Why are people upset about no females in Brink, but not COD, Battlefield, or MoH

[Elamdri]

It's kind of confusing to me, especially with that giant thread going around, why everyone is seemingly so upset about not being able to play a female character in Brink. Last time I checked, You couldn't play a female character in CoD, you couldn't play a female character in Battlefield Bad Company 2 (and it doesn't look like there will be females in BF3 either), and you can't play a female in Medal of Honor.

So why is everyone so upset about Brink? I mean, if you think about it, it makes LESS sense for there to be no women in CoD, BF:BC2, and MoH. Brink is a game that is heavily designed around character customization, so they focused on one sex, (Male, the FPS default) and created a large system around that. If they had tried to do women as well, it would have just been too large and time consuming (and god only knows they could have spent more time on other parts of the game).

Meanwhile, when you look at games like CoD, BF:BC2, and MoH, you're generally using only a few skins per character. It would have been comparatively easy for any of those developers to create similar female versions of multiplayer characters and give you the option of toggling your sex. But they didn't. And no one cared.

Don't get me wrong, I think the option should always be there in most video games to toggle sex (I personally subscribe to the philosophy that if I'm going to spend the majority of time look at a butt on screen, it might as well be an ATTRACTIVE butt). But I don't get why Brink has been the focus of all this uproar, while other games got off scott free.

So why the double standard?

EDIT: I guess I need to make this clear. The question is rhetorical, I don't actually need people to answer it. I was trying to point out that I think that Brink is a rather silly place to be making this argument.

 

[Simple Bluff]

In COD, the emphasis of customization was always placed on the guns. That changed slightly in Blops, but not so much so that people would remember to care.
Brink is somewhat lauded for its character customization - so people thought it odd that you can't change the gender, the very first thing most female gamers would want to do.

There isn't that much fuss about it, really. More of a baffling observation.

 

[DeadProxy]

People hate everything and we live in a sad time where good points in video games get swamped down by a few down points. They just seem to overlook the trillions and trillions of options for the men in the game, and notice all ZIP of the options for women NOT in the game.

Why they cant just look at what the game does indeed offer and judge it off that instead of whats not in the game, because thats easy as shit.

 

[Tallim]

I don't know much about Brink but it doesn't appear to be based on real military groups who by and large don't have women on the front line. SAS certainly don't have women. As far as I know the only British special forces that do take women are the SRR.

So the more "realistic" (lol) games wouldn't have females in them.

 

[MasterV]

It's so easy to decipher fanboys of a game, I find it funny.

Here's the thing OP. The games you use as examples are military shooters, starring a bunch of special ops guys, soldiers fighting a war and such. Tell me, where, in which mainstream medium, have you seen females as part of a soldier fighting a war? Everything, from movies to documentaries, exemplify the fact that "War is a man's thing".

Now, I'm not saying this i how it is or that this depiction is correct. Just what one takes away from what he sees around him.

Now Brink....well. Not only it's premise is around a freedom force fighting a regime, which many mediums have women take active part in (I'll just mention games, don't want to make it too deep here: Mirror's Edge, Freedom Fighters, Red Faction), but it's marketing seems to revolve a WHOLE LOT around character customization. And character customization with no female option is only char custo. See what I did there? So there you have it.

 

[Kiardras]

Because they made such a big deal about character customisation.

Its not an issue for me (far more worrying is a multiplayer game shipping with only 8 maps...) but the developer made such a big deal about its character customisation then only accounted for half what could have been there had they used both genders.

Of course, then there might have been less customisation per gender.

tl;dr - people always ***** and nothing will ever be good enough for the internet posters.

 

[squid5580]

Because I wanna stare at my teammates bum!!!!

 

[PurplePlatypus]

It?s a game where character customisation is a selling point and they have left out an option that brings with it an entire tree of other aesthetic opportunities.

 

[justnotcricket]

Because they made such a big deal about character customisation.

Its not an issue for me (far more worrying is a multiplayer game shipping with only 8 maps...) but the developer made such a big deal about its character customisation then only accounted for half what could have been there had they used both genders.

Of course, then there might have been less customisation per gender.

tl;dr - people always ***** and nothing will ever be good enough for the internet posters.

This. =)

I'm not bothered from a gender equality point of view or something. I'm bothered that they call attention to their character customisation, and then fail to include an aspect that is (for me anyway) more important to customisation than clothes or hairpieces or whatever =P

But it depends on your personal opinion of how much gender matters to customisation, I suppose.

OP specifically: I have made no comment about the gameplay - I haven't played the game! I'm not unwilling to judge a game on its actual gameplay merits, I'm just raising an eyebrow at Splash Damage for claiming customisation mayhem and then not including both genders. Also...CoD etc..not really the same kind of game? Can't quite see how that comparison works.

 

[ChupathingyX]

Because CoD actually does have playable female characters.

Two to be specific.

The first is in Call of Duty: Finest Hour.

The second is in Call of Duty: Black Ops, Call of the Dead zombie map.

 

[trollnystan]

Well, both the Medal of Honor and CoD series started out being set in WW2. Not many female soldiers around in WW2. Except in the local resistance chapters. What was Brink about now again?

I personally don't care about Brink as it's not my kind of game. But I understand the people that do. I mean, there are more unique characters possible than the entire human population. Makes me think they be feeling a little optimistic about their sales =P

You'd think they could squeeze in a female model in there somewhere. /2 cents

 

[loodmoney]

Hey, let's put this here so the feminists in the other thread don't find it!

Seriously though (and apart from the historical/'realistic' nature of the games mentioned), those of us who are angry/disappointed with Brink are pissed off about the representation of women in games in general. Seriously, the problem is this:

(Male, the FPS default)

This is the main problem. There is no reason for games to buy into this. (If you look on the other thread, a large part of the people who don't object to the exclusion of women are saying "but we would play it if it had women/androgynous humanoids/&c.", so presumably including women isn't going against the tastes of those people. And given that game developers can write about whatever universe they want, there is no reason for the story/game universe to be male dominated.) To treat male as default is to treat women as a variation; men as people, women as other.

As to why Brink has recieved such vitriol? It is a particularly egregious example of the trend. The reason that these customisation options are so extensive is to make each player's avatar unique. The developers stated that this was so that no two players would look the same--implying that each avatar was in some sense yours. So by not including female models, the developers essentially placed greater importance on the cut and colour of the shirts than they did a whole gender. Basically, the message this sends is 'Sorry ladies but you're just not that important.'

Last time I checked, You couldn't play a female character in CoD, you could play a female character in Battlefield Bad Company 2 (and it doesn't look like there will be females in BF3 either), and you can't play a female in Medal of Honor.

Honestly, of all the excuses for sexism in games, this is the worst. 'Other games exclude women, so this one should be allowed to also.' No. Brink does not get a free pass on this shit, just because of the bullshit other games have pulled.

 

[Funkysandwich]

Because if given the choice I would've chosen a female avatar.

That's really it.

 

[Craorach]

Primary for me is that they keep lauding their character customisation and yet don't add the most basic form of customisation.. our gender.

But along with that, is the idea that this is some apocalyptic world where humanity is religated to a floating Ark.. and yet only one gender is doing any fighting.

I suppose it could be argued that in this post apocalypitc world we've revereted to a more basic society and women stay at home or in safe areas to raise children.. its not to out there an idea. But as far as I know nobody has said that is officially part of the story.

They seem to have opted not to include this purely to save resources.

 

[MetalSora]

Well i think i know why there maybe trying to not happend what happend in MGO where most guys wouldnt shoot a girl(mind you this is a ''realistic shotter''

 

[Hero in a half shell]

What I don't understand is why so much effort goes into character customisation When you play in first person what is the point of 102 bagillion different character designs, when you never get to see the one you create?