Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - General Gender parity appreciation note

I just read this article on rockpapershotgun which mentions you hiring a female writer, aiming to have 51/49 percent representation, having same-sex relationships, and being able to play as two women.

The last in particular made me happy as Divine Divinity was one of my favourite games and I was really worried I'd have to play a one male/one female team. The fact that I can play as two ladies makes me ecstatic and I just wanted to show that appreciation to the devs. It really matters! It makes a big difference! Thank you!

I am really curious about what is so important about being able to play two women ?

How come I'm not surprised you ask something like this...

I myself wouldn't care, although I tend to play Male, same gender, I feel playing not same gender like "cheating" sort of (especially in MMORPG, when guys admit that they play females because people are nicer to them then...)
Well, I am really curious. Because, as a girl, you want to play DoS with your girlfriend ? That would be a good reason. But this is still a suposition.

I also appreciate their concern for accurate representation and good writing of women.

My biggest problem with the gaming industry was always crappy writing of female characters. It frequently seemed to be that the writers didn't get them very well so they always ended up very simple characters (who also many times fall over any old protagonist, which was also a little frustrating). Even good games like Dragon Age: Origins I felt suffered from this problem somewhat.

I'm hopeful to see more good work out of the team too. And yes, I tend to play double female protagonist myself, so I also appreciate that. I find it far more interesting this way.

I don't know about Jemeryl, but me (female) and my girlfriend are both into RPGs and really excited about this game. Of course, D:OS would still be a great game for us if one player is forced to play a male character. Playing guys is not a problem at all, in fact that's what I did most time for the last 15 years and I'm okay with that. But IF (!!) a studio says "You know what? Play what you want" and it's actually happen (not just some PR gag), OF COURSE I'm really really glad and taking the opportunity to play the female/female constelation.

So I have to second this: THANK YOU, LARIAN, THANK YOU VERY MUCH. Back then when I pledged for this game, I did it without knowing that this would happen. I just thought "Wow, this game looks awesome and I want you to make it" and look, now it's even better than I expected!

I knwo that female players are still not a real target group (not talking about "Barbie & her Pony"), especially not when they're gay, but just so that you know: We're there and we're very, very grateful for every studio like Larian.

PS: Sorry for my crappy English. (:

Weird story; I never heard about RPG's until my sister gave me a box full of games she had finished (prior to which I never even knew she had a computer much less played games).

Well I kind of have to laugh at the 51/49 reference. While that is the male/female ratio I do believe that if you look at the ratio of those that are soldiers or do other dangerous adventuring, the ratio wouldn't be quite the same.

Regardless I agree games need some decent female writers, no not like BioWare's female writers, but some good ones. I certainly hope this makes any female relationships more realistic.

I don't see what the gender of the writers matters, as long as they're good at what they do.

More character options is always a good thing and I agree.

A woman writing women characters is likely more true-to-life, at least assuming both the male and female writer are of similar quality, I would think, due to the wealth of life experience that the woman comes to the table with, knowing more intricacies and things like this.

In this sense I believe gender diversity in writing provides more diversity and quality to the writing.

I dunno, a skilled writer should be capable of writing convincingly, regardless of the similarity of the character to themselves or lack thereof. I think a diverse team is probably a good thing, but not at the cost of quality and coherence.

In my career, the drive for increased gender diversity appears to have put women off, raising the obvious concern, "if it's so bad that they have to oversell it, I don't want to work there". There was almost parity when I started in computing in the late '80s, at least where I worked, but it seems that as other women have moved on, there's been fewer and fewer new recruits to replace them. Er anyway, just a random observation; or random pontificating, if you prefer!

Well I agree I'd prefer a group of good writers over a group of writers with a good male/female ratio.

Hey OP do you have a link to that article? I can't find it but am curious to read what they actually said about it.

Can we at least agree that having two writers is better than one?

I finally found the article. In case anyone else wants to read it:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/03/05/larian-on-near-closure-divinitys-future-gender-parity/