Larian Studios Forums General Chat Final word on genders?

The fact that there are idiotic, radical feminists and 'politically correct' institutions and policies throughout the industrialized world has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not one or more of multiple inch high virtual avatars in a game is female... so I'm moving this to the chat forum.

Raze for president \o/


(... of Rivelon?)

So. as you say women are always the rangers and casters and men are the brutes. Gandalf, Legolas, batman, green arrow and probably tons more from that kind of media. but lets move it to games. First up. Almost any RPG lets you choose/customize a class so that undoes your whole argument.

Fire emblem awakening, which is a great game that destroyed your argument of immersion and treats each gender equally by have both genders for every class. from Sully the female knight. to Libra. a man of the cloth that serves his gods with devotion by healing people. and even within the more typical roles the characters are well written. Fredrick a heroic knight who is smart and sophisticated. and Lissa, a cleric who is somewhat of a bumbling fool. I have never been more immersed in a game.

Saints row 2-4 and fable 2-3 The game doesn't make any distinction about what gender you play. on Saints row 4 I have 2 save files. one is of a guy that dresses like a princess and the other is a woman who is currently running around as mecha godzilla. though yesterday she was a steampunk soldier.

Edit: Nevermind. Others in the thread have said it so much more eloquently than I (the cool people, I mean...not the troll who started the thread).

I've never cared what gender my character is, as long as the game is a good one.

Is Tomb Raider somehow a bad game (Well, set of games!) because Lara Croft is female? It would be a very unusual gamer who thought so, wouldn't it? Other than Mario and Sonic, she is probably the most recognisable game character in the world, and that didn't happen because her games don't sell well. They do.

Speaking as a guy myself, I'd like to see more lead female characters in games (And definitely more Cate Archer! Seriously, HOW good are the No-one Lives Forever games?). Not just because it would encourage more female gamers, but also because I like variety in the games I play. I like to become absorbed in a character's story in the same way I do when I read a book. If the character is believable and their story interesting, isn't that what counts?

One of the greatest things gaming does is involve the gamer deeply in other people's stories, as we will the leads on to success and (Hopefully) help them achieve it. By having games with male leads and other games with female leads, how much wider and deeper is the potential for all those stories?

Completely agree. Particularly about Cate Archer. So wish GOG would release NOLF 1+2

I got mine from Amazon, Tarasis. I gather that the rights to NOLF are kind of tied up and no-one knows quite who they belong to, so Amazon or similar are probably your best bets, for now.

I wouldn't know because I would never buy a game that forces you to play as a female, such would be the predictable immersion-breaking experience.

But you are ok with casting fireballs, shrugging off lightning strikes and running for hours on end with a ton of equipment in your backpack in a game, as long as the avatar is male?

Do you also avoid games if the player character is an animal, alien or robot, etc?

If playing someone who is not very like you is an immersion breaking experience, I am curious to know what games you DO play.

How far do you take the idea that you can't play someone who is not yourself?

Handsome, fit, young guy(up to 35) is enough.
Take the latest example, Arklash Legacy, all characters were female, mage, tank warrior and healer, and the male characters were a midget and an undead revenant.

That completely fucked up the enjoyment of the game from the very start.

This extreme feminist streak in certain studios(like Warframe) is very worrying, and more noise should be made about such nasty tendencies.

The vast majority of games, then. Although obviously no Sonic, Mario, etc.



Why? I'm honestly curious. Were they lousy characters? Was the story bad?



There is an appalling amount of sexism in the industry (Jim Sterling regularly calls them out on it, and rightly) but I haven't seen a whole lot of feminism of any kind, let alone extremist feminism.

The industry is widely considered to be not just male dominated but male focused. If there are studios that are genuinely misandrist, I haven't read about them.

I'd just like to make a point that most of these sorts are usually portrayed as physically inferior to the warrior type, weaker in some matter, often effeminate or clearly lacking what people perceive as masculinity. It's even more drastic in anime/manga, a gay has their persona inverted, a male becomes effeminate and is portrayed as a female, which is very similar to what is happening to those sorts of characters. I think it shows the terrible perception which many have of gay males.

I'm left scratching my head somewhat. I prefer to play female characters because I guess that, being female, I get more into the role, and I'm less enthusiastic about a game that tries to shoehorn me into a male role. But that's no more than my personal preference, I certainly have no intention of making a commentary on the aspects of the gaming industry, men or society as a whole. I doubt anyone would want to listen and I can't really be bothered anyway.

Most of my gaming friends (male and female) don't really care too much either way, at least from what I can tell.

Strange how these comments about being "forced" to play with certain characters very rarely come up in jRPG, adventure game genre and action/horror game genre -- where indeed in many cases the main character is female.

I'm always baffled myself, Virumor, probably because I don't have an actual preference as to which gender I play. It's the story I'm after.

It never even occurred to me when I first picked up a Tomb Raider game that I should not want to play it because the lead was a girl. That idea baffles me now and would have done so then as well.