I was watching this weeks Jimquisition and I thought of what could be one of the funnest moments in recent gaming. Possibly not the best but funny.
You can probably guess my idea from the title: A big AAA developer makes a game where the main character is a woman, but they don't tell anybody that it is. I need an example here so I just going to go with Dishonored 2 because I loved Dishonored.
So the developers chose a generic could-be-a-man-or-a-woman name for the PC (like "Alex" maybe)or just give them a codename ("The Shadow of Dunwal!"). The box-art has her standing similar to the current one, full mask and Outsiders mark. You have your focus testers and journalists play sections of the game where no-one talks to the PC, and since the PC is most likely a silent protagonist no-one can guess her gender. Then you show off her assassinating people creatively, using all the Outsider powers and whatnot to make it look as awesome as possible.
So the developers drum up good vibes for their game, people pick it up and then BAM! Female PC. Right from the start. No beating around the bush. And one half of the player base plays the game and finds an engaging story of a woman struggling in the very male dominated Dunwal. (Seriously, beside the empress name two women in position of power in that game. But that's very 1890s England which is what the game is based on) There is a lot of undercurrent there that could be worked into the story. You could make every NPC dismissive of what you do with the not-so-subtle hit that its because your female, so the player can see what it feels like after to be putdown after winning their way through a very hard level. There is the obvious stuff like moving, climbing, stealthing and killing just as well as Corvo did to show that a female is just as competent. And there is some darker stuff as well like showing that becoming a ruthless murderer in pursuit of goals is not just a male trait.
So that's what one half of the player base experiences. The other half however retreats to the internets and there is a massive shitstorm of "WAH! Female PC in my game! I have surprise cooties now from playing a girl WAH!" which drums up heeps of free press for the game.
Now, I can see two problems of the top of my head. First and foremost is actually keeping that secret. Having like 200 people working on a game means most likely that there will be a leek somewhere in the chain and the secret will get out and this will all be ruined.
The second problem is that its pretty abysmal that we have to resort to this to get a PC who is solely female, not a chose your own gender like Mass Effect.
You can probably guess my idea from the title: A big AAA developer makes a game where the main character is a woman, but they don't tell anybody that it is. I need an example here so I just going to go with Dishonored 2 because I loved Dishonored.
So the developers chose a generic could-be-a-man-or-a-woman name for the PC (like "Alex" maybe)or just give them a codename ("The Shadow of Dunwal!"). The box-art has her standing similar to the current one, full mask and Outsiders mark. You have your focus testers and journalists play sections of the game where no-one talks to the PC, and since the PC is most likely a silent protagonist no-one can guess her gender. Then you show off her assassinating people creatively, using all the Outsider powers and whatnot to make it look as awesome as possible.
So the developers drum up good vibes for their game, people pick it up and then BAM! Female PC. Right from the start. No beating around the bush. And one half of the player base plays the game and finds an engaging story of a woman struggling in the very male dominated Dunwal. (Seriously, beside the empress name two women in position of power in that game. But that's very 1890s England which is what the game is based on) There is a lot of undercurrent there that could be worked into the story. You could make every NPC dismissive of what you do with the not-so-subtle hit that its because your female, so the player can see what it feels like after to be putdown after winning their way through a very hard level. There is the obvious stuff like moving, climbing, stealthing and killing just as well as Corvo did to show that a female is just as competent. And there is some darker stuff as well like showing that becoming a ruthless murderer in pursuit of goals is not just a male trait.
So that's what one half of the player base experiences. The other half however retreats to the internets and there is a massive shitstorm of "WAH! Female PC in my game! I have surprise cooties now from playing a girl WAH!" which drums up heeps of free press for the game.
Now, I can see two problems of the top of my head. First and foremost is actually keeping that secret. Having like 200 people working on a game means most likely that there will be a leek somewhere in the chain and the secret will get out and this will all be ruined.
The second problem is that its pretty abysmal that we have to resort to this to get a PC who is solely female, not a chose your own gender like Mass Effect.
