516 réponses à ce sujet

[In Exile]

HolyJellyfish wrote...
I'm not suggesting I'm using the stats unwisely. A majority of male players also play puzzle games and iphone games. But the stats still stand, that women are involved in the scene. Its not hard to find them. Play Left 4 Dead. They be all over the place there.

Left for Dead isn't an RPG, though. You have to account for tastes. And again, we don't know what the gender distribution is.

I'm not saying we shouldn't swap the marketing. What I am saying is that your data set doesn't prove what you said it does, i.e. that 40% of the market for an RPG is female. We don't know what that number is.

You also have to keep in mind that there are far more female gamers today than there was five years ago, and the marketting community won't catch up to that. They can't wrap their heads around an audience of women that originally didn't exist only a few years ago, more specifically because this generation has been fed videogames since the 80's.

That doesn't mean anything either. It doesn't tell us how any women play RPGs.

And the problem with Bioware's polls, trying to figure out what character is the most popular, etc, is that they are polling people who already OWN their games. They want people who DON'T have their games, so they can find ways to GET them to buy their games.

I don't understand what you're talking about.

20% is still a pretty big number.

Sure. But it's an issue of opportunity cost. How much of the 20% are you getting already? How much more would you get if you add a blurb on the website? How much more would a trailer give you? Would you lose any male gamers? Are female gamers more likely or less likely to purchase DLC?

These are all very important questions for Bioware re: their market, and we don't know these answers.

Again, I'm not saying we shouldn't push hard to have female gamers. I'm there are a lot of questions here we need to answer before we can talk about what Bioware should do we just know nothing about.

I'm not suggesting that Bioware suddenly have special covers featuring Female Hawke or aggressive campaign strategies just for the ladies.

I'm just saying, put some screen captures up on the website. Give a little of video footage. Make a poster or two.

I think that's pretty cost effective, don't you?

I think it's silly that the website doesn't mention you can pick your own gender and featues pictures of female Hawke. I don't actually bother with looking at the website unless a gameplay trailer is up, so I can't comment on what is or isn't there, but I agree with you that the website advertising can be cost-effective and it can be  way to avoid misconceptions.

Video-footage gets into trailer territory. Whenever you release a trailer, the danger is that that might be the only exposure you get to the game. So if you have 90% male only trailers, you've still go the proble that statstically speaking most female consumers could miss out on your game, but now you have the added problem of that there's 10% of promotional material that might scare away some of your male market.

Again, not saying it might not be cost-justified, just saying we can't know without empirical data.

[Liablecocksman]

HolyJellyfish wrote...The website doesn't even suggest this. It can't cost that much resource and time to fix this.

 Game info -> Game FAQ.

"#10 What will my character be like?

Your character in Dragon Age 2 will be a legendary figure in the history of Thedas. Not only will you hear people respond to your conversations, but your character will also be be fully-voiced. You will play as a human male or female of any class you wish: Warrior, Mage or Rogue."

[In Exile]

HolyJellyfish wrote...
As for Trailers, just create the same gameplay trailer for Women you would Men. You don't have to have the cinema features to make it effective. Shot for shot, same gameplay trailer. I don't think that would cost too much money.

I think the step that should be taken isn't aggressive PR, I know that's not viable now.

I think I need to explain a concept.

In economics, there is the notion of opportunity cost. This isn't a cost in the traditional way people speak of it. It doesn't mean it costs you extra money that you are actually investing.

What it means is that when you have a choice to do something, you can't do all the other things you would have done in place of that thing.

So let's say you create a female trailer. Some male gamers see only that. You lose them. Some female gamers see only that. You gain them.

The trailer is worth the opportunity cost if your trailer got you more female gamers than an equivalent trailer with a man would have gotten you in male gamers, balancing out the loss of females and males in each case.

I'm arguing that there would not be any losses between both women and men if it was a least a little obvious that you can be Male Hawke or Female Hawke. The website doesn't even suggest this. It can't cost that much resource and time to fix this.

I know what you're saying. What I'm trying to say is that we need more data before we can know that you're right.

But I agree with you. It's stupid that the website doesn't comment on this when they could clearly explain the feature.

ETA:

Burying in the FAQ doesn't really count. Not very many people would look at an FAQ, at least IMO.

Modifié par In Exile, 19 décembre 2010 - 03:35 .

[HolyJellyfish]

Liable****sman wrote...

We aren't aren't talking about people who already know the game and the franchise, we are talking about newcomers. What is already out there, doesn't matter.
Bioware is actively trying to attract the otherwise less-RPG, more superficially enticed gamers with DA2 ("This is an action-rpg", "press a button, something awesome happens", etc.) and they do this NOT by showing posters of women, because (I dare say) the impulse-driven buyer, along with the majority of the shooter/action-game crowd, is male. Call it stereotyping, I'm not going to object, but unless you find me a source effectively disputing it, I will believe it, still.

Has a videogame featuring a woman and a man ever kept you from buying it? A friend? Not likely. Even if it is impulse driven. I'm not saying both should be featured on the cover. Only that there be some attention paid to female hawke and DEFINITELY to the customizability of the game itself.

It might be interesting if they thought about doing a double sided poster too... hmm...

Just think outside the box.

Female gamers are no-doubt on the rise, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say they don't make up the half of the action/shooter/rpg games at all. I'd say not even 30%, but that is all completely speculation. You don't have exact numbers on genres either. We can only guess. You can bet, though, that Bioware (And EA marketing) has a lot more numbers, poll-results and percentages available to them than we have, when we are talking about Dragon Age: Origin sales.

Even more reason to focus on the female gaming crowd, specificaly because Dragon Age 2 is combining elements of RPG & Fast paced action/shooter games.

Its bad business when you ignore one group of people, even a 20% group, for another. Best PR strategies are always those that bridge these two groups and gain both their interests.

Working with the numbers I created before, however faulty they may be, I still think we could probably divide the Dragon Age male/female percentages into something like 70/30 or 80/20. I'm sure there would be more females in the game, if the marketing had been more focused on catering to them - but I'm also sure that there would have been less males, had that been the case.

Again, my point is, that is basically comes down to risk/reward:
Is it worth risk upsetting 70% of your potential market, on the off-chance that you may increase the other side from 30% to 40%?

This argument doesn't make sense, when Dragon Age's fanbase is already by majority male. The idea is to try to pull in a completely different demograph. It won't hurt the male audience if a little bit more information is presented about Female Hawke, website, videos, or otherwise. No one would really suffer, if you have this information available and are clear.

That's what Graphic Designers do. They are pretty good at their jobs.

As for the argument about Male playing Female lead games and the other way around, what I meant is it is stereotypical crap that advertisers constantly tell themselves exist, and in the case of Dragon Age... It shouldn't exist.

It shouldn't exist, I agree.
But it does. Face it.

But it doesn't have to. And its this way of thinking, right here, that keeps it perpetuating. And, you know what? It also causes great game companies like Bioware to loose a lot of money.

Especially since the game itself is preeeettty gender friendly. It tells neither a male centric story or a female centric one. Especially since a good chunk of the writers? Are women.

You're right. The majority of the Dragon Age writer are women.

They are. That speaks for itself, If the game isn't gender centric in the writing, in the design, everything about it pretty much... why should ALL of the marketting materials be? Why can't at least, the very least, the website see some change? Or during interviews, Bioware talk about these points?

This isn't about my personal satisfaction as a female. This is about seeing a company that I love a lot grow and get more money. Ignoring even twenty percent of a possible market (women gamers) is a pretty big loss.

Injecting a little bit, just a little bit of information about Female Hawke and the overall customizability of gender, etc. concerning the games through PR won't turn off men. I don't see how it could, if that information is already viable to you and only would be presented on chance to women.

And even if that seems so inefficient to you, then lets at least, the very least, do something about the website.

Modifié par HolyJellyfish, 19 décembre 2010 - 03:39 .

[HolyJellyfish]

In Exile wrote...

I think I need to explain a concept.

In economics, there is the notion of opportunity cost. This isn't a cost in the traditional way people speak of it. It doesn't mean it costs you extra money that you are actually investing.

What it means is that when you have a choice to do something, you can't do all the other things you would have done in place of that thing.

So let's say you create a female trailer. Some male gamers see only that. You lose them. Some female gamers see only that. You gain them.

The trailer is worth the opportunity cost if your trailer got you more female gamers than an equivalent trailer with a man would have gotten you in male gamers, balancing out the loss of females and males in each case.

No, I understand your argument completely. I was thrilled with how Bioware showed off their combat on videofeed recently. We got to see some female hawkes. THAT was nice, just to suggest that the female market isn't completely being ignored.

What if Bioware did more of that? With good copy and design, I don't see how they couldn't pull off marketing male & female hawke in one trailer, different variations of appearances. Under the same concept of 'Who was the Hero of Kirkwall...? You decide.', and then end on default male hawke. Cue angry guitar music, and ripping apart ogres.

I know what you're saying. What I'm trying to say is that we need more data before we can know that you're right.

But I agree with you. It's stupid that the website doesn't comment on this when they could clearly explain the feature.

ETA:

Burying in the FAQ doesn't really count. Not very many people would look at an FAQ, at least IMO.

Exactly. And we don't really don't need much more data to begin advertising this now. The earlier, the better. Because the closer we get to frenzy period, just before the game is released, the more confusing it will be to new customers if you suddenly have screen shots of Female Hawke and take a slightly different direction of advertisement.

[Liablecocksman]

HolyJellyfish wrote...

Has a videogame featuring a woman and a man ever kept you from buying it? A friend? Not likely.

Yes. It has kept you from buying it too, remember what you said about Mass Effect?

Even if it is impulse driven. I'm not saying both should be featured on the cover. Only that there be some attention paid to female hawke and DEFINITELY to the customizability of the game itself.

It might be interesting if they thought about doing a double sided poster too... hmm...

Just think outside the box.

I think a double-sided cover would be a side addition too, but how would that make sense in attracting new players?

Even more reason to focus on the female gaming crowd, specificaly because Dragon Age 2 is combining elements of RPG & Fast paced action/shooter games.

Its bad business when you ignore one group of people, even a 20% group, for another. Best PR strategies are always those that bridge these two groups and gain both their interests.

No, that's not "even more reason", because the majority of people outside of the Bioware fanbase are also males.

This argument doesn't make sense, when Dragon Age's fanbase is already by majority male. The idea is to try to pull in a completely different demograph. It won't hurt the male audience if a little bit more information is presented about Female Hawke, website, videos, or otherwise. No one would really suffer, if you have this information available and are clear.

That's what Graphic Designers do. They are pretty good at their jobs.

Yes, the idea is to pull in a different demographic - not to pull, per say, more females, but just pull the most possible players. You have to understand that even if Biowares fanbase is already dominated by males, all other gamer-groups that Bioware are catering to (action/shooter/rpg) are also predominately male.

But it doesn't have to. And its this way of thinking, right here, that keeps it perpetuating. And, you know what? It also causes great game companies like Bioware to loose a lot of money.

No, I'm stating hard facts. You even proved this yourself, by saying you weren't interested in Mass Effect, regardless of the fact that the only thing you knew was "It features a man".

They are. That speaks for itself, If the game isn't gender centric in the writing, in the design, everything about it pretty much... why should ALL of the marketting materials be? Why can't at least, the very least, the website see some change? Or during interviews, Bioware talk about these points?

Okay, listen.
You said something like: "I wasn't interested in Mass Effect in the least, since all I saw was "woop woop I'm a macho man woop I like sexy women" when looking at the game.
If you're saying female gamers aren't turned on by Dragon Age 2s marketing, what difference is it going to make whether or not you mention it in interview? They're not going to bother looking at it anyway, just like you didn't bother looking deeper into Mass Effect when you decided you weren't interested.

This isn't about my personal satisfaction as a female. This is about seeing a company that I love a lot grow and get more money. Ignoring even twenty percent of a possible market (women gamers) is a pretty big loss.

Of course it's about your personal satisfaction, and that's alright. If a game I really liked was being marketed to a group that wasn't me, I would be hurt, too - but I wouldn't honestly care too much. I may like playing "The Sims", but I'm not complaining they're marketing it mostly to females. You see?

Injecting a little bit, just a little bit of information about Female Hawke and the overall customizability of gender, etc. concerning the games through PR won't turn off men. I don't see how it could, if that information is already viable to you and only would be presented on chance to women.

And even if that seems so inefficient to you, then lets at least, the very least, do something about the website.

I agree. The website definately needs to provide clear information on it, and not have it hid away in the Game FAQ.

Modifié par Liablecocksman, 19 décembre 2010 - 03:55 .

[In Exile]

HolyJellyfish wrote...
No, I understand your argument completely. I was thrilled with how Bioware showed off their combat on videofeed recently. We got to see some female hawkes. THAT was nice, just to suggest that the female market isn't completely being ignored.

The only one I saw was the gameplay trailer (I avoid all other promotional material for the sake of spoilers) but there the PC they picked was a male Hawke, so I don't know much that really counts, though you can say I suppose that if a female gamer were to look at the game she could see that Hawke might be a female and so have her interest piqued.

What if Bioware did more of that? With good copy and design, I don't see how they couldn't pull off marketing male & female hawke in one trailer, different variations of appearances. Under the same concept of 'Who was the Hero of Kirkwall...? You decide.', and then end on default male hawke. Cue angry guitar music, and ripping apart ogres.

I don't know. It might. It might not. It goes into the 'need data' bin. I don't know if Bioware is doing the right thing. I'm not so quick to assume they're being competent with their marketing. I have no idea. I just don't think it's right to so easily think that there are gains to be made in the female market, but I say this partly out of ignorance.

The only data I ever saw was the study you just linked.

Exactly. And we don't really don't need much more data to begin advertising this now. The earlier, the better. Because the closer we get to frenzy period, just before the game is released, the more confusing it will be to new customers if you suddenly have screen shots of Female Hawke and take a slightly different direction of advertisement.

The issue with that is that would suggest that female gamers are less ilikely to impulse buy close to release, and I'm not sure that's the case. It's also an issue of what would draw female gamers vs. male gamers. If there's a dissociation of tastes (i.e. girl gamers might like to see a dramatic scene from the game, and guy gamers want to see overpowering action) then suddenly you have the problem that you need to have your trailers discriminat between segments of the market but have to way of doing that.

[HolyJellyfish]

Anyways, I need to sleep. I've appreciated this discussion immensely, and I wanted to make a few valid points.

Bioware is already so deep in its marketting campaign, pushing this very specific image of Male Hawke less than three months before game release. Altering the aggressive advertisements they are already pushing would be foolish.

HOWEVER

It would still be nice, and open several avenues to a the female-gamer market if the following was considered

WEBSITE SHOWING A BIT OF FEMALE HAWKE
Not much has to be done, except for working in the concept that the hero of Kirkwall can be any gender. Screenshots, images, story would be nice. And I agree with In Exile, FAQ doesn't count. We are a visual culture, we skip through images faster than type.

SMALL GAMING CLIPS FEATURING FEMALE HAWKE
We've seen quite a bit of clips, trailers, gameplay, a ton of information involving male hawke. Not asking to keep up with this, but just tossing a few small clips here and there using Female Hawke as an example for combat or conversation or even as an introduction TO her as an alternative to Hawke would be nice.

If, for whatever reasons, you notice pre orders increase or a sudden increase in media buzz, specifically from the ladies, then maybe going further is a valid option.

[HolyJellyfish]

Liable****sman wrote...

HolyJellyfish wrote...

Has a videogame featuring a woman and a man ever kept you from buying it? A friend? Not likely.

Yes. It has kept you from buying it too, remember what you said about Mass Effect?

I also said, in the above, has a videogame featuring a WOMAN and a MAN - both genders - kept you from buying it? Mass Effect didn't feature Female Shepard. I didn't even know she existed until I just happened across it. If I did, I would've bought it. Even if there as a Male Shepard standing right next to her, guaranteed, I'd be more interested than not.

But it doesn't have to. And its this way of thinking, right here, that keeps it perpetuating. And, you know what? It also causes great game companies like Bioware to loose a lot of money.

No, I'm stating hard facts. You even proved this yourself, by saying you weren't interested in Mass Effect, regardless of the fact that the only thing you knew was "It features a man".

Maybe I'm not speaking clearly, or you aren't reading what I'm saying, but I feel like I've been in a circled argument with you ever since I posted.

I said I wasn't interested in the Mass Effect game because I thought it only featured a man.

what I am suggesting is that you won't lose your audience if you feature both the male and the female protagonists.

Unless... you would be turned off by that? Because, I wouldn't. If it had both genders equally, I'd be interested. Or even if it hinted at the other gender, I'd be interested.

Mass Effect? It didn't even hint. Look at the website. There's nothing on there suggesting you can have a female Shepard. Nothing. At all.

I HAPPENED to come across this information and suddenly got excited.

My point? No one should dig. Doesn't matter if you are a boy or a girl. Just throw a bone, even if its on the website

Capisci?

Modifié par HolyJellyfish, 19 décembre 2010 - 04:29 .

[crimzontearz]

why......is this thread still going?



and could people PLEASE spell words that are "supposed" to be in italian correctly? We try our best to spell english words correctly even tho it is not out mothertongue

[HolyJellyfish]

crimzontearz wrote...

why......is this thread still going?

and could people PLEASE spell words that are "supposed" to be in italian correctly? We try our best to spell english words correctly even tho it is not out mothertongue

Corrected.

[crimzontearz]

HolyJellyfish wrote...

crimzontearz wrote...

why......is this thread still going?

and could people PLEASE spell words that are "supposed" to be in italian correctly? We try our best to spell english words correctly even tho it is not out mothertongue

Corrected.

you.......are adressing him in 3d person respect form? -headdesks- 

[HolyJellyfish]

crimzontearz wrote...

HolyJellyfish wrote...

crimzontearz wrote...

why......is this thread still going?

and could people PLEASE spell words that are "supposed" to be in italian correctly? We try our best to spell english words correctly even tho it is not out mothertongue

Corrected.

you.......are adressing him in 3d person respect form? -headdesks- 

GUUUH  Is it Capisce? Or is it Capice? Or is it capicé? Dear lord, I know it by phonetics!

Modifié par HolyJellyfish, 19 décembre 2010 - 04:23 .

[crimzontearz]

capisci



capisce implies you are referring to him in a respect form you would be using with a teacher, a stranger, your boss or whatever

[HolyJellyfish]

crimzontearz wrote...

capisci

capisce implies you are referring to him in a respect form you would be using with a teacher, a stranger, your boss or whatever

Man. Google fails where you do not.

[crimzontearz]

also to be picky we do not ask someone "do you understand?" which is what "capisci?" means... most people say "understood?" which is "capito?". Point is the popularity of this particular expression generated from extremely crappy gangster/mob movies starring italian-american actors who are as much italian as a cup of dunkin-donuts coffee

Modifié par crimzontearz, 19 décembre 2010 - 04:33 .

[HolyJellyfish]

crimzontearz wrote...

also to be picky we do not ask someone "do you understand?" which is what "capisci?" means... most people say "understood?" which is "capito?". Point is the popularity of this particular expression generated from extremely crappy gangster/mob movies starring italian-american actors who are as much italian as a cup of dunkin-donuts coffee

Can't we just call it Capiche and group it together as a word that the north american english language has swallowed, considering the English language is already a mixed bowl of different soups?

[crimzontearz]

HolyJellyfish wrote...

crimzontearz wrote...

also to be picky we do not ask someone "do you understand?" which is what "capisci?" means... most people say "understood?" which is "capito?". Point is the popularity of this particular expression generated from extremely crappy gangster/mob movies starring italian-american actors who are as much italian as a cup of dunkin-donuts coffee

Can't we just call it Capiche and group it together as a word that the north american english language has swallowed, considering the English language is already a mixed bowl of different soups?

if you asked me this question in 2001 I'd have said "fine, whatever" but having lived here in the US since early '02 in a city that is filled with italian-american ***** that think they are italian and try to talk to me in their butchered bastardized idioms because they think it makes them so awesome  my answer would be "NO" now....

wow I'm bitter this morning

[Mage One]

I concur. I would like to see more exposure to given to femHawke, even if it is just trailers and concept art on their website and not released in their larger marketing campaign. I had the same issue with ME1. I remember being sure it would have the option to play as a female character because, well, it was a Bioware game. Not everyone knew Bioware's record in that regard, though, and I remember at least one conversation where I was assuring a friend that a female Shepard would be possible. I also remember being pretty happy when videos of femShep were finally released, even if femShep's default appearance seemed to have been made with much less care. I understand the marketing reason why they do things the way they do, but, really, I don't believe the situation to be so delicate that they couldn't do more as regards promoting femHawke. I hope this changes.

[What is this]

Oh looks it's this thread again, haven't bothered reading all the post again, but i'll sum up my argument

as I said this in the last one, and i'll say it again THE MAIN DEMOGRAPHIC IS MALE, They need their Demographic to appeal to the cover, and promotion. Your still getting the option of a fully voiced female PC in the actual game which  very few games do. You don't need Fem hawke on the cover any more than we need a Rogue Hawke, Ethnic Hawke, and Mage Hawke on there as well. If you want Fem Hawke on the cover it needs to appeal to males(AKA Tomb raider style) and i'm sure the female's don't want that.

If your asking for more screen shots, they will come in time. and her animations are similar to Avelines/Iasbella's/or bethany's depending on class, do you really need to see them even though im sure most of you are going to change fem hawke around to your preference anyways? is this really that big an issue that we need to have 2 10 page threads on the subject matter?

This is a matter of Marketing and not a small little request to ask for, Marketing is complex thing and i'm sure they aren't witholding screens of Femhawke due to being sexist. the game is still 4 months away, Hold your horses for a screenshot. More will come.

[What is this]

Mage One wrote...

I concur. I would like to see more exposure to given to femHawke, even if it is just trailers and concept art on their website and not released in their larger marketing campaign. I had the same issue with ME1. I remember being sure it would have the option to play as a female character because, well, it was a Bioware game. Not everyone knew Bioware's record in that regard, though, and I remember at least one conversation where I was assuring a friend that a female Shepard would be possible. I also remember being pretty happy when videos of femShep were finally released, even if femShep's default appearance seemed to have been made with much less care. I understand the marketing reason why they do things the way they do, but, really, I don't believe the situation to be so delicate that they couldn't do more as regards promoting femHawke. I hope this changes.

If you're asking for a CGI trailer like the ones currently released, that's a bit much to ask for. If you're asking for ingame trailer of Femhawke i think that's more likley.

[Maconbar]

What is this wrote...

Oh looks it's this thread again, haven't bothered reading all the post again, but i'll sum up my argument

as I said this in the last one, and i'll say it again THE MAIN DEMOGRAPHIC IS MALE, They need their Demographic to appeal to the cover, and promotion. Your still getting the option of a fully voiced female PC in the actual game which  very few games do. You don't need Fem hawke on the cover any more than we need a Rogue Hawke, Ethnic Hawke, and Mage Hawke on there as well. If you want Fem Hawke on the cover it needs to appeal to males(AKA Tomb raider style) and i'm sure the female's don't want that.

If your asking for more screen shots, they will come in time. and her animations are similar to Avelines/Iasbella's/or bethany's depending on class, do you really need to see them even though im sure most of you are going to change fem hawke around to your preference anyways? is this really that big an issue that we need to have 2 10 page threads on the subject matter?

This is a matter of Marketing and not a small little request to ask for, Marketing is complex thing and i'm sure they aren't witholding screens of Femhawke due to being sexist. the game is still 4 months away, Hold your horses for a screenshot. More will come.

But how many potential customers will be aware that DA:2 will have a fully voiced female PC?

Modifié par Maconbar, 19 décembre 2010 - 09:42 .

[Mage One]

What is this wrote...
If you're asking for a CGI trailer like the ones currently released, that's a bit much to ask for. If you're asking for ingame trailer of Femhawke i think that's more likley.

I was thinking more along the lines of the latter.  For example, in the most recent gameplay trailer, it would have been nice for them to have one of the combat examples be with male Hawke and the other be with femHawke. While I would love to see the former, I know it's not likely, and I do understand why.

Modifié par Mage One, 19 décembre 2010 - 10:01 .

[KIrving]

What is this wrote...

Oh looks it's this thread again, haven't bothered reading all the post again, but i'll sum up my argument

as I said this in the last one, and i'll say it again THE MAIN DEMOGRAPHIC IS MALE, They need their Demographic to appeal to the cover, and promotion. Your still getting the option of a fully voiced female PC in the actual game which  very few games do. You don't need Fem hawke on the cover any more than we need a Rogue Hawke, Ethnic Hawke, and Mage Hawke on there as well. If you want Fem Hawke on the cover it needs to appeal to males(AKA Tomb raider style) and i'm sure the female's don't want that.

If your asking for more screen shots, they will come in time. and her animations are similar to Avelines/Iasbella's/or bethany's depending on class, do you really need to see them even though im sure most of you are going to change fem hawke around to your preference anyways? is this really that big an issue that we need to have 2 10 page threads on the subject matter?

This is a matter of Marketing and not a small little request to ask for, Marketing is complex thing and i'm sure they aren't witholding screens of Femhawke due to being sexist. the game is still 4 months away, Hold your horses for a screenshot. More will come.

This issue and threads expressing similar requests keep being brought up because it matters to people.  It may not matter to you and that's your opinion but that doesn't mean these issues and feelings about them need to go away for your comfort.
You say that the information will come with time.  How do you know this?  It didn't happen with Mass Effect so what are you basing that belief on? 
Putting more information on the website will not dilute the advertising campaign.  It's a no brainer solution and allows people who do a little bit of research to be quickly rewarded with information that could, potentially, confirm their decision to purchase DA2.

Marketing may, occasionally, be a complex thing however I'm not getting the impression of any degree of complexity in the DA2 marketing direction.

Witholding sceenshots of the female Hawke and pushing a marketing campaign that is clearly suggesting that, potential, male customers are more valuable than female customers is sexist.
BioWare/EA are not the only companies to choose such directions in marketing and I am grateful that these threads don't get closed while the discussion is civil. 

[AlanC9]

Maconbar wrote...

But how many potential customers will be aware that DA:2 will have a fully voiced female PC?

That isn't exactly the right question. The question is how many potential customers who would care if DA2 has a fully voiced female PC will be aware that DA2 will have a fully voiced female PC.