173 réponses à ce sujet

[meiwow2]

He was just saying it is expensive, no need to get our undies in a bunch and take it personal. I'm a guy and I enjoy to play as female characters too so I wouldn't like to see the feature gone. Actually the only reason I play male shepard in me1 and 2 is because you can't have a female and female romance

Modifié par meiwow2, 01 août 2011 - 08:59 .

[GnusmasTHX]

musicalfrog7 wrote...

EgoSoul wrote...

I am not really getting the point of our post. You posted a statistic that 1/5 of players choose to play as female characters. Are you posting because you are concerned they are taking the feature to play as a female shepard out of ME3?

I am posting because the quote surprised me and I don't know what the context of the quote was. I didn't post it, but I was also hoping that if I posted this some of you who frequent this forum would be able to fill me in on what it means and why it was said.

What do you mean, what does it mean? It's spoken very plain.

Of the players they receive data from, only 1/5th play a female Shepard. Despite that, BioWare has spent/spends/will spend a lot of time, effort, and resources giving players a female Shepard to play, if they so choose.

How could this possibly be insulting?

[javierabegazo]

100k wrote...

@musicalfrog7

There's no reason for you to be hurt. Mr Hudson was reassuring players that there would still be effort into creating differences between the two genders. Honestly, Casey was probably being generous when he said one fifth of the players are women. In reality, probably less than one eighth are female gamers.

You see, its great that Mass Effect is both a male and female friendly experience, but the games and their premises were never marketed like that. On the cover, in the trailers, and for the demos, Mass Effect (1,2) displayed nothing beyond the ordinary to the untrained eye. Just "a space marine fighting aliens and saving the world" is what most people tend to see.

Now, it's easy for you and I to look at Mass Effect, see the developer logo, and guess that its a far more complex title than that. But most gamers (and I cannot stress this enough) don't go onto online forums, play through development series (unless its in the social shooter genre), or know ANYTHING about a title before they pick it up in the store.

As such, when your average man and woman walk into Target looking for a title to pick up, they will likely only the face value on the cover. The man will be (likely) more excited to see a new space oriented shooter, because that's what he's used to playing/watching. The woman will likely ignore it, because she doesn't know about the CC, femShepard, or other female characters in the game. It'll just be another "macho" game to her.

NOW this DOESN'T apply to everyone -- and I'd be the first to admit that. But what you all have to understand is that gaming forum populations account for less than 25% of actual consumers.

If a woman sees a trailer for Mass Effect, but the trailer doesn't show that you can tailor your character to your preferences, she will be more likely to ignore that title than her male counterpart who will already be (subconsciously) used to this kind of title.

Thanks for taking the time to write out this very sensible and true post.

[JamieCOTC]

musicalfrog7 wrote...

EgoSoul wrote...

I am not really getting the point of our post. You posted a statistic that 1/5 of players choose to play as female characters. Are you posting because you are concerned they are taking the feature to play as a female shepard out of ME3?

I am posting because the quote surprised me and I don't know what the context of the quote was. I didn't post it, but I was also hoping that if I posted this some of you who frequent this forum would be able to fill me in on what it means and why it was said.

I’m certain one could interpret Casey’s statement as “STFU femShep players!  You’re lucky you got what you got!” On the other hand one thing that rings true w/ Mr. Hudson is that he’s always selling something when being interviewed.  It’s his job.  So, I think it’s more “We didn’t have to do this femShep thing, but we know she has a lot of fans and no matter what, we are going to continue to support the fanbase.” So, in a roundabout way, it’s more about reassuring the fanbase than putting it down. 

[oracle343gspark]

Captain Crash wrote...

Shockwave81 wrote...

Paula Deen wrote...

I too am curious about how they get these statistics.

The game reports user data.  Of course they're really only talking about players who have an active internet connection, and 'data reporting enabled' while playing Mass Effect 2.  

Incorrect, did you see what Brenon just wrote above you?

Brenon Holmes wrote...

I'm not entirely sure where we get that specific information, since it wouldn't be from any of the in-game data... but I would guess it's most likely from polling. :happy:

And your argument that it's not from in-game data is....

[CroGamer002]

Eh, point of this thread?

[Errol Dnamyx]

GnusmasTHX wrote...
How could this possibly be insulting?

It's a reflex, I guess.

[jojon2se]

The metrics that your game sends back to the developer, can potentially be used to improve future game experiences, since it shows them things like where people typically get stuck/die and options that few players use, but one must think hard, before drawing concusions, based on them, because they don't tell you WHY people lingered in a particular area (maybe it was simply pretty), nor WHY they never use feature X. You may mistakenly decide to, say, pull a slightly flawed concept, rather than fixing it, or the other way around.

[Arppis]

Bit maybe off-topic. But wouldn't mind seeing more femine female heroes. Instead of making them male characters in female disguises. Then again, most of the time games make female heroine that acts even slightly femine, people generaly see it as weak character. :3

[jlb524]

100k wrote...

@musicalfrog7

There's no reason for you to be hurt. Mr Hudson was reassuring players that there would still be effort into creating differences between the two genders. Honestly, Casey was probably being generous when he said one fifth of the players are women. In reality, probably less than one eighth are female gamers.

To clarify, he's saying that 1/5th of ME players pick a female toon, not that 1/5th of ME players are female.

[100k]

javierabegazo wrote...
Thanks for taking the time to write out this very sensible and true post.

Thank you :-)

It's the reason why I've stopped caring what our new femShep looks like. I'm just happy that we're getting a femShep trailer. But in the end, I recognize that it still won't show what will ultimately attract many new female fans -- the CC.

[100k]

jlb524 wrote...

100k wrote...

@musicalfrog7

There's no reason for you to be hurt. Mr Hudson was reassuring players that there would still be effort into creating differences between the two genders. Honestly, Casey was probably being generous when he said one fifth of the players are women. In reality, probably less than one eighth are female gamers.

To clarify, he's saying that 1/5th of ME players pick a female toon, not that 1/5th of ME players are female.

Ah. So, the actual number of female fans is probably drastically lower. Maybe even one in fifteen?

[musicalfrog7]

javierabegazo wrote...

100k wrote...

@musicalfrog7

There's no reason for you to be hurt. Mr Hudson was reassuring players that there would still be effort into creating differences between the two genders. Honestly, Casey was probably being generous when he said one fifth of the players are women. In reality, probably less than one eighth are female gamers.

You see, its great that Mass Effect is both a male and female friendly experience, but the games and their premises were never marketed like that. On the cover, in the trailers, and for the demos, Mass Effect (1,2) displayed nothing beyond the ordinary to the untrained eye. Just "a space marine fighting aliens and saving the world" is what most people tend to see.

Now, it's easy for you and I to look at Mass Effect, see the developer logo, and guess that its a far more complex title than that. But most gamers (and I cannot stress this enough) don't go onto online forums, play through development series (unless its in the social shooter genre), or know ANYTHING about a title before they pick it up in the store.

As such, when your average man and woman walk into Target looking for a title to pick up, they will likely only the face value on the cover. The man will be (likely) more excited to see a new space oriented shooter, because that's what he's used to playing/watching. The woman will likely ignore it, because she doesn't know about the CC, femShepard, or other female characters in the game. It'll just be another "macho" game to her.

NOW this DOESN'T apply to everyone -- and I'd be the first to admit that. But what you all have to understand is that gaming forum populations account for less than 25% of actual consumers.

If a woman sees a trailer for Mass Effect, but the trailer doesn't show that you can tailor your character to your preferences, she will be more likely to ignore that title than her male counterpart who will already be (subconsciously) used to this kind of title.

Thanks for taking the time to write out this very sensible and true post.

I agree. Thank you for writing this out.

[SmokePants]

The OP completely missed Casey Hudson's point and took it 180 degrees the other way. He was saying that it would be easy to justify dumping the female character option from a return-on-investment standpoint, but they don't because they care about that 20%. Instead of being thankful and praising their dedication, she somehow managed to turn it into a negative. Baffling.

[Phaedon]

Well, if it's not in-game, I wonder where the data comes from. Or maybe it is and Brenon just didn't happen to hear of it? Or perhaps it was a separate tool added by EA before the game went gold?

Modifié par Phaedon, 01 août 2011 - 09:11 .

[JamieCOTC]

Arppis wrote...

Bit maybe off-topic. But wouldn't mind seeing more femine female heroes. Instead of making them male characters in female disguises. Then again, most of the time games make female heroine that acts even slightly femine, people generaly see it as weak character. :3

Well, Skyrim is said to have seperate male, female and beast form animations for the Player Character.  But that's another thread for another forum. 

[jlb524]

100k wrote...

Ah. So, the actual number of female fans is probably drastically lower. Maybe even one in fifteen?

It's hard to say, given these stats have no context....and you'd have to assume females don't play as MaleShep.

Do the stats mean, "80% of all ME games are done with a male Shepard" or that "80% of users uploading data play as Male Shepard at least once"?

[Homey C-Dawg]

If you sell 2,000,000 copies of the game and 1/5th of the customers play femshep, that's like 400,000 people. That's more than many non-blockbuster games entire customer base.

It's well worth it for Bioware. Sheploo is poster child by nessesity, but Femshep rocks.

(I wonder where people like me who play both genders fit into Biowares "stats".)

[pacer90]

I wonder if this number will go up with a defined "femShep" avatar. Many people hate the character creation screen.

[NICKjnp]

Umm...why are you hurt? They could have cut it because it is not cost effective yet they want you to have the option to play as a female hero. They spend extra resources to give you the option.

[ThePwener]

IsaacShep wrote...

Brenon Holmes wrote...

I'm not entirely sure where we get that specific information, since it wouldn't be from any of the in-game data... but I would guess it's most likely from polling. :happy:

Really? Ohh I thought that's how you get the data on player choices. They get registered via Cerberus Network no?

Actually, it is done through the Cerberus Network. That's why it is said in the Options menu if you want to feed them data or not.

Otherwise, the wouldn't know that 2 PC players played the same playthrough for over 66 hours.

[Unpleasant Implications]

It doesn't sound like an insult so much as a show of dedication. "Hey, we could stop doing this entirely, save money, and convert it elsewhere for other features of the game. But because the female Shepard has a loyal fanbase and players, we won't and we're going to work hard to make sure the expierience of both male and female are equally amazing."

[musicalfrog7]

100k wrote...

Ah. So, the actual number of female fans is probably drastically lower. Maybe even one in fifteen?

I don't think so. I've read the link posted about how the statistics were gathered and I don't think they're all that accurate. To be able to send the data, you'd have to have x-box live. In my opinion, x-box live is mostly used by the male dominated market of fpses while women are casual gamers and tend to play other genres. I can't offer up where I've heard it from but 1/15 sounds way too low for actual females, even 1/5th does. I've heard 30-40% before. (for the entirety of the gaming)

[oracle343gspark]

SmokePants wrote...

The OP completely missed Casey Hudson's point and took it 180 degrees the other way. He was saying that it would be easy to justify dumping the female character option from a return-on-investment standpoint, but they don't because they care about that 20%. Instead of being thankful and praising their dedication, she somehow managed to turn it into a negative. Baffling.

100% correct.

[musicalfrog7]

NICKjnp wrote...

Umm...why are you hurt? They could have cut it because it is not cost effective yet they want you to have the option to play as a female hero. They spend extra resources to give you the option.

I should have worded it differently. Basically, I wasn't sure of what the context nor the meaning was and took it to have a negative meaning but tried to make the post with the likelihood that it may have meant something entirely different from being that. (See the third post of my OP)