HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT ONLY ONE GENDER AS PLAYABLE CHARACTERS

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yeah, from my perspective gender selection isn't the sort of thing that necessitates a gameplay change of some sort. it's up there with facial customization -- something that gives the player more options to represent themselves (or someone else) in the game. dividing content between genders can feel a bit disappointing for players who like to experience as much of a game as they can, and doing so has the potential for some unfortunate implications besides, depending where you draw those lines.

author=Liberty
It comes down to representation and it's very important. If all a kid ever sees is white boys being the hero then they begin to think that's all a hero can be. And if a black girl sees the same characterisation of black women in everything that has a black woman, that's all she thinks a black woman can be.

It's important to vary and create characters that people can relate to personally. Otherwise all you're doing is stereotyping and while that can be legitimate in some cases, outside of those it's lazy, pathetic and needs to stop.

The issue is that when a woman or other race is used in media very often there are a set amount of things they are shown to be able to be instead of the huge variety of things they really can be.

this is so important! the effects of strong representation can't be understated -- things like the Scully Effect, for instance, are amazing to read about.

Mass Effect did it well enough. Allow any sexuality - it shouldn't be an issue.

same. I'm sure I could find a couple, if I cast around!

author=kentona
So anyway I like allowing people to choose their gender, or have equal number of female or male specific classes, because why not? Also, I like making this decision somewhat relevant to gameplay (because having the player make a decision that doesnt affect the gameplay feels ...hollow? idk), by including gender-specific weapons or special areas that only a male-only or female-only party can enter or something.

Well, in games where the player is trying to role-play as their character - more of a Western RPG or MMO thing - having the choice to create the kind of character you want does affect gameplay; not in the static numbers kind of way, but in the way that it might help you grow more attached to your virtual self, either because you made them more like you in real life, or more like the way you envision yourself, or just visually made them in a way you think is really cool. Like, I actively spent a lot of time collecting cool colors and clothes for my character in Guild Wars 2 so that when I crush somebody with her it looks totally awesome. It doesn't affect the gameplay at all and yet I got really into it, y'know?

Anyway, if the game doesn't particularly require a specific character, giving the player a choice is a great option. In JRPGs where you control a bunch of preset, prewritten characters, it can be a little more unwieldy to do that, but a diverse cast is great.

As for all-male and all-female casts... I would love to see all-female casts in things with some decent writing, character building, character relationships... there's not a lot of them, especially in big titles. I also wouldn't mind seeing some all-male casts with some thought put into it and characters that are actual, you know, people. There's a lot more all-male casts nowadays and I understand why people are sick of 'em. Meanwhile I'm just sitting around wondering when people are going to write a game about humans instead of meme machines or whatever.

(This is more a criticism of big money games. There are indie games that copy those faults too, of course, but at least I can point at a few dozen indie games, including ones on this site, that try something different, which is more than you can say about the majority of AAA stuff).

Isn't that Stella girl part of the cast? Also this thread reminded me that there's a Sailor Moon RPG for the super nintendo
which obviously has an all-female cast

but then I got nauseous by remembering how awful that game was and tried to distract me with something a little less atrocious like bubsy 3D

author=JosephSeraph
I'd love to see a game staring an all genderfluid cast.

just wait, if i ever finish my trash game i'll make a game doing this B)

You know, I think of Tales of and Touhou lining Gamestop's walls. It think of what Final Fantasy has done to respect women in game since VIII and how FFX-2 totally rocked girl-power and I see an increase in girls in games. Some are overly sexualized. Some are not. Most, it looks like the developer didn't have a clue what to do, but that's probably more descriptive of the games in question overall. Then I actually interact with gamers and see how far we have to go.

You know I really want to tell you, I totally agree with Mawk in this thread, word for word.

FFX-2 is the kind of game I can appreciate now and the kind of game I would've loved as a kid if I didn't know I would be torn a new one for even suggesting it might be good

the biggest thing X-2 had going against it was the poor budget forcing so much asset reuse and padding. everything else about it was pretty solid, and it's one of the best uses of the ATB I've seen.

author=emmych
just wait, if i ever finish my trash game i'll make a game doing this B)

lightning flash, riff on pipe organ