3 réponses à ce sujet

[paperclipgirl102]

Hey guys,

 I was wondering
if there are any other females out there who are a little put off by Bio-Ware's
continuous use of a male lead in their marketing ads. In both ME and DA:O you
had the choice of being either sex. I am little put off by the fact that
they are choosing to aim the market towards the male demographic. Why not show
a female Hawke in the advertising for DA2? Look at successful marketing such as
Laura Croft, Samus, and countless others. I feel that Bio-Ware could use a
female protagonist that both males and females would love to relate to, and
watch in trailers and advertisements for the games.



Ok, I'm off my soapbox.

[David Gaider]

Hawksblud wrote...
Oh, undoubtedly it's somewhat melodramatic, not to mention it was written in response to a different issue which had little to do with the gaming medium. (No need to hide! This is an open discussion, after all.) However, I think it goes towards expressing the frustration that is common to women or other minorities facing this kind of issue. Personally, I do not believe the devs are doing this intentionally, so to speak (though they are ultimately still responsible for their actions). As I said earlier, it's part of a larger problem, which is common perception of female characters versus male characters. And I believe that it would be relatively easy for the devs to release one or two screenshots of a non-white female Hawke, which could go a long way towards combating the invisibility fans feel when they are not represented.

Otherwise it is easy to feel that you are not 'good' enough to be a Warden/Hawke/Hero/Etc. That somehow, women/ minorities/ GBLT cannot be heroes, cannot be strong self-assured characters who kick ass, save the world, and look good doing it. Or simply, that the majority of gamers do not want to be represented as a woman or as a minority or as a homosexual, because there is something intrinsically wrong or uncool or weak or whatever in being in one of these categories. That it is vastly preferable to be white, straight, and most importantly, male.

THIS is what we have a problem with.

I'm trying to picture what a single character would look like which would be politically neutral enough to be representative of everyone playing the game, appeasing those who feel the character should be female yet also attractive enough without being exploitive to appeal to the male audience and of a race that doesn't make anyone feel left out. It's not easy.

Not that I think there isn't a point here-- certainly these things deserve to be considered, as the issue of privilege is a touchy one (I think I just used that word in the same-sex romance thread... I have to be hitting my limit by now) but at some point trying to construct a character based primarily on minority profiling seems a bit futile to me. I don't doubt some amount of marketing went into the image you see-- they wanted a single recognizeable "face" that a player could identify with-- but I also suspect that the largest part is simply that the artists wanted to create someone they thought was cool.

A femHawke would be nice to see, though, and I doubt there's any harm in asking for one.

Modifié par David Gaider, 22 juillet 2010 - 05:28 .

[David Gaider]

Em23 wrote...
That's no reason to ignore femHawke altogether though...

That depends. As I understand it, part of the point of branding is providing images that the viewer can immediately associate with the brand. You dilute the image, do you gain anything for it in return? I don't really know. Perhaps if you made a femHawke that was also recognizeable as part of the brand? I'm not a marketing person-- but I will say that you've seen all of, what? A few images of Hawke so far? I think it's a bit early to declare our intentions as set in stone.

But as I said, by all means, ask for what you'd like to see.

[Stanley Woo]

Thread no longer on topic. Some off-topic posts, spam images, and inappropriate content removed.



end of line.