When will game developers realize there are female players too?

[Lyx]

Wouldn't something in the middle be like the overly emotional male or the emotionless woman from JRPG's that everyone hates?

Thats more like a male sex with a female gender, and a female sex with a male gender.

What i meant wasn't so much about the shell. I really don't care that much if my character looks male-like or looks female-like (regarding anatomy only). I care more about how my character behaves, how it thinks, feels and presents itself - and playing a overly muscular macho/feminist figther (regardless of anatomy) bores me just as much as playing an overly sensitive barbie-doll.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

If there is an option, I will ALWAYS play as a female character over a male one. And yes, I am a male. Point.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

If there is an option, I will ALWAYS play as a female character over a male one. And yes, I am a male. Point.

Great, you get your fairy wings.

Good. I prefer blue with sparkles.

Honestly though, I do it because of what the original poster said. Most games make you play as a male character, and it gets a little dull for me. "Grr, I'm angry and women don't interest me, save when they wear revealing clothing that has no place on the battlefield." Plus, I find it much more interesting in how characters react when the lead is female. Mass Effect and Dragon Age are prime examples in my opinion.

 

[Sara Fontaine]

I'm a female gamer, and I will admit that sometimes if there's the option to play as a female character then I will (an example is Mass Effect, due to the female voice actor being much better), but the option to do so isn't completely essential for me to play a game. As long as I can get engrossed into the story and enjoy the gameplay then it really doesn't matter to me whether I play as a man or a woman.

 

[Computer-Noob]

Here's a thought;
Imagine if Link were a girl and Zelda were the male?

Then Ruto would likely be a lesbian.

OP: Keep in mind that while girls may play video games, until they make of the majority of the video game market, then chances are most devs wont market towards them as often.

 

[geekRAGE]

I am all up for having majority female main characters I don't mind it at all. Every RP game always ends up with me creating a chick anyway. Only stipulation is she must have a tight little behind and massive cartoon knockers.

 

[Quillbell]

Wow, and here I thought I was the only one who was crazy enough to actually seek out games with female main characters. I love being able to play as my own gender, and as a gamer that's a problem sometimes.

For instance I love RPGs, they were some of my favourite games from childhood (JRPGs mostly), however as I got older I became less and less interested or invested in the characters (the female love interests in particular annoyed the hell out of me).

However after playing KOTOR, which let you choose your gender, I was actually able to connect with my character, and become invested in the story. I've never been able to get back into playing JRPGs(though I've got to admit I'm in love with the Persona series, the P3P gender choice just made it that much better).

I think the problems that I experenced arose from exactly what those JRPG protagonists were, which were basically player avatars, a husk of a character into which the player inserts himself. This didn't change when I played KOTOR, but this time I experienced it as a female, which let me feel how all of those male players must have been feeling while playing as a male protagonist.

As for other genres (I admit I'm mostly an RPG player) I do often wonder why there can't be more protagonists like Jade or April Ryan, genuinely sympathetic well-rounded female main characters. I love half-life, and I've often wondered what it would be like to play a spinoff starring Alyx Vance for example, or maybe the next Zelda game featuring a female incarnation of the hero of time. I realize the whole legacy of the "games as a boys-only medium" is still pervasive in the hardcore market, but a little variety would be nice.

 

[roxtrox7]

I personally would rather play as male characters just because the games industry like all other entertainment industries is fueled by violence, sex, and stereotypes. A lot of female characters like Lara Croft are just a big pair of breasts with a painfully cliche personalty that usually involves castrate any guy who says something that could possibly be taken as sexual innuendo.

Things aren't going to change until there are more women game developers or at least writers. It's the same reason SNL is nothing but sex jokes right now, now female perspective.

 

[ckam]

Well, the majority of players are male. So it's kind of a given.

Just think about it this way: Most movies in Europe and America have white colored main characters. Most movies in Asia have Asian main characters.

It's stupid, but it happens. Also I wouldn't really mind role playing as a female protagonist. Take a look at Beyond Good And Evil.

 

[Blue_vision]

I enjoy how this thread was necro'd. I think I participated in the beating on one of these previous pages, but here's my input.

It's stupid to ask for a game to "cater to both genders." If a game makes you play as a single person, then there's usually a story behind that character, which kind of gets fucked up if you stick balls or breasts on them. It's like asking why your favourite book can't have a separate edition where everything's the same but the main character is of the opposite gender; totally pointless and with no addition other than the fact that idiots can go "hey, now my character has balls! I can instantly relate to them because I'm too thick to understand the emotions of the other gender."

If you're talking about the lack of female main characters, there are two things. Firstly, there's still a pretty serious lack of action/adventure main characters in books and movies, while the more "girly" genre of romance novels and books just don't work well as video games.
Secondly, there's a whole underlying problem with most main characters in action games being Y chromosome thickheads with little emotions other than an odd sense of comedy.

So sorry OP, but you have no right to complain. If you have so much trouble relating to a man's emotions that you refuse to play any games with male leads, then just go to the lesbian feminist commune where you can spend your time relating with people that you share that extra chromosome with.

 

[imaloony]

Halo Reach, Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect 1 and 2, Fable 2, Fallout 3, Oblivion (bad as it is), and a lot of other games let you play as female characters. There are even a handful of single character games with primary female characters like WET and Bayonetta.

...Okay, so those games are horrid and have several questionable fetishes respectively, but there are games out there with female protagonists.

 

[Macgyvercas]

I mean just switch it around, how many male players would enjoy games if most of the ones available had women as the main character?

Um... honestly I wouldn't mind at all. So long as the character was well written and believable the gender of the character as little baring on my enjoyment of the game.

This. I don't care what gender the character is as long as the game is fun.

 

[Gindil]

Mirror's Edge did rather well.

Then there was Jet Set Radio (although I wish there were more personal stories, or a way to get an MMO going about the main mechanic but oh well...)

And people still ignore Fear Effect (lesbian characters)

And let's not even talk about Alice in Valkyria Chronicles... Wow, she is a killer.

 

[Underground Man]

Gender in games doesn't matter to me in the slightest. It seems like such a trivial thing to worry about, whether or not someone has a extra leg tacked onto one of their virtual chromosomes. I take the gender roles for what they are -- idealizations and marketing ploys. Whatever. I'm more concerned about how generally epic the gameplay is.

I do wonder about the guys who work on the fluid dynamic physics for the model's jiggle factor, though.

 

[Lukeman1884]

Honestly? I suppose it doesn't matter unless you actively "roleplay" in games. As in, do you imagine yourself as the guy in your screen who just killed that dragon. For me, the answer's no. So I wouldn't mind playing a female character. In fact, I usually pick to go with the females if I have a choice. As someone I know once asked: "would you rather stare a a guy's behind all day, or a girl's?"

Also, To the TC's original point, I think developers ARE beginning to cater for females. Look at all the recent RPGs, where people are most likely to actually roleplay as their characters. ME, DA:O, Fallout, etc. They all give you the option to be female. Halo: Reach lets you be female, and that's an FPS. So yes, I do think developers are beginning to pay attention to your demographic.

Also, jiggle=awesome

 

[Talon_Skywarp]

Come on, we had enough female characters to fill the audience at a Tom Jones concert.

I understand the argument but then I could say

I want more Mexican leads
I want more Gay leads
I want more Horse leads

So yes, I want a gay Mexican Horse in the next flood of games or I will moan that my demographic is misrepresented.

This annoys me in all media.

 

[Sven und EIN HUND]

Companies are only employing naturally successful marketing schemes - sex sells.



And also there are PLENTY of games/films/books/comics/plays/puppet shows with female protagonists.

 

[jowo96]

I'm a guy and most of my custom characters are women... not gay, honest.

But to expect all games to have the choice of character is ridiculous even if you only think of it from a narative standpoint.

Take twilight for example, now most men would agree that it is romantic dross and as such is not accessible to men, the solution to this would to have Twilight: Choose your own adventure. To accomidate for a male audience Bella would have to become a Ben, that would require every chapter to have a duplicate in itself with Bella replaced with Ben and her replaced with him, now with the main character changed there is still the problem that Ben is staring intently at Edwards Chest so that is still inaccessilbe to the majority of male readers so then we would have to either create a new female vampire or make the relationship with an alternative character either way this would have to have long passages about boobs and on top of that there would have to be more emphasis on the fights.

Long story short in order to make a satisfying gender swap in any narative you would have to write a whole other book and that is unreasonable to expect that from an author let alone a game development team seeing as they have to also factor in animation, models and voice acting.

In some cases it can work, where Narative isn't a focus (such as Saints Row) or where the focus is on other characters (such as Mass Effect)