get to paint what they like best.
Everybody wins.

 

[KarlMonster]

You do realize that the ONLY reason they were able to have that much detail was specifically because they DID cut out female characters? If they're going to include females then they may as well make an alien character because it would be the same amount of work. Unfortunate but there you have it. Oh and unless the boobs bounce, no skeleton changes are required...
So if you're going to have men that are distinctly manly and females that are distinctly feminine, different skeletons are required.
I don't mean to come off like a jerk or anything like that but this whole issue isn't black and white, you need to see things from the developer's side as well...

In reverse order: None taken. I thought I said that? And that - kinda.

What you're basically telling me, is that the character loadout screen is 60-75% of the game, and that to show off like that, no corners were cut - except the one that had the female characters on it.
[I still think cutting out females was short-sighted, but I've said that, so I'll move on.]
Now I do rather understand the core problem. The skeleton model is comprised of springs and weights and someone has to sit down and work out all those numbers. It's no small task.

But what you're really saying is that they figured out how long it took to compile the code for all the male characters, considered doubling that for female characters, and said: "Yeaaaah, that's not going to happen." TF2 doesn't have any females, so we can probably get away without any females.

In the long run, it won't matter. Brink's character loadout screen is aparently 75% of the game (since NPC models are that easy), and it shows in the gameplay. Character dress-up is what, 20% of TF2, if that? Maybe 25% now? And most of that is from post-release patches! That shows in the gameplay too. And yes, its probably unfair to compare Brink to TF2.

Now I'm much more certain that the Brink devs sacrificed some pre-production planning time - or simply made interesting choices - that will limit the life-cycle of the game. Thank you for the education.

Edit: See, I'm the sorta crazy guy who'll work nights and weekends to get something done the way I wanted it to be done - but in this case, that would make me an Indy developer, or someone who just isn't getting paid.

 

[putowtin]

Me woman, this thread make me sad!

Just kidding, there's no reason (appart from laziness) to not include female models in games,
then again when they are included their normally stereotypes anyway so what the hey!

 

[RaphaelsRedemption]

I like having female models. This is because I am female, and think that maybe, just maybe, it would be nice to have my 50% represented in a game world.

Especially if there is character customisation.

 

[IBlackKiteI]

I want to see a woman die brutally just as much as I want to see a man die brutally. That is to say; Not much at all. Or more bluntly: Thinking it is worse to have capable women die horrible deaths than it is to have capable men die horrible deaths is very, very sexist.

Yeah, but with something like that what you or I think doesn't matter. It's the overall mindset of the audience and media. They absolutely don't want to see women die horribly onscreen. With men it's not necessary ok, just less...impactful because of the general mindset and greater prevalence of it.

And just let me point out that there are such a thing as female soldiers (Jessica Lynch for example did participate and was captured in combat). The russian army has had fighting women since the early 20th century and several western armies today feature women in fighting positions (the swedish and israeli army spring to mind), not to mention people like the kurd freedom fighters, several jihadist groups, the North Korean army and the People's Liberation Army of China.

I know.I didn't say there have never been such thing as female soldiers ever, I explicitly said that female combatants should only be in settings where it would make sense, in roles and situations where it would make sense, if it aims to be a game based on a particular historical time period. In that case there'd be nothing at all unreasonable about featuring them, what gets me is people saying that there must be female characters in combat roles in every game that aims to include some form extensive character customization.
What I was getting at was things like having female front-line troops in the US military ordered to find and kill the enemy in a 'realistic' game set right now for instance would be silly.

Also the whole Jessie Lynch thing was weird, there was a bunch of differing accounts of it. For instance I remember on Australian TV a bunch of reporters actually made it out to seem like she escaped captivity herself and busted her way out, taking a bunch of Iraqi prisoners in the process. She wasn't given a gun, assigned to squad and ordered to 'go kill those guys', she was in a non-combat role and ended up in a shitty situation which she wasn't supposed to be in. Then there's her apparently being the first US POW rescued since the Second World War (I wonder why).
Crazy shit like female army medics, engineers and whatnot getting attacked in ambushes does happen, but they aren't intended to actually engage the enemy as regular infantry in the first place.

 

[godofwarishere]

Female= Attraction