Female Characters

Talk about the latest LRR video or discuss your past favorites.
User avatar
Elaro
Posts: 428
Joined: 01 Jun 2007, 17:43
First Video: Three PS3s
Location: In Montreal

Re: NEW VIDEO - Female Characters

Postby Elaro » 05 Jul 2014, 13:47

No Canada Day video this year, Graham?
Image
Image
User avatar
My pseudonym is Ix
Posts: 3835
Joined: 31 Dec 2012, 09:28
First Video: Canadian Girlfriend
Location: --. .-. . .- - / -... .-. .. - .- .. -.
Contact:

Re: NEW VIDEO - Female Characters

Postby My pseudonym is Ix » 05 Jul 2014, 14:28

Lurkon wrote:
SamSamSam wrote:How many games are there where you can ONLY play a female character?

Off the top of my head I can only think of Tomb Raider, Metroid, Portal and some indies.
Compared to the 1000s of games that are male only.

Oh, there's Super Princess Peach too

The first one I thought of was Mirror's Edge. (Just adding to the tiny tiny list.)
ETA: Remember Me.


Assassin's Creed: Liberation
Recettear

...anyone else?
"Let us think the unthinkable, let us do the undoable, let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not Image it after all."
User avatar
Jamfalcon
Posts: 3329
Joined: 08 Aug 2011, 13:59
First Video: Killer Instinct
Location: Somewhat nearish Vancouver. Kind of.
Contact:

Re: NEW VIDEO - Female Characters

Postby Jamfalcon » 05 Jul 2014, 14:36

Just checking my Steam and GOG libraries, I only found two that haven't been mentioned yet, Beyond Good and Evil and Velvet Assassin. And the first reminded my that there's also Beyond: Two Souls, if you don't count the ghost.
"Jamfalcon's a super weird name" - Graham

I wrote a book!
Image
User avatar
Master Gunner
Defending us from The Dutch!
Posts: 19383
Joined: 29 Oct 2006, 12:19
First Video: How To Talk Like A Pirate
Location: In Limbo.

Re: NEW VIDEO - Female Characters

Postby Master Gunner » 05 Jul 2014, 14:39

Alice: Madness Returns.
TheRocket wrote:Apparently the crotch area could not contain the badonkadonk area.
Twitter | Click here to join the Desert Bus Community Chat.
User avatar
Lurkon
Posts: 1027
Joined: 09 Mar 2013, 09:50
First Video: Man Cooking: Meatshroom
Location: South Carolina, USA

Re: NEW VIDEO - Female Characters

Postby Lurkon » 05 Jul 2014, 14:44

The Atelier games?
Do a Pivot Table!

"Cover me in lube and call me an athlete!" ~ Kathleen De Vere
User avatar
ritchards
Posts: 287
Joined: 12 Nov 2013, 14:18
First Video: The Job (first video on The Escapist)
Location: Wellington, New Zealand
Contact:

Re: NEW VIDEO - Female Characters

Postby ritchards » 05 Jul 2014, 14:53

A whole ton of hidden object games have females as the lead character.
Samantha Swift
The Clockwork Man
Mirror Mysteries
just to name three off the top of my library...
mariomario42
Posts: 177
Joined: 03 Jun 2013, 13:35
First Video: Omnilingual

Re: NEW VIDEO - Female Characters

Postby mariomario42 » 05 Jul 2014, 15:04

SamSamSam wrote:How many games are there where you can ONLY play a female character?

Off the top of my head I can only think of Tomb Raider, Metroid, Portal and some indies.
Compared to the 1000s of games that are male only.

Oh, there's Super Princess Peach too


Link here

There's a list of many, but not just ONLY.

Looking at my library, ignoring games that have the option at both, and shooters that have the protagonist male for war reasons, it's fairly even.
User avatar
Master Gunner
Defending us from The Dutch!
Posts: 19383
Joined: 29 Oct 2006, 12:19
First Video: How To Talk Like A Pirate
Location: In Limbo.

Re: NEW VIDEO - Female Characters

Postby Master Gunner » 05 Jul 2014, 15:24

From the associated Wikipedia article:
In a sample of 669 action, shooter, and role-playing games selected by EEDAR in 2012, only 24 (4%) had an exclusively female protagonist, and 300 (45%) provided the option of selecting one. Examining the sales data and review scores of these games, EEDAR found that the games that included the option of selecting a female hero obtained better scores, but the ones with male-only protagonists sold better than the others. However, games with a female-only protagonist had, on average, only 50% of the marketing budget of female-optional games, and 40% of the marketing budget of games with male-only protagonists.[5]
TheRocket wrote:Apparently the crotch area could not contain the badonkadonk area.
Twitter | Click here to join the Desert Bus Community Chat.
User avatar
Lurkon
Posts: 1027
Joined: 09 Mar 2013, 09:50
First Video: Man Cooking: Meatshroom
Location: South Carolina, USA

Re: NEW VIDEO - Female Characters

Postby Lurkon » 05 Jul 2014, 15:44

Master Gunner wrote:From the associated Wikipedia article:
In a sample of 669 action, shooter, and role-playing games selected by EEDAR in 2012, only 24 (4%) had an exclusively female protagonist, and 300 (45%) provided the option of selecting one. Examining the sales data and review scores of these games, EEDAR found that the games that included the option of selecting a female hero obtained better scores, but the ones with male-only protagonists sold better than the others. However, games with a female-only protagonist had, on average, only 50% of the marketing budget of female-optional games, and 40% of the marketing budget of games with male-only protagonists.[5]

That is incredibly interesting.
Do a Pivot Table!

"Cover me in lube and call me an athlete!" ~ Kathleen De Vere
User avatar
Clypheous
Posts: 271
Joined: 11 Jul 2012, 05:17
First Video: Checkpoint Episode One
Location: Newer Prahv

Re: NEW VIDEO - Female Characters

Postby Clypheous » 05 Jul 2014, 16:43

SamSamSam wrote:How many games are there where you can ONLY play a female character?

Off the top of my head I can only think of Tomb Raider, Metroid, Portal and some indies.
Compared to the 1000s of games that are male only.

Oh, there's Super Princess Peach too


Are you considering games like Bayonetta? Although, I would be curious to see a study where the exact same game is made except for it has a male or female lead and see which is more popular and if women are more likely to play the female version, etc. it seems like this must be market research that someone has already done, if not, that's an insane oversight by these big companies.

I'm trying to think if I've ever bought a game or not bought a game as a result of the gender of its protagonist. I can't recall ever having done that, at least not consciously, I generally just try to play good games, so I've played Tomb Raider and Far Cry and enjoyed both, but I think either would have felt identical to me if the gender of the lead was swapped, there's nothing really gender specific in either that couldn't easily be swapped out for something else.
Yorick
Posts: 30
Joined: 30 Nov 2013, 06:27
First Video: The Whole Story: Pants
Location: Iceland

Re: NEW VIDEO - Female Characters

Postby Yorick » 05 Jul 2014, 17:16

Isn't this the first topical LRR sketch for quite a while, if we don't count "EVERYTHING IS FINE"?
Official spokesman for the Amalgamated union of Scrubs and Casuals.
User avatar
WAYF
Posts: 546
Joined: 09 Sep 2010, 23:51
First Video: Unskippable: The Getaway
Location: Australia
Contact:

Re: NEW VIDEO - Female Characters

Postby WAYF » 05 Jul 2014, 23:06

I don't understand how EVERYTHING IS FINE is topical, except that EVERYTHING IS FINE, THERE'S NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT! WHY WOULD ANYTHING NOT BE FINE?

But either way, there was "The Whole Story: Football" just a couple of weeks ago.
"My favourite song is 'Girl Panic!'... because girls make me panic... in a good way!"
- Simon Le Bon.
User avatar
HG Pelts
Posts: 8
Joined: 04 Feb 2013, 05:11
First Video: Imagine If You Will

Re: NEW VIDEO - Female Characters

Postby HG Pelts » 06 Jul 2014, 11:13

That robot-doge cosplay at the beginning is stunning. Who is that?

Also, someone has made Cam say "ovipositor jiggle physics" in front of a camera. Faith in humanity at all-time highs.
User avatar
Ptangmatik
Posts: 3597
Joined: 08 Apr 2012, 09:44
First Video: probably one of the 1st unskippables
Location: the shire of york

Re: NEW VIDEO - Female Characters

Postby Ptangmatik » 06 Jul 2014, 11:45

Elaro wrote:No Canada Day video this year, Graham?

Canadaman's too polite to impose on people every year.
Geoff_B wrote: ... Even for here, that was weird.
User avatar
wizzerd229
Posts: 64
Joined: 02 Jan 2010, 13:33
First Video: Quantum Documentary
Location: Tallahassee, FL

Re: Female Characters

Postby wizzerd229 » 07 Jul 2014, 01:40

just hearing Ovipositor Jiggle Physics made me do a spit take
I owe Graham a beer.

Zeke229 on twitch

ask me shit ask.fm/Zeke229

become my steam friend ( i dont multiplayer though ) http://steamcommunity.com/id/Zeke229

Pronouns They, their
User avatar
Merrymaker_Mortalis
Posts: 7226
Joined: 24 Feb 2010, 19:19
First Video: ENN's First Episode on Escapist
Location: Wales

Re: NEW VIDEO - Female Characters

Postby Merrymaker_Mortalis » 07 Jul 2014, 02:29

mariomario42 wrote:I think this is more on a case to case basis. Smaller companies that are trying to make a polished game, that work might be too much money/work for them. Character model is one thing, but any game that has equipable armor/clothing requires male and female versions of each.


I know female and male armour is practically identical. I mean, suites of armour were sort of mass-produced to a certain measurement. The only time you could have customised armour is when you commissioned it.
Look at Brienne's armour from Game of Thrones. That suite could probably be also worn by a man.

Armour made from leather and cloth might be different, since the material is more flexible. Cloth armour might be more "to fit". Would Leather Armour have straps, so it would be "One Size Fits All".

I know some people play these RPG games for the fashion and expression. But you're probably better off playing RPGs where the female armour sets are "anatomically correct" because they would have focused on prettiness.
-

My opinion on the AssCred thing:
To me, the protagonist of Ass Cred is like The Doctor. There is nothing stopping them being a woman/having the form of a human woman. Just so happens, thus far, they've always assumed a male form. Except for that spin-off Game on the Vita and PC port.

However, with Unity, it introduces 4 characters. Assuming there is a 50-50 ratio of men and women in the world, then presume perhaps the assassin career path is more appealing to men than women, it's still surprising if you think about it that at least one of the assassins isn't a woman.
User avatar
Dusk_Shine
Posts: 40
Joined: 07 Dec 2012, 23:19
First Video: How to Talk Like a Pirate
Location: R63 Equestria (by way of Indianapolis)
Contact:

Re: Female Characters

Postby Dusk_Shine » 07 Jul 2014, 03:42

Is it too terribly strange that I would totally play an RPG that the LRR crew were at least partly responsible for helping design?
Although...I fell like Cam would somehow convince the dev team to make the minimum difficulty rather...high...
User avatar
RedNightmare
Posts: 1236
Joined: 25 Nov 2011, 02:56
First Video: The Job
Location: Your deepest fears

Re: NEW VIDEO - Female Characters

Postby RedNightmare » 07 Jul 2014, 04:15

mariomario42 wrote:...and shooters that have the protagonist male for war reasons, it's fairly even.

I don't completely understand why that last group is excluded. Could you elaborate what yo mean by that?
"I wouldn't call myself an evil genius. Simply genius will suffice."

http://www.twitch.tv/rednightmare7

Image
User avatar
Master Gunner
Defending us from The Dutch!
Posts: 19383
Joined: 29 Oct 2006, 12:19
First Video: How To Talk Like A Pirate
Location: In Limbo.

Re: Female Characters

Postby Master Gunner » 07 Jul 2014, 05:17

For WWII-era shooters (and earlier, obviously), women were not allowed in direct combat roles in pretty much any military. So there it generally makes sense for the protagonists to be male, unless you're going for an "Alternate-History" vibe.

For modern and future-based shooters, however, there is no such argument for completely excluding women from being the protagonist. In Canada, women have served in direct combat roles since 1987, and other countries had integrated women into combat roles before then.
TheRocket wrote:Apparently the crotch area could not contain the badonkadonk area.
Twitter | Click here to join the Desert Bus Community Chat.
Firbozz
Posts: 134
Joined: 23 Nov 2013, 22:30
First Video: Don't remember... 2-3 years ago

Re: Female Characters

Postby Firbozz » 07 Jul 2014, 05:36

Barkeep's damn OP. As soon as you find out Barkeeps can get ye flask, the whole game's broken.
User avatar
DirgeNovak
Posts: 23
Joined: 06 Mar 2014, 23:11
First Video: Daily Drop
Location: Montréal

Re: Female Characters

Postby DirgeNovak » 07 Jul 2014, 06:00

And to think Ubi could have avoided most of the flak by simply properly explaining the actual nature of their multiplayer instead of giving those dumbass excuses.
Image
mariomario42
Posts: 177
Joined: 03 Jun 2013, 13:35
First Video: Omnilingual

Re: NEW VIDEO - Female Characters

Postby mariomario42 » 07 Jul 2014, 06:31

Merrymaker_Mortalis wrote:I know female and male armour is practically identical. I mean, suites of armour were sort of mass-produced to a certain measurement. The only time you could have customised armour is when you commissioned it.
Look at Brienne's armour from Game of Thrones. That suite could probably be also worn by a man.

Armour made from leather and cloth might be different, since the material is more flexible. Cloth armour might be more "to fit". Would Leather Armour have straps, so it would be "One Size Fits All".

I know some people play these RPG games for the fashion and expression. But you're probably better off playing RPGs where the female armour sets are "anatomically correct" because they would have focused on prettiness.



I can see this two ways. If you want a more historic game, it will come with the fact that the overwhelming majority a knights were male. For more fantastical worlds, with magic and the like, more designed armor can be used for advertisements and to make the world more interesting, so different different armor will be made for male and female characters. Not trying to change the subject to bikini armor here, but for fantasy games, there will be differences between male and female armor, resulting in a lot more work. If they don't, people may call it lazy design.
User avatar
Arakasi
Posts: 73
Joined: 21 May 2014, 03:40
First Video: Uhh, no idea.

Re: Female Characters

Postby Arakasi » 07 Jul 2014, 06:38

I don't think anyone's mentioned Perfect Dark yet, one of my favourite games.

This whole issue is of course silly, all a dev ever need say is that they don't think it is actually worth the money to add a female character. But of course if they said that, the internet would go out of their way to prove them wrong.

I suppose the only way you can win is by adding female character choices, which is probably a good thing.
User avatar
MowDownJoe
Posts: 497
Joined: 15 Oct 2010, 19:49
First Video: Joystique
Location: New Jersey

Re: NEW VIDEO - Female Characters

Postby MowDownJoe » 07 Jul 2014, 09:09

Merrymaker_Mortalis wrote:However, with Unity, it introduces 4 characters. Assuming there is a 50-50 ratio of men and women in the world, then presume perhaps the assassin career path is more appealing to men than women, it's still surprising if you think about it that at least one of the assassins isn't a woman.

It's also surprising if you consider that Unity takes place during the French Revolution, whose most prolific assassin was a woman. And women were heavily involved with everything in the French Revolution. And Ubisoft, as a French company, should know their nation's history. If they knew they were doing the French revolution, they should have readied what they needed for female playable characters, even if it's only for Co-op.
Image
Image
Victim of a Platinum Angel/Phage combo in Momir. Thanks, LRR!
User avatar
Sampy
Posts: 6
Joined: 06 May 2014, 14:49
First Video: Checkpoint

Re: Female Characters

Postby Sampy » 07 Jul 2014, 09:23

My wife and I have a joke whenever we see a Surface in a TV show that Microsoft now pays for "all of TV."

Good to see we are branching out into web comedy as well. Welcome to the corporate family!

Return to “LRR Video Discussion”



Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests